Oh man, what a month! We had Easter, General Conference, a trip to Arizona, orchestra concerts, Covid shots, prom, our anniversary, senior pictures, and lots of normal life.
Spring Break in Arizona:We had never really been to Arizona, besides Lake Powell/Page one time, the Grand Canyon once, and the corner of Arizona on the way to Vegas a million times. But, we had never navigated the state, which is crazy, considering how many road trips we've done and that Arizona is our neighbor. So we decided to check it out, and it was great! (Anders did not go with us, he had a trip planned with friends.)
Not to brag or anything, but our girls are pretty wonderful. They get along with each other, they love each other, they look out for each other. They never complained on this trip- and we drove tons. They just handled it and had a good time wherever we went.
I really wanted to see the Saguaro cacti, which was my main motivation for wanting to go to Arizona in the first place, and that resulted in a grand tour of the state, basically.
We stayed in Flagstaff for 2 nights. Flagstaff is a cool town in the mountains. Who knew? It kind of feels like you're at summer camp with all those trees! We hit up Grand Canyon, which the girls didn't seem overly impressed by. I mean, it's the Grand Canyon, but I think nature isn't that cool when you're a kid, and we live in Utah and have lots of awe-inspiring vistas often, so they're spoiled. I think it would be fun to go to the North Rim next time- less crowded and a different perspective.
From Flagstaff, we stopped for a few hours in Sedona. It is so beautiful there! The girls loved Sedona, with its charming shops. There was a man in the plaza there with a bunch or reptiles and rodents that he was letting anyone hold and play with, so that was pretty fun for them. Sedona is definitely a destination of its own, so we'll have to put that on our list.
We stayed in Phoenix for the next two nights. We had a good time staying downtown in a fun hotel, and got to go to an aquarium, had a fun dinner out at The Old Spaghetti Factory, and went to the Phoenix Art Museum.
We headed down to Tucson the next day so we could go to Saguaro National Park and see all of the giant cacti. We were only able to be there for a couple of hours before it got dark, but we wanted to be there for sunset. It was really fun. We had a great time with all of those crazy cacti- they're so weird. They are super old. They only start to grow their arms when they're 75 years old. Bananas! How can you not love them? We loved the forest of Saguaros.
Arizona was a win.
Anders:
Oh Anders, what will you do with your life? No one knows. Currently, he is graduating from Westlake High School in one month, as well as graduating from Mountainland Technical College from the web development program. He will do a 6 week externship as part of the web development course, and then receive his certificate.
This kid has the potential to do literally anything he wants to. He's quite bright, but is much less concerned with that than he is with having fun 24/7. Fun is #1 for him, which is fine, but he's gotta start making some decisions here pretty soon. He has at least 18 credits done at UVU, so that seems like an obvious choice, but he's not convinced. He's very wishy-washy on a mission right now, so we're trying to tread lightly and encourage him when we have opportunities to. We'll see. A crystal ball would be nice sometimes.
All that said, he's a great kid, he's lots of fun to be around, and he has a bright future, whatever that turns out to be.
Also, I would just like to document this: Most nights he works late- sometimes he gets home after 11:00, or close to midnight. Whenever he gets home, he comes into our room to say hi, and wants to chat. So...hopefully in spite of our frustrations, he loves us and knows we love him, too, and values our relationship with him, and maybe even values our input?
Prom happened. I think it was more about him and the boys than it was about the boys and their dates, but hopefully the girls had fun, too, haha. He's got a great group of friends, and is so sad at the thought of them going their separate ways eventually. Also, Nils was kind enough to travel to Provo to take these pictures for all of them.
Senior pictures
His brain is so big because of all the knowledge in there...
Normal Life:
How can I resist him? I can't.
Addie's orchestra concert
Mean mommy made my big kids get their Covid shots, but then I took them to McDonald's so it's okay.
The girls think it's hilarious to get in our bed when it's time for Come Follow Me. Nils had fun torturing them with whatever was on these gloves.
Addie is learning to drive, and it's terrifying. Teaching kids to drive has got to be one of the worst parenting responsibilities there is.
Just Aani dreaming about how much she loves lasagna.
The bizness keeps plugging along. We have a few sponsored videos coming up, and got an awesome opportunity to work with DAP (of putty and caulking fame) on a couple of videos, which is pretty amazing. Things are A-OK, and we're still paying ye olde mortgage and everything.
Also, check out my gluten-free blog! I only have 2 posts because I'm still learning how to take pictures of food, but it's a work in progress.
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