April felt like a very long month. There has been a lot going on with Easter, Bryn's birthday, and spring break. By the end of April I am always ready for the school year to be over and summer vacation to start. Unfortunately we have to go until June 14th.
This month had a lot of exciting things happen but one of the most exciting things was that this girl made the HIGH SCHOOL DANCE TEAM!! We are so excited for her!! Ailey had a week of working with the high school dance team and learning a routine for tryouts. She had a lot of fun and was really hoping to make the team. The official tryout day was the day of Bryn's birthday activities. Ailey had to be at the high school super early that Saturday morning. We met her at the high school track after she was done which was just before Bryn's first meet which was also being held at the high school.
Lucky #10!
When we met up with Ailey she thought that she had done okay...but she wasn't that hopeful. Then while we were in the parking lot one of the older girls that is on the dance team came up to her and told her that she had done a "great job!" So she was a bit more hopeful after that. They were supposed to post the new dance team members on the school website by 6pm. Ailey was super nervous so it was good that we had Bryn's birthday extravaganza to keep us busy all day. Plus, that night Ailey was going to the movies with a big group of friends (boys and girls...oohhh la la) to celebrate her friend Jarom's birthday.
The results still hadn't been posted online by the time that we dropped Ailey off at the mall with her friends. Tyler and I ran a few errands with Bryn and while we were at the grocery store I got an email from the dance team coach saying that Ailey had made the team!! I called Ailey immediately and told her the good news!! She was with a big bunch of her friends and they were all screaming and excited for her. It was probably the very best way to get the news!! When we got home there was a poster from the dance team on our front door for her saying congratulations!! I am so happy for Ailey!! She is such a hard worker and she has been such a great drill team captain. She choreographed so many dances and is so patient and kind to the other girls. She will be a great addition to the team. Now I still have to wrap my head around the fact that little Ailey will be in high school next year!! At the parents meeting and uniform fitting night she was in an XXS uniform. She is tiny but she's a ball of enthusiasm!!
April started off with a very momentous General Conference!! Wow. So many exciting changes. First, a new President of the Church. I love President Nelson and I am excited to learn from him. Plus, two new apostles were called: Elder Gerrit W. Gong and Elder Ulisses Soares. I look forward to learning more about each of them.
And then just when you thought that it couldn't get any more exciting... it was the end of high priests quorum and the start of just having an elders quorum. It is so interesting what the new role of an elders quorum president will be and what it involves including working in close conjunction with the relief society president. But then...the next announcement was equally shocking. Good-bye home teaching and visiting teaching!! Hello ministering. Very exciting! It has been interesting watching all of the changes come together over the past few weeks. It is definitely an exciting time in the church!
(Tyler was previously the secretary for the high priests quorum and after the reorganization I snatched him right up and put him in primary! Ha ha! He is now a team teacher for the four and five year olds!! )
I love having our family all together and watching conference!! Plus...pajamas and CREPES!!
Then it was Easter and we gathered at the lake and had a fun time together with my family. The day after Easter...spring break started. As I said in my previous post; we had a lot going on with all of the kids so we didn't go anywhere as a family for spring break. Although Tyler and I went to Portland for the weekend as an early anniversary trip. It was really nice to have a week to relax (ish). There was still a lot going on. Reilly and Kameron both had to work. Ailey had a service project that she had to do for school and dance team stuff. Bryn was going strong with track and had several practices. We did manage to squeeze in some fun though!
Tyler and I finally saw The Greatest Showman. Everyone else in the family had already gone to see it...some even three times. #Reilly Anyway, they were all very kind to watch it again with us. Tyler and I both liked it. I thought that maybe the hype would be too much but it was so good! That music has been ringing through our house and cars for months now.
Ailey and Bryn did a bunch of baking. They made my friend, Annie's, famous cinnamon rolls. Not bad for their first time! There was something for everyone...big ones...small ones. Ha ha! But they were so delicious! Annie's cinnamon rolls are so amazing that even people who don't like cinnamon rolls (me) love hers. I can't give a higher compliment than that. Thanks for the recipe Annie!!
Ailey worked hard on her Personal Progress for Young Women and did a whole bunch! Bryn worked on Faith in God too. It was the perfect time to get stuff like this accomplished.
We went out to lunch and on Starbuck's hot chocolate runs. It was a super cold and rainy spring break. We did a lot of shopping and everyone hung out with friends.
