August

I did a special "Back to School" dinner focused on the scripture in Mosiah 11; 28-30

Come all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I shall give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.

Collin had two weeks of summer after the other 3 went back to school so he was still home on this day. I had a lot I needed to get done. I was going to go to the gym, then straight to the store to get all the supplies and knew it would take me all day to prepare for the night. As I was pulling out of the driveway to go to the gym, I had the strongest impression to not go. I felt like I was supposed to ask Collin if he wanted to help me. I resisted for a minute because I hate missing the gym and I didn't think Collin would want to spend time with me anyway, but I listened and walked back in the house. Collin looked up from the TV and asked why I was back so soon. I told him my plan for the night and asked if he wanted to go to the store to help me. I was surprised when he pleasantly agreed. So off we went together and it seriously turned out to be the BEST DAY. We had so much fun at the store and I asked his opinion on things and he helped so much. It took us a couple hours. Then back at home, he helped me set up the table and make the caramel apples. Then I had an impression to have him help me pick the scripture. I told him my plan to have a family scripture for the year and asked him if he'd read this one conference talk about how God helps us and see if he could find a good scripture that would apply. So he read it and came up with Mosiah 11. It was perfect!! I loved that he was the one to pick it. I really can't describe how wonderful the day turned out with him. I'm so glad I listened to the Spirit. It felt so good to be working together on something and spend quality time together. 

He drew the apple and chalkboard. I thought it was so good!

Then, I heard about the idea to have a Jesus box from a girl in Shelley's stake. I loved the concept. I created a box with pictures of Jesus all over it and a slot in the top. I explained to the kids that whenever they were dealing with something and they needed help, to write it down on a slip of paper and put it in the Jesus box. There is no way to open it for someone to peek at the papers so you can be anonymous. I love a physical representation of how we can use Christ's atonement. If you're struggling, you're sad about something, you feel helpless in any way.... give it to Jesus. His enabling power and mercy is there for us. We speak of turning to Him and this is a physical way we can do just that!

It's finally Collin's turn for first day of school pictures! He's so handsome I can't handle it!! A big HIGH SCHOOLER now! He's in 9th grade, still at ALA 

They survived! This is Carson Meachum a couple doors down.

Birthday lunch for me and Shelley with the high school gang at a new restaurant in downtown Gilbert called Prep and Pastry.

Camilla told me she needed a full day for our birthday date. She said to wear exercise clothes but bring something nicer to change into for later. She is queen of surprises. The whole car was decorated and there was a huge tub of Trader Joes snacks for the car ride! I didn't know where we were going or what we were going to do but we headed north. We can always talk nonstop so the car ride was 1/2 the fun! I started to figure out that we were headed to Sedona. Her plan was to start with a hike, but it didn't really end up working out. The shuttles to the trailheads weren't running on schedule because I guess it's off season and so we only had a little bit of time before we needed to be at the next activity. So we sort of lamely walked along a trail near the parking lot for a while then grabbed lunch at Wildflower. 

As she was driving and I saw signs for "airport", I could feel my eyes getting wider and wider. Then we pulled in and it was confirmed.

What. on. earth.

We were going on a helicopter tour of Sedona!!!

I seriously could not believe it. I have never been on a helicopter before. We parked and walked into the trailer office and I didn't even have to sign anything. They weighed us and told us it would just be a few minutes. That's when I ducked into the bathroom in a growing panic attack and text Travis what was happening. I told him, in complete seriousness, that he had been a wonderful husband. The best. And to please marry someone who would be good to our kids. I wasn't even kidding. I was 73% sure I was going to die in this helicopter. Then I emerged and tried to act like I was so excited and not at all terrified of a fiery demise. 

