Blue and gold banquet

To grandma’s house we go!

Portland

   A few weeks ago our family went to Portland for Logan's basketball tournament.  We had such a fun, wet, cold weekend! 

We stopped by Multnomah Falls on our way into Portland

   We checked into our hotel and were surprised to see another family from our basketball team was staying at the same hotel - funny because we choose to not stay in the team hotel .... and think of all the hotels in Portland!

  We went to dinner after we'd checked in and ran into another family - maybe Portland isn't as big as I thought....

   We also stopped by the Portland temple and went to the Visitors Center for a few minutes. It's a beautiful temple!  Hard to even see with all of the trees .... but it's there and it's beautiful!

   The next morning we had a few hours before Logan's game so we went into downtown Portland.  We checked out Nike Town and Powell's Book (the largest independent bookstore).  It was HUGE.   Level after level.  The girls got separated from the boys and there was no way we would have found them without phones.  And yes, we ran into a third basketball family!  Every kid picked a book and it kept them happy with all of our hours in the car.

  We ate lunch at the original Old Spaghetti Factory.  It was really fun and pretty - right on the river.

 
   Then it was finally time to play some basketball!  Logan had 2 games that Saturday.  We lost both, but it was fun - fun to play new teams, new venue, new city.

  We were all stuffed from lunch, so for dinner we hit Salt & Straw (apparently Portland's IT ice cream place).  Smiles all around with that idea!  The store was packed and we had a 20 minute wait in line - the IT place indeed!

   Sunday Logan's team played basketball, but we didn't.  We went to Sacrament Meeting in Lake Oswego and then headed to Cannon Beach.  It was the only sunny day we had the whole trip!  We walked the beach for a while and enjoyed the sunshine.  Despite being pretty cold, the beach was packed!

    We left Cannon Beach and went north to Astoria.  What a cute little town!  We walked around for a while, got custard, and drove the Astoria - Megler bridge into Washington before heading back to Portland.

   When we got back to the hotel everyone was hungry so Derek and I left the kids to go get dinner.  Stop one - Domino's for Emmy and Logan; Stop two - Taco Bell for Bailey; Stop three - Panda Express for Tyler, Derek and me.  Seriously???  

   Monday morning we packed up and came home.  We had a great time!

Sweet 16!

Don't ask me how ... but our little Emmy Lou Who turned 16 last week!  WHAT IS HAPPENING??  She's now 16, that's what's happening.  CRAZY.

She was excited to get a gym membeship

And some airpods

      She was none too happy about having to go to school on her birthday.  Though most kids go to school on their birthdays, she happens to be the only one in our family who has to go school on their birthday.  So she was feeling a little jipped you could say.  So I tried to make going to school on her birthday as fun as it could be.  

       I sent cookies with Tyler to pass out at early morning seminary - hopefully it was a fun way to get her a little birthday attention.  I also did a treasure hunt throughout her day at school.  One of our birthday traditions is that you always get a treasure hunt to find your presents.  So I thought a treasure hunt at school would be fun.  Tricky, but fun.  I grilled Tyler and Bailey on where we could hide clues throughout the school - it needed to be somewhere that they could hide them easily, Emmy could find them, but no one else would find them either.  We got it all planned out - and put it in motion.  I gave her a clue at home before she left for seminary that told her she needed to look in the church fridge.  She was so confused about the clue being at the church!  But off she went to seminary and found the clue.  That clue led her to Bailey's locker, where Bay had hidden a clue.  That clue was tricky and she couldn't figure out where to look.  She told me that her friends and her were all trying to solve it, for quite a while.  I even saw a video she'd taken of them trying to figure it out.  Finally someone figured it out and they were back on track.  That clue led her to look under a chair in a classroom.  I knew she had a National Honors Society meeting at lunch that day so I told Tyler to go in before lunch and hide the clue under a chair.  He called me at break, "Mom!  Problems!"  What?  "There's a class in the room I need to get into!".  Ok, how long until that class is out ?  "10 minutes".  Ok - wait 10 minutes then go in and hide it.  Ten minutes later, another phone call .... "Mom!  We have to abort."  Why?  "Emily's in there right now for her next class!".  Ok, go in anyways and hide it.  If she sees you, she sees you.  But better to have her see you than to call off the whole thing right now.  So Tyler went in, right in front of Emmy's eyes and hides it.  But she didn't see him!  Huh?  I don't know how, but she didn't see him hide it.  So she waited until her lunch meeting and then started looking under chairs.  She found that clue and it led her to the girls bathroom where Bailey had hidden a clue under a sink.  Emily couldn't find that one, and when I picked her up after school she told me she couldn't find it. So she and Bailey went back into the school to find the last clue.  They found it and ran back to the car to continue the hunt at home.  At this point in the hunt Tyler had taken over and had hidden clues all over the neighborhood!  Emily really worked for this treasure!  It was such a fun day!  Even if she did have to spend it at school.

