3 weeks in!

School's out and we've survived the first 3 weeks of summer break. Phew. So, I hate the last day of school and am always in a bad mood. I don't know why- I look forward to summer and am not sad that school is ending, I just don't like that day. So, I asked my friend and neighbor Sandra to throw a party with me on the last day of school. We grilled hot dogs and had water toys, and a bunch of people came. It was a smashing success and was just what I needed. What a good pal she is. 

Addie was invited to the awards ceremony at school and was recognized by the media center. She was a library aide and loved it. That Addie!

We managed to get about 8 boys from the neighborhood to come help us in our yard one Saturday. In 2 1/2 hours they got a lot done! Totally worth the money. Love us some child labor.

Aani and Ava earned snow cones by doing some jobs around the house. That other kid is Ava's bestie Brinley.

I took the kids to lunch one day, and they were all walking together and it was a nice moment, but I missed the shot. It was like this, but cuter.

Summer nights are my favorite. I LOOOOVE them. And I LOOOOOVE him.↡

Dance party to Don't Stop Believin' with cousins at midnight in their cul-de-sac. Their neighbors hate us. Sometimes you can't help the spontaneous dance parties!

We went to the Saratoga Springs parade for the first time ever so we could see our boy! He and Isaac, his friend since age 4, get to march together this year. Fun stuff.

Aani turned 11 this week! What in the world? We partied all day. Cocoa Krispies for breakfast, McDonald's for lunch, presents, trampoline park for our fun outing, and Panda for dinner. Man oh man!

She wanted to light her candles with the lighter, so Nils was trying to teach her to use it. Right as she went to light it, there was a huge, scary buzzing boom, and the power went out. We ran outside to see what was happening, and the field was on fire once again. A transformer blew up and started this fire. A few of the neighbors were outside when it happened and were on it right away. They put it out before the fire department even arrived. It was all very exciting. We're survivors out here in the west desert. 😎

After everything calmed down and the power was back on, we lit her candles and had cake. I found the Peppa Pig decor at Walmart for about $2.00, so we all had a good old laugh about it.

Aani and Ava got their hair chopped yesterday in MomSalon. Their hair was so long, which they liked, but both have struggled with brushing it adequately because they can't reach the end. A nice chop will last for a while. Yay for brushed hair! 

We're off for the next week to RARARA in Port Townsend, Washington. Should be some real good times. See ya's.

All the things

Time flyeth! Summer vacation is a mere 2 days away. Everyone is ready, but holy moly, this year flew by. Summer will include Youth Conference, RARARA family reunion, Girls Camp, High Adventure, Day Camps, Aani's birthday, the commencement of Marching Band taking over Anders' life, and hopefully some stuff in between. It should be rockin'. 

Here's what's gone down this last month:

Dreams fulfilled. They made $18 and were just thrilled by the whole experience. 

When this arrived in the mail, Ava said, "Mom, you should take a picture of me in this sweet hoodie and send it to Dad." 😊

Tumbling show off day. She tells everyone that she's "taking a break for the summer". 

Addie and her friend Lina being weirdos. I don't even know. 

I made these gluten free CCC's, and they were SO GOOD. Thank you, food technology people, who make GF flours that don't taste/feel like sand.  

Hope of America. 3 down, 1 to go! It wasn't so bad this time. We arranged with lots of neighbors with 5th graders to meet and sit together, so that made it more fun. 

Aani!

Anders at his final Jazz Band/Wind Symphony concert at Vista Heights. On to Westlake next year!

Aani and Addie's orchestra concert. I'm pretty sure this picture was taken on accident, hence the crookedness, but ya know. 

Addie's BFF, Ella, has scoliosis, and had a rod fused to her spine last week! Eeeek!! We paid a visit, and naturally, everyone had to wear barf bag hats. 

Yup. 

When you have all the callings. Nils was called as EQP, and was swiftly released from High Council and Webelos. We just had to document the 3 calling situation. I'm pretty sure my time in the primary presidency is coming to a close, as my PP is moving to Hawaii in the next month. We often muse about how church rules our lives. All church all the time. What would we even do with ourselves without church? Probably drink. 😉

Anders wanted a portrait with his beloved Pip. #worstdogever

My handsome fellas.😍

We gave our moms these Yeti tumblers for Mother's Day. Nils gave me one for Christmas, and I love it, so we wanted to spread the love.

Toiling on the hill continues. We're getting there, but digging these trenches by hand was kinda tiring. We WILL have our yard done this summer. So thankful for a husband who will get out there and get stuff done. We like working together. It makes us love each other more, even when it's digging trenches and shoveling rocks. It's weird but true. 

