Pecan Valley Resort

Pecan Valley Resort is a new, small water park about 5 minutes from our house. Mark has a friend that lives right by it and said he could get Mark in for free. I asked if we could tag a long and pay for our admission. They have a surf machine and a wave pool and some big slides. We had a lovely afternoon.

Maxine was able to come over for a hot second. We sat in a hot tub and went in the pool and lazy river. We ate some food and the weather turned crappy and we left. But we were there for the better part of an afternoon. I want to hold onto summer for just a little longer. 

Second Negative Tuberculosis Test

There are other pictures here but the one I think is most important is Jack getting a second Tuberculosis test! The mission office called me to tell me the results. It was negative! Yay! When they called and I looked down at my phone and the caller ID said Philippines, I thought to myself, "This is really good or really bad!" The mission president's wife was super sweet and said that Jack's test results were negative and they loved Jack and thought he was great. That's a relief!

Other than that, Jack's been doing good missionary work with Elder Pondaag.

Who knew gatorade came is a bottle?

Jack is on exchanges and the two were looking for food. They got ice cream and cereal.

His name is Elder Prince. I'm sure they did other things. Lol.

Brother Talon

This kid cracks me up. He walks in the front door without knocking, borrows tools from the garage, eats dinner here, picks up Mark and takes him to Maverik for burritos, grabs Mikayla from young womens. I love this kid. He's super funny and feels like he fits with our family. 

Funny story, we may have overstepped. He bought a sport bike and didn't quite have enough to register it and insure it. Merril was like, "I'll do it. Not a problem. We'll pay for it." Then his Dad was like, "Yeah, don't register or insure that bike. We hate it and want him to get rid of it." Whoops. Sorry. Keep coming around though kid. Life wouldn't be the same without you. 

Brekky and a Hike

One of my favorite hikes is from La Verkin Confluence to River Rock Roasting Company. It's like 4 miles round trip. 2 miles to River Rock, stop for brekky, and 2 miles back. It's next to the river and is lovely! The little kids are back in school and I was able to play with my older girls. 

What a perfect morning!

We found this chair made out of an old tree.

I'm so motivated by food. River Rock has such tasty offerings. Glad I was able to spend time with Max and Jugles.

First Day of School 2025

Kayla is now at the middle school. She's in 8th grade this year.

Mark is finally done with elementary school and is at the intermediate school in 6th grade. Yasssss! Coral Canyon Elementary has been great but I'm glad we're moving on! 17 years is long enough. We're done.

We're off to a great start!

Lake Powell with the Bois

Merril and Mark purchased new life jackets for Powell this year but they didn't quite come in time. Ryan was leaving the next day and called in the afternoon to see if they had arrived. Not quite. I could see the live UPS tracking showing it still in Hurricane town. I jumped in the car and tried to track it down. I found them picking up from Steamroller and asked if I could get the package for Merril. He said he needed proof of delivery and took a picture of me holding the package. I thought is was funny. I ran out to the road by Steamroller and Ryan cruised by and grabbed the package from me and took off to Lake Powell to meet Merril.

Looks amazing!

Merril's going for the windblown look. I haven't seen Rainbow Bridge in a long time. It's still impressive.

Merril is jumping the jet ski in the background.

Mark is getting pretty good at surfing.

Merril snagged a ride home to Hurricane in Dillon's plane. I drove to the Hurricane airport to pick him up. That's a fun hobby.

Juliet's Wisdom Teeth Removal

Juliet has been so busy over the past year that I haven't been able to find a time to get her wisdom teeth out. We were running out of time and she was about to leave for BYU. We just had to make it happen and get it done. She was not excited about it. 

It seemed to go fine and she was passed out on the car ride on the way home and was singing harmonies to the songs on the radio, which Mikayla and I thought was hilarious.

She rested for a lot of the day and even played the piano. We ate all the smooth foods.

There was only a week before she was going on a trip with her friends and she felt pretty good for a few days and then said she still had pain. We took her in and they said she had some dry socket. It was on the bottom and on the outside edge of her gums. They said she should really focus on keeping food out of the hole and it should heal up. She was pretty upset because she had so many things that she wants to do before she leaves to BYU and this was not helping. But she ended up being okay, just not as healed as she wanted to be. With the next kids, I don't care how busy they are, we are getting them out sooner. I think that was part of our problem.

Maxine at FSY

Maxine signed up to be an FSY counselor again but for less weeks. She went to Orem and Florida. She was in Florida for 3 weeks. She said, "3 incredible weeks with so many amazing children of God. Florida will forever be sacred ground to me." Being an FSY counselor is such hard work. I'm proud of her.

Storytime: Back in the day, Merril and I had some neighbors in Vegas, the Jensens. They had a son that was born around the same time as Maxine. Our kids would play together. They moved away to Northern Nevada and not long after that, we moved to St. George. This is Sam Jensen and Maxine hasn't seen him since we visited their family in February 2013. Fast forward and Maxine found Sam at FSY! She thought she recognized him and then looked at his nametag. They had a fun reunion for a minute and then had to go back to work. 

They were such cute kids! What a small world!

How Can it only be Halfway?

Bro, Jack is halfway done with his mission. I'm not going to lie, halfway is hard for me. It feels like he's been gone forever but he still has the same amount of time before he comes home. 😓 But look at him. He's amazing! He's cruising along, I just have to do the same! This is his new companion Elder Pondaag (pronounced Elder Pondaa) and he is from Indonesia. Jack has had all Filipino companions up until now. Jack is still the DL this transfer. Jack says: "We are going to work hard. Elder Pondaag is one of the most genuine people I've ever met, if Indonesia had teddy bears, he would be one. Anyways he's pretty cool and we are excited for this transfer!"

Even though he's grown and moved out, he's still Jack.

I love to see the real life things over there, like this shop. I always want him to turn the camera around when he's out and about.

I swear ice cream is the only dairy product he gets over there. He takes a lot of pictures with soft serve ice cream. One more year until I get my hug!

 

Girl's Camp 2025

Girl's Camp this year was ward camp. It was fun to be up there with Mikayla but also was a lot of work. Our location was changed last minute and was a scramble to find a new place. There's another camp site on Kolob called Deer Haven and it was great. I'm struggling with my calling a little, only because I don't like to be in charge. Being the young women's president means I have to be in charge. It's getting better but I just want someone to tell me what to do. 

Mikayla took a film camera and these are some of the goofy pics. I love the effect.

Adventures on the way to Mt. Ranier

Merril was working the Mt. Ranier race and Maxine and Fei tagged along to help drive and visit Bri. Mt. Rainier in the background.

This is after the race in Seattle.

Dad was like, I swear I was there.

Yo!!! They found the amazing Ranier cherries and pretty flowers that they brought home. 

Mark and I ended up going to the lake. It was a nice evening.

Juliet's Adventures in Tennessee

Juliet is so cute taking Teddy for a bike ride.

Teddy and Juliet found a town called Mt. Juliet!

Megan and Lucas went to Nashville for and overnighter and Juliet watched the kids without them.

They watched fireworks on the 4th of July.

They took her to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and they rode mountain bikes.

They stayed in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg.

Juliet has been able to go to the temple outside of Nashville.

They went to multiple games of Nashville SC.

One of the last weekends Juliet was there, they went to downtown Nashville. There was this cute truck with flowers.

 

They've been taking good care of Julie. It's fun to see her have adventures without us.