   We ended the day by going out to pizza (her ultimate favorite) and then home for dessert.  My parents joined us for both.  It was a great day celebrating our favorite 16 year old!

Temple Night!

What a great night!!  With all of the age advancement changes Logan became a deacon and able to go to the temple way earlier than we expected!  And right after he was ordained we had a combined youth temple trip.  I told my kids that I was going to tag along, much to Tyler’s chagrin.   But how could I miss all my kids in the temple together?  And Logan’s first time?  It worked out nicely that they needed extra drivers so I was also a tiny bit helpful in my clinging.  

The night was awesome - Logan did great his first time.  He said the speed of the confirmations is what surprised him the most. Tyler even baptized Bailey and Logan.  

It was so great to be there with all 4 kids - that’s a rare experience and I recognize that.  The only bummer of the night was that Derek was out of town and couldn't be there.  That would have made it a perfect night.   But it was still pretty awesome.  

Oh my heart!!

It’s Happened!

For years we’ve been saying that Bailey would one day catch Emmy in height.  But Emmy’s held her off - for a lot longer than I thought she could.  But today’s the day she officially caught her.  Tyler even used the level on his phone to verify. 

Emmy’s height goals aren’t over though - she’s still working hard to catch me - and that’s going to happen any day - as well as hold off Logan. She better drink her milk!

Elton John!

  For Christmas we gave Emily ticket to an Elton John concert.  We knew she'd love going, but tickets aren't necessarily the funnest Christmas present to get.  Because it's nothing NOW, so I was a little worried about how it would go over.  We also got her an Elton John piano book and a Rocket Man shirt so it was definitely an Elton John Christmas.  She was so excited for the concert that it didn't seem to bother her at all that Christmas morning was a little anticlimatic. 
   We were both so excited for the concert (I mean, SO EXCITED)!.   I made an Elton John playlist on my phone just so I could know every song.  The week of were beside ourselves.  I coudln't even sleep the night before I was so excited.  And then it came!!!!
   We went out to dinner before, and got to the arena plenty early so we could get through security, find our seats, check out the merchandise, and soak it all up.  By the time the lights went down and Bennie and the Jets started we were IN.  ALL IN.  We danced and screamed and sang every word.  For 3 full hours.  We had the best time.  It was such a great show, but going with Emily, who loved every second was the best part.  On the way home she said, "I'd go again tomorrow night."  Oh me too Emmy.  Me too. 

About to start!

What an amazing composer, pianist, singer and performer -

thanks Rocket Man for the best night!

  Emmy and I are still talking about it nonstop.  We always ask each other "What Elton John song do you have in your head right now?"  We loved Rocket Man, Your Song, Take me to the Pilot, Crocodile Rock and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Newest Deacon!

  Logan is now a deacon .... what?????  With all of these church changes this was definitely not one I saw coming.  When we got the email saying that all kids turning 12 in 2019 would be ordained deacons on January 1st I think our whole family was thinking "....huh?  You want Logan to be a deacon now?  But he just turned 11. And he might not be ready for actual responsibility."  Tyler threatened to oppose his sustaining in sacrament meeting.  

   But forward we went - an interview with the Bishop where "he asked a gazillion questions that I didn't know the answer to any ..." , sustaining in sacrament meeting - where thankfully Tyler didn't oppose, and then his ordination.  

   His ordination came together perfectly - in a progressive ordination kind of way.  Josh was ordained a priest in his ward at 1:45 so my whole family was there for that.  Then we went to Allyson's house for a treat, then we all went to Logan's ordination at 3:30.  It was perfect!  We had lots of support - my parents, Jen, Hannah, Caleb, Allyson, Paul, Josh, Paisley, Mia and my 6.  Josh was even able to stand in the circle for Logan's ordiniation because he was a priest now!  Tyler was also in the circle.  It was a great blessing by Derek.  The whole thing was perfect.  

