April 2024

April was birthday month for Bryn! It's hard to believe that baby Brynnie is now 15! But she sure is! Before we get to her birthday celebrations it was General Conference. We got home from Southern Idaho and it was Conference. We also had some stinking snow the first week of April. Be gone I say!

Kameron and Erin attended conference in person with some of Kameron's roommates. 

It's so crazy to see the SLC Temple under construction behind them. I'm glad the spires are back on! 

My two favs!

There were so many talks on temples and covenants. Nearly every single one. I was so happy to see that Elder Holland was back. I was also excited to see President Nelson and... Elder Anderson... and President Uchtdorf... both of whom I saw in real life in the last little while. It was fun to have live comments from the kids on our family chat. President Nelson was there in person the session that Kameron and Erin were at but he didn't speak. They were happy to see him though! It was a cold and rainy conference weekend for us. Perfect for snuggling up, eating good food, and watching.

Pugs for Jesus!

The day after General Conference was the solar eclipse. It was cloudy and gloomy. So basically a normal day in Spokane. We were nowhere near totality and we saw nothing. While the eclipse was happening actually I was getting my yearly mammogram. That was about as thrilling as it got here. I am happy to report that my mammogram was normal!

Then it WAS Bryn's birthday!! And...the sun finally came out!

She requested Taco Bell for lunch and I brought it to her at school.

Reilly and Karson picked Bryn up after track and treated her to Starbucks. Then they came over to hang out for awhile. Is there a better way to celebrate your birthday than with loves and kisses from Karson?! Nope.

Bryn wanted to go to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant so we did and we feasted! Wow! So good!

Our favorite mango black sticky rice! Heaven.

We made her blow out a candle on her actual birthday. We put it in one of her birthday donuts. LOL.

But the celebrations didn't stop...

That weekend she and her besties had a "downtown" birthday that she loves and saw a movie too. They had a great time and we did too!

Sunday evening she had her family birthday dinner and Reilly, Hunter, and Karson came over to help her celebrate. 

Bryn requested my sister-in-law, Meki's, homemade mac and cheese which is divine. She also wanted salad bar and Dr. Pepper to drink. Her cake was a large Lemon Nothing Bundt Cake. 

She had a good birthday with three full days of celebrating!!

But the birthdays didn't stop here...

Luke turned 21!

It was my friend Shannon's birthday too and our group of friends went out for sushi and actually remembered to take a picture! Woohoo!

We went to a lot of track meets and most were very cold! We took a lot of video! Bryn had some great PRs this month! She is also singing with a stake youth choir next month for the anniversary of Expo '72. She had a couple practices for that this month too.

Bryn continued to do her practicum at her elementary school in her little kindergarten class this month. Those kids love her, cling to her, and call her Miss Brynnie. It makes her week! One of Bryn's high school teachers has a daughter in that kindergarten class and she pulled Bryn aside in the hallway to tell her that every Thursday morning at breakfast all her daughter can talk about is that Miss Brynnie is coming to school that day. So incredibly sweet and meant it so much to Bryn.

Bryn decided that she wants to lifeguard this summer. She and several of her friends signed up for the training. It is expensive and quite the process. Before she could even start the in-person training she had to do an online class and pass the online exam which she did. 

One night I went with the youth and Bryn to the temple. I am so glad I did! I almost didn't. Tyler had a work thing that night and I was all prepared to order food for myself and enjoy a good book. But the youth needed extra adults and so I said that I would go. When Bryn was getting her jumpsuit for baptisms; one of the temple workers pulled us aside and said to keep our eyes open tonight because we might get a special surprise. We were like "Huh?" The youth did their baptisms and nothing happened but then as they were sitting on the benches waiting to be confirmed in walked an APOSTLE! Elder Gerrit W. Gong along with his wife and Elder Adeyinka A. Ojediran. They were in town to do are reginal training meeting in Coeur d' Alene and were touring our little temple! Our youth's mouths dropped open in amazement along with all of the adults. They came around and chatted with each of the youth and the adults personally and shook all of our hands. Then as we were leaving we saw them again and they stopped and spoke personally to everyone again. This was such a cool experience! It was momentous for Bryn (and me!) Her 2nd apostle sighting in a year and my third?! What in the world?! I've gone my whole life seeing none of them in person! Now three! Especially cool for two of our youth who were at the temple for the very first time! Such an amazing evening!

Spring semester started at BYU-I and both Kameron and Ailey moved into new apartments. Ailey was super sad because Luke left Rexburg to work in CA doing summer sales. 