There was another couple with us in the back but we got the front seats! How was this happening?! I felt like I was on an episode of the Bachelor. I have the most extravagant friends! Sweet Camilla never anticipated that I would be next level stressed about this surprise. We are alike in a lot of ways but anxiousness is not one of them. I started to gather that our pilot was an old pro and had been doing this for decades. That helped. As we lifted up, I thought I was going to pass out. I tried so hard to focus on the beauty and not the terror. After about 5 minutes, my stomach headed back down out of my throat. And I dare say I even enjoyed the second half of the experience! 

Then we headed back to the valley and changed for dinner at The Mission. Upscale Mexican in Scottsdale. Eating with Camilla is just a tad uncomfortable because she eats about 2 tablespoons of food. I feel like a sumo wrestler with her. It's fine it's fine.

For the final part of the date we headed to Chandler in a sort of industrial area. Then it dawned on me... this was where we had done a trapeze class with the girls in Allen Ranch ward years ago! I'm always thrilled when my poor memory has a good moment ;)

So, this turned out to be an acrobatics show gone bad. Very very bad.  I think Camilla bought tickets thinking it would be cool but she was wrong. It was kind of like when little kids set up the living room with forts and jump around doing tricks on the couch and want you to watch their show except these were young adults. Not good enough for Cirque de sole or even the county fair but rented space and essentially gathered a room full of parents to watch their middle school level talent. After about 30 minutes of trying to give it a chance, we couldn't help ourselves and spent the rest of the time cracking jokes in each others ears. To be fair, there were a couple acts that were pretty cool. But then the men in sparkly red headbands and tails came out and we just lost it all over again. I just don't know any self respecting adults who dress up like troll dolls and spin hoops on their legs and are well adjusted. We will probably go to hell for making fun of them but the car ride home we laughed so hard I was doubled over. Hopefully, they keep their day jobs. 

Jael took Lucy to Switzerland so Christopher came down with the boys to stay at mom and dads. We had an adults only dinner one night that was fun.

I was in the middle of a presidency meeting one Sunday when I got a text from Megan asking if I wanted to go to a Taylor Swift concert with her. 

Um, HECK YES, I do!!!

Taylor Swift has been doing her Eras tour and I'm just not hip enough to know when things like this are happening so I missed my chance to buy tickets when they first went on sale. She hasn't done a concert for years and has put out many albums since the last one, so this concert is a compilation of all those albums. When I say it is all the rage, I mean, truly. It is breaking every record. It is the highest grossing tour of all time, making more than 1 billion dollars. And everyone I know who has gone has loved it. Megan was asking if I wanted to go to her last concert in the U.S. that was happening in Los Angeles that Wednesday, August 9. The tickets were stupid expensive. But this was our last chance. 

She drove in Tuesday night and stayed the night at our house so we could leave first thing Wednesday morning after I got the kids on the bus. I drove us straight there with no stops and we pulled into our hotel with a couple hours to spare so we could get ready. We got an Uber to the stadium which was just a few miles away and just the change in weather was making me so happy! I know it's so fun for people to hate on Taylor Swift but I have to say, I have been to my fair share of concerts and never have I been around so many nice people! I swear the air was even happy. Everyone was dressed up in glitter and color! It was a vibe and I was loving it. We walked in without any long lines or problems and got some yummy nachos for dinner and took pictures. I didn't realize it was a thing to make bracelets to trade but Megan knew and made us some cute ones. Girls would just come up to you to see if you wanted to trade. The funny thing is, I'm actually not a hard core fan at all. I really only know her popular songs on the radio and don't follow her or know her albums, but you couldn't NOT be excited at this thing. When the countdown clock came up, the whole stadium went nuts. The energy was electric! We were screaming with the rest of them! Then she came out and I thought the walls would come down haha! I don't care who you are, Taylor Swift is a PERFORMER. She sang for 3 hours! Her costumes, sets, backup dancers, everything were incredible. At one point she was siting at her moss draped grand piano to play and there was a pause and the crowd took that opportunity to cheer and clap and scream and it was SO LOUD that she couldn't go on. So she waited and the screaming just kept coming and coming and coming. It went on for a solid 10 minutes at least. She would laugh and shake her head or make a heart with her hands and everyone would just scream louder. The whole night was more fun than I could describe. I learned later that all the jumping and dancing registered as seismic activity on the richter scale. Talk about ENERGY. Megan cut loose during Shake it Off and I was dying because I've NEVER seen Megan let go like that! We were singing and dancing and enjoying every second. It was tragic when it ended! We weren't sure if we'd be able to get an Uber from the stadium so we started walking in the general direction of our hotel and after about 20 minutes we passed a guy who was standing by his car who called out to us, "You need a ride?"  He explained that he worked as an Uber but if we wanted to pay him directly, he'd give us a better rate because Uber takes so much off the top. We kind of paused and looked at each other trying to discern if this was a Dateline moment or safe. Seemed ok, so we tentatively got in, figuring at least we'd die together. Turns out: not a serial killer!! Yay. We got back to our room and talked for a while before finally falling asleep.... so happy. :) 

