July 4th + Cat's Birthday

(published 3/20/24)

July Fourth was awesome. We all got up early for the Freedom Run in Provo. Andy and Sawyer met us in the BYU Stadium parking lot, and we all walked to the different race starts. Ben took all the younger kids to the 1 mile start, but the walk was farther than we realized and we had gotten a late start, so he sent Jack and Liza ahead on their own. Andy, Cat, and I walked to the 5k start by Brick Oven Pizza.

Ready for a day of fun.

It was fun to see the hot air balloons in the distance while we walked to our start.

It's such a fun atmosphere, between the costumes and the music
and people lining the race course, saving their seats for the parade.

It took a while for Jack and Liza to find the start, but once they began their
1 mile race, they stayed together and finished in less than 10 minutes.

We stayed together for the 5k until Cat decided to sprint to the finish.
Andy and I were fine with letting her go. We all finished in less than 33 minutes.

Finishers!

Finishers + Support Crew

We walked back to our cars and said goodybe to Andy and Sawyer, then our car drove to Chick-fil-A for breakfast and brought it back home to eat. We showered and did some early birthday prep - I put up decorations and did some wrapping while Cat assembled her cake.

Cat started opening presents at about 10:30am, followed by birthday cake, then we all hurried to leave because Jack was supposed to start a shift at the movie theater at 11.

Cat and I gave Jack hugs when we dropped him off, since we wouldn't be seeing him again until after our trip to the Philippines. Then the rest of us finished celebrating Cat's early birthday by hanging out at TopGolf (adjacent to Jack's movie theater).

TopGolf was so fun! We mostly played the Angry Birds game and enjoyed the yummy food. Cat even got a special dessert on a giant platter.

Back at home, Cat and I frantically finished packing (mostly me I guess) so we could get to the airport on time. Ben dropped us off at SLC and we met up with the rest of our Philippines group at LAX that evening.

While Cat and I were traveling, Ben took the kids down to Andy's house for some more Fourth of July fun!

Cat and I were queued up to get on our second plane at midnight, so I pulled out the Birthday Girl tiara and sash I'd brought for Cat and I was so excited when she actually wore them! It was fun for the flight attendants and others to wish her happy birthday and give her a little extra attention. It helped to make up for the fact that she literally had the shortest birthday ever. We flew west from Los Angeles to our connection in Taipei, crossing the international date line, so by my calculations, Cat's 18th birthday lasted about 7 or 7.5 hours. But it was certainly memorable!

June Miscellany

(published 1/30/24)

Did you know that Luke is obsessed with stuffed animals?
But even he thought the $140 price tag was too much for this crane.

When the promise of screen time isn't enough to motivate Luke to practice piano,
I resort to consequences. For a while, that meant sitting quietly by himself. But when
that wasn't enough, I changed tactics and had him write sentences. He wrote a lot of
sentences over the summer.

Baptisms at the Provo City Center with this handsome fella.

The Battle of the Basement

Lindon Pool with Luke's best buddy

We got a doorbell camera.

Banana Pudding!

Why are thrift stores so much fun??

While I was still in Mexico City, Ben repeated the
Johnson Hole hike with the kids, plus Andy and Sawyer.

Looks like a beautiful day!

I was more than ready for a hike in the mountains when I got home from Mexico.

And it was that much better because Cat joined me!

Sharing surprises from Mexico... I expected the kids' size mask
to fit Luke better than it did. Oops!

It was fun finding candies and cookies with different
flavors and textures to bring home.

I love that she's wearing her Xanadu shirt in this picture.

Unfortunately, I was just guessing at how to tie the knots for this hammock.
And... I was wrong. Not too long after taking this picture, the hammock fell. With Jack in it.

There was a lot of grumbling about having to go to the Saratoga Springs Temple open
house. But once we got over that, it was a really beautiful experience, in a really
beautiful place. I love getting to see the different temples being built around us!

The Broadway Tour of Les Miserables at the Eccles in SLC.
It was wonderful, and I am so glad we all saw it together.

Luke wanted to make paper masks, so I got out the elastic I'd bought
to make fabric masks during Covid. All he had to do was untangle it...

Cat and I went for a jog on the Murdock Canal Trail and passed the
Lindon Temple. So cool! (Cat had more fun than this picture depicts.)

Liza's good friend breeds puppies and had a new litter in June.
Here's Liza with Boone, the runt of the Bernadoodle litter.
It's hard to believe how tiny he is!