1 Million and Vacation Month

We went on a 6 day cruise with Kevin and Tonya at the beginning of the month, and it was muy fun! We had 2 days in Cabo, 2 days at sea, and 1 day in Ensenada. This was Kevin and Tonya's first cruise, so we hoped to show them the joys of cruising. We had tons of fun and basically talked for 6 days straight, had late nights playing cards, doing excursions, eating excessive amounts of soft serve, and learned that the Pacific Ocean is cold. I don't know why that was new information, but all the days at sea were pretty chilly!

We had an all-day tour in Ensenada. We drove out to La Bufadora, walked through the crazy market to get there, did a couple of stops at notable places in Ensensada, like an old prohibition era casino and a winery. We were on a bus a lot with a tour guide that literally talked the entire time. It was impressive. Ensenada is not that exciting, but the tour guide managed to talk about it non-stop. "There's a Costco- we love American franchises!" Same.

 

Pina Colada in the crazy market- Nils asked for a refill and was granted one. 

Aw, the towel animals were so cute. 

Our first day in Cabo, we did an excursion through the cruise. The things we did were fun, but the lady who was shuttling us around was a real pill. Her name was Bernice and she was clearly very stressed out and made us feel like cattle being herded. Bernice didn't get a tip from us, no sir. 

On our second day, we did a walking taco tour that we found ourselves, and it was nice to not have Bernice there. We had so many tacos, we could hardly eat any bites by the end. 

El Arco boat ride

Chocolate melting cake, creme brulee! And they even had GF chocolate melting cake! Love them.

We showed up to Kevin and Tonya's house on the morning of our flight, and were greeted by their doggies, Brinx and Milo. It made us laugh. 

First look at the ship! 

Our last towel animal of the cruise. 

Got this amazing shirt from the taco tour. 

Kevin and Tonya taught us how to play golf with cards. 

IYKYK- this is my motto. Hookin' and cookin'. I don't know how they knew I would be in town to set this sign out for me! 

We loved our waiters, Edwin and Lilir.

We got home from our cruise, and had a week in between to recover and then we all hit Bear Lake with the kids and their grandkiddies. We had all the fun. The weather was great, the lake was beautiful, we beached, we boated, we pickle balled, went on walks, had chill time, ate a lot of shakes, played Bunco, did a 500 piece puzzle and a 1000 piece puzzle, listened to little children talk and scream and be funny. 'Twas great. 

Magnolia or "Maggie"

This kid- living his best life. Napping on a boat with a fry hanging out of his mouth. Mr. Hayes. 

Anders and Baby Jane.

We were all a bunch of puzzle freaks!

I never saw a pizza this big! 

Shakes for days! 

Lennon or "Lenny"

Aani and Ava went to FSY in St. George while we were on our cruise. They had a great time and loved it. There were a few things that tried to make it difficult to get there, but they made it. I have a friend who lives there who was kind enough to make sure they could park the car at her house, and then dropped them off and picked them up when they were done. Without her, it wouldn't have happened, so we are all very thankful to her. 

Ava had tennis camp the first week of the month, and then Aani and Ava had girls camp a couple of weeks later. It's been so busy. 

Addie has been working tons and tons at the pool, and was thrilled to have a week off to spend at Bear Lake getting paid to not work. Anders has finished up contract work, just started a new sales job, is scrambling to make the mini truck business viable- it's a lot. Prayers are always appreciated. 

And, last but not least, this milestone was achieved a couple of days ago: 

Thanks, Anders:

Boy oh boy! Subscribers are a vanity metric, but this is a pretty big milestone. Now we just gotta keep trying to make good content that subs will want to watch! 

We have a whole month where we're not traveling. Imagine that. We're hoping to get some projects done around the house and garage/shop, and regroup with strategies and workload. And then there's all the church stuff. It's fine! 

Peace out! Thanks for reading! 

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Oh hello. Welcome to the end of the weirdest and craziest month ever. We saw it coming and it didn't disappoint. Let's go in order, shall we? 

At the end of May, Nils was called as bishop of our ward, I think because he's bored and needs more to do (sarcasm font). When discussing with the stake president what day this change would happen, we realized we were going to be gone almost every Sunday in June. Long story short, it happened last week, and then we went on Trek 3 days later. Got home from Trek last night and Nils had his first full Sunday of bishop-ing today. It's 9:37 pm and he just got home. There are lots of feelings about all the things, right now it's overwhelm and feels like life couldn't be more chaotic, but also knowing it's right and good. We didn't tell anyone about it, even our kids. We mostly wanted to play a good joke on the kids and have them find out the moment he was sustained. It worked, and it was glorious. Jaws agape. Anyway... onward and upward.

At the beginning of June we went to Cancun with the fam for a ClickFunnels conference. We were asked to speak at the conference about YouTube, so that was a first for us. It was cool, but it did make the week feel very busy, since we procrastinated preparing the presentation until we were in Mexico. We had a couple of days before the conference in Playa del Carmen, and we went to Xcaret with the kiddos and spent a full day there doing all the things. We also got some legit street tacos in Playa, legit meaning all of us had tummy troubles, but they were worth it. 

It was cool to see some familiar faces once we got to the conference- we don't know many people in this crowd, but we do know a few, and we made some new friends and connections. Our presentation went well, and we got a lot of good feedback. We stayed at the Moon Palace Resort since the conference was there- it's a place that a lot of folks in our neighborhood absolutely love, so going there felt like we were joining some sort of club. It's a nice place with good food, lots to do, golf carts that transport you from place to place since it's gigantic. It was so, so hot and humid, so we just sweated like crazy anytime we were outside. Pickleball was a drip-fest.  

We returned home after 10 days in Cancun, and Nils left 8 hours later for Germany for 5 days to handle some wall printing business affairs. While he was in Germany, I dealt with a gross cold and felt sick for a few days, but I fought hard and got through it. 😆 Nils got home the following Sunday morning around 3:00 am, and got sustained at church that day. Gooooooooooood times. This last week was Trek. I already said that. 

Okay, time for pictures. 

Cancun: 

Nils climbed this greased pole by wrapping his body tightly around it and shimmying up. It makes me laugh still. His legs were bruised for a week. 

Swimming with dolphins was a highlight. 

Taking a taxi to Walmart so we could remember who we are and where we come from. Also, the kids all wanted McDonald's. 

Big shot alert! IYKYK

This guy was a legend. 

We were on the agenda! 

Iguanas everywhere. 

We had a page in the notebook!

We ate a lot of tacos! I love tacos! 

New fave picture of the kids.

Nils in Germany:

I went bowling with some family members and got to hang out with my new li'l great niece, Jane. What a cutie. 

Trek:

Unreal sunsets.

Cutest bonnet wearer ever. 

Events reviews: Cancun was a whirlwind and a fever dream. The kids had a lot of time to chill and relax, and eat whenever they wanted. It felt very busy for Nils and I, but it was a good experience overall. 

Germany was productive for Nils, Doug and Dave. They liked the food there, too. 

Trek was a cool experience. The youth were awesome and had really good attitudes and were fun to hang out with. We went to Martin's Cove and Sixth Crossing, which is where the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies were rescued. It was cool to learn more about them and understand better what happened to them. 

Okay, thanks, June. You were pure insanity.