Where did April go? One minute we were on Spring Break and now it is May. April was full of some wonderful reasons to celebrate. The biggest news...
Reilly is engaged!
We're gaining another son! We are so excited for Reilly and Hunter. Here's how the proposal went down. Hunter took Reilly out for a little Saturday adventure. They went to Wilber, WA a small town that is about an hour from here. It is near where Hunter's grandparents used to live. They went out for lunch at a little diner there called Doxie's.
After that they drove up to Lake Roosevelt, did a little exploring, and then came home.
They weren't home for very long when Hunter asked Reilly if she wanted to go get a milkshake from Paul Bunyan's. Reilly said, "Not really" but Hunter really wanted to go so they did. Unfortunately when they got there the place was closed. Reilly was slightly annoyed.
**Meanwhile Hunter's cousin and brother were out at the family farm getting set up out in the field to video the proposal and to take pictures.**
After seeing that Paul Bunyan's was closed, Hunter asked Reilly if she wanted to go to out to the farm and she said, "I guess." They drove out to the farm in Hunter's truck and Hunter drove out into a field (where his brother and cousin were supposed to be hiding). He turned on their favorite country song and got out. Then he asked Reilly to dance. It was the golden hour and it was really pretty out in the field. She said it was really romantic and somewhat out of the ordinary but she didn't really think anything of it. Then all of a sudden he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She was SHOCKED! Hunter was a little shocked too because his brother and cousin were nowhere to be seen. There had been a mix up and the cousin and brother had gone to the wrong field!! Oh well. It all worked out. Hunter and Reilly had a special private moment that was perfect for the two of them. Reilly is so happy! Hunter is so happy! And so are we!
Next up was Brynnie's Birthday!
Bryn turned 13! Our baby girl is a teenager. Isn't she the cutest 7th grader? She is smart, talented, loving, kind, thoughtful, and funny. She draws people to her and has a giant group of good friends. She is sweet and really cares about other people. She is tall! She is almost as tall as me. She now has bigger feet than me. (I am patiently waiting for her to grow out of her really cute Vans and pass them onto me!) It's been fun watching her grow into a teenager but I do sometimes miss my little Brynnie!! I tried really hard to savor all of her babyhood and childhood because she is the last of the bunch but it still went by so fast!
Bryn celebrated her birthday by doing her traditional early morning donut run. A gaggle of her friends came over to wish her a happy birthday and to celebrate her.
Bryn requested that we decorate with a blue and white theme. Her favorite color is blue. Could this portend her being a future BYU Cougar? One can only dream. Her birthday request was a trip rather than a party but she had one additional request. She wanted to drive go-karts! She didn't have to ask this family twice! We spent the day at Wonderland.
She had never driven a go-kart before and neither had I! Fun!! She took to it like a natural and I apparently drove "like a 90 year old grandma." Whatevs. Someone had to be safe on the course with all of these maniacs.
Bryn had a ball racing her family around the track. We did multiple rounds of go-karting. It really is super fun!
I survived despite my children's best efforts to kill me.
Especially this one!
We also played laser tag and black light mini-golf which became a violent game! Thanks to one person...REILLY! Apparently beserker balls don't just make appearances in croquet games. They show up at mini-golf too! Our apologies to the other patrons at Wonderland. We also played a bunch of arcade games and ate pizza. A good time was had by all.
Tyler's best photobomb yet!
It was like we were back in our old Chuck E. Cheese days all over again.
Ailey is freakishly good at The Claw! She won Bryn both of these stuffed animals and one on the very first try!
We did even more rounds of go-karting...
We really missed Kameron! We can't wait to get that kid home!! These last few months are crawling!
It was a great day with the kids! They're competitive and slightly violent but they're ours! Including "bonus boy." (Hunter's new nickname) It really is fun seeing our family grow. All the heart eyes!
Bryn requested her usual birthday dinner of shrimp tempura, salad bar, rocky road ice cream, and Texas sheet cake with her name spelled out in Cadbury Mini Eggs per her yearly request. Her only deviation in menu was that she requested virgin margaritas to drink rather than Dr. Pepper. :)
She's is the best!