Wish us luck as we embark on another crazy summer!

Slow Down, Life.

Well, this has been a busy, crazy month. Every month is busy and crazy nowadays, it seems! 

To start things off, Spring Break was the first week of April. 3 of Nils' siblings and their families came to town to spend time together; specifically to spend time with Par and Jenny (Nils' parents). Par was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in January. Suffice it to say, this is terrible news. He has an amazing attitude about it, of course, and he, Jenny, and the rest of the family are doing everything possible to make the most of the time we have left with him. So, we partied hard for about a week together.

As luck would have it, Nils came down with the flu on Easter and was sick in bed for the entire week that his family was visiting. It was pretty lousy for him, but the rest of us had fun. He started feeling better the day before everyone left. :(

First there was Easter and an egg hunt:

Par n' Pip

Parker the crack up

Pip the dog

Aani and Rubi

Tiago

Ava and Saada

Thrilled Anders

A tour of Sweet's Candy Factory, and Parker cracking us up once again.

Eating popcorn with chopsticks....because you can!

 Cousins twinning (Xan and Anders)

Crazy pictures taken under the trampoline. The pit is so fun?

York decided to do our backsplash one morning. Randy showed up to help. We could use these guys around more often! :) We LOVE it.

Bottom: Nils, Grove, York. Top: Saren, Par, Jenny. Missing Shiloh and Harmony, but they both came to visit in March. It's been so fun seeing everyone. 

With spouses. Randy, Andrea, me and Luly.

We have a family reunion in June and will see everyone once again, so that will be spectacular.

I took Aani and Ava to the nickel arcade, because the older kids are too cool and busy to spend time with me now.

In other news: 

We got our trampoline back-filled and put up. What a friggin' ordeal! Aaaand, now we have to finish the yard, which makes me feel sad inside. Putting in the rock wall and trampoline did a fine job of tearing up much of our yard. Where are the magic forest animals that do this for you? 

In preparation for house guests for 8 days (while Nils' family was here), we realized that we needed to finish the bathroom in the basement, otherwise 13 people would be sharing one bathroom upstairs. Oh man, it was bananas getting that thing done. We bought 3 vanities before we found one that worked, took 8 million trips to Home Depot, spent 1.5 times what we thought we would, and finished it about 10 minutes before York and Luly & fam arrived, no exaggeration. Start to finish, it took less than 3 weeks, but the vast majority of the work was done in the 5 days before they came. In hindsight, we should have just had the handy brothers and brother-in-law help us while they were here. Haha.

 It's really nice having a bathroom downstairs! All the labor and stress was worth it after all.

Anders got his learner's permit. My mom has been letting him drive her car since he was like 13, so it's fine...kinda. Still scary. He has much to learn.

After way too long, the boy finally got his braces off. Good heavens, that took forever. Over 2.5 years for phase 2. He had them on for like a year and a half in phase 1. I'm so over the monthly visits to the orthodontist. I finally just told them to take them off, because I'm pretty sure the orthodontist would have left them on for eternity. Every month for the last 9 months he would say, "Well, your teeth are straight as heck, but your bite is a little off on one side." Then they would tell Anders to wear this crazy, convoluted rubber band arrangement in his mouth that made it impossible to eat or talk, so he never wore them. Ugh. It's over. It's fine.

Celebratory lunch at Costa Vida. Gluten free, baby! (Minus the flour tortillas)

We celebrated 18 years of wedded bliss this last weekend with a trip to Park City. Nils found this cute little studio room at Deer Valley. My mom was kind enough to watch the kiddos. We had a grand time.

In addition to dinner and some shopping, we found a blood pressure machine at the Walmart in Park City. If this is what we do on or anniversary get aways now, I can't wait to see what we do in 20 years!

We made a nice little breakfast. Gluten free, of course. 

Took a little hike so Nils could fly his drone. It was snowy and muddy, so we didn't get too far.

We decided to buy Nils a new car. Does everyone get this excited about used Honda Accords? You get to see the car and Nils' bare midriff! The old Accord is the perfect teenager car, so keep it we shall.

LRN2DIY swag in the mail today! Pretty fun to have the logo on there and everything. The YouTube channel groweth.

Hey look, Nils took a picture of me teaching Sharing Time. I feel like Oprah with that microphone, but we gotsta have it in there!

One more month until school is out, and then we have another busy summer to look forward to. This phase of life is not calm, no sir.