He's official in his summer sales uniform! LOL.

Ailey and her friend Ellie moved into a different apartment complex and feel like they got scammed. They were shown and promised an apartment in the new side and ended up with an apartment in the old side. When they complained they were told that current residents got priority. Lame. I really liked her old apartment complex and it's too bad that she just didn't stay there. Oh well.

Luke was gone for about a week when he surprised Ailey by driving up. She was shopping at the Target in Idaho Falls and was talking to him on the phone. When she came out to her car he was parked right next to her. So sweet!!

Ailey also earned some extra money dog sitting for her supervisor at work. She brought the dog over to Kameron's apartment too. Everyone needs some comfort animal snuggles in their lives. 

The brakes were going out on the Camry so Kameron and his roommate Jackson came over and replaced them for Ailey. He is a good big bro! (and son!)

It was an exciting month for Kameron. He moved back into his old apartment complex for Spring semester. Then he and Erin drove to Utah several times. Once for conference and then they drove to St. George mid-month to attend a milestone birthday party for her grandpa. I think it was his 80th?? Erin's family all came for the big event. Kameron was in the thick of a big Utah family gathering...meeting aunts, uncles, and cousins. He was helping set up and greet people as they came in. He also got to finally meet Erin's dad. A little daunting. Kameron really enjoyed the whole experience and meeting all of Erin's family on her dad's side. Once they got back from St. George...Kam and Erin went ring shopping and a stunningly beautiful ring was purchased!! Exciting times ahead!! Kameron and Erin have been hanging out with Ailey quite a bit which has been really nice since she's been pretty morose since Luke left.

Erin's brother and sister-in-law had their second baby and so Kameron and Erin were helping out with Erin's niece. She and Karson were born on the same day and Karson is like three times her size! Ha ha! They had Ailey come over and hang out with them and she got to play with Erin's niece too. She had a great time!

We've gotten to see quite a bit of Reilly, Hunter, and Karson this month. We babysat Karson one night while Reilly and Hunter went on their first date night since Karson was born! They had tickets for the Cody Johnson concert. Karson did great! He didn't bat an eye when they left. No tears were shed. He just walked right over to the armoire that we keep his toys in and started dragging them out. LOL!

We had so much fun with him while he was here. We took him on a walk with Beverly. We played and played with him. He REALLY enjoyed playing the piano! Ha ha!

He's also tall enough to peek over the couch now! Ha ha! 

He wore Aunt Bryn out who fell asleep on the floor amongst all Karson's toys...unfortunately at one point Karson had Tyler's iPhone in his hand and dropped it on Bryn's face while she was asleep and split her eye open. That added some extra excitement to the night. Yikes! 

Reilly and Hunter did fine too. I sent them regular updates on Karson and they had a great time at the concert. They came over after the concert and chatted until about 1am. I'm glad they were able to go on a date and take a little time to enjoy themselves! Date nights are important! Also...a few days later Karson had his mom's phone and called Lovey again and this time he was babbling away. I love it!

Tyler hit an awesome milestone at work. He is now an official Trailblazer. That means he has been with his company for 20 years. He was very excited about this and got to attend a very fancy dinner and banquet at the Davenport Hotel. He was supposed to get me pictures from this (spouses were not invited...rude) but I'm still waiting...

Tyler also had his endocrinology appointment. His A1C is still around 8...frustrating...after having it so low over the summer. He's also been going to the temple regularly and will go early in the morning. He is enjoying it. He and I were both busy with ward conferences this month. Lucky for us we got to over lap for one of them!

Tyler's mom cancelled her big 80th birthday party that was planned for the end of June and she also cancelled her move to Sagewood at Daybreak which is a retirement community in South Jordan. Tyler's sister, Lori, who moved back to Utah last fall has decided that she doesn't want to deal with Utah winters anymore and is looking to move to either Florida or Tennessee and is planning to take Judie with her. WHAT?! Will wonders never cease?! They are gearing up for a Golden Girls adventure!!

Bryn and I had a little Mother/Daughter date around all of her hanging out with her friends and track to do a little shopping. She wanted a shopping spree for her main birthday present from us. I was happy to oblige! We had a great time!

The owners of Midtown Market took vendor pictures one night so we headed to CDA for the event:

We also won Best Antique Store for 2023.

Midtown Market also had it's Spring Open House right after this and it was a great event for me and for the store.

The next week our friends, Jennifer and Nathan, were hosted their vintage show Funky Junk in Sandpoint, Idaho. Tyler, Bryn, and I drove up to support them. That show was always so much fun!

