For Allison Brower's birthday they rented a limo and you would have thought Olive was going to the Golden Globes she was so excited.
Swimming at Grandma's for Labor Day.
Unintentionally matching your friend. Thanks, Old Navy!
I drove a car full of swim team kids to the meet at Phoenix Country Day. I studied the whole time.
No one has a harder time staying awake during scripture study than Weston.
Weston and Mason were on the same flag-football team this season. Not a great coach (he constantly bailed or no-showed) but at least they had each other. It was Tanner's first season and he loved it! We had a carpool of 4 other crazy boys. I dreaded when it was my turn to drive but he had so much fun.
Inspire always does an overnight retreat at the beginning of the dance year. I've never chaperoned before and this is Olive's 3rd time going so I figured it was time. We went to the Elk Youths Camp past Globe. They got to skip school on Friday so we drove up early Friday morning. These girls were super cute and fun to be around. They went to work decorating the cabin right when we got there. I found a shady spot to open up my lap top to get reading done for my Ethics class. And that's all I did until dinner. When it was time for bed, the girls were not interested in sleep. The cabins were full of spiders and I was the only adult with 9 giggly girls but somehow I dozed off around midnight. They braided each other's hair and whispered until I guess at 2am I sat up and told them to go to bed. I barely remember it. It was 100% my subconscious doing it! A few never went to bed. Good times. They played team building games the next day and we left around 2pm. That gave me just enough time to fly into the house and shower really quickly and get to the church for stake choir practice before conference started at 5pm. Travis had been in leadership meetings all day. We found out from Bron and Megan that Elder Kearon was coming to preside over their stake conference this weekend. Travis couldn't miss his meetings with the area authority who was at our stake conference. So I was going to wake up early Sunday morning and take Collin and Weston to see Elder Kearon speak. But I couldn't sleep that night so I just woke the boys up and we hit the road around 2am. I figured that would get us there plenty early for good seats.
It was pitch black for the whole drive and I missed a turn and accidentally went through Snowflake. Ugh. I saw this glowing light that looked like a temple and I could not figure out what I was seeing until it hit me. Oh well. It made it a 5 hour drive, but we had time to spare. The boys slept the whole time. We pulled in around 7am and got Blake's Lotaburger and McDonalads for breakfast then went to the stake center. I thought for sure there would be people there to get good seats but we were the first ones! Bron came to let us in and check on a few things. I just put my purse on a pew and went back out to the car to close my eyes for a bit.
It was really fun to walk around and catch up with old friends before it started. Emily Foley is one of the kindest souls I've ever known. Bron and Elder Haws spoke first, then Elder Kearon spoke. He. is. amazing. Such a breath of fresh air. He's hilarious!! Constantly cracking jokes. We were laughing most of the time. He spoke about experiencing joy in the gospel. He encouraged us to sing out in church. He said he was practicing his general conference talk on us. When it was over he slowly walked through the chapel, greeting everyone and shaking hands. When Elder Rasband came to our conference this last year he did no such thing. We had strict instructions to stay in our seats and not approach or touch him. We lined up to see Elder Kearon. When he got to me he shook my hand and asked, "How are you?" and waited as though he was open to a conversation. I was so surprised. I figured it was my chance so I told him how much we love the Shaheens and were so grateful for what he did for them. He shook his head and genuinely acted like it was HE who was blessed by that. I told him that I was in the middle of Hobby Lobby when I heard that he was put in as an apostle and that I had chills run up and down my body and just stood in the store crying as the Spirit confirmed to me that he was an apostle of God.
