June

Aight, aight!

It's summertime!!

Camilla kicking it off big with a staycation at the AZ Grand! She's always full of fun ideas! We invited Rusty so the older boys had a friend and the kids had a ball. IHOP for dinner... cuz, what else are kids going to universally enjoy if it's not pancakes at 6pm? Olive was BRAVE and went down the big ol' slides that even I won't touch. Just give me the nachos and nobody gets hurt. 

 

I love our ward! And Grace and Michelle are two of my favorites... just happening to both be sporting the polka dots!

Olive REALLY wanted to do my hair. I don't know why, but I don't love kids touching my hair. Anyway, I finally said yes and she came up with a bun surrounded by a braid that she was very happy about!

It's Tan man's birthday!!! The big #5. A whole hand. 

Weston made him his name on the 3D printer and he has proudly worn it on his backpack all through Kindergarten. 

Olive drew him a sweet picture and got him some gum!

I didn't know what to buy him so we headed to Walmart and the first gift was that I let him sit in the ginormous bus-cart! He ALWAYS begs for this cart but it is a hard no. Except for when it's your birthday. He was tickled. And he picked out a remote control car. I really wonder how many hundreds of dollars we have spent on rc cars over the years. And they always break after a couple of weeks. And have to be recharged or replace batteries. They are a true nuisance. 

Party time at Grandmas!! Poor child, I didn't even make a cute, official invite. Just texted all the moms and friends showed up! 

I hired Weston as my life guard. I knew I'd want additional eyes on this many 5 year olds. Even if they are good swimmers. 

Noble Monahan and Braxton came late, but here we have Tyde, Landon, Tanner, Della and Ford from left to right!

They swam, had pizza and cake, did a pinata and opened presents! For as simple as I tried to keep it, it still felt rather frenetic. Weston was a big help!

He picked spaghetti -hold the sauce- as his birthday dinner. 

Tanner really is such a sweet boy. He loves Spiderman, onions -yep raw- and riding his bike. 

He doesn't like potatoes in any form, being alone (I'm constantly asked if I want to snuggle him, which just means sit next to him while he's watching TV) or being hot when he's trying to sleep. He tells us he's "allergic to hot". I really don't yell at him ever but even if I raise my voice at all or have a tone of frustration, his face scrunches up and he cries. And if I do lose my cool and yell at one of the other kids, he cries then too. He lives up to his name and has the most tan skin of all the kids! I get comments all the time from other people who stop and admire how cute he is. He has a good space between his front, two teeth. He HATES hair cuts... cries, winces and acts like he's being mutilated. He still sits in my lap during church and is the only one who gets to draw on the doodle app on my phone. I'm writing this 7 months later but he likes to watch Dude Perfect with his brothers and still enjoys Blippi. Travis and I switch off nights laying next to him in bed until he falls asleep. His favorite friend is his cousin, Landon. He always picks "Dragons Love Tacos" for me to read to him. 

A cute story about him from this past year is when I got my new suburban. It had a 360 camera which showed all sides of the car at once.. like you're looking down on the car from a sky view. Tanner, after seeing this several times asked, "Mom, is there a drone above our car?" I replied, "No, not a drone. I guess I don't really know how the camera works though." Tanner replied simply and matter of fact, "Probably God does it." I said, "Hmm, that's an interesting thought." To which he said, "Yeah it is."

I was so floored. His immediate thought to a situation that is unexplainable is that God is behind it. And he was satisfied. I loved that so much. 

One time, we were driving to the airport and Tanner looked out the window and said, "Mom, look how much dirt that is!" I looked where he was pointing, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Then I understood. I said, "Oh you mean that mountain?" And you could hear the realization in his voice almost sheepish.. "oh, yeah a mountain." haha. 

We were on a family hike and I was slightly ahead with the older kids. Tanner and Travis caught up to us at one point and Tanner happily encouraged me, "Mom, you're doing great!". 

The garage had gotten quite cluttered, as garages are wont to do, but this time it was especially overflowing with paddleboards and the ensuing accessories. After I parked the car, Tanner got out and was wedging himself past a paddleboard and annoyed, said to half to himself and half out loud, "Dad needs to move his junk."

Instead of saying 'thirsty', Tanner pronounces it 'szersty' and I hope he never stops. 

