May Round-up

We had a lot of stuff going on the last Saturday before school was out. 

One of our friends was turning 50 (the one directly behind me) and so a little surprise "party" was planned - the party was going to her house at 7:30 and kidnapping her on a hike. :) She's crazy about all things hiking and outdoors and so this was the perfect surprise. We had a great morning hike! 

Miles went with a group to the high school's Prom. I guess it's pretty common to go as a group, i.e., "stag." We had encouraged and bugged Miles for weeks and weeks to ask Jentel, but of course he didn't. Sigh. Jentel ended up inviting Miles to join her group (Jentel is the one on Miles' left in the purplish dress). Miles spent most of the afternoon at Jentel's graduation party at her home, then the group met and all went to Prom and had a fun evening, and then he went back to Jentel's home and played games with her family. He had a good time!

The girls and I headed up to Junction for another one of Lucy's gym meets. This turned out to be her last one as her state competition was scheduled for a Sunday and so she won't be participating. Lucy did great on all events, placing 4th or higher - and ended up with a 3rd all-around. There were some high scores at that meet! Lucy got some of her highest - a 9.65 on vault and a 9.5 on bars. So fun!

I was invited to join Lucy and her grade on their field-trip to the Black Canyon. It was as fun as you would expect going on a hike with a bunch of 4th-graders. :) It was fun to be there with Lucy, though, that's for sure. 

Lucy finished up her last day of school, 4th grade, and her last day at Northside. Wow. We are sure going to miss that school . . . But Lucy's looking forward to middle school and her friends there.

We all went to get Lucy from school on her last day - 12 years of having a Maxwell at Northside. Wow.

I have a cool friend that wanted to do an artistic shot of us - Abbey Road style. Too bad I couldn't quite remember what the Beattles looked liked. . .  The boys had it down pretty good, but I was "marching" a little too much. Ha, but a fun picture. Who knows how many times we have all crossed that walk.

Candy Grams:

Dear Miles,

A great way to sum up you during this past year: “If there’s anything I can do, don’t hesitate to contact someone else.” Wow, that is just so you. :) It’s been an interesting year due to the pesky pandemic. Maybe we can blame that on why we are celebrating the 2020-21 school year being over NOW, even though it will be LATER for you. . . Even though you fell behind in your courses and we thought you must have your head in the MILKY WAY, you’ve done well and have learned a lot. You continued to work once a week at Crash Burger and so you were always excited when it was PAYDAY. You took your SAT for the first time and had lots of DOTS to fill in. You did well and now we’re anxious for you to actually study and prepare for it and do even better. What should we call you . . . A JUN-SEN? You know, someone in between being a junior and a senior, haha.

Dear Jonas,

Well it was a crazy first-year of high school for you. A mix of BYU HS online, hybrid school at

MHS, and finally full-time schooling at MHS - your favorite. You liked high school and enjoyed your classes, too - including your Spanish class where you learned words like “BUENO.” You usually saved your homework for the last possible moment and thus had to work in a CRUNCH. But you managed to get straight A’s anyways! You took a certification class and ended up learning how to be a LIFESAVER and even got a job at the pool! You like earning money, but like going on shopping SPREES even more. You haven’t quite figured out how to save your money . . . You recently bought cowboys boots and think your hick friends will think you’re HOT & SPICY in them. Great job on your freshman year!

Dear Emmy,

Even though this year didn’t start out too PEACHIE, you made the most of it and even loved doing school at the Pavilion. During your hybrid days, you spent a lot of time with REESE doing your school work - plus laughing and tumbling a lot. You often had a lot of time on your hands during your online weeks, and so you made DONETTES a ton. No one complained about that! You tried out volleyball this year and loved it. You always ran in track and impressed everyone with your BURSTS of energy at the end of your 1600, 800, or 200-meter runs! You finally went to the CARNIVAL this year with your friends and had a great time - going on all sorts of scary and sketchy rides! Next up, 8th grade - you’ll rule the school!

Dear Lucy,

You were able to have the most “normal” school year of all the kids because elementary school  was full-time in-person all year long (except for those 2 weeks you had to quarantine . . . ). You were excited because school is so FUN and you love it so much! Even though you didn’t CHEWS Mr. Stammler, you adored him and was so happy he was your teacher this year. You went NUTS over lots of stuff you worked on this past year and would tell us all about it like every day. Things like your tiny house, your tiny city, Minecraft, and the GaGa ball pit to name a few. Once again (and probably forever) you were the RUNT of your class, but that didn’t stop you from being strong and fast in all you did. You still have a BIT O HONEY left in you - don’t let middle school next year take that out of you! Good luck at Centennial next year, you now 6th-grader (aiyiyi).

