Merril's birthday and Moving Maxine Home

Merril is turning 46 this year! WoW! He rode dirt bikes for his birthday!

That weekend, I went to Logan to pack up Maxine. She's moving back home because she transferred to Utah Tech. She would've loved to stay at Utah State but they don't have an ASL degree. Sadness.

She was worried about her car making it home so I brought the trailer. I can't remember why Merril couldn't come with us but he was busy. We loaded the car and then blew a tire in South Salt Lake. I was able to change the tire on the side of the road and then we were able to get over to an exit that had a tire shop. They got us fixed up and we were on our way.

It was good to have everyone home again. She'll be living in the basement for a bit until she gets her own place.

 

I've Missed You...

As a goal this year, I want to go to the lake more. We barely went last year. When the children were small, we came all the time. ALL.THE.TIME. After we sold the boat, we came less and less. Then they raised the price of the park pass to nearly double. *grumpy sounds* I think we came once last year. Lame. I decided to buy a park pass this year and that means I need to get my money out of it. We are going! Monday night was warm and lovely. All the goodness and silliness was still there.

I was setting up my camera for a timer shot and Juliet made this face. It might be my new favorite shot of her. :0

Jack didn't come because he had stuff to do but it was just like old times. Bonus: No one even got swimmer's itch. I guess we're still immune. We'll be back.

Jack Won Dixie Tech's Xtreme Auto Competition

The night before, Jack said he was going to an auto competition. It was at Dixie Technical College and I said to text me and we'd shop afterwards. Jack was going to meet me in town at Christensen's department store. Uncle Greg works there and because it was closing for renovations, everything was heavily discounted. Jack sends me a text that said, 

"Be there in about 20 minutes, just gotta load up my prize." 

So I asked him, "What did you win?"

"$10,000 worth of Matco tools"

What?!? He competed against 45 kids from surrounding high schools. He said there were kids from all over. There was a kid from Kanab. He said there was a written test consisting of questions about how cars and car parts worked and diagnosing problems. There was a hands on parts identification portion and something else I'm forgetting. He won first! All these tools and a won a scholarship to Dixie Technical College. 

I'm going to have to lock that box so it's not missing a bunch when Jack gets home from his mission! I love it when my children succeed!

Also, I tried and tried to get California poppies to grow while Maxine was on her mission and I couldn't seem to get them to grow. One of the seeds decided to grow and this is my first orange poppy! Love it!

And we shopped at Christensen's and Greg hooked us up with great discounts and Jack got almost all of his mission clothes. So easy to shop for boys!

Prom for Juliet and Anthony

I made a corsage and boutonniere for the dance. I need to get some floral glue because I think it would be so much easier! They look nice though!

I think this dress is lovely!

All the cute pictures of the kids.

They look amazing!

I'm sure Jack and Leighna went too but I don't seem to have any pictures. 

General Conference in Person!

We were able to score 7 tickets to the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference! We watched the morning session and Jack worked and then we headed to SLC!

Maxine drove down from Logan to meet us! I had forgotten that when the first presidency comes in, the whole conference center quiets and rises to their feet. There's no call to attention, everyone just does it. I love it!

It's so fun to watch in person! I love waving at general authorities. 

It was cold though! We hurried to the cars and drove to Logan for the rest of the weekend.

Maxine has wanted to do an ice cream challenge at a restaurant called Angie's Kitchen. It arrived in a massive sink and between the 7 of us, we ate it all. 

Maxine was excited to get the bumper sticker!

The next morning, we watched conference at the airbnb and then headed to a hike called the wind caves. The weather was not cooperating. Despite telling everyone to bring hiking clothes, it didn't really sink in. Mikayla, Juliet and I turned around halfway and waited in the car. I'm out of shape since I hurt my knee skiing.

The wind caves look cool. These heroes did it!

Then it was time to head home. Maxine stayed in Logan and she has another few weeks and then it's time to move back home. Unfortunately, her major of ASL interpreter isn't offered at USU. She'll be completing her studies down here at Utah Tech in the Fall.