We went to the park a lot and for long walks. Ailey and Bryn did a ton of sidewalk chalk art and wrote inspiring quotes on our side walk and down our street. I had so many people come to our door (repair people), the mailman, people who were walking their dogs or just walking by, or had people stop us when we were getting into our cars to say how much they loved reading what the girls had written on the sidewalk and how happy it made them or that it made their day. People were taking pictures. It was a little crazy and weird but it just goes to show how starved our world is for things that are uplifting and joyful. It was really interesting to see how one little act of drawing with sidewalk chalk made a difference in our neighborhood. Crazy.
There was a lot of hammocking going on in the back yard!!
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| With the bug netting on...looks crazy but cozy! |
Everyone has a hammock except for me...but mine is on the way. Hammocking has taken over our backyard so much so that last weekend we (and by we I mean Kam) dismantled the old boat shaped sandbox and the old swing set is coming down too so that there is more hammocking space. We have the perfect trees and yard for it. There will be multiple hammocking zones. Ha ha!
Tyler got his Ancestry DNA results back...no big surprises there:
It's official. He is a Viking. He was thrilled!!
Ailey had a big service project due for school. Each student in her accelerated social studies class had to plan and do a service project over spring break and then do a presentation on it. Ailey chose to go visit the fire station and thank the firefighters for their service and dedication. She chose firefighters because her Uncle Brett is one. (Tyler's brother is a firefighter in Salt Lake City.) She baked them some delicious...seriously delicious...chocolate chip cookies and wrote them the sweetest note. Tyler ran her over to the fire station and those firefighters were so sweet and kind to her. It turned out to be a very neat experience.
Bryn also got to do a service project with her Activity Day girls. They signed up to prepare dinner for the families at the Ronald McDonald House. The girls were SO EXCITED to do this!! They planned the menu and brought the ingredients for the dinner. They chose to make Hawaiian Haystacks. (Kam's favorite meal!) They had so much fun learning about what the Ronald McDonald House is all about and meeting the families there and learning about their children who were in the hospital. The families really enjoyed the Hawaiian Haystacks...most had never had them before. Are they a Mormon thing? After the families were done eating the Activity Day girls got to eat dinner there too. They had so much fun cooking and cleaning and serving those families. I love it!
Such a cute bunch of girls and my friend Arianne is a fantastic leader!!
Track has been going strong. Bryn practices at the high school two nights a week and then has a meet every Saturday morning. She is still doing the Bloomsday Training at her school too. We spend a lot of time up in the bleachers watching her run.
And she spends a lot of time like this:
She falls asleep the minute I pick her up from school,. She is pooped! Luckily Bloomsday training ends this week and track only goes for another two weeks. Then she will get a bit of a break before swimming and tennis start up.
Leading the pack!!
She is loving it though and killing it at the meets! It is so fun to watch her run and to cheer her on!!
Plus with her meets every Saturday morning we are back into our going out for breakfast habit which Ailey and Bryn love!
This particular bakery had a cute wall to take pictures in front of... Ailey LOVED it!!
Kameron had a school trip to Portland with the music department. He had an AWESOME time!! They performed really well and scored super high in all of their competitions. They did a bunch of really fun things and I got pictures like this... priceless.
He and his friends bought matching Nike shirts. They thought it was hilarious.
Ailey was in the stake roadshow and she loved it! Kameron was out of town when it was going on...he was NOT sad about missing out. Ha ha! Although he has already been in two roadshows so I guess he is good. I posted this picture of Ailey and Cami on Instagram and my friend Molly from childhood said that it reminded her of me in 5th grade square dancing with her brother, Brad, and promptly found this picture AND posted it on her Instagram!!
I don't look thrilled but BELIEVE ME I was!! Brad was my neighbor and long time crush and when he picked me to be his square dancing partner in 5th grade it was the happiest day of my life!! Wasn't he a cutie? Don't you love old friends who have known you for forever and can scrounge up crazy pictures like this and then post them on social media and tag you!! Ha Ha!! I love the Ropers and am so glad that we are all still friends after all of these years!!
This month was busy with a whole bunch of Primary meetings, visits, and events...stake and ward. Since our Primary Presidency was newly called right when my previous Primary Presidency was about to do the new Temple and Priesthood Preparation Meeting for the eleven year-olds it got postponed until last Sunday. I just have to say that my counselors are awesome and I am super lucky to have them! The meeting went great and I am thrilled that it is over. Now onto my first baptism of the year on Saturday and of course it is a single family baptism rather than the stake primary baptism day. So I am learning a lot! And...then the next weekend is the ward hike which the primary is in charge of. At least after that I will have bit of a break until it is time to get ready for the primary program.