I was worried about having to tell Lucy that her state meet was scheduled for a Sunday and thus she wouldn't be participating . . . but she actually took it really well. And one of the first things she said was, "We should go get our nails painted!" Because you can't have painted fingernails or toenails during competition . . . So after school the three of us went and got a pedicure. So fun. :)

Afterwards we went to a local place for "Boba" smoothies. The smoothies were very yummy (although after much-anticipation from Lucy, she didn't like hers much . . .), but the Boba things were weird! I guess they are quite popular for middle-schoolers. :)

Memorial weekend and we're all done with school (well, not Miles . . . ), so we wanted to go on an outdoor adventure. We chose the Crag Crest trail - a 10-mile loop in the Grand Mesa. It looks nice starting out . . . 

But quickly the trail was covered in snow. Like 95% of the trail. Which we really weren't prepared for . . . so it wasn't the awesomest. Which was a bummer. We all sank up to our knees at least 2 dozen times each. :) Yes, I was in my chacos. No, it wasn't fun. The kids feet were pretty soaked as well.

There's the whole crew - including Miles sunk in the snow. :) It was nice to get out, but was frustrating as it wasn't what we were expecting. I had read the trail report from someone on May 17th and there was not a single mention of snow . . . 

When we let the dogs off the leash, Jonas put Emmy on the leash. Then played some really weird game . . . but they weren't fighting or complaining, so that was good!

By the time we made it to the ridge (and had some pretty awesome views), most of us were pretty soaked. My feet were the coldest they had ever been. Jonas was pretty good and soaked, too. The sun had gone away behind a thick blanket of clouds and so we all were even colder . . . The ridge wasn't clear of snow, as we were hoping as we continued to trek up to it. We weren't sure what the next 7 miles would bring in terms of snow and terrain. So, we decided to go back the same 3 miles we just came. Which, frankly, a lot of people do. It just wasn't our plan and so it was a bummer to not accomplish what we had set out to do. But the deal was that if we turned back, we'd all have to come again and do the full loop. Everyone eagerly agreed. It has the potential of a great hike - just sans snow. :)

Byebye May! I can't believe June will be here on Tuesday! (Look closely at the calendar and find my mistake, ha.)

Emmy's Final Days of 7th Grade

 So Emmy participated in track at school the last few weeks and had a good time. It was a quick "season" - 3 weeks. 1 week of just-practices and 2 weeks that included practices and three track meets. I got to go to all three meets and it was super fun to watch. In her first meet, Emmy did the mile (or 1600 meters) and the 200-meter dash. The last two meets she added in another event: the 800-meter (so two times around the track). This made it hard on her 200-meter race as the 800 was right before the 200! But she pushed it hard on the 200 and won or tied every one. :) She usually ended up 3rd or 4th on the mile run (2nd in her grade-level) and usually 1st (with one 3rd) on the 800. They were smaller meets with only 2 other schools participating. So it was a great "practice" season to be introduced to track. 

Emmy always had a great final push in the mile. Her times were always right around 6:52. Awesome.

This is how she felt every time after the mile. :)

This was Emmy's last 200 - it was so fun to watch!! (We had horrible wind that day and so it made it much harder to run of course!) Argh, nevermind. Blogger stinks and won't let me upload videos anymore. If you're interested, check out my youtube and you can see the 2 track videos I posted.

Her last track meet was last Thursday and then Friday was her last day at school. There may or may not have been a slight rebellion taking place at school that day in which Emmy may or may not have participated in . . . regarding wearing masks. :) I better not say anymore because on my last post when I made my comment on the CDC, my blog was all of a sudden deemed a "dangerous" site and I had to go through this whole request thing to get it off. Wow, free speech anyone?! 

Anyways, back to Emmy . . . She's all done with her crazy pandemic school year! She's both sad and happy. Happy for summer and a break from teachers and school work. But sad to not so all of her friends for a while. In fact, tomorrow will be her official "first day of summer" and she's already bored . . . Bored enough that she will be going to Lucy's school to help out. Awesome.

Yay, she's done!!!