This might have been from a couple years ago, but I found this note in my phone: 

I told Tanner it was time for bed and he moaned, "Nooooo! I just did it!" I said, "Did what?" and he said, "I just went to bed last night!" 

Collin and David did a climbing camp at Alta one week that was expensive but awesome that he had something to do all day for a whole week of summer.

Lucky Olive went to a Meant to Be Me class in downtown Gilbert and Kristen offered to bring her home which was so nice. Even nicer, she treated her to a Topo ice cream cone first!

Olive loves doing swim team in the mornings at Greenfield Jr. high! But sadly she's had to miss all but one of her swim meets. Dang life just kept getting in the way. And I didn't even get to stay for her one meet because Ruth and Sawyer were going through the temple that night. So Grandma came and cheered her on and she got FIRST place in one of her strokes!!! She was SO stoked and couldn't stop talking about it for weeks. 

It was my first time back to the Mesa temple in years! Since it was remodeled. I was so mad at myself though because I got the time mixed up and missed the session. So I did initiatories and met everyone in the Celestial room. 

For deacon's camp, the leaders weren't real big on camping, so Rob Laney offered his dad's cabin up as a location they could use. It was in Payson. They actually offered it to any YM who wanted to go. The boys slept in tents in the yard and the leaders slept in the house. They went paddleboarding at a lake, shot guns, played games, hiked Horton Springs and had a devotional one night. I'm so grateful for church programs and leaders who sacrifice their time for the kids. Left to right is Luke Mosely, McGuire Law, Max Watkins, Lincoln Monahan, Graham Law, Ivan Lam, Jett Standage and Collin!

Tanner has been having a hard time hearing. Every time I say something to him, he says, "what?" and I'll repeat myself and he'll say, "what?" again... sometimes three or four times. I'm very tired of repeating myself! So I took him to the doctor and they tested his hearing and sure enough, he missed a lot of the beeps. I was starting to get nervous as my suspicions were being confirmed. Luckily, it turned out that he has a lot of fluid and inflammation in his ears... most likely from allergies and that's why he can't hear normally. He prescribed some antibiotics but instead, I started giving him his A&I pills that Shari Goodman gave us for allergies and sure enough, within a few days, he could hear again!

We love playdates with cousins!

Trav's second home... the river!

We don't usually take our kids out to dinner, but I think a couple of them were gone so we just took Tanner and Collin to Boca on the weekend. You know, why not just drink the sauce?!

Marcie was so sweet and gave me this book for Mother's Day and I definitely sobbed as I read it to Tanner! 

Oh the joys of having a dog. I woke up to this sign on the stairs. Thanks for the warning, Olive.

Weston's favorite socks.

Having a family membership to Alta has been fun. All these kids have their own harnesses and shoes. What is cuter than a 5 year old in rock climbing gear?!

I am so impressed by how high they can climb!

I had the idea for this address decoration many years ago. I designed it and ordered the vinyl. Then it sat in a folder. I couldn't decide how to finish it. I tried to make my own wood sign multiple times and failed. Finally I found a pre-made board at Hobby Lobby. Duh. Why didn't I look there sooner?! The vinyl was so old and hard to put on, but it basically worked. All our addresses since we got married! 6 homes total. 2 years, 4 years, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years and currently approaching 4 years here!

Olive's end of the year party with her dance friends!

Weston and Liam living the good life. 

I was asked to speak in church on Father's Day. I figure that was bound to happen someday since I have the most amazing dad and husband. I was also in charge of the treat for all the dads. I agreed to that before I was asked to speak, btw. I made a ton of cookie dough and baked them all at my mom's house since she has two ovens. Transporting them back to my house and freezing them until Sunday morning, then packaging them, making and attaching the note and tying yarn was quite the process. Olive was a good helper!

If I look tired, it's because I am!

My parent's came to hear me speak and I feel like I just cried a lot, but hopefully it turned out good. The kids made a yummy brunch and Travis liked his zero gravity chair gift! We had dinner with the Evans. I am so grateful for the fathers in my life. It's cliche to say, but I have truly been blessed with the best. 

For about 6 weeks, I got to watch baby Nora while Abbey and David went to an appointment. LOVE. HER. Oh my heck, it is so fun to be an aunt! 5 out of 5. Highly recommend. 