    Logan's loved the last 2 weeks he's been able to go to Young Men's.  They are having a campout in a week .... in January .... so the love might be short lived.

National History Day

      National History Day! Who's ever even heard of this??  Not me.  Emily came home from school a few weeks ago and said she'd entered the paper she'd written into the NHD contest.  That conversation really had to start at square one.
     They'd been assigned in Social Studies to do any type of research on a historical topic.  It could be a paper, poster board display, website, power point, some kids wrote a play (!), really the sky was the limit on how to present your information.  Any student who then wanted to enter their project in to the NHD contest could.  Emily wrote a paper on Queen Mary I, (Mary Tudor), aka Bloody Mary.
    She got all registered, turned in copies of her paper to the judges, and the morning came.  On the way to the judging Emily read me her paper and did I ever learn a lot about Bloody Mary!  Mostly because I didn't know anything about her.

    We got to the the school where the judging was and waited outside her assigned room.  We knew she would have to defend her paper in front of 2 judges.  They were all assigned a 15 minute time slot.  Waiting outside that room was scary!  Finally out came the judges and in went Emily.  She was gone all of her 15 minutes and then came out very relieved and happy it was over.  She told me the questions she'd been asked and how she'd answered. 

Waiting to go in

After her interview, we walked around to see the displays

  We knew the awards were going to be later in the afternoon and Emily said she didn't expect to win anything so she didn't need to go to the awards.  Later that afternoon I got a text from a friend who was at the awards asking if we were there.  Nope - Bailey and I were at a movie technically.  She told me Emily had won 4th place in the research paper category!!  I text Emily from the movie and as best as we could we totally celebrated via text.  

    I am so extremely proud of Emily for entering this contest.  She had to write the paper for school, but she easily could have quit there.  But she entered this scary contest and had to defend her paper to 2 judges.  I am so impressed that she would voluntarily do this.  It took such guts to enter.  

   I have really been impressed with how brave Emily is lately.  Entering this was brave.  A few weeks ago Tyler was running super late on a Sunday morning and Emily volunteered to go the church, play prelude and the opening hymn for him.  That was brave.  She joined the school golf team without having much golf experience.  And not knowing anyone on the team.  She's the only freshman girl on the team.  That was brave.  This girl has really become willing to try new things, go after what she wants, and not let fear make her decisions.  I'm so proud of her!

Eagle Court of Honor

  Last Sunday we had Tyler's Eagle Court of Honor.  It has been a long time coming!  Tyler officially got his Eagle last June, but we've been waiting for a few friends in the ward to finish theirs so we could do a Court of Honor together.  We waited and waited, and at times wondered if they'd really finish, and if waiting was worth it.  But boy was it!  It was so AWESOME to do it together.  Not only to split up the work between 5 families, but to make this an awesome, big production.  Finally our 4 friends, Jackson, Jaxson, Carter and Brayden crossed the finish line and we were a go.
  I sent out an email to the 4 moms and laid out how I'd split the jobs 5 ways - and told everybody to just pick what job they wanted.  Within a day all the jobs were assigned and everyone went to work.  Robynn took the program - getting speakers, prayers, music, etc as well as printing the programs; Alison took invitations - making them, printing them, and delivering them to all the people in the ward we invited; Shannon took decor for the gym; and Kristie and I split the food.  All of the planning was through text - not one meeting, not one phone call, it was perfect.
   Alison took all of the boys for a photo shoot in their uniforms.  It was cold and a hassle to get 5 boys together, but SO worth it (says me who didn't do an ounce of work).  She had lots of the pictures printed for displays around the gym.  It was my favorite part of the night.
   Alison's pictures:

 Carter, Jackson, Jaxson, Brayden, Tyler

My favorite one of the group

  The afternoon of the Court of Honor the 5 families showed up to set up en masse!  We were like a dang army getting it done.  We set up chairs for 150, set up displays, decorated with balloons, and set up a food table.  We were done in an hour.

                                    

We each made a display for our son - pictures, interests, accomplishments

Tyler's display
Golf, Jazz basketball, Hymn book, BYU, pictures of his project,
baby picture, family picture, Eagle pictures

For food, Kristie and I did cupcakes - in a US flag of course, fruit, and a chocolate fountain (marshmallows, pretzels, strawberries, pound cake, and brownie bites).