Just an Update . . .

Well life has gotten busy these past few weeks/months. Which is good in many ways. It feels more normal. Our town no longer has a mask-mandate, neither does church . . . so that's pretty great. The CDC is the biggest joke and I have no idea how anyone there still has a job. Huh, there's my 2-cents for the day. :)

Ben - He goes for his second in-person drill weekend this weekend. He'll actually be staying (at least sleeping) at my parent's place this time - as opposed to sleeping in the barracks. He's stressed about his jobs, the world, taking Jonas mowing, and getting the garden planted. :)

Me - Nothing really new. Work. Run. Take the dogs on walks. Cook dinners. Help organize YW camp - which we're doing with another ward.

Miles - Hmmmm, I don't have a lot of nice things to say about him at this particular moment. I am beyond frustrated with him in many aspects of his life, to be completely honest. Ever heard the term "Super Senior"? That will most likely be Miles. Yes, just as my sister mentioned years ago about homeschooling/online kids . . . they tend to fall behind. Big-time mom and child failure. Don't call me to talk about it - I will probably cry. Call Miles and let him tell you about it. It's beyond frustrating and even embarrassing. Oh, maybe I will mention one nice thing about him so I can remember some good things that he does . . . He took the SAT last Saturday. It was his first time doing so and he didn't know all the tricks and trades . . . This was basically a "practice" test, even though it's the real test - but the plan was/is for him to do this one, get a feel for it, practice and study for it in the fall and take it again. Anyways, when he got home from it he told me how on the last section he was only able to get to 12 of the 20 questions. I told him, because I knew this from Jonas, that he should have just guessed on the last 8 questions before his time was up. He replied, "I thought of that, but I wasn't sure I should or could because he seemed like cheating." I think that's a pretty honest action on his part!

Jonas - He got a job as a lifeguard, yay! Ben took that picture on his first day - although he was "shadowing" that day. Unfortunately he has his eyes closed and probably won't let us get another shot of him again, ha. He did his shadow shift and then wasn't scheduled for another 2 weeks. But he'll go next week and then hopefully for the summer he'll be able to work quite a lot! We're definitely proud of him in passing the lifeguard certification test and in getting the job. I think it will be great for him! He's finishing up his freshman year at the high school. He's into an "agriculture" phase and idolizes "hicks" at the moment. I don't know why. He's mowing a few lawns this summer.

Emmy - Well she finished up volleyball and loved it. She's now doing track. All of the sports are shortened due to covid, so track is like only 3-weeks long. She has a scrimmage meet today. Her events are the 200 and 1600 (which is the mile). She won't be the fastest, but she won't be the slowest either. :) She's ready to be done with school. I mean, she likes it - but she doesn't love it Covid/asbestos style. Meaning, at the Pavilion with 70 kids in one class at a time. I don't think it's an ideal learning environment for her. So we're just trying to finish up this year and then restart next school year!

Wow. Here she is, dressing up via make-up, markers, and a broken paper-clip for her nose-ring. We are all sure glad that's not what she normally looks like . . . :)

Lucy - She had quite the week this week - barfing about 2 dozen times from Tuesday morning at 2:30am (long night for us . . .) until about 5pm that day. She started out barfing about every 15-20 minutes for the first few hours, which of course were in the "middle of the night." Once the day started, she slowed down a bit. The stomach bug is definitely going around . . . I know of many families that have had it. Bummer. But she's back at school today and so that's good. The big news for her is that she will be skipping 5th grade and going to 6th grade/middle school! We had the meeting last month with a whole bunch of adults (plus Lucy) and everyone ended up voting a "yes" to approve the "acceleration." We sure hope it's the right thing to do!!! Ahhhhh. I guess now and here would be a good idea to explain this . . . as this is our family's journal really. So here it goes:

I had the thought come to me a while ago about having Lucy skip 5th grade. Probably because 5th-grade was a lame year for all of our other children. There was just so little learning that year! (As Miles later said when discussing this in our home: "Most kids in my 5th-grade class didn't know multiplication." I know that's not an exaggeration because I would volunteer in my boys' class. Frankly, most kids were still struggling with addition . . . Jonas said, "We were doing 3rd and 4th grade math all year long.") Then there was the fact that one of Lucy's best-friends is starting 6th-grade this year. But I didn't do anything about the thought then. But then it came to me again during Spring Break and I mentioned it to Ben on our backpacking trip. He actually thought it was something that we should look in to . . . so as soon as I got back, I learned what I had to do and we proceeded with the "acceleration" request. Long-story, short: after testing data, the official Iowa assessment, thoughts and concerns, pros and cons were all discussed, a vote was taken and it was unanimously agreed for Lucy to enter 6th grade next year. So crazy. The social aspect really was the driving force for us - as so many in Lucy's church group and thus social group outside of school will begin 6th grade next year. Friends are such a huge aspect of the middle and high school experience! We understand there will definitely be challenges, but think it will all work out for good!

