Spring Break 2019 - Miles' Car

You've heard me say it before and I'll say it again, KSL gets me in trouble.  I don't even know why I looked up cars one day, but I did for fun. I tried to convince Miles to look at Volvos . . . but he likes older, uglier cars.  :)  His number one car of choice has been a Studebaker.  But those either don't drive at all or have been totally restored and so are totally expensive.  I found this crazy 1976 Lincoln blah blah blah (Mark IV Gevinchy, or something like that). Miles fell in love with it.

So I had Miles call up his grandparents (after I had given them a heads-up) and ask them if they would check it out. Turns out the gentleman selling the car is in my parents' stake and the car was located in Orem. So on my parents way home from St. George, they met the man and the car.  From there, it's history.

Or it was just the beginning and it hasn't ended yet . . .

We met the gentleman and the car as we drove in to Orem that Wednesday afternoon (after a quick stop to the BYU Store). Miles loved it, the rest of the kids loved it.  The girls kept asking, "Are you going to buy it?" The gang - minus me, plus the seller - took the car for a little spin around the lot.

Then we bought the car.  The deal is this:  we will match what Miles saves.  He doesn't have his "match" yet and so we loaned him a bit.  So really the car is ours until he pays his part.  :) But seeing as this was a unique, one-of-a-kind car, we couldn't wait on it until Miles had all the money. (P.S. My parents bought the car much-needed new tires - thanks again!)

 Miles in "the boat," as his calls it.

 The kids were all so excited about it.

 Miles loves the lights (the cover flips up when you turn them on).

 Cool girls on a so-ugly-it's-cool car (my opinion).

The interior is all blue.  It's pretty cool inside.

But there are a few hiccups . . . a belt and/or hose that needs replaced, etc.  Also, it tends to stall.  Sometimes a lot, sometimes not as much. We didn't feel too good about driving it home and Ben can do a lot of the work that needs to be done on it - plus, maybe our car-smart family in our ward will help, too.

So currently "the boat" is parked at our friends' house - Christian Sabey.  Ben will return as soon as he can with a trailer and bring it home. 

I'm sure Miles can't wait!

Spring Break 2019, part 1

Monday was quite a lovely day!  In fact, the first of the week was so nice . . . and then it got not-so-nice.  But that's March for ya!  So the kids and I rode our bikes to the bike bumps.  We met up with three other families:  Patty & Ivan, Heather and her four kids, and Csilla and her three kids.  We had a good time!

 Yay, on bikes again!

Miles - on Emmy's bike, helmet backwards, and sunglasses upside-down.  At least he's wearing his cool Star Wars shirt.

We watched a movie from my past that night - Savannah Smiles.  It was enjoyed by all!

On Tuesday we watched our two neighbor kids - Genevieve ("G"), who is Lucy's good friend, and Edwin (G's brother).  Csilla was running some camps and so she invited us to the field house that morning to join her groups there on the bouncy houses.  So we all went - minus Miles who stayed home to work on school stuff.  Jonas learned a cool back-flip trick - running up the bouncy-slide and do a back-flip.  Emmy did it, too.  They were pretty pleased with themselves.  :)

Then we got back and I took Miles for his haircut.  Like a real haircut.  Like oodles and oodles of hair cut off.  Jessi, the stylist who has been "cutting" Miles' hair for months now, was super surprised that Miles agreed to get a real cut.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I thought Miles was SO MAD during his haircut.  I was having a hard time reading him. But he wasn't too mad.  I think he thinks his hair is "okay." He's already planning on growing it out again, though.  Which is fine with me - to a point.  I think we'll try and contain it a bit more this time.  Maybe not quite so long.  Ben LOVES Miles' haircut and was super-shocked at how much Miles agreed to cut off.  It's a long story and I'm too lazy to detail it all out (you're welcome).

Jonas got to join one of Csilla's camp - the Skateboarding one.  He LOVED it and now wants to buy a skateboard.  But the skateboard park here is super sketchy . . .

Here's a video of Jonas and Levi skateboarding.

Our St. Patrick's Day . . .

So this is how we celebrated St. Patrick's Day this year:

* We drank green smoothies for breakfast (spinach, green grapes, avocados, mangoes, almond milk, and ice.)  YUM.  Only one of my kids now will make a smoothie mustache.  We're getting old.

* I gave a talk in a different ward. Our kids went to sacrament meeting without us (for the first half) because the times conflicted and Ben wanted to come and hear me. The kids wanted to go to our home ward for various reasons.

* Jonas had no idea it was St. Patrick's day and didn't wear anything green.  Ben and I knew . . .but didn't wear anything green.

* Our family downed an entire box of Lucky Charms for lunch (new tradition, oh yeah).

* We watched the third and final movie in the Anne of Green Gables series.  Such great movies.

* We had an Irish-American dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and Irish-soda bread.

Erin Go Bragh!

Bella's First Birthday!