 

We were just planning to wake up and drive straight home but figured we were in L.A. so there's probably amazing places to get breakfast. I saw Republique had amazing reviews so we drove about 45 min. to get there. Best decision ever. This place was incredible. Such a spread of exotic pastries and French delicacies. It was so hard to choose! We got an assortment to share and commenced mmming and ahhing. Now Megan is someone I love eating with! A true foodie! I wish so badly this place was in Gilbert!! We got some cream pie for the road home and I could not EVEN with how delicious it was!!! I never knew food could taste like that! We had the best time talking the whole drive home. I love Megan so much. She is one of my favorite people and I was so grateful we got to make this memory together!! 

Posey had a neon birthday party and I was Camilla's right hand lady for all the chaos! The girls decorated hats first, then we got in the party van that Camilla borrowed from her sister in law and headed to Organ Stop Pizza. Cuz where else do you take 15 wild girls to eat?! They were completely entranced by the show and the rest of the 65+ crowd was entranced with US.

Double dose of Porters this weekend! We finally got a double date on the books and tried out this  interactive escape room place. There were maybe 8 different rooms all with a different puzzle you had to work together on to figure out. If you failed, a buzzer sounded and you had to exit and try again. It was actually really hard! We were only successful in maybe two rooms before our time ran out. I guess two bachelor degrees, a law degree and doctorate are no match for the 23 year old video game minded entrepreneur that created this haha!

Megan Shaheen gave me this dress for my birthday and I just LOVE when someone else with style, dresses me!!

I came across this old picture of my boys with the Law boys and my heart melted. They're so widdle!! It deserved a place on the blog.

Ross massaging Phoebe's clients on FRIENDS. It's the first thing I thought of when I saw this!

Heidi Powell is something of a Gilbert celebrity and she's in our ward boundaries. She just started coming back to church after 15 years and Tara asked if she'd speak at our activity. Then the StretchLab came to take us through a stretching routine.

We love it when the Shaheens are in town!

We went and saw Ryan Hamilton in Tempe with the sisters and husbands! Dinner first at Spinatos. He was hilarious! He's a member of the church, never been married and has a BIG SMILE. He was hit by a bus last year and had a million jokes on that. I laughed so hard. 

The Swim team at ALA. There isn't a dive team but they are letting Collin represent them at meets. We pay for private diving lessons through East Valley Dive Club. Collin has 5-6:30am swim practice 4x a week at EVO (down the street from us, which is so nice) then dives 2x a week. Busy boy!

At one of the swim meets. He's made some good friends. 

The day I got home from BYU Ed week was Olive's birthday. She had Inspire's company retreat up north that weekend, so the group sang happy birthday to her! 

We went swimming at Grandma's house with all the cousins and they were all so sweet to bring her presents and make cards! Lindi got her some pink vans that have become her staple footwear. We ended up ordering Taco Bell for the kids and Cheesecake Factory for the adults so it turned into quite the night!