I guess that's it for now!

More Gymnastics, of course, and a few other things . . .

Well the week after Emmy's state competition, the girls' gym hosted a meet. It was Lucy's first "home meet" of the season and so she was really excited. She spent pretty much the whole day at the  gym - she helped out on beam for the 8am meet, competed at her noon meet, and then stayed after to help again on beam for Emmy's meet. She loved it all! She did well at her home meet - she didn't get her highest scores, but she looked awesome. She had her first fall on beam this season, but still got a really good score. She's so fun to watch!

It's good I take pics because I never remember their placings anymore . . . 1st on vault!

3rd on bars.

4th on beam.

3rd on floor.

2nd all-around, whoop, whoop!

Emmy's meet was more of a "showcase" meet. It was only her gym girls, but included the Golds (her level), Platinums, and Diamonds. It was so much fun! The girls were trying out different skills they didn't compete during the regular season and so it was just less-pressure and more-fun. The judges were still there to give scores, but it was just really fun. It's so awesome to watch the upper-level girls, too. One girl did a back-tuck, back-tuck on the beam. It was amazing. Another did a front-tuck to a back-handspring on the bream. Lots of twisty flips on the floor (they would tumble into the soft mats). For beam some of the girls who were adding different skills, would hop down to a lower beam to attempt it. Lots of cool bar skills, etc. It was just a really fun event.

Emmy fell twice, again, on beam. Darn! But luckily her full-turn was a complete turn and so her score was better than state. :) She scored a 9.5 on floor - wowzers!!! She did a round-off, back-handspring, back pike. It looked great. Her bar routine was different and she nailed it (which was good because she wasn't in the warm-up . . .). Anyways, fun, fun.

Out of her 11, I think, Gold teammates, Emmy scored 2nd all-around. Whoop, whoop.

You can check out their routines on my YouTube. Look for the ones titled "home meet 4/24." Emmy's routines are a little different, so they might be worth watching.

That day was a busy one . . . Ben was off on his first in-person drill-weekend and enjoyed it for the most part. 

His sleeping quarters . . . 

Luitenant Maxwell.

This was how my Saturday was, since I don't want to write it all out nor describe it really, I am just going to copy what I posted on Facebook and Instagram, ha. I'm lazy sometimes.

Got up at 5:30 to get my always looked-forward-to long Saturday run in. 

5:45-7:15 - Ran. 

7:35-8:15 - Dropped Lucy off at gym to be a meet-helper. Dropped Jonas off at the rec for lifeguard class. 

8:30-10:00 - Created a dinner menu for the next 2 weeks. Ordered groceries online for Miles to pick up later. Started my laundry. 

10-10:30 - Picked up Lucy from the gym. 

10:30-11:30 - More laundry. Braided girls’ hair for their gym meets. 

11:35-12:10 - Picked up Jonas from the rec. More laundry. 1

2:15-4:45 - Watched Lucy first and Emmy next compete. (So fun! And so proud of all the amazing gymnasts I got to see!). 

5:00-5:30 - Grabbed dinner at Crash Burger, ate, helped Emmy get ready for her first church dance (!), and dropped Lucy off at a friend’s for the evening. 5

:30-8:30 - Drove to and from church dance in Delta, visited with other ladies while the youth awesomely and awkwardly danced. 

8:30-9:00 - Picked up Lucy. Drove to Sonic to treat my strong gymnast-daughters to a shake. Saw Jonas and friends there post-dance as well. 

9:00-9:30 - Put away all the groceries. Reorganized the fridge groceries Miles had put away. 

9:30-9:50 - Went to City Market because my pick-up order from Walmart had forgotten my broccoli- which I had to get tonight because it’s on the menu for tomorrow! 

9:50-10:00 - Bored everyone with typing this super-long post. 