We love Jennifer! I wish we would've gotten Nathan in the picture too!

We also got to see some other dear friends of ours... Jennifer and Kathy...missing from the picture were both of their husbands...Jamie and Eric. It was so fun to see everyone!

We had such a fun time visiting with good friends and shopping in beautiful Sandpoint, Idaho!

I had a dental appointment this month too. To my children's great chagrin I had zero cavities. I've only had two cavities in my life and I got them in my 30s and have gone another 20 years without a single one. Do I like to gloat about this to them in our family chat? Yes, I do! I also had a consult about getting new retainers. Mine have been long gone for about 30 years and my bottom teeth are starting to shift a bit. Annoying.

I also finally finished my Storyworth project, sent it off, and got it back. That sucker was hanging over my head and filling me with guilt. My brother and sister-in-law gave me the subscription for my birthday 2 years ago. I had to finish it. 101 dull details and stories of my life. LOL. I got it back and it now sits on a shelf. Tyler, Bryn, and Reilly briefly flipped through it and set it back on the shelf. The kids will read the blog because it's all about them but this was all about me so...snooze. 

Riveting reading n'est pas? 

Tyler and I did a temple session together at the end of the month. Can you tell that one of our couple goals for 2024 was to go to the temple more. We've never gone so much in our lives! LOL. To celebrate our diligence we went out for sushi. Our neighborhood sushi place has been closed for remodeling for over six months. It finally opened up again and it is fabulous with LARGE booths. Finally!

What else? A good month of socializing and all kinds of things going on. Book Club was at Summer's house this month which is always fun! Tyler and I were at the gym pretty regularly in addition to our daily walks. We watched a few things this month...A Gentleman in Moscow. We both read the book so it was fun to watch the the show. We decompressed with more episodes of All Creatures Great and Small. We love it! Our next door neighbors painted their house a hideous shade of green. For the first time I wished we lived in an HOA. What are people thinking?!

We also had sunsets like this! (No filter.) All in all, April was a pretty great month and a definite improvement over March! ;)

Spring Break 2024

How exciting can Spring Break in Rexburg, Idaho possibly be? Pretty exciting if you are hanging out with this crew! Tyler and I left Spokane at 4:30 am the day after Easter and headed for Southern Idaho. Bryn's sports schedule did not allow her to come with us. Sigh. It's nice having Reilly close by for things like this.

We stopped for breakfast in Missoula and made it to Rexburg around 1pm. We were able to check into our hotel early which was wonderful! We dropped off our stuff and went over to Ailey's apartment as soon as she got out of class. We got the tour of her new apartment. It was really cute. Unfortunately they don't have any contracts for Spring semester so she and her roomie Ellie will be moving yet again. After that we needed to do a little shopping for Ailey. She needed a temple bag and we found her the cutest ruby red bag. It is darling! We got her all organized and packed her bag for her trip to the temple the next day. Then it was back to her apartment for a bit to see Ellie and to meet her other roommates.

Kameron had class all day and then had to work that afternoon/evening so Tyler and I went to dinner at the Hickory with Ailey. I think it is my favorite Rexburg restaurant. It was really good! It was nice to have to some time alone with her before we met up with Kameron and then met all of the significant others aka Erin and Luke! Of course we didn't want to wait until Kam's shift ended so we went to the ol' Walmart and played "Where's Waldo?" Ailey, Tyler, and I all went separate directions in search of our boy. My motherly instincts won out. He was in the gardening section and NOT surprised to see us. LOL. He was like "I knew you couldn't help yourself!" So true! 

It was also in the Walmart gardening section where Kam dropped the bomb... although a good bomb...that not only was he excited for us to *meet* Erin...but he has also decided that he wants to marry her. I was like..."Didn't you want to know if we even liked her before you got that serious?!" And with a quirk of his eyebrow... he told me "NOPE!" But he did assure us that we would like her. Kam does have good taste in girlfriends so we weren't too worried.

After dinner we went back to Ailey's apartment. Her boyfriend Luke had stopped by while we were gone. On her bed were gifts from him to US?! What the heck? He left us a giant box of Crumbl cookies, a bouquet of roses, our favorite redbulls, and a note that said, "Welcome to Rexburg Mr. and Mrs. Johnson!"  So sweet! Ailey went to go grab Luke and Tyler and I went back to our hotel to await the arrival of all our people. We couldn't wait to meet the kids that our kids were dating! 

