Some Random Stuff from the past 6 months

In February, Danny and I got to attend a chocolate tasting at this small chocolate factory and store in Provo called "The Taste." This was the spread at each seat. We got a short tour of the factory, and then we returned to our seats so that they could teach us the proper way to taste chocolate (who knew that I had been doing this wrong all my life :)). It involved breaking a small piece off and then rubbing it between your fingers a bit to make it meltier. Then you are supposed to take a big sniff of it before putting it in your mouth and letting it melt away. I tried it out for the first piece I had but then decided that it didn't change things much from just popping it in my mouth and leaving it there for a bit to enjoy the flavors. Danny and I both liked the middle one on the right side, which had a bit of honeycomb mixed in with the chocolate. Although, there was one with dried cherries that was pretty good, as well as one with a strong cloves taste. 

After the chocolate tasting, they had us sample some things from the other plate, including kinds of vinegar and a Nutella spread that they make in the shop. I was a little hesitant with the kinds of vinegar, sipping them slowly. The first one had a tangerine taste to it and did not taste much like vinegar. The second one was also sweet with a berry flavor (I think). So, the third one I was less cautious with, and I nearly threw it back up. It was much more like vinegar. Danny had a good laugh from my reaction. It was a fun date night.

In February, I FINALLY got to see Hamilton. I had tickets to see Hamilton with my mom and sisters in April of 2020. Obviously, that did not happen with the COVID-19 shutdown. So, when things opened up again and we were offered the chance to get 3 tickets to Hamilton in Salt Lake City, we jumped at the opportunity, mostly for me. Danny was not interested in seeing it, so I ended up taking Alyssa and Ashley with me who were both studying US history in school this past year. We almost lost our chance to see it again when our January 15th show was canceled because some of the cast had COVID. We were so relieved to hear that they had rescheduled our performance for early Feb. Alyssa was very familiar with the music, but Ashley had only heard a few of the songs before seeing it. It was a fun afternoon, and the play was SOOOO good. 

I also introduced Ashley to Les Miserables a few weeks later when her school put on a production of it. She had never heard any of the music before we went and didn't know the storyline until I briefly explained it to her on the way there. She liked it a lot and the cast did such a good job for high school students.

We finally installed a patio cover in February. We had been talking about doing it since we moved into this house 11 years ago, and finally decided it was time to do it. Ashley and Lula had fun playing on the scaffolding while they were working on the pillars. 

We think it turned out so good and we love having it. It really extends that living space of our house.

The only downside was when the birds thought we had built it for them. These mourning doves tried to move in on our ceiling fans. And then after we had finally convinced them that the fans were not a good place to build their home, some little birds moved in to build on top of the pillars. Danny discouraged them by putting wobbly 2X4s in the place where they were trying to build their nest.

For spring break, we canceled our trip to California and flew Grandpa Miner in for conference weekend instead. It was fun to have him here with us. After he went home, we took a day trip up to Honeyville to visit Crystal Hot Springs. We had never been there before, and the weather seemed perfect for it that day. The kids loved it, especially the slides.

I took Ashley and the boys to tulip festival alone this year. I think Danny was busy with work at that time. The flowers were gorgeous this year and the weather was perfect that night. We had a lot of fun.

Alyssa replaced all of the balls in her ball hopper when the weather finally warmed up consistently. She had fun with the old balls.

She also built a tennis ball garland to hang in her room.

 Tyler and Camden love going to the Ninja Warrior course. They are both pretty good at it too.

 

Ashley and I went out to see the blood moon in May. This was the best picture I was able to get of it. We had a little bit of cloud cover that night, so it wasn't very clear, but the moon did look really cool.

And Lula had a birthday, too. I forgot to include this in the post about birthday celebrations. Ashley insists on celebrating her birthday every year and made her this cake. Looks disgusting to me, but Lula enjoyed it. Although, it took her 3 days to eat it, unlike Casey.

And I think that catches me up to the beginning of June.

Birthday Celebrations

Camden had his first friend birthday party ever this year. He surprised me with his request to have it be a dinosaur-themed party. I had fun with the decorations and food, especially the watermelon. 

He invited 12 kids and most of them ended up coming. It made for a crazy couple of hours.

I went the easy route with his cake and just stuck some of his toys on top. I was supposed to put "Jurassic Park" on it, but I forgot to include it (since I was scrambling to finish the cake before the guests arrived). With his birthday falling on a Sunday this year, he actually got a bit of a birthday weekend, with the party on Friday, a family party with cousins on Sunday, and his class celebrating it on Monday.

Tyler also got an extended birthday celebration this year. We had chosen to start our annual Lagoon camping trip on his birthday this year. So we let him open his presents and chose a restaurant for dinner the day before his birthday. He chose to go to Texas Roadhouse because he wanted to sit up on the saddle. I knew we would all be stuffed, so I asked him if we could do his cake later in the week after we returned from Lagoon and he was fine with that. He did get to enjoy some ice cream after dinner and the saddle.

Earlier that day, we also went to the Provo Rec Center pool. I let Tyler invite his best friend from school and we had a fun afternoon. The weather was a bit cool that day, so it wasn't very crowded.

Then on his birthday we headed out for 2 days at Lagoon. Alyssa opted to stay home again this year. It was probably a good idea since she was having back pain at the time, as well as a broken little toe.