Collin bought Olive some LED lights for her room and she was ecstatic!! She bowled him over with a big hug.

That Monday, I took her out of school for her birthday, lunch date. She picked Joe's Farm Grill... her fav!

Costco shopping with Tanner usually ends with pizza the size of his face. And he eats it all!

The garden has not been doing so hot since we moved it to the side of the house. One, lone cucumber grew and the rest of the plants got eaten by Shelly the tortoise, I think. Weston is the most excited kid when it comes to gardening. 

Love these deacons and their love of the temple and service nights!

There was a 1/2 day of school the last Wednesday of August, so Mia came over and they made Olive's strawberry birthday cake. She chose Italian beef sandwiches, fruit salad and Caesar salad for her special dinner. 

Olive is the sweetest, kindest girl you'll ever meet. And also, if she is tired, hungry or irritated for some reason, WATCH OUT. Her emotions run strong! She gets particularly fired up if her brothers burp or toot near her. She is a dancing queen, dancing at Inspire on their company team, 17 hours a week. She's also on the tap team. And was asked to be in a hip hop competitive dance even though there isn't a hip hop team with girls as young as she is. She also takes a tumbling class once a week and piano lessons. She can do a round off back hand spring, an aerial, a whip, a standing back hand spring and is working on her back tuck. If she's with her friends they are usually making up a dance, jumping on the trampoline or painting their nails. She's the youngest in her 5th grade class. By the end of 5th grade, some trends I noticed were... it's not cool to eat cafeteria lunch. By second semester, she brought her lunch every day. All the girls wear t-shirts to school. No cute tops. Baggy t-shirts are in. She's at the age where they want to hang out with boys on the weekends. Her best friend from school is Emily. Emily also lives in our neighborhood. She's Taiwanese and her mom runs the nail salon next to Bashas. She's a really nice girl. Olive also made friends with Sloan, Jayne Gibb and Eliza Payne. Those are just the school friends. Emerson Owens and Allison Brower are her best friends from dance. She still keeps in touch with and plays with Mia Standage from 1st grade at Neely, Lilly from 3rd grade ALA, Brynn and Betty from 4th ALA, Posey Porter of course, her cousins, Olivia, Lindi and Scarlett and Livy Law from the ward and Charlotte Arnett from Prenda. It's a full time job organizing her playdates! It doesn't surprise me that she has so many friends because she is fun and happy and kind to everyone. She works hard in school and gets good grades. She wants to do what's right and reads her scriptures often. She LOVES spending time with me. She sleeps with "Pinkie" her pink owl blankie. She doesn't like babysitting or being home alone. She thinks someone will break in or something bad will happen. She loves coconut rice and strawberry ice cream. Her favorite shows are Alexa & Kate, Bluey and Fuller House. She always wants me to pick out her clothes instead of deciding herself. She gives me a hug and kiss on the cheek when leaving for school, dance or going to sleep. She is not so great at doing her chores. Mostly because she's rarely home but even if she is, she can think 100 things better to do. Of all my children, she's the only one who loves bearing her testimony in church. She has a compassionate heart. Almost to a fault. If anyone she knows is hurting or sad, she truly has the hardest time and cries over it. She loves her brothers so much. She pines for Collin and Weston's affection and time and is good to play with Tanner on Sundays when they're home together. She does not like being alone and needs activities, friends or something to do or else she's complaining. I love this age. She can definitely be sassy and talk back, but it's rare. I love her so so much and am grateful every day for my darling daughter! 

A shot of their backpacks, walking to the bus! My favorite is when they come home though. They race each other off the bus with wide arms to hug me. Best part of my day!!

Collin had an ortho appointment at lunch time so we got Potbellys.

Weston's Sunday School teacher, Bro. Boone is so creative with his treats!

I love it when he falls asleep holding onto me.

Someone told me about this graphic novel type of bible and it's pretty cool. Weston seems to really like it.