I knew that we would really like both Erin and Luke and we sure did! We've facetimed with both of them a few times and we knew that they were fun and good for our kids. They were even better than we could have imagined!! The kids all came over and hung out in our hotel room until around1am. It was so fun!! I had some Easter surprises for all of them. They are such great kids. Tyler and I were so impressed. Hooray!

The next day was Ailey's big day at the temple. This stands out as one of the most perfect days that Tyler and I have ever had. It was an AMAZING day for sure! Incredible and unforgettable. The sun came out and it was a gorgeous! Ailey came over to our hotel that morning and had breakfast with Tyler while I got ready. Then she left to pick up Luke and we all met up at the temple. We were all so excited for Ailey. This moment was extra special because about 10 years ago we were on Spring Break in Utah and we stopped in Rexburg to see the new temple. We all got out and walked around the grounds. Ailey and Bryn were peeking in the doors and I took a picture of them. How serendipitous that this would be the temple where Ailey would receive her endowment. Very cool! 

The Rexburg Temple is very beautiful! We are used to the small Spokane Temple so it seemed enormous. Ailey and I were greeted so warmly and lovingly and she was able to go to the office of the temple president and we were able to talk with him while he got her paperwork ready. He told her that she was the "Queen of the Temple" and that he wanted today to be very special for her. Then we got our sweet temple escort who took us into the dressing room and then Ailey did her initiatory work. After that we were ushered into the Brides Room which was stunningly beautiful with gorgeous morning light streaming through the windows. There it was explained to Ailey all about the covenants that she would be making and she could ask any questions and discuss any concerns that she had about the temple. Then it was time for our session. Our cute little escort got the Johnson Party...we had a group with us! FINALLY! I love it! It was so fun to see Tyler, Kameron, Luke, and Erin come in. The whole experience was so special and unforgettable. Tyler and I had some very special spiritual experiences while in the temple with these kids. Life changing experiences. Being in the celestial room with all of them and Tyler too was the height of happiness. But one of my favorite memories from that day was of all of us leaving the celestial room. We were walking out and going downstairs to the dressing rooms. Ailey and Luke were in the front of our group holding hands and walking down the hall and down the stairs, followed right behind by Kameron and Erin holding hands and walking down the hall and stairs, and then right behind them it was Tyler and I holding hands and doing the same thing. It was such a special moment. I looked at Tyler and he looked at me and we knew that if this group was meant to be we were all for it. We could see these two new people as part of our family. We had such peace about these couples, their futures, and our growing family.

We are very proud of the decisions that Ailey is making and it is fun watching her mature and make her way in the world.

After the temple we grabbed some lunch at Millhouse and talked about some of our experiences.

Then we all changed out of our church clothes and headed to Idaho Falls. The weather was sunny and warm. It was a picture perfect day!

Luke had just purchased his first car so we took the obligatory 1st car picture. LOL.

We rented electric scooters and rode all over the place. It was so much fun!!

We also did a little shopping and then grabbed dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

Then it was back to our hotel room for a hilarious game night. Erin surprised us with a box of my favorite Country Time Lemonade in a can that we can't get in Washington and chocolate covered cinnamon bears for Tyler that we also can't get in Spokane. The kids that our kids are dating are so sweet and incredibly thoughtful! Our intense, hysterical, and extremely competitive game night showed Luke and Erin who the Johnsons *really* are and it showed us that Luke and Erin fit right in!! Ha ha! It was another late night and we were sad to say goodbye to Kameron, Erin, and Luke. 

The next morning we slept in a bit and then Ailey came over and we went to breakfast at Kneaders. I have to get my raspberry bread pudding fix. I love that stuff! My mom did too and anytime we were near a Kneaders we would eat one and get one to go. Ha ha!

We also got sandwiches and food to put in the cooler for the ride home so that we didn't have to stop. We also brought Bryn home her favorite eclairs. I love that Ailey likes to squeeze in every possible minute with us before we go. She's always lot of fun!! We did a little shopping and then stopped in at her work so that she could show us around. Then it was time to head back to Spokane. It wasn't quite as sad driving away this time and leaving the kids in Southern Idaho...especially as we knew that they were both doing well, were happy, and dating really wonderful people. It definitely helped! We left Rexburg around 1:30 pm and got to Spokane around 7:30 pm so not too bad. When we got home Bryn and her friend Kalli had just made a fresh batch of hot chocolate chip cookies for us! Great timing! It was a quick trip but it was perfection.

It was nice that when we got home we still had a few days of Spring Break and then that weekend it was General Conference. I loved that Easter and General Conference weekends bookended our special Spring Break trip! It was amazing!