Brinn was so sweet and invited us over for lunch afterward. The Cashs were there too. She had an amazing spread of Cafe Rio and fruit/fruit dip. Bron and Megan were having lunch at their house with Elder Kearon and the other members of the stake presidency so their kids came to Brinn's house. Collin and Weston were in 7th heaven. So was I! We spent hours sitting at their table having gospel discussions. Then the doorbell rang. Brinn is a jokester and called out, "Come in, Elder Kearon!" We all laughed. Then 20 seconds later, ELDER KEARON came around the corner!!! I fell off my chair! We all immediately popped up, shouting and laughing and went to greet him. Now I got to HUG an apostle!! It was so special! Megan was right behind him filming the whole thing. He didn't stay very long but wanted to say hi to us. He is truly the most generous, thoughtful man. After he left, I knew we needed to get back on the road but I wished we could have stayed longer. I got the boys and did the 4 hour drive back, pulling into Wayne and Paula's house around 6:30pm for family dinner. Two nights of no sleep and 9 hours of driving. I was ready for bed!
This push pop helped me stay awake!
It was Elder Nelson's 100th birthday so we had a prophet themed FHE! Pin the temple on Pres. Nelson.
Then we sang to him and had cake, what else?!
The stake did a YM retreat the second weekend of September. They had leaders dress up like prophets from the Book of Mormon and did fun activities like ax throwing, wiffle ball, capture the flag and 9 square. Travis was in charge of ax throwing so that's why I got some pictures of the boys!
The activity day leaders did a cute birthday activity and needed this sheet filled out. I was over my head with responsibilities so I handed it off to Trav and thought it was so perfect and sweet what he wrote.
Our bed is everyone's favorite place to be when it's bedtime. They just want me for my phone. To watch Instagram reels together.
Early morning dance studio pictures at the Riparian.
I feel like many people are leaving the church because they don't believe God would require us to make covenants with him. I loved what I read while studying Come Follow Me.
How cute is this Title of Liberty that Tanner made in Primary?!
Yayyyyy, the bleach is coming off! Why didn't I take an after picture??
It was just a normal date night but I had read that Buck & Rider by Agritopia was really good. By the time we got out the door it was 8pm so I didn't think it would be a problem to get a table but I did not realize how chic this place was! It felt like we had walked into the trendiest place in Scottsdale. One look at the prices and I realized this was an anniversary type restaurant but oh well, we were here! It really was super yummy, but they were out of their famous rolls. Boo. Guess we'll have to go back.
While we were eating, I did a quick check of the cameras and saw Tanner was going to bed with a helmet on.
I don't care for bananas but this bananas foster was very tasty!
I ended up cutting all the boys' hair. I laughed at the color variations.
Months ago, Olive said she'd like to sing a solo in church. I put it off because I don't see us much as the "sing a solo in church" type of family. But we have the most amazing choir director who is whipping our ward into shape and doing special musical numbers as often as possible. I reached out to her and she was more than happy to put Olive on the program and work with her. Olive picked the song on her own and practiced and practiced until she had it memorized. Watching Cassandra work with her was so sweet. She really refined and taught her all while encouraging her and lifting her. Even though this was Olive's idea she quickly doubted herself and felt really nervous. Even tried to back out. We asked Kim Johnson to play for her and she spent a couple hours working with her and building her up. My heart went out to these two talented women! So so grateful for their service to us. Olive did a beautiful job on her song! It was the 2020 Youth Theme song for the church "I will go and do" but I had never heard it before. I think because of covid no one really knew about it.
Time to audition for the Easter pageant!! Figuring out the video is so stressful. I found 3 Instagram reels that I thought we could adapt to make a fun video highlighting how much we wanted to be in it again! I think it turned out really good!
Grandma came to see Collin compete at a meet at Brimhall pool.
Spirit week at school.
Took Tanner to play at the Porters house so Camilla and I could see each other! She had this haunted house kit that really ended up being our project instead of theirs.
Leah invited me to go see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat! I have NEVER seen this musical before so it was high time! Definitely an interesting one haha. I was warned. I'm sure after a few more times I'd get into the music. I was happy to spend time with my favorite cous.
I took Della's baptism pictures and they turned out so cute!! Her second cousin came too so I just did them both one after another. It is crazy to me that she is getting baptized!
Millie took Olive, Emerson, Kate and Vivi to the lake and they had the best time!