I also had this happen:
The ATM ate my deposit!! You guys!! My family has mocked me for years about my unwillingness to deposit money through the ATM. I have refused to deposit money or checks this way for about 5 years now. My kids and husband have felt no qualms whatsoever about depositing money this way but I knew that it would some how screw me over and it did! Finally after years of mockery I started depositing money into our various accounts this way. Big mistake. One morning in between taking Bryn to school and then driving Ailey to school I ran over to one of the banks that we use to put some cash into one of our accounts. I was depositing Kameron's school trip money into this other account that we use for things like that. ANYWAY... I deposited the cash and then this came up on the screen. WHAT?!?! It cancelled my last transaction and didn't return the money that I had just deposited. I then checked the balance via the ATM and it showed that nothing had been deposited. I immediately called the local bank to tell them what just happened and of course I could not speak to anyone locally. I got rerouted to the 800 number and put on hold for forever... while on hold I told Tyler what had happened and he started live messaging the bank on line. Well it was a WHOLE IRRITATING AND COMPLICATED PROCESS. Guess what? I could've gone right into the bank when it happened and would have STILL had to go through calling the 800 number and handle it that way. Why? Can't someone head out to the ATM and see that there is more money in there than recorded transactions and give me my cash back? Nope. We had to go through a whole ATM dispute process. Which by the way can take up to 30 days. Luckily they credited my account for the money that I had deposited...yay...Kam's trip was still on. But it was flagged as "disputed" which came with various stipulations. Anyway...his trip got paid for but holy hell it was annoying and call me an old granny but I will not be depositing money via the ATM again!
In other lame news...we had two car repairs this month. A minor one on our old blue suburban that Tyler drives. Fortunately he was able to order the part and fix it himself. Now that is sexy!! A man who can fix things! But it did take a few days and so that car was out of commission. That would have been less annoying if it didn't break down just the very day that Kameron's car (our Honda) got out of the repair shop after a week of repairs...to the tune of $1200. Now the Honda needed some work done but the quote was around $600 and then once they got it in well then there was more work to be done. Isn't that always how it goes? Unfortunately the price wasn't the only unpleasant surprise. We got Kam's car in and they fixed it in a day... unheard of...we picked it up and Kam drove it for about 15 minutes and then it started overheating. We had to bring it right back and then it was there for the rest of the week. Kameron was moping around like crazy because his mommy had to drive him places. For the record, his mommy wasn't thrilled either. 17 is precious.
Boys and girls are so different. Reilly didn't even want to get her license until she was a senior in high school. She had no qualms about me driving her everywhere... apparently she loved it. But teenage boys are a different story. Kameron wanted his license ASAP and is apparently mortified to be seen being driven around by his parents. When I had to take him to work he made me drop him off across the street! Ha ha. Whatever dude... Who knew that we would be THRILLED to pay $1200 just to have our third driver/errand runner back...but we were!!
On another note...
Tyler and I went and saw this movie!! We liked it!
I hosted book club this month at my house and it was really fun! The book that we read for April was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It was so good! We all really liked it. Tyler read it too and he loved it as well. It is a unique and interesting book.
We had a great discussion that night and some good food! It was a really fun night! I forgot to take pictures but here are some screen shots from my Instastories:
This was prior to my ghirardelli chocolate drizzle. I also had black and white striped plates, cups, and napkins as per the theme in the book. I love a good theme for book club!
We participated in the March of Dimes March for Babies. We were on Tyler's company team. It was a lot of fun even though it was pouring rain and freezing cold! We love participating each year and we had a great time!
After the March of Dimes walk we dropped off Ailey and Bryn at the lake for a cousins sleepover with my mom. They were so excited for this! Dane, River, and Elle were there too.
Combo video of the walk-a-thon and cousins weekend:
They were excited for a weekend of playing games, going on walks, and fishing. My mom has revived the old worm bed so there were a bunch of worms for the kids to fish with too.
After Tyler and I dropped off our girls we headed to lunch. There is a great new Mexican restaurant that opened up near the lake. Who knew?! It was FANTASTIC! Yay for our little weird lake town getting a good restaurant. FINALLY!!
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| So good! |
This was my favorite picture that my mom texted to us. Bryn and Elle headed out to make s'mores in their bonfire attire!! Ha ha! Crazy jammies, life jackets, and rain boots. Love it! Yep, they are related. My kids kept texting me to delay picking them up. They wanted to stay longer and longer.
The sun finally broke out as we were all leaving on Sunday night! I can't wait for summer!
Also, one last thing...Kameron was nominated by his teachers for Link Crew at the high school. Link Crew are student leaders, mentors, and positive role models who help the incoming freshman be successful in high school. He will be part of a team of student leaders who plan activities and mentor the new freshman all year. He very surprised and excited by his nomination. Kam will be great! He is such a good kid and, of course, Ailey is REALLY hoping that her big brother is her link crew leader. Ha ha!
Onto May!