Aubrey has been taking out all the nieces and nephews on dates for their birthdays. Or maybe it's their Christmas present. Can't remember. She took Collin to see Top Gun for his date! Ohhh Maverick!

Our yearly Sunsplash date with cousins was a blast! Every year my kids get older is a year things get easier. We were sad Marcie couldn't make it. She's been dealing with some stressful health issues and had an appointment she needed to go to. 

Word of the wise... don't order food in the castle! It took for-ev-ever.

K. Funny story. We were walking towards some slides and a guy apologized as he kinda of bumped into me with one of the big tubes. I barely noticed, but then he stops and says, "Stephanie??" My brain panicked because he obviously knew me but I was not recognizing him. He must have realized and quickly said, "I'm John Banfield". I about died. Soo funny! We went to elementary school together! I think he went to Mountain View for high school though because I don't remember seeing him since 6th grade. I could not believe he recognized me! Shelley and my mom were right there too, and we laughed and chatted for a while. His wife eventually came around the corner looking for him and he handed her his phone and asked her to take a picture of us, which surprised me! We grabbed the kids so it didn't look too awkward, lol. Small world!

As the sun went down, a DJ set up between the slides and wavepool and we were drawn in by the jams! He had a good song going, so we ran over and started dancing and that seemed to be all people needed because we were quickly joined by a crowd! While most people faded, we were hooked and danced for probably half an hour. A couple different times, a brave boy would approach me to dance and it was 100% because his friends were videotaping from a distance. I'm sure I made it onto a few Snapchats that night as teenagers mocked the energetic, dancing mom, haha. Couldn't care less! Didn't stop me!

We finally dragged ourselves out of there and enjoyed a late dinner at Nandos. 
What a day!

Dive meet at Williamsfield. 

M, T and W evenings they have practice at Perry High school then meets were on Thursdays. There weren't many kids in Collin's age level and one of the boys was older and much more experienced so it was probably frustrating to never get first, but he really did so well. I think he has a knack for it. Weston isn't quite as disciplined, but he's brave and seemed happy to be there. 

Grandpa and Grandma braved the heat to come cheer for them! Grandpa brought a mini cooler full of ice to share, haha.

Since I knew we'd be on our Nauvoo trip on our anniversary, I made reservations at Anhelo for the weekend before. It was in Phoenix and very fancy. Each course was full of ingredients we had to google. 

I can't remember what this was but it was divine! The flavors literally burst at different times in my mouth. I felt like we were on one of those creative culinary shows. 

David has decided to step away from the church, which has been really hard on Abbey. She wanted to do Nora's baby blessing at my parent's house to avoid the scrutiny of ward members wondering why David wasn't blessing her. But then, thanks to a thoughtful bishop's council, David decided to give the blessing, last minute. Abbey's family all came over and there was quite the crowd. The boys were a little star struck by Case Hatch, Sammie's ASU football playing husband. 

Kim Johnson did a cute, superhero camp that Tanner got to do with his friend, Tyde!

I can't even remember where I read this, but I thought it was significant. 

Grandma Ann has such fun toys! We had Savannah Hogle over several different days this month as her dad is going through a rough transition right now. She is a fun girl and easy to have around.

Sedona

RACHEL CAME TO VISIT!!!

She flew in Thursday night, June 2. We had been at the AZ Grand with Camilla the night before and swam all day so I was a little frantic getting the house picked up in the couple hours I had before it was time to pick her up at the airport. We left the next morning for a quick getaway to Sedona. I had only been once before with the Evans many years ago, but I have no memories of it. We drove right to Casa Sedona Inn for lunch. It had a lot of good reviews online. It was a quaint place with a pretty view. Nothing really to write home about, except that they gave Rachel only the muffin top of her complimentary muffin. Ha! Of course we laughed about the Seinfeld episode about muffin tops.

Then we drove to the main shopping/downtown area and parked to do some window shopping. Which included a stop into Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Then we booked a Pink Jeep tour called Broken Arrow. It is their most extreme off-road adventure. I was truly terrified but agreed to be brave and do it since it was their most popular tour. I was comforted a little when we learned our driver has been doing this for decades. She was a super funny and a little crusty, old, UFO believing lady. It was two hours and we drove over lots of big boulders and a few steep climbs, but luckily nothing too ridiculous. I was raised by Chris Lindblom, after all and have been in many a truck driving up steep embankments. It could have been much worse! We got out at a few pretty places to take pictures. 

