Happy 15th Birthday Jack!

Birthday brekky! Yaaaassssss! Dad took Jack to Black Bear Diner! Jack ordered an enormous breakfast and basically at the whole thing!

Later that afternoon, Jack and I had an appointment at the driver's license division to take his learner's permit test. First, I forgot all the things your supposed to have. Proof of residency, proof of identification. Merril brought over one thing. Then I realized we needed another and so Jack and I both drove home to get it. Ridiculous. *rolls eyes* It's my own fault but I should've researched what we were supposed to bring before I headed over. Okay, all the paperwork out of the way, I held my breath while he took his test! I was nervous he wasn't going to pass! All the fear was unnecessary because my son is not a dingus head (his words). He passed with a 92%! Wahoo! 

He requested an Oreo ice cream cake from Dairy Queen for his birthday! 

I was able to request the color of purple, Jack's favorite! 

Wow, I can't believe he's 15! He is growing up so much! He's inching his way closer to my height but I've still got him for a few more months. I swear he gets taller every time he comes up the stairs. 

 

Frog Hollow 2020

Frog Hollow was a little different this year. No one had an RV so Ryan built this shelter closer to the course. It was COLD!

Merril probably had the only nice-weather lap. He turned a pretty good lap time. 

This is Jack just before he left. It was cold and dark and starting to rain. Oh, my poor boy! I saw him off and then had to come back to the house. I promised to return with warm carne asada burritos. 

He didn't finish his lap. It was too cold and crappy. They cancelled the race just after. So I got back just in time to feed Jack and help tear down in the rain. I was in snow clothes so it was fine. Hopefully next year will bring nicer weather. 

Maxine's 18th Birthday Extravaganza!

How fantastic is this? My oldest kid is an adult! We've been saying she's practically an adult for month's now! I decorated her car while she was at school.

Then she surprised us all by deciding to go skydiving. We through the idea out to hear about a month ago and she said no. She really wanted to go to Canada to visit her friend, Tam. Canada isn't allowing non-essential travel so that was out. With limited options for celebrating, she decided to go skydiving. Merril's the man! Courageous enough to go with her.

She practiced how she would step out of the plane. She said the plane was pretty ghetto. At least she had a parachute in case the plane didn't make it.

She made Merril jump out first but totally jumped out of the plane herself! Well, herself and an instructor!

Sailing down. She didn't even die!

She said it was awesome! 

Videos of her free fall:

https://youtu.be/Wb0zb2Rhkz4

https://youtu.be/J-S1sfG6xyw

Then we just had regular cheesecake for blowing out candles!

Bikes and Boys

Merril's been taking Jack to ride dirt bikes. Now he's got a set of gear, to keep him safe, and look good!

They are out by Warner Valley. The new Warner Valley. I keep thinking of the Warner Valley that Merril proposed to me in but this is a different one, more in Washington Fields on the new beltway.

And I threw this in because it looks cool. 

 

Snails for the Fish Tank

The fishtank began to grow a bunch of algae. I tried to get a sucker fish to eat it but the Petco guy said a snail would probably be better. I bought two and we named them Crowley and Aziraphale (Good Omens), because one is a gold and white Inca mystery snail and the other is a black mystery snail. They are doing an amazing job cleaning the tank. The eat in a back and forth pattern. 

They have these two, raspy tongues or teeth that they use to lick the algae off the glass.

They are fun to watch. Maybe even more fun than the fish. I find it fascinating to watch them transfer from one plane to another. Hopefully we'll have less algae soon!

Halloween 2020!

To start, I waited too long to begin costumes. It is what it is. So I was scrambling to make Mark's Lego costume and Mikayla's turtle costume. To be clear, she was not a teenage mutant ninja turtle, just the regular kind. 

The back of Mikayla's costume is the cutest part.

But we'll show her smiling as well!

Here are the tricky treaters.

Juliet was preparing for a party with Nicole or at Nicole's house so I didn't get a picture of her zebra costume. She did make a delicious snack though.

After watching Mark trick-or-treat on our street, I asked him if he wanted to trade for a different costume. We have lots of costumes in the Halloween bins and he looked like he was struggling with the Lego getup. He agreed to switch. He was much more comfortable as a race car driver! 

Ah! The candy sorting! One of my favorite parts of Halloween!

Sugar highs!

Jack went to Sycamore Lane with his friends. His costume included his bike! He rode it from house to house. That kid!

I took the little kids to Sycamore Lane but the candy is better in our neighborhood. And we bobbed for apples.

It's harder than it looks and not COVID approved. Good times!

Y-Ski

Ryan and Merril hatched a plan to tow a water skier behind a dirt bike with a wakeboard modification. Ran and Merril had been modifying a Yamaha YZ250, newly named Y-Ski. They took it out to test it. After trying it a bunch in the shallows, they decided there was no way it was going to have enough power to pull a skier. It was a fun adventure anyway. 

 

Mark's 7th Birthday

House of Jump!

This was the year of stunts! Jack pulled a double front flip. Everyone else was flipping! House of Jump had a lot of improvements since we were there last. Cool paintings on the walls and different elements to play and jump off of. 

Mark wanted a donut tower for his birthday! It was awesome because of how much I like donuts!

State Mountain Bike Race

Jack qualified to mountain bike at state! 

We have to wear our masks like good girls and boys.

Merril was sweep again, making sure kids keep moving along. He said Northern Utah kids were getting pinch flats. Jack made it through with a time of 1:21:22. He completed two laps and finished 59th in the state! All right!

 

Zucchini Contest!

The weather has cooled and the zucchini is taking off! I don't even like zucchini all that much but it grows okay so I keep planting it. After giving some away, we still needed to use up a bunch. Maxine and Juliet challenged each other to a zucchini bread competition!

Competition was fierce!

They used two completely different recipes.

The kitchen smelled A.m.A.z.I.n.G! 

We were all winners! 

 

Fall Break: Lagoon!

COVID makes going anywhere a bummer. Utah has tried to keep things open and safe. We were able to drive up to Lagoon and have some fun! Masks were required.

Unless we were sneaky or eating.

This bear!

I barely saw the older kids. They took off and found friends in the park. We spotted them on the SkyRide. 

One day we'll look back and be glad we don't have to wear masks anymore.

Because it's almost Halloween, there were lots of spooky decorations around Lagoon. This is supposed to look like our heads are in the jars but I don't know if you can tell.

We bumped into the Howards and everyone else in Southern Utah. 

Maxine and Ellen made a day of it.

Maxine and I toured Utah State University the next day. We got some famous Aggie ice cream.

Merril took the other kids to an airplane museum.

They also tried to hike into Timpanogos caves. After hiking a mile up a super steep trail, they saw that the caves were closed. Because of 'rona. Lame. 

That was the end of our Fall Break!