 The first day at Lagoon was amazing. The lines were the shortest we had ever seen them, and the weather was perfect. We rode all of our favorites multiple times and had a lot of fun. The second day in the park turned out to be the most crowded we had ever seen Lagoon. It was one of those middle school graduation days in the park and it was awful. To make matters worse, the middle school kids were cutting in line all day, so the already long lines were taking 3 times as long as they should have. We were so fed up with it by noon, so we headed into the waterpark. The slide lines were short, so we took advantage of that at first. But less than an hour after opening, they closed down 2 of the slides and the main swimming pool...FOR OVER AN HOUR! So back out into the regular park we went. The lines were still annoyingly long, and we watched groups of 10, 20, and 30 teenagers walk up to people in front of us and join them in line. We decided it was time to go back to our trailer to eat and take a break. We were hoping they would all leave at 4 or 5 and that lines would be more reasonable. A lot of them did leave, but the lines never really got better. Needless to say, it was not our favorite day at Lagoon. We were fortunate to, at least, have had the previous day with super short lines. In years to come, we will make sure to never visit the park on a school day again. Not even sure why they open the park to the public on those days.

After we returned from Lagoon, we made Tyler his requested birthday cake. Well actually they were a cross between cupcakes and a cake. He wanted a snow cone cake and Alyssa found a video that showed us how to do it. They were kind of sad looking, but he was happy with them. And if we did not look too closely, they almost looked like real snow cones. 

We ended up splitting them in half and sharing 1 mini cake between 2 of us. 

End of year School Activities

The end of the school year is always so busy. Alyssa went to 2 different school dances. She was brave and asked a friend of hers to the Sweethearts dance in Feb. Not only was it the first dance she went to, but it was also her first date. And it was a girls choice so it ended up being really stressful for her. But she had a lot of fun once all the planning was done.

Shortly after Sweethearts was over, the prom invites started going around. She didn't think she would get asked and was worried about being able to find an inexpensive formal dress. All of her friends got asked to go before she did and some of them even told her that she was going to get asked to go, but she could not figure out who was left to ask her. The answer came late one night (well actually we didn't find it until the next morning)

We went dress shopping and she tried on about 30 different dresses, but none of them felt quite right. And then a neighbor offered to let her try on some of her daughter's dresses from past years. And that is where she found the perfect dress. She even got her ears pierced in preparation for prom. She looked amazing and had a really fun time. She said the best part about it was not having to be in charge of all of the planning. 

Ashley, as an eighth-grader, had the opportunity to try out for the school Shakespear play. She got a part in it and spent a whole semester of class time preparing for the play. It was "A Midsummer's Night Dream." She got to be a character that does a short play within the play where she plays the part of a lion. She loved being able to do a short scene of roaring and rolling around the ground like a lion. She did a good job in the play, and she was kind of sad when it was over. She has discovered that she actually enjoys being on stage.

I got to chaperone Ashley's field trip to Hill Airforce Base Museum.  I have never been there. The big military planes were so much fun to see. They had a scavenger hunt, and we were barely able to find all of the items on the list before we had to leave.  It was a fun way to be thorough in our exploration of the museum. We had a fun day together.

Camden had a donut day at school where I got to go and listen to him read for 30 minutes while we enjoyed a donut. We read one of the "Flat Stanley" books.

The boys had an end of year school fundraiser called the dragon dash. The fundraising comes from the merchandise they sell before the event. Then the parents come and watch their kids run for 30 minutes. One side of the rectangle had a lava field and they had to jump from rock to rock across it. the next side changed from dancing, to leapfrog, to walk backward, etc. It was hot, but the boys seemed to have fun.

I also helped with Camden's field day. He got to rotate through different activities like bowling, frisbee, golf, relay races, and obstacle courses. he had fun and I was glad I could spend that time with him, even if it was a little cold that day.

There was a superhero day close to the end of the year. We went with costumes we had so Camden dressed up as Luigi and Tyler dressed up as Marshall from Paw Patrol. Not exactly the normal spiderman and batman superheroes, but it worked.

There was also a grandparent's day and Gawbie and Grandpa were nice enough to attend. Basically, they ate lunch with the boys and then took them to the book fair and let them pick out a book.

Tyler finally had his first field trip a week before school got out. I got to go with him. It was to the Children's Museum at Thanksgiving Point. He mostly hung out with his best friend, Carter, and we tried our best not to lose the other 2 boys in our group.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of other things that happened at the end of the year, too, but these are the things for which I had pictures. The kids all had a good year of school. They loved their teachers and made new friends and were sad to have the year come to an end. 

Spring Sports

We had a busy spring with sports. Alyssa ran track for Lehi High School and really excelled this year breaking all of her personal records. Her events are 100M hurdles, 300M hurdles, long jump, and high jump. Her best events were the 100 M and long jump. We had fun cheering her on this season, especially at the qualifying meets that she was able to compete at.

Tyler, with encouragement from Alyssa, decided to try track and field out with the city rec program this spring. he got to learn the techniques at practice and then compete in 5 different meets. He learned that his favorite events that he can compete in at his age are the 4X100 M relay and the javelin throw. He had fun trying something new out.

Tyler also had a basketball season from January to March. He had fun playing, even though he wasn't the fastest and most skilled player. He made some new friends and got a little bit better.

Camden played soccer. He got a little better this season and was able to be aggressive and get in some good kicks. He even scored a couple of goals. 

Now we are at the start of the tennis season, but it is pretty relaxed throughout the summer. Things will get busy again in August when Alyssa really starts her tennis season and Camden starts up soccer again.