May

 Travis took Collin to dive regionals held at NAU the beginning of May. 

These girls went to a stake dance in Mesa together. I think you're supposed to be 14 but they are eager beavers. 

We took the kids and their friends to the temple and out for dinner but I had to wait outside with Tanner. I thought it was SO cute how enamored he was watching this bridal session. 

Starbound competition. One of Olive's tap dances always wins so she accepted the award this time.

Fun to see Lindi and Della at this comp!

Sunday selfies found on my phone.

The sacrament was over so I justified taking a quick picture. I love when Collin blesses the sacrament. 

The Evans had their belated Easter dinner. 

Happy 42nd birthday, Travis! Collin still hadn't gotten his birthday donuts so we did a joint donut celebration. Someone never wears a shirt around here. He's much too proud of those abs to cover them up.

I met him at Tacos Chiwas for lunch. 

And he chose Italian beef sandwiches for dinner to make it easy on me. 

Collin, always the jokester, wrapping this huge present. There were multiple boxes inside he had to unwrap all to get a card saying there was no present. Then he handed him some grilling spices and candy. 

Since his birthday was on a Monday, we decided to hit some softballs for FHE.

Snicker doodles for dessert. His favorite cookie. 

I am eternally grateful for my forever boyfriend. He is truly my best friend. I never tire of being with him. He is an example to me of patience, selflessness and kindness. 

Maybe I should document some things about him like I do the kids, haha!

He loves paddle boarding and is fast at it! He holds the record for paddle boarding the Salt River the fastest. According to some local sports app. 

He is a fan of college football (go ASU Sundevils) and likes to watch but isn't a die hard fanatic that can't miss a game or anything. 

His favorite candy is Hot Tamales, Kit Kat or Toblerone. 

He will pick a Dr. Pepper or Pepsi way over Coke, but isn't a big soda drinker in the first place. 

He doesn't care about clothes or fashion. Costco is his go-to shop. ;)

His best guy friend is Bron Shaheen, but he's still good friends with his high school buddy, Chase Rogers. 

He has been serving in Young Mens for the past 9 years with a brief 6 month interruption teaching Olive's primary class. 

He is easy going and easy to please. He has never ever complained about any dinner I've made or really anything I've ever done. He is my biggest supporter and cheerleader. He calls me every single day he gets off work to ask if there's anything he can do for me on his drive home. 

I wouldn't have historically said he's a reader but he's surprising me lately with always being into a book! He's even in a small book club with other men that love to discuss church doctrine books. 

He dove and wrestled in high school and is the best dive coach to the boys now. 

His siblings tease him that he is "Nephi" and the favorite son. 

He tells good dad jokes that always make me laugh. 

He has served for almost a year now as bishop and the ward loves him. He really tries hard to show interest in people and connect with them. 

He is organized and tidy but never demands that I accommodate his preferences. This is a dumb example I guess, but his side of the closet is neat and and the drawers of his dresser are always pushed in but he doesn't push in the drawers of my dresser when they're ajar or act annoyed if I'm messy. I try not to be, but ya know... life. 

Whenever a decision needed to be made, his response was always "I'm good with whatever". But now I've teased him about that enough, I don't hear him say it much anymore haha. I have gotten tired of making all the decisions. ;)

He is definitely a lover, not a fighter. The reason our marriage runs smoothly is because of him, 100%. He treats me like a queen. Compliments me, tells me he loves me and tells the kids how lucky they are to have me, every day. If any child back talks me or speaks at all disrespectfully, they get the wrath of their father. I know that I come first to him in every way and he doesn't just say it, he shows it. I'm all emotional now writing this because I feel so dang lucky I get to be his wife! 

I do not remember where this picture popped up but it's a keeper! From the left is Rebecca Merkley, me, Shelley, Jenni Lines, Jessica Driggs and Melanie Ellingson. We were all in the same ward together. I feel bad I can't remember the name of the girl behind us. This was taken at Taylor Junior High. 