Bryn's track season started. She has practice 4 days a week with meets on Thursdays. She is happy to be running again. She had her first "practice" meet at the end of April. The times/scores don't count for the first meet. It was FREEZING.
Proof!
Bryn when she saw us attempting to take a picture of her!
These were the only pictures that we got. It was too friggin cold. Track is my least favorite sport in which to be a spectator. It is either freezing, raining, or broiling hot. I have NEVER in all of my years as a track parent (which are many) ever sat on the bleachers and thought, "It feels great today!" Never. She did fine at her practice meet. She participated in three events: 800 (she got 10th), javelin (1st), shot put (5th). It was her first time ever doing shot put. Elementary city teams don't do shot put.
Kam's doing okay. Here he is modeling the Ron Jon's t-shirt that Ailey sweetly bought for him in Florida. I don't have many pictures from him this month because he got transferred to Shoreline, MN and out of the area where my new best friend Robin (the mom who sent me pictures all of the time) lives. She was super sad to see Kam go. She messaged me multiple times telling me what an incredible young man Kameron is and what an impact he has had on their family. That makes missing him a little bit easier when I hear that he is blessing the lives of other families.
This is the only other picture that I got of him. The sister missionaries introduced him to the joy of a face mask! LOL
Kameron isn't totally loving his new area. He is back in a ward and not a branch. This is another special assignment. He is in a dead area. Literally zero contacts. Both he and his companion were transferred in because the previous missionaries had taught no one. He is still a district leader and is trying to light a fire in Shoreline. The ward is a little iffy too. No real member help. The ward is warring with one another over politics and some post on FB. He said that the vibe is really weird. He's trying to be hopeful but it is not exactly where and how he would've liked to spend the last few months of his mission.
In the middle of the month everyone got sick with colds or got some kind of virus. Kameron was sick with a fever and felt crappy for several days. Ailey had a cold. Tyler got a cold. I got a stomach bug. Thankfully none of it was COVID.
We were also hit mid-month with this garbage:
At one point we had four inches. It would melt and then snow again. This has been a very cold and wet spring. Not a fan.
Ailey got back from FL and it has been full-speed ahead in every way. I forgot to post this in the Spring Break post. You know those people on YouTube who faint on rollercoasters and other scary rides? I birthed one.
This happened on multiple rides. Ailey is a girl who won't get on a Ferris Wheel but rode all the rides in FL with her friends. I am proud of her but this is also alarming. Her friends told her that she was fainting and she didn't believe them (neither did we) and then we got the proof. She would pass out for a few seconds...come to... scream...and then pass out again. Good grief!
The week after Ailey got home from FL she had Senior Skip Day, spoke in church, and had Prom. Her friend James originally asked her to Prom but his grandpa unfortunately died and the funeral was in Arizona the weekend of Prom. James gallantly offered to miss his grandpa's funeral...what?!...to still take Ailey to Prom. Ailey told him to go to Arizona! Within the hour Ailey had another Prom date. Her friend Jason asked her.
Prom prep was a bit stressful. Spokane is very *limited* in cute dress shops and how shall I put this nicely...Ailey was a bit of a prom-zilla. To further complicate matters there were those awesome "supply chain issues" and the fact that Ailey is very petite. Trying to find a formal dress that would fit a kid the size of a small 12 year old wasn't easy. Ailey and I were butting heads over the whole situation. I had been nagging Ailey to go prom dress shopping and she didn't see the rush to find a dress. Then she was out of town for a week, got sick after she got home, and then had to catch up on work/homework that she missed while in FL. Things were at a fever pitch between us when Reilly bravely offered to step in and assist. Reilly thought it would be fun to go prom dress shopping. I happily handed them my card...told them to facetime me with any prospects...and wished them well. There were multiple facetimes, lots of duds, and A LOT of tears... but there was also success! A darling prom dress was found! I loved the dress and I loved the color. It was perfect. Fun fact: My prom dress was this exact same color.
