Mothers' Day in Midway

Well I went to Midway and treated my mom to a few fun things in honor of Mothers' Day. Which meant, of course, that I was spoiled along the way, too, ha. Perfect planning on my part - a definite win-win. 

I headed to Utah on Thursday and was able to attend a temple session in Orem and that was nice. The flowers were in full bloom and just gorgeous. 

When I got to Midway we had a nice dinner at home and then my mom and I enjoyed a beautiful walk.

On Friday, I took my mom to get a pedicure - it's been many years for her since she had one last, so that was fun. It had probably been a couple of years for me, so fun for me too. :) After that, we got our favorite fish tacos at a joint in Heber. Sooooo good!! We did a bit of thrift shopping and found a couple of items. Fun. :) That afternoon we went on a "short drive" in my dad's toy. It was well over an hour, but it was enjoyable. I saw lots of huge houses and amazing new neighborhoods in Midway and just couldn't figure out how so many people make so much money and what, exactly, are they are doing to make so much money?! It's really crazy. We got pizza from a local pizza shop, The Pizza Yard, and it was delicious. We had another enjoyable walk around the ever-pretty Midway. We also played Scrabble, in which my mom went on to beat me and my dad (but I will say I was fairly close . . . ). 

We didn't have much plans for Saturday, but it ended up being another great day. I had a temple dress I had bought months and months ago that I needed to exchange. So my mom and I drove to Provo and had fun walking on the BYU campus. I got my dress exchanged for the right size and a few other items at the BYU store. Including the beloved chocolate-covered cinnamon bears, haha. We went to the Creamery and got some yummy ice cream. Even though campus was dead and it was a random time in the middle of the day, plenty of people (as always!) were there! It was fun being on campus with my mom, even though it was so hot (like 80). :) We ended the night with a delicious dinner at one of their favorite places, The Hub. Then, once back home, I taught my mom how to make rhubarb pie - crust and all (including fresh rhubarb from our garden).

On Sunday we worked more on the puzzle my mom had started. We had done a bit here and there the past couple of days, but spent some solid time on Sunday morning working on it. It was a tough one for sure! I also helped my mom rotate her mattress and pin the bedskirt - it was my service act for Mothers' day. :) We got ready for church and had a nice Mother's day at church and got some chocolate, etc. :) Then we had decided I would make - with my mom's help, of course - this yummy vegetable lasagna recipe that my family and I love! It's a lot of work, but turned out delicious. :) We got to chat with Miles and that was a lot of fun. Plus, we enjoyed our rhubarb pie as it turned out so good! We played another game of Srabble and let's just say . . . I crushed my parents. My mom doesn't lose often and so it was quite the feat, ha! Overall, it was a nice day for sure.

On Monday morning, after my run, my mom and I finished the puzzle - yay! Then I headed out, stopping at a thrift store and for frozen yogurt in Orem on my way. It was a lovely trip and I was glad I could hang out with my mom - and my dad, too! :)

Whoops, a late wrap on April

Well May is half-way over (more than), but better late than never. (Or as a sign in my town reads, "Better late than later." Haha.). Here are a few random pictures from April:

The girls helped make the bunny cakes for Easter. :) They were cute and delicious!

Lucy modeling her quinceanera dress. She and Patton go most Fridays to a friend's home to practice dances for the friend's quinceanera in July. Fun!

 

Emmy was so *not* happy when I told her to stop for a picture, haha. But she's cute and growing up and so I want it documented. :) Here she is in her state gym hoodie.

I did a thing . . . called "money pieces." Basically, I bleached a strip of my hair. It was one of the scariest things I have done as an adult, haha. As soon as I painted my first section, I realized I had no idea what I was doing . . . It turned out okay, luckily, and is a fun change to my norm. :)

Emmy and Aidan celebrated their 6-month anniversary. Cute. They went to Get Air up in Junction and then out to Texas Roadhouse. Fun, fun.