We did it! We finished the Book of Mormon as a family! It may have taken us two years and we may not have all been awake for all of it but gosh darn it we DID IT!

Since Tanner's birthday is over the summer, I took him out of school for his birthday lunch early! He loves him a burger! He can polish off a double double animal style and fries no problem.

Olive's last orchestra concert!

Muffins with Mom at the elementary school for Mother's Day.

I did it! I went to the river. It's been a long time. We met up with a bunch of the Evans family.

For Mother's Day, Travis had the kids fill out a questionnaire about me. They did good! I think the biggest curve ball was the question about whether I preferred the beach or the mountains. I've always been a beach girl, but literally as of a few weeks ago I realized I've changed. I'd rather go to the mountains. I'm so tired of all the naked people at the beach. 

Mother's Day was nice! I requested that we watch The Sound of Music as a family. Lots of groans from the boys, but by the end they admitted it wasn't as bad as they thought! I'll take it! We had dinner at my parents house and I beat Travis to it and bought myself the prettiest flowers I happened to see at Frys. 

Katie had her baby! They named her Macie Kate. I die, she's so sweet!! I brought them dinner the next week and got to hold her again. 

Weston made this pillow in school! Isn't it amazing! I was so impressed!

Slip n slide kickball was a win for mutual!

Cutest nails!! I love getting my nails done now! Except I didn't anticipate that this would be interpreted as a nod toward LGBTQ. Whoops. 

Saddest thing happened. We found out a guy we graduated with died by suicide. He had married later in life to a woman who's husband died and they had 6 daughters. She has also lost a baby. I cannot fathom her pain. I saw this beautiful picture and thought of her, so I ordered a print on Etsy. It's hard to tell but the cracks are raised in a gold paint. I don't know this woman, so I thought it might be weird to give it to her so I just dropped it off anonymously with a note. 

Sundays go by so fast, I but I decided I wanted to start watching some old musicals and movies with Olive on Sundays with Olive when we can. First up, Anne of Green Gables!

Collin made this Buddah in art class. It's amazing! I don't know how he did it. 

Finally lit our oil lamps for dinner and FHE. They wrote their thank you cards to their teachers by candlelight ;)

Weston couldn't remember one of his teacher's names (like truly couldn't remember it) and had to look it up!!! Weston has never been good with names but this took the cake. It's the end of the year for heaven sakes! WESTON!!!

Weston's friend, Liam, has the nicest mom. She dropped off this gift basket for him to celebrate moving on to high school!

Some parents threw a big, end of the year bash for all the 6th graders. Olive had such a good time. 

Wellllll, lets hope this doesn't come true.

Last day of school!! Olive was dressed up for her 6th grade promotion ceremony.

I learned with Weston's promotion ceremony that people consider this a big deal. I was the only one without my spouse there and I felt so weird about it. Like I needed to assure everyone that we were doing fine and Travis loves his children, haha. So this time I made sure Travis took off work. This new principal made it a very nice event. There were speeches and the kids all dressed nicely. They read off their names and we took pictures then waited outside as the kids walked through the whole school while the other kids lined the halls, clapping for them. Then they came outside and walked past all the parents as we clapped and cheered. 

The principal talked about how these friends would be their life long friends and I sort of scoffed in my head thinking, um, no. Then I remembered Kristen! So, I guess in her case, it's true!

The traditional water balloon fight at the bus stop!

This one makes sense!

I LOVE family bike rides! 

Sadly, Olive was having some bathroom issues, so Collin came to pick her up. Man it's nice having another driver in the family!

We went on a double date with Quin and Joy to a place they love in the ghetto of Phoenix. They warned that it was a "dive", but we had NO idea what we were in for. This place was gross. I mean gaaaarossss. We had driven so far and they had recommended it so I didn't feel like we could turn around and leave, but we really should have. It was grimy and dirty and run down and there was a fly paper on the inside of the door just covered in flies and bugs. But the kicker was when we were eating and Joy suddenly jumped and batted at the wall with a napkin like she was trying to catch something. Oh, it was a cockroach. A freaking cockroach had crawled up the wall next to her!! I was dying inside! I couldn't put my feet down after that and I stopped eating. Then Quin went to the bathroom and came back and said, oh, there's the cockroach! There was a smooshed roach under our table. Barf. If we didn't have parasites before, we're certainly infested now.