It also needed to be MAJORLY altered to fit her very petite frame and time was running out! Lucky for us Tyler was having a new suit tailored and is best buds with his alterations guy. Due to Ty's friendship with him he was able to *squeeze* Ailey's dress in or we would have been really screwed. No one else was taking in any alterations. Everyone was booked. He did a fantastic job!!
My stress continued with ordering boutonnieres and finalizing their plans. Restaurants were filling up. Floral shops were booked. Ailey was unfazed and I was a disaster. This is why all of our children's weddings must have a wedding coordinator who is not me. Prom nearly did me in. FYI-- Ailey's date had to drive quite a distance to find a florist who could make a corsage in time. Reilly came to our aid yet again with more prom prep. She did Ailey's eyelashes and helped her with her spray tan. Ailey and Maren got their nails done and found their jewelry and shoes in the nick of time. Everything got done! The day of prom all of the girls headed over to their friend, Trista's, house to get ready and all of the parents met up at the park at 5pm for pictures.
The day was rainy and cold but right before pictures the sun came out and it was beautiful! Ailey and Jason went with a big group of friends...seven couples...and they had a blast! Ailey looked gorgeous. I got a little emotional. Our little Ailey is all grown up.
There were about a 100 kids all getting their pictures taken at the park. We had fun with our friends as we took pictures of all of our kids and saw other kids and parents that we know and love in all of the different groups. It was really fun! It was also quite the production. At one point my friend Alice and I were taking pictures and I jokingly said, "Geez, my prom was not like this!!" and Alice said, "My wedding was not like this!!" LOL. Funny and true!
The kids all had such a great time! They went to dinner downtown at Twigs and then went to the dance. After that they all went back to Trista's house and watched movies and hung out. I am so glad that Ailey had such a fun time!
(While we were at the park taking pictures of Ailey; Reilly called to say that she had popped two tires and was having to get her car towed. Tyler ended up going to help her deal with her tire situation.)
I will include my favorite prom themed meme here:
That's a fact! Or to LDS weddings! LOL
The week after we got home from Seattle I had Midtown Market's Spring Open House.
Tyler helped me get my booth all Spring themed (it was a LONG set up) and then Bryn came with me the next day to refresh it. It was a great sale. It is always fun to redo my booth and to switch it up.
Then it was EASTER! This month was just on fire with one thing after another!
A Peeps meme for Reilly! She ADORES them and I think they are revolting. LOL.
This month was so crazy with Spring Break, tree damage, Bryn's birthday, and Prom so we decided to make our Easter very calm and relaxing. It actually was just what we needed. We had an AWESOME Easter and it was PEACEFUL. Imagine that? This was also the first year of no Easter baskets or dying of eggs. I'm fine with not dying eggs but I kind of miss the Easter baskets. This year Ailey and Bryn decided that they just wanted new swimsuits and their favorite Easter candy. Done. Ailey never found a swimsuit that she liked so she said to just count her prom dress. Fine. Kam basically got "an Easter Basket in a manila envelope" and I think that will be the last care package that we send to Minnesota if you can believe it?! He sent us a giant package with all of his winter stuff so that he doesn't have to keep lugging it around with him for the next few months. Only Reilly (the 25 year old) was like, "What? No Easter baskets?!!" I was like, "You are TWENTY-FIVE!!" Ha ha! Although I guess she still kind of got one in a gift bag because I had a few things for she and Hunter that Tyler and Bryn dropped off for them. We didn't hang out with them on Easter because Hunter's grandpa isn't doing well and Hunter's mom requested that the whole family be there for Easter. I get it and I was fine with it because next year we will get them and Kameron will be home too!!
They texted me their Easter picture.
Tyler had to be up super early on Easter for bishopric meeting. He and I watched the sun rise on Easter morning. It was so pretty. Then it started snowing again. Ugh. By the time we got out of church the sun was shining and the snow had melted. Thank goodness.