10:00-???? - Waited for Miles to come home from his post-dance party at the Stake President’s house.

#lifeisgood #benisplayingsoldier #iwillsleepgoodtonight #iwoulddoitallagain

Emmy's first stake dance we a hit. She had fun with her friends and got to dance with all the boys she wanted to, ha. Especially Aiden. They even did some cool lifty thing in the middle of the circle at one point. Fun. Emmy asked Aiden on the girl's choice dance. :)

On Sunday, Jonas made homemade Angel Food cake. (We have so many eggs from our chickens and needed to use them. I made the kids eat eggs for lunch. Ha.) While he was gathering his ingredients, he came to inform me that we didn't have cornstarch . . . 

As soon as I stepped into the kitchen, I was like, "Are you serious Jonas?!"

Really!? Really?! Man he just lived up to that stereotype of men not being able to find anything . . . :) His cake turned out delicious by the way.

Okay, now for a few professional photos:

Emmy and her Gold team, 2021.

Emmy and her Volleyball team, 2021. Her Coach is Mrs. Richmond, also known as Sister Richmond. Also known as a counselor in Young Women's in our ward. Also known as our bishop's wife. :)

Lucy's 4th grade class with Mr. Stammler. 

Lucy and her Silver team, 2021.

Emmy and Reese at the Colorado Gold State Meet, 2021

The week of state there was also volleyball happening with the middle school girls. Which meant 6:10am practices and a Tuesday and Thursday game. Reese is on the A-team and Emmy on the B-team. 

Here they are getting ready for their first volleyball game for Centennial Middle School. Such awesome, active girls.

Then it was time to focus on the state gymnastics meet . . . Emmy wanted to make a candy-gram for Reese and so this is what she made:

We surprised Emmy and each family member picked out a candy and a sentence and made a candy-gram for Emmy. Fun, fun. 

The Gold state competition was in the Denver area on April 17th-18th. Luckily both Emmy and Reese were scheduled for Saturday and so they were able to compete. Reese's parents were not available to take Reese, and so we did and it was so much more fun for my girls to have her along! In fact, Emmy had her first "sleepover" (x3) and so that was doubly/triply exciting. :) The middle-school girls only had a half-day on Friday and they were just watching a movie, so they didn't go and we were able to head out to Denver by 10:30. (Reese stayed the night on Thursday - fun! I guess there were some quiet "awkward" moments before they fell asleep . . . ha, ha.) We checked out Lucy and made our way to Denver without too much trouble. A snow storm had come through Thursday night, but the roads were decent enough on Friday for us. 

It was great to see Jim and Diana again! It had been quite a while . . . maybe like 1 1/2 years?! I don't know - long enough that none of us can remember, ha. (Looking through my blog, it looks like July 4th 2019 was the last time we were there . . . Wow.)

On Saturday I went on an always-delightful run on the Highline Canal paths. Then I got back and we got the girls ready for their meet. Reese's meet was at 11:30 and then Emmy was to follow at 3:00. It was hard for Emmy having to wait all day long. Her nerves were pretty fired up for this. I was happy to have been able to have Lucy join us as they only allowed for 2 spectators. But I had called earlier and explained my situation of bringing up another teammate and they were okay with it. Yay! So Lucy hung out and watched with me all day.

What cute friends and gymnasts! This was right after Reese's competition and right before Emmy's.

We love Reese!

Reese and Emmy did well - not their best meets, though. But they looked great out there! State is obviously harder as you are competing against only those who qualified. Emmy unfortunately had a very poor score on the beam (fell off twice - but she was the only gold I saw doing a back-handspring on the beam, plus I don't think she got credit for her full-turn as she didn't fully complete it). It was a total bummer because I knew it would take her out of placing in the all-around. However, she was able to place in all three other events and so that was super and better-than-expected!

2nd on vault!

2nd on bars!

Tied for 6th on floor. (Floor was a bummer because she usually scores quite well - like a 9.35, but only got a 9.1 at state even though I didn't see any difference from all the other meets she had done. Oh well.)

Afterwards we enjoyed a fun dinner at Olive Garden!

We had a fun, albeit it stressful and nerve-wracking for some of us, weekend! Sunday we had a good drive home and started back up with our normal lives in Montrose!

P.S. Videos are posted on my YouTube channel. They are all pretty much the same as before! (Oh, Emmy did have a big oops on bars but still managed a great score. Phew!)