     And just FYI, a chocolate fountain shouldn't ever be in the same room as kids.  Now we know. We didn't know before.  But we do now.  Imagine plates of food swimming in chocolate.  Imagine tongues in the fountain.  Yeah, that all happened.  But it's ok, because this was the coolest Court of Honor those kids have ever been to.  And now we know.

     Each Eagle took a minute to describe what they did for their project.

Tyler telling us how there wasn't enough outdoor seating at his school so he thought he could solve this problem with his Eagle project.  Four awesome benches later he sees kids using his benches every day.  I love how he sees his project being used every day.


Jackson telling about the drug boxes he made.  They're used to train drug dogs to smell drugs.

Then he had a state trooper bring his dog and demonstrate  how the boxes worked. "This box has meth and herion." That dog stole the show!

Carter talking about repainting lines at an elementary school playground for 4 square and hopscotch



Jaxson telling about making spider blocks for the Fish and Game department.
I guess they help fish make their habitat?


Brayden telling about repainting parking lot lines at an elementary school


Derek made the cutest slideshow of the boys.  It had baby pictures, silly pictures, photoshopped pictures (sorry Tony and Jason), Eagle project pictures, and the cutest pictures of these boys throughout their years of scouting.  It was the cutest and funnest video!

Our friend Mike spoke - he talked all about being a scout camp with these boys, watching them grow up, how much they've impacted him personally, and how much he loves them.
 And he just cried.   It was so sweet.
He also told them that only 2% of boys who join Boy Scouts finish with their Eagles.
That's pretty impressive to be in the 2%!


Our good friend Tony is the one who gave them the Eagle Charge.
He just cried too.

   I realized again, not for the first, not for the 10th, not for the 50th time, how lucky we are to have had awesome leaders throughout these scouting years.  I've seen these men give up countless Wednesday nights to go do scouting with Tyler.  I've seen them take vacation days from work to go to scout camp.  I've seen them go camping on weekend after weekend.  In good weather and in bad weather and in awful weather.  I've seen them on Saturdays helping with Eagle projects.  Tyler has had wonderful examples of men who truly serve and serve and serve.

Eagle Time!

The boys taking the Eagle oath

They might have struggled with making the scout salute

Dont tell BSA 

Me putting on Tyler's Eagle pin

Me getting my Mom pin

Derek getting his Dad pin

Jackson, Shannon and Bill

Jaxson, Kristie, and Tony

Brayden, Robynn and Jason

Carter, Alison, and Doug

     Tyler telling us why he gave he has Mentor pin to Derek.  He told how Derek has been with Tyler every step of the way throughout scouting.  Which couldn't be truer.  I don't know if Derek has ever missed a campout.  He could have earned every single merit badge along with Tyler.n  Except Music and Cooking - I'm taking credit on those 2 babies.

  Our Bishop was the final speaker - he recited this poem:

Stick to your task 'til it sticks to you;

Beginners are many, but enders are few.

Honor, power, place and praise

Will always come the the one who stays.

Stick to your task 'til it sticks to you;

Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it too;

For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

Will come life's victoreis after a while

-Author Unknown

He told the boys they are finishers.  They finished this thing they started years ago.  And it was hard and it was long and slow.  And some of was fun, but lots of it wasn't.  And they'll always have that Eagle to remind them that they are finishers.  When their mission is hard, they can finish because they're finishers.  When a job is hard, they can finish because they're finishers.  When a class, project, companion, trial ....  anything they encounter is hard, they can finish.  Because they are finishers.  And this Eagle is proof.  I LOVED his thoughts.

   Tyler had so much family support come!  My parents, Jen's family, Allyson's family, and Lance's family all came to support him.  What a loved and celebrated teenager he is!

Tyler with my parents

Sam and Tyler

Two of my most favorite Eagle scouts ever

Check out these scouter supporter cousins and brother

Zack, Tyler, Josh, Sam, Logan, Jaxon, and Caleb

   It was the funnest, greatest, best night.  I feel like it was exactly what Tyler wanted - a big deal, because getting your Eagle IS a big deal, and derserves some attention - but he was able to share the attention 5 ways.  He didn't want to be the center of attention - but having 4 others to share the spotlight with gave him the big production he wanted without the all of the attention.  I think it was the perfect balance for Tyler.  I loved the whole thing start to end.  I loved doing this with my friends.  I loved splitting the work with my friends.  I loved providing this awesome night to have Tyler celebrated.  I loved having his friends honored too.  I loved the speakers.  I loved the support.
It was perfect.