Tanner had been playing at the Figs while we were at dinner and we pulled up to this. Marcie's house really is a slice of heaven on earth. 

Trellany threw my Aunt Tava a 60th birthday party so we went to party with them!

Happy Memorial Day!

Weston and Jett were looking for something to do so they decided to bake cinnamon bread. Weston found a Youtube video with a recipe  that looked good and I gave a few pointers. It turned out so good! 

Weston loves his bike and is always doing something... changing a flat, replacing the brakes, etc. He rides to school and back every day and rides to his gym and back most days. He has saved me so much time in the car and I thank God he has never been in an accident. 

The boys loved getting a tour of the Mesa Gateway airport. Now they're talking about careers in aviation. 

Girls camp! It was a ward year so the leaders rented the Gunn's cabin up in Pine top. They left on a Thursday and Travis and I drove up Friday morning and met them at a lake with a bunch of paddle boards. After a few hours at the lake, Travis and I grabbed subs in town for dinner and met them back at the cabin for bishop's night. The girls were hot tubbing and having dinner so we hung out for a bit until Travis shared a devotional and opened it up for testimonies. It was a really good meeting and I think almost everyone said something. It's so fun being able to share these memories with Olive. The leaders said she couldn't stop talking about how excited she was for her parents to get there. :) We drove home that night and it was so late by the time we got on the road. We took Olive and one other girl, Claire, home with us. Claire is awesome. She's chatty and I talked to her the whole 3 hours home. 

Elliot Groves ward was there too and I was laughing at how Bishop Gunn and Travis looked identical in their get ups. 

Whenever we're gone, Tasha is so good to help entertain Tanner!

Fox came over and I was nice and helped them make moon dough. Aka... a mess! 

We took Olive from girls camp a day early so she could be home in time for her end of the year recital, Saturday night. She also performed all day Saturday in multiple rec shows. Lindi was dancing in one of them so it was fun to get to watch her backstage! 

Mom, Dad, Marcie and Scarlett came to support her! I giggled when I saw Dad stretching against the walls. At first I thought he was testing out their structural integrity. Olive did amazing! The only bummer was that we were seated right in front of the most obnoxious family. They kept screaming for their daughter, Evolet, who is in Olive's group. But when I say screaming, I'm talking gutteral, feral, animal screaming. Incessantly, through the whole dance. It was unreal. You can't make this stuff up. All I could think of was "O'doyl Rules". I turned around a couple times, hoping they'd take a hint. They didn't. It continued. Finally, mom and dad both stood up and left. I was bewildered and frankly, angry. I stood up and turned around and said, "Please! My parents just left because of your screaming. Please, please stop" Marcie turned around while I was talking and echoed what I said. They just stared at me. I sat down and a few dances went on that their daughter wasn't in. But I just knew they were going to go at it harder for her next dance. So I got up and moved seats. Luckily, there were plenty of empty ones up on the side. My parents had moved to the back. Unfortunately, Travis's parents were farther in and Wayne can't move easily so Travis and Tanner stayed with them. Marcie stayed until intermission and she said after every dance, the dad would clap his hands as loud as he could right by Marcie's ears and snarkily say, "oh no, we wouldn't want to be loud, we're at a tennis match". Ohhh my blood boiled when I heard about that. I wanted to rip into that a** hole SO BAD!! You can be rude to me, fine. But you're going to pick on my sister who is the kindest soul in the world?! I was ready to throw down. I honestly don't know how I restrained myself. We stayed in the foyer and watched on the TV's until Olive was back on stage. It really put a damper on the whole night. And now we have a new family joke, making fun of that white trash family. "Let's go, EVOLEEEETTTT!!!"