 Yay, Bella turned 1 on Tuesday, March 12th!  (I was bummed we didn't get Brigham in the picture.  Don't worry, he was there.  Anxiously awaiting a pupcake . . . )

 She's so cute and fun and spunky!

Of course she devoured her pupcake.  In record time, perhaps.  Maybe even hogging it down faster than good ol' Wilson would.  :)

FHE - Driving Lessons!

Well, Miles took the Driver's Ed written test and passed with a 96%.  Yay!  It was kind of a hassle for me to get this all together, so I was glad we were done with it.  And, actually, we didn't even have to wait at the DMV - it went fairly quickly! 

So for our "fun" part of FHE we went to the church's parking lot and Miles drove us around for the very first time.  It was quite comical and not too scary - except for that one time he stepped on the gas instead of the brakes.  Luckily, no cars were there.  :)  He mainly just drove around the lot, practicing turning, blinkers, parking, stopping.

Ben took Miles out two days later and said there was marked improvement already.  Thank goodness.  Ha.  :)  Miles would drive a little loop, which included a parking lot and even a real-live road.  Miles probably drove about 500 feet on the real-road.  Which is perfect for his second-time ever driving.

Let the fun times begin!

Miles at the DMV taking his test.  I was slightly scared to take the picture . . . Miles was warned if he got out his phone he'd be automatically disqualified, or whatever they said.  But I snatched one picture really quickly.  :)

Yay, he got his permit (well, the paper one.  A "real" one will come in the mail sometime)!

 Miles at the wheel - aiyiyi.

 Mixed reactions - Jonas is a bit excited, Emmy and Lucy were excited and scared.  :)

 Go, Miles, go.  Just not over 10MPH, please.

 Ben, the instructor.  I got to play "back-seat driver."  I think we both played our parts well.  :)

Miles' 15th B-day

Well, Miles' 15th birthday came and went.  Although it wasn't overly exciting, I still think Miles enjoyed his special day.

He got to start the day by going to the church and cleaning!  Fun!  :)  Actually, he started his day by eating his birthday "junk" cereal - Donettes, or something like that.  After cleaning the church, Ben, myself and the two boys drove down to Colona to their donut shop.  Okay, maybe it's a coffee shop, but for us we go for the donuts (well, not me - I'm not a big fan of donuts. . . ).  So that was a fun treat for the boys.  When we got home, Ben went to the rec to play some raquetball with his co-worker (he does this 1-2 times a week) and the boys tagged along and had fun swimming.

Back at home it was chore-time.  The girls had gymnastics in the morning and then Emmy had her YW's pizza fundraiser (they sold homemade take 'n bake pizzas and so yesterday they had to make over 100 pizzas - awesome).  Emmy got home earlier than planned from that and so we were able to have Miles open his gifts that afternoon.  He got some cash (saving up for a car . . . !), a wallet, a bean-bag lounger thing, a book, cool shirts, Secret Hitler (board game), 3 Imagine Dragon CDs, etc.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of elk pasties (Miles' typical birthday request) and creamed brussel sprouts (yum).  We watched Spiderman: Homecoming - which was a first Marvel-movie for me.  It was pretty fun.  We stopped mid-way through to enjoy some cake.  Or pie.  Or whatever it is.  Okay, it's official name is "Mint Lemon Curd Shortbread."  It is amazing.  We've had it before and Miles requested for his birthday.  Think lemon bars, but even better!  We finished the movie, listened to a few Imagine Dragon songs that Miles wanted us to hear, then called it a day. 

A good Miles' 15th birthday!

Miles and Jonas enjoying their donuts and their drink.

 Miles got a suitcase - he mentioned wanting one and I found one for $1 at an estate sale.  Sold!  Miles loves it.  :)  Jonas bought Miles a bunch of Ramen Noodles - all different flavors than what Miles normally eats.  Fun.  Emmy bought Miles 10 pieces of taffy.  Lucy got Miles a cinnamon roll and gave it to him on his "birthday eve." 

 A cool Star Wars shirt.

 Miles reading a book while listening to his new CDs.

 Miles organized all of his birthday gifts in to his suitcase.  Love it.  :)  Oh, except for his bean bag - that wouldn't fit!

 Lighting the "cake."

 Singing "Happy Birthday to You . . . "

 Blowing out the candles.

 Oooops, he missed one! 

We all had a fun day celebrating our very own and awesome Miles.

Happy 15th Birthday Miles

(This isn't you, of course. I don't have access to any recent picture of you at the moment.  But I'm pretty sure this is a pretty good picture of your current hair-goal).