Apparently, the "it" restaurant you HAVE to try in Sedona  is Elote Cafe, but they didn't have any open reservations. But we got an insider tip that if you go wait outside the doors really early, they'll take a few walk ins when they open at 5pm. So we went around 4pm and were the first ones in line and got in right away! We were seated at the bar but the waiter was super friendly and helpful. Honestly, he was probably the best waiter I've ever had. And the food!!! Ohmygarsh the food was incredible. Of course we ordered elote for an appetizer and it was amazing. Then we got the carne asada and the enchiladas to share and the enchiladas won, hands down. Absolutely the best ever. I couldn't believe how delicious! Their house chips and salsa wasn't shabby either and we ate til we were going to pop. But I couldn't NOT get a dessert... it's all award winning... so we got the chocolate pie to go. Best decision ever. We were licking the to-go container at the hotel.  

I guess we are old and lame because after dinner we were happy to go to the hotel and change into jammies. And make some Instagram reels, haha. We did one where the background audio says, "I don't need a therapist, I just need my bestie!" Then a different voice says, "No, you AND your bestie need a therapist. Now." And Rachel and I videotaped ourselves jumping from one bed, crashing onto the next bed. Haha. We think we're so funny. Then we did another video of a dance that's trending. Obviously, I had a blast. Which was needed because some really hard things were happening this weekend with my extended family that resulted in plenty of crying. I felt bad it was all going down during her visit. I was on the phone many different times and not as present with her as I would have liked to be. But when you break down sobbing in the bathroom, who better to console you than your best friend?!

Saturday morning we hiked the ever popular, Cathedral Rock! I've been wanting to do this one for a while. It wasn't exactly easy, but also nothing crazy.  I would be nervous to take children. There were several places that required climbing on all fours and plenty of steep cliffs. I think we did it in a few hours. 

I noticed an acai place called The Local Juicery that they have in Flagstaff that I LOVE. So we stopped in for a bowl and it was everyyyything. I savored every, last bite!

We went back to the downtown area to see if we could find a place that did massages. We parked and tried a few places with no luck. I had been calling around and finally located a place that had two spots open for the afternoon. It was within walking distance so I told Rachel she could take the first spot while I finished up buying a shirt I liked. When it was almost my turn, I followed the maps to get to the place, but as I approached, I was confused. It just looked like a run down house. I walked up and saw a sign confirming I was in the right spot... although everything was very, very wrong. The porch alone looked so disgusting and I had to laugh when I saw all the weed growing in pots on the ground. I had to pee so bad, but I could not fathom what the bathroom in this place was like. There wasn't even a decent place to sit down. I waited a few minutes and when Rach didn't come out, I started texting her. The longer I stayed, the more grossed out I got, so I walked away, down the street and decided I would wait for Rach to tell me it was OK before I went in for my massage. She finally called me as she was leaving and I whispered for her to turn left, as I was "hiding" farther down the street. The little turkey was going to let me believe I should keep my appointment! But by then I had reached panic mode and was not buying it, haha. She said the lady was very, very nice, but the whole place was covered in pet hair and definitely matched the porch vibe. I text the lady and told her I was allergic to animal fur and wouldn't be able to keep my appointment and paid for half of Rachel's massage. I can't understand some people! How can you think to have a business in those kinds of conditions?!! We laughed a lot and ran away as fast as we could! 

Chapel of the Holy Cross is a highly recommended place to visit in Sedona. It was built high atop the red rocks in 1956, inspired by the Empire State Building. I was surprised how busy it was. There was hardly a parking spot. Be prepared for a long, uphill walk if you go!

For dinner we went to a restaurant built like a tree house! Our view was breathtaking. It's called the Hideaway House and I was pleasantly surprised at how yummy our salad and pizzas were! We drove home after that, but man there is so much to do in Sedona! I can't wait to go back and try more hikes. Rachel had to leave Sunday morning because her mom was flying into Dallas that night so it all felt so short! As usual. There's never enough time when I'm with Rach but I was so grateful she made the trip out to see me!