We still had an awesome day of friends, talking to family, talking to Kam, and eating good food!!
I made my mom's Coors ham, funeral potatoes, and deviled eggs. We also had chocolate pie, coconut cream pie, and sour cream lemon pie. It was a fantastic, relaxing, and enjoyable day!
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Bryn's admirer stopped by with Easter gifts for her too. This time he texted her and told her that he was coming by and maybe could her whole family not be watching when he dropped them off. LOL. Bryn doesn't quite know what to do with the attention from this kid but he is awfully sweet.
When we were video chatting with Kameron; Reilly and Hunter were on too, so we were actually all together for Easter! We were laughing our heads off and making memes with this picture of Tyler.
Stay tuned for Father's Day. LOL.
Later that night we all went for a walk with Beverly and enjoyed the sites and sounds of spring! Like these:
In my haste to plant bulbs in the fall I bought a couple of packets of these daffodil bulbs. I didn't read the package and when these starting coming up I realized that they were all miniature daffodils. I was like, "You've got to be kidding me!!" I planted multiple clumps of them in the front flower beds. I was so bummed but as the month has gone on they've spread out more than I thought they would and I've grown to really love them. I've even seen people stop to admire these tiny daffodils. I think there is a metaphor for life somewhere in there!
Onto the tree debacle...
The morning after we got home from Seattle; we started what I have termed Tree Hell...dealing with insurance companies, arborists, tree removal companies, and deck repair people. When we called our insurance company, Tyler was chomping at the bit to rev up his chain saw and get at that tree. They told us not to touch anything and have a tree company come out, do an inspection, and give us a quote.
Here's the top of that giant pine tree and where that *branch* fell from. Up at the very top of the tree the trunk had split into three trunks. That is apparently very bad. Who knew? It was one of those three trunks that came crashing down onto the deck.
The arborist determined that the inside of the tree was rotten/rotting. Water had seeped in between the trunks and caused the rot. The tree was inspected and deemed dangerous. We were told that the entire tree needed to come down because in another windstorm (which seem to be very common now) another trunk or the whole top could come off and hit the house. We had a second guy come and tell us the same thing. Heartbreak. We love our pine trees. When we moved here we had a giant bull pine next to our garden area, two large pine trees and a large cedar along our back fence, and two huge pine trees next to our deck... this white pine and an enormous blue spruce. When Bryn was a baby, our bull pine by the garden died due to pine beetles. We had to have it removed. Now we were told to take this one down too. Our big trees make our deck feel like we are in a tree house so we were super sad to have it removed. BUT... we were also freaked out by the amount of damage one limb did (and could have done) and the wind was still blowing. We ended up having several more wind warning/advisory days. We were able to get the tree down within 48 hours and it was a relief.
View from the living room of our trees.
View from the deck: The one on the left is the one that needed to come down.
Another view
The guy up in the tree starting to delimb it.
It's quite an interesting process to watch.
After the delimbing; they cut it into chunks, and take it down piece by piece.
I forgot to get an after picture. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. I thought it would leave a big hole/space but as you can see in the Easter pictures it still looks pretty good from the deck. The big blue spruce does look a little lonely without its partner though. It's just a tree, right? But did I shed a tear? Yep. I did.
We had our insurance company out to do their inspection. As you can imagine taking down a giant tree is very expensive. Of course the insurance company would only pay to remove the giant limb from the deck and to repair the one section of the deck. Everything else was on us. Tyler spent quite a bit of time on the phone with the insurance company in a fury. They don't care that the tree was a danger to the house. They don't care that two arborists stated that it was only a matter of time before more of the tree came down if not the whole thing. Insurance companies only care about the part that actually did come down. That's it. They don't do any *preventative.* After Tyler's raging...he eventually got them to basically split the cost with us. While better than what they initially said they would pay; it still required a giant chunk out of our pockets. Fun. That doesn't include the cost for stump grinding either. :( Tyler called some deck companies and no one can come out for weeks and they are all crazy expensive. Tyler discussed the deck situation with our neighbor Doug and Tyler's just going to do it himself and do what our neighbor did on his deck. We are going to replace the wood railing with a metal one. It is so crazy to believe that metal is cheaper than wood right now especially here in the PNW. Yay...another big unexpected project. Tyler is really missing Kameron and Kameron is really glad that he is still in Minnesota!! Kam is our resident deck repairman!! Ha ha! We had multiple windstorms, warnings, and advisories all month and on into May. We are really glad that we had the tree removed.