Ben and I showed them up and celebrated our 23-year anniversary. :) Ben was gone all weekend, but made it home in time on our anniversary to make sushi with us. Yummy!

The End.

State Gymnastics 2025

The girls had their state meet in Denver in the middle of April. Emmy competed on Friday evening and Lucy on Sunday morning. So up first, Emmy's meet. Unfortunately, just nothing went great for her - no event. She didn't do horrible, but just didn't do as well as she could have. She had a sort-of roller-coaster up-and-down comp season - but usually ended up doing really well in at least 1 or 2 of the events. But at state, none were her best. It was pretty devastating and Emmy cried after every event. But she kept going. . . 

She started on beam and fell off twice, as well as did not get her connection points. That didn't start off things good for her! She looked good on floor, but unfortunately didn't earn credit for the silly 1 1/2 turn and that cost her 0.5 points. Ugh. So by this time, she felt very discouraged - especially as she was wanting to qualify to go to regionals. To go to regionals, one has to score a 34.0 at the state meet. So it was definitely slipping away from Emmy and she knew it and was crushed. She was so hopeful for a great comp season and had good skills and routines! Bars was a struggle. She hadn't been hitting her giants well at practice and it was a miracle she hit it on her routine as her cast was not good - but she managed to pull it out. Unfortunately, she didn't stick the landing. Cry, cry. Last up was vault. Her first vault looked okay, but she didn't complete the full rotation. Her last vault she didn't stick, but got a good score (8.975). Emmy was in tears and it was a bit hard consoling her. She did get a 7th on vault. Texas Roadhouse for dinner helped a bit ha. :) Jim and Diana came and watched and that was super great and supportive of them!

Anyways, Emmy did not qualify for regionals and it was just an over-all bummer of a meet. 

Lucy was up next. She struggled with going on a Sunday and so I found a service about 10 minutes away from the meet that worked with our schedule (I mean, the service started at 1:30pm, which is pretty much exactly what worked for our schedule as Lucy's meet went from like 9-12:30 and then we were driving home after church. So perfect. Oh, and I ran into a guy at the ward there who was in my BYU freshman ward. Haha.)

So Lucy competed and had a very solid and great meet. Lucy began on the bars and looked good! Bars is never her best event, but she did very well. Beam - she looked great. I thought her score should have been higher (it was an 8.95, which was a great score but she's gotten a higher). Floor up next and she looked great. Another great score, but not as high as I was seeing that day . .. She ended on vault and, again, did great. She ended up placing 2nd on the vault and the beam - yay! And she took 6th all-around. Amazing. 

Emmy, her coach Jess, and teammate Liv (Olivia).

Emmy didn't want any pics on Friday, but warmed up by Lucy's meet and I was able to get at least one of the two of them. :)

By Lucy's meet, and even the day before, Emmy was doing much better. Still super-sad about her performance, but life goes on she realized. Emmy was happy for Lucy. :) Anyways, it was quite the stressful weekend for me, ha. It was good to see Jim and Diana - we even had a short visit with Joe, Britt, and Nicholas. We did some thrift-shopping on Saturday and Aby Lambert came and got the girls on Saturday night and took them to some fun place where they mini-golfed, etc. So it turned out to be a good weekend, just not everything we all hoped for. Life.

Link to Emmy's meet. Link to Lucy's meet.

Elder Miles Maxwell Photo Dump

 Here's the latest from Miles' mission in his often strange and random photos :) (Looks like pictures are going from most-recent to farther out.)

This was their latest baptism - Martin (pronounced "Marteen"). Miles really, really likes him and is of course excited about his baptism. 

Once Martin receives the Aaronic priesthood, he will baptize his wife. :)

Some caligraphy Miles created, "Look unto God in every thought - Doubt not, Fear not." At least I think that's what I remember it saying ha. Miles purposely wrote it in in the like gangster-style - their is a term for it but I am not sure I have it correctly nor am I sure it is politically correct to use it ha! :)