Update on the Boys mainly

 Just a little update on the boys . . . 

Miles is still up at BYUI. He is currently doing Spring track - BYUI has 3 tracks (trimesters) and you get assigned to two of them. Miles was assigned Fall and Spring - thus skipping Winter, which is kind of dumb. You can almost always just stay and take classes on your unassigned track and so that hasn't been a problem. But on the flip side, you can only miss (i.e., not take classes) your assigned tracks once. Miles did well but kind of burnt himself out taking 16 credits Fall and Winter. So he took less credits this semester and went down even more after dropping a class . . . so hopefully this little "break" of a semester gets him back ready for the fall. He likes school but also felt like that was all he was able to do - constant classes and homework. Welcome to college?! But I am all for him taking a lesser load - especially since he's gone full-time for a full school-year. He's excited to go up to my grandpa's cabin with friends/roommates in a couple of weeks and so he has that to look forward to. He loves driving his Studebaker around Rexburg. He is still obsessed with Mexico and even found an internship in San Luis Potosi that he is hoping to make a reality. :)

Jonas found an apartment to rent with three other guys in Saratoga Springs (west of Lehi). It's a new apartment and the kid who bought it is like Jonas' age and is in the National Guard. Cool! Jonas gets along really well with this roommate and they have already had some cool adventures in the month that Jonas has been there: building a boat and boating, caving, dirt-biking, etc. Jonas got a construction job working cement. Long and early days - starting around 4:30am! He is hoping to get an Honor Guard position that the Guard may open up soon. The Honor Guard is "an elite, ceremonial unit—typically drawn from the military or police—appointed to perform official duties. Their primary responsibilities include rendering military funeral honors, guarding national monuments, and receiving heads of state or dignitaries at official ceremonies," (Google). His roommate does it currently and Jonas did officiate at a couple of funerals already. Jonas is hoping to get on it full-time - at least until school starts in February. His plan is still to do the lineman certification program at Salt Lake Community College. He came down for Emmy's graduation and that was super-sweet of him. He also towed his Jeep back - and sold it like 3 days later in Utah! YAY!

And that's about it for now!

May's Hodgepodge

This was my last run with Brigham, sniff, sniff. The old guy (almost 11) probably has some hip issues. They don't seem to bother him unless he's running. I kept trying to take him because while I could tell his hips were slipping (scuffing his back paws), he never seemed too bothered by it. But this time he walked several times and I just realized no more for him. Sadness. But he still loves to get out and hike and walk and so that's good. 

Emmy finally got Aidan out to Midway - yay. They headed out early Tuesday morning and stayed thru early Saturday morning. They had a great time and did all sorts of activities: Top Golf, shopped at City Creek mall and walked around Temple Square, walked around BYU campus, hiked, ate out a lot, drove my dad's toy all over Midway, played lots of my parents' basement games (foosball, skiball, etc.), swam at the pool, etc. I got a few pictures . . . 

Top Golf (Jonas and his roommate met up with them there - fun!)

My sister and I joined them on this hike to Stewart Falls. It was gorgeous.

Cosmo is the best - even in stature form!

I arrived to my parents' home late Wednesday night - I took the train and Emmy and Aidan picked me up around 10:30. My sister had flown in earlier that day and had met up with my parents in Salt Lake. We had come out to be with my parents as my dad's dementia has significantly declined. We stayed out of Emmy and Aidan's way for the most part, but also enjoyed a dinner and a hike and listening to them play (and playfully argue) games downstairs haha.

Yay for hiking! It was the perfect outdoor entertainment that day. :)

Even though our younger kids (Oliver and Lucy) had driven the toy when they were like 13 . . . Erin nor I had never driven it! Well that finally changed when we were semi-forced into by my dad. Haha. It wasn't all that bad after all!

On Memorial Day I had work with Berry in the morning and then Ben and I took the two younger pups (Brigham is healing from foxtails . . . ) on the hike to Neosho/Sutton Mine. It was gorgeous and lovely with overcast weather and a few sprinkles. 

A couple glamor shots, haha:

Bella, age 8. 

Gordon, 10 months.

Miles sent me his latest painting: the Fort Collins temple. It's for his friend Aiden as that is where he got married. Beautiful.

Miles also sent me a picture of his car in Rexburg. :)

The calendar and then that's a wrap!

All Things Emmy's Graudation

Emmy wanted a "grad party." It is definitely something that pretty much everyone does here . . . I think it's a bit much - it is high school after all. Plus, and honestly, Emmy doesn't have a lot of friends and neither do Ben and I . . . But Emmy still wanted one and so instead of some cash from us, we did a little "open house" party for her. And it was sweet and fun and I enjoyed prepping for it. We didn't rent a venue or go all out like a lot (most?), but it still ended up great and Emmy was happy with it and that's what mattered. 

Cutie! Emmy's school pictures - kindergarten thru 10th grade. Apparently I didn't get any from her junior year and her senior year they submit one - which I had done. But these are all her official school photos. Adroable.

I felt quite creative in coming up with Emmy's party's theme: These are a few of emMY's Favorite Things. . . So I made her favorite treats: avocado ice cream, snickerdoodle cookies, cinnamon rolls, chocolate mint brownies, cookies and cream cookies, and then we bought donuts and served it all with milk. :) I think that turned out great.