In cheerier and less expensive news....we attended this online event.
We are fans of the podcast...The Popcast. They have done live events in Seattle and in Portland but it has never been when we could've attended. The Popcast was doing a live event in Dallas this month and you could buy not only in-person tickets but you could also buy tickets to livestream it. I was so excited! It was really fun! We livestreamed and watched it with about 4k other people who were watching online. There was a lot of online chat throughout and I ended talking with this woman and her sister who are big fans who were also from Spokane. It turned out that we had a lot of mutual friends. So crazy. I love that more options like this are becoming available so that you can virtually *attend* all kinds of things and maybe even make some new friends! Ha ha!
Tyler went on another campout with the YM. This time they went up by Wallace, ID. Tyler hauled all of their bikes in our trailer. They are doing a huge bike ride this summer so they were training on the Trail of the Coeur d' Alenes. It was cold and rainy like all of their campouts seem to be.
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Tyler had a good time and got home pretty early so that was nice for all of us! These campouts take up our whole weekend.
While Tyler was camping...Ailey and her friend Maren were housesitting for a family in our stake and Reilly and Hunter were housesitting for her boss and watching Emerson. Bryn and I got to have some quality mother/daughter time. LOL. We went on multiple walks...at the park and with Beverly. Bryn took a bunch of pictures and we had fun identifying all of the plants and flowers.
Bryn made dinner for us and it was really nice to have some quality one-on-one time with her! Bryn is my one child who is always up to go on a walk. That is a really great quality in a person!! I'm a big let's-go-on-a-walker!
I had my annual doctor check-up. It was rather disappointing. My blood work came back a little weird...some things to keep an eye on. My blood pressure was a little high... another thing to keep an eye on. I blame this on all of the stress from last year. Because as we all know...the body keeps the score. I reported all of my rotten perimenopausal symptoms and was told that there's really nothing to do about them unless I want to go on various kinds of hormones or meds that all have terrible side effects like increasing my risk for cancer, stroke, and blood clots. Uh...no. I guess I (and everyone else around me) will have to put up with my alleged *irritability*, hot flashes, headaches, and delightful weight gain. My doctor suggested that "losing a little weight" could help with all of the above. Thanks so much. And she put in an order for my first colonoscopy now that I am turning 50. Swell.
We also did a bunch of yard work this month in between the snow storms, wind storms, and rain. During my stomach bug episode I spent a day listening to/watching the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial. Good hell. Both of them are certifiably insane. Tyler and I got caught up on Outlander and we watched season two of Bridgerton. We saw friends and did some stuff. I don't know. The month came and went so fast.
Naomi Judd, the country singer, died. That made me extremely sad. Another mom gone. I felt so bad for her daughters. This month I brought dinner to a woman whose mother-in-law died (expected) and two weeks later her mom died (unexpected). I felt terrible for her and her poor kids. Missing my mom has been at the forefront of my mind all month long. I am so sad about all of the things that she is missing and will miss. Reilly's engagement. Reilly's wedding. Ailey's prom. Ailey's upcoming graduation (The first graduation my mom won't be at.) Ugh. These are all things that Mom would've been all over and in the thick of. She would've loved nothing more than helping me plan Reilly's wedding. Thinking that Hunter will be the only spouse of any of our children who will have ever known my mom nearly did me in one day. There were just too many emotions this month...high highs and low lows. I blame perimenopause...Ailey's senior year...and the weather. April and its fickle weather was just too melancholy for me. Bring on sunshine! Bring on warm weather! Bring on Summer!