Wow, Miles - 15.  That's a pretty big number.  While 16 is big in terms of driving, 15 isn't too shabby.  You just finished up your 30-hour driver's ed. course online (which you really liked!).  If all goes as planned (which I'm not planning on it to), you'll take your written test on Monday (the 11th) and officially be allowed to drive with supervision.  Scary!  I mean, I'm excited for you.  I am excited to let you drive in the parking lot of the church.  But I'm pretty much scared for anything and everything beyond that.  :)

Your education took a big change this past year as we all decided to give BYU's online high school courses a try for you.  I think you like it!  You've done well - it's a big change from public to homeschool/online.  You are responsible for a lot more and with that comes some great learning and organization, as well as some great failures (ahem, English class . . .).  In fact, you are still working on finishing up your 1st semester English class.  Summer school - 2nd semester English!  But you've done really well with all your other courses and so that's been a real positive.

You've begun your seminary education as well.  You love it.  You tell us that all the time.  You have a great teacher, Sister Evensen.  She does a great job with teaching and making it fun at the same time.  You leave each morning at 6:30 and ride your bike to the church (2 miles away).  Freezing temps and snow - you ride. 

You have a couple of classes at the high school - Project Unify, art (first semester) and mythology (second semester).  I've mentioned them before, so I won't have to go in to much detail now.  But you enjoy those classes a lot.

Your hair has gotten quite out of control.  We might be using some car-driving leverage with your hair . . . I like long hair - as long as it is well-groomed and such.  You shower at night, wear a bike helmet multiple times a day, etc.  Your hair doesn't look so great.  We have found a great gal to cut your hair - I'm being generous when I write "cut."  The craziest part of your hair is right above your earlobes - the hair is so curly there!  Ring-lock curls even.

You continue to mature in good ways.  You're far from perfect (as we all are, of course) and continue to annoy us - but you're a pretty great kid, especially to those not in your immediate family (meaning your siblings, for the most part).  :)  You show a lot of thought and kindness to your friends and strangers.  One example is when we went skiing for Jonas' birthday.  Your best-friend Michael came and it was like his second-time ever skiing.  You just stayed and skied with him the whole day - without complaining.  Your Sunday school teacher often remarks that you and Jonas are some of the only well-behaved and good-answering boys in the class.  (Which is interesting seeing as how your comments in our family gospel study-time is less than impressive . . .).

You tried a new sport this year - mountain biking.  You did great. I mean, you're not naturally athletically inclined, but man you can go and go and go without getting tired.  Maybe not the fastest go, but you have some amazing endurance. You improved a lot with your mountain biking skills and I can not keep up with you anymore - you can go up ahead with dad, I'll hang back with Jonas.  :)

  

I think you like me.  I mean, if saving your blue, vanilla tootsie rolls for me means anything . . . (Thank you, I do love them so and you know that!)

You think you want to become a surgeon.  I don't know why exactly . . . unless it's due to the money?  I should ask you.  :)  I still think you should become a vet . . . sometimes I feel you have more empathy for animals than humans!

You're turning in to a neat mini-man and I'm excited to see all that you accomplish and become this year.

Love you,
mom

February's Over; March Begins . . .

 See you again next year!

The Young Men had an outing to Moab - camping Friday night and then doing a couple of hikes on Saturday.  Ben had the day off on Friday and so he and our two boys headed out early. They secured a campsite, set up a couple of tents, and then went out to dinner:

 Yum!

The rest of the YM weren't arriving until after 9, so they had some time to spare.  So then they went to a local diner for dessert:

 Wow!

 As Ben wrote in his text, "The boys like this campout."  Haha.

 The rest of the group arrived, a fire was enjoyed (although it was quite warm . . . like 60), and then the kids annoyingly stayed up and were loud until about 2:00 am.  I think Ben Mormon-cussed at them (them = all the YM in the two tents) at 1:00 am by telling all the boys to "Shut up!"  It didn't work . . .

 Good morning!

 Cooking breakfast!

 Eating breakfast!

 Here's the group at the trailhead to Corona Arch.  My family has done this a few times - except for Ben, it was his first time.  It's a cool hike to an awesome arch. (The little guy in front, Dreyden, is the YM's president's son.  He is awesome and did awesome.)

 Miles, Jonas, and Kaden.

 Corona Arch.

 Kaden, Dreyden, and Jonas.

 This is the beginning of the hike to Delicate Arch.  Jakai and Miles.

 Miles and Delicate.  It was Miles' and Jonas' first time to this arch.

 The YM (plus a dad)!

Super cool.

 Fun.

 The weather held out for them until they headed back from Delicate.  Then it started pouring and everyone got soaked.

Eating some grub in the dry trailer before heading back home.  I think it was a great time for everyone!  Some of these boys never get an opportunity like this and so it's pretty great.

And what did we girls do?!  Well we lived it up by watching 2 chick-flicks on Friday night:  Father of the Bride and Sleepless in Seattle.  Loved them both.  On Saturday I had a Relief Society meeting and the girls just stayed home, finished their chores, jumped on the tramp, etc.  Later that afternoon we went to the other gym's meet here in town.  They do a different style of gymnastics (think more of a recreational league - as opposed to the junior-Olympic league our girls do) and so it was interesting to see.  Seating was horrible, though, and I'm still suffering from a kinked neck.  :(

Anyways, a good way to start out the new month!