We had a good turnout, I think. We were all nervous about people showing up . . . but we had a good number come and, again, Emmy was happy. She had some friends show up, Mr. Warren and other supportive adults, and many from our ward. It was great. She got pictures, but her camera was a bit of out of focus, so I'll just share these few:

She loved the background we made for her - she showed us a picture and Ben and I were able to make one that was pretty close! Yay for party and yay for being done! (Emmy decided to do it a week early, which was smart bc soooooo many parties happened the weekend of graduation. I was happy to not have to do it that same weekend as well.)

The Friday before graduation there was a graduation practice. Following that, the students return to their elementary school and walk the halls and get celebrated by the cute elementary kids. 

A lot of the kids knew Emmy because she did her student-teaching there and so that was pretty special for her to get such positive attention. :)

Where it all began . . . 

Graduation morning (they always do graduation on Sundays and, due to winds and storms arising often in the afternoon - had it in the morning) was a bit iffy - we had secured our stadium seats on Friday night by duct taping a blanket and writing Maxwell on it. Apparently it's what you do! Ben was still worried and so he headed to secure our seats early. He kept texting me that people were crowding in, so I made my way over early-ish. Jonas came down for it and so he and Lucy and finally Aidan arrived a bit later. It started raining as we sat and waited for it to begin, but about 5 minutes before it was to start, it quit and just remained cloudy and nice for the rest of the ceremony.

The ceremony itself isn't too bad . . . two student speakers who maybe each spoke for 1-2 minutes. A few other small items. Then annoucing of the graduates' names . . . but they also include where each graduate is going or doing afterwards and I love that. Either a university, a trade, the military, LDS missions (7 of them in this class), or a gap year (that was a bit anti-climatic of an announcement ha; there was just one of them . . . pretty sure Jonas' class had much more . . . ). 

Then that was that! A few pictures, Emmy stood in line with Aidan to get her diploma, etc. Overall, that was all good. But it was also a bit of a rough week for Emmy. Emmy just hasn't had great friends or many friends throughout high school. Which, in some ways, she has come to terms with (but also not). But during the final week of senior activities, etc., it was made very clear and obvious to her that she was not included. She tried, even tried going to the Senior Safe party, but it ended up a miserable experience for her and was just so devastating to her and hurt us as parents to see. It was so sad honestly. 

Luckily, though, she and Aidan had a trip out to my parents' place planned and so I think that helped ease her sadness a bit . . . 

Pictures:

Our friend Molly did the hat - with a little help from Emmy. :) So cute!

And the classic last-day jump off the house picture! 

I love it!

Yay for Emmy being all done with high school. Now on to bigger and better things!

April - HodgePodge

My food truck ideas created with Chat GPT. :) Read the Mexico post to understand . . . :)

Ben and I took the griffs on one of my favorite hikes - the Ouray Perimeter trail. It was pretty great!

Lucy is doing track again this year. She had to miss several of the beginning meets due to state gym and our trip to Utah and I just think that got her out of the lineup. Plus, there are a lot of fast girls! But she's still doing varsity meets and doing great. Proud of her for doing it!

Sadly, my cute dad isn't doing so well . . . What started with a couple of UTIs and ended with hallucinations, ultimately led my dad to a 5-day stay at the VA hospital in SLC. My mom stayed with him pretty much all day long - even though the silly man doesn't remember who she is at times. :(

What a bunch of cute, old men! The four brothers. :)

My dad's hallucinations (once even having a full-on conversation with a "marine helicopter pilot" while my mother observed) did improve. He no longer is constantly picking at or complaining of the "critters" on his hands; nor asking others if they felt the earthquake. But his dementia has definitely taken a significant dive. My dad transferred to a care facility in Heber for some work on his physical strength. Per my mom and brother (Derek has been out), his ambulation is significantly better (so good, in fact, that he escaped the care facility, walked 1/2 mile across a field, and ended up at a clinic - where he promptly fell down). But his dementia has only gotten worse or, at best, stabilized. My mom has been a trooper through it all and we'll see how his going home turns out. I'm a bit nervous to be honest . . . but hopeful for the best!

One of Miles' latest and greatest paintings: the Provo City Center temple for Emmy.

Aidan's adorable promposal to Emmy. :)

And that is a wrap!

April - Prom

Well Prom was a lot like last year . . . same handsome boy, same gorgeous dress (so proud of her for wearing it twice; she loves it so much), and same photo-op venue. Haha. Emmy was all up and down the whole week about going - I'm not going, It's stupid, blah, blah, blah. She was running into all sorts of snags that made it frustrating getting tickets: guest form signed, community hours written up and signed, etc. But when I went along with it finally ("yeah, you don't need to go. . . "), I was given the death-look. To dare I would suggest such a thing! Teens!

Went she did and she and Aidan had a good night. Not the best and not as great as last year - but maybe that means they are just growing out of this stuff. She's still glad they went, though.

(I made them jump haha.)

So many beautiful girls. Too many, though!? Emmy definitely likes smaller, intimate group settings so this was a lot. But the girls kind of had their own little groups within this big group. It was kind of weird. But whatever. They all looked lovely.