Alyssa Receives Her Mission Call

Alyssa made the decision to serve a mission when she was a junior in high school. It is kind of a cool story, so I thought this is a good place to share. She was going through a rough patch, spiritually, leading up to that year in high school. She had recently made a split off from her friend group that she had had since childhood because she felt like most of them were making choices in their lives that didn't align with where she wanted her life to go. She went to FSY the summer before her junior year and told me after she got back that it was the best week, both socially and spiritually. She made the comment that she had forgotten what if felt like to feel the spirit and FSY helped her remember again. And then she got assigned to a seminary class with a teacher that changed her life. I don't even remember his name even though she has told me many times, but he made such an impact on her at a vulnerable time in her life. One night, I was headed out the door to something and I went to check in with Alyssa and she started to tell me about the experience she had that day starting in seminary. She said that they were talking about missionary work in class and it got her thinking about whether or not she should serve a mission. She got home from school and read through her patriarchal blessing as well as some scriptures about missionary work and received this really strong impression that she should serve a mission.

After making the decision to go, it was easier for her to make plans for her future. She also was heavily influenced by a new group of friends to continue in the path that led towards serving a mission. With a December birthday and an acceptance letter from BYU, she had to make the decision of whether to go after one semester of college or to go in the summer after completing a full year. She felt really strongly that she should go after one semester and put forth every effort to go as close to her birthday as possible. She submitted her papers on the earliest day she could and received her call on August 13th. She invited friends, coaches, family, and other meaningful people in her life to come watch her open her call. We put a world map and a US map up on the wall for people to make guesses. We also created an online guessing game for people from far away to make a guess, too. The lighting isn't great, but here is what the maps ended up looking like.

The nervous anticipation.

 

Reading her call letter. 

 She is going to the Philippines Angeles Mission and starts home MTC on January 6th. She will enter the Provo MTC on January 15th and then spend 8 weeks there before flying to the Philippines. We have heard that she will also spend a couple of weeks in the Manila MTC, but she hasn't received anything official about that yet. She will be preaching the gospel in the Tagalog language.

She is thrilled with her call, even though she has heard horror stories about the spiders and bugs there and the heat. She has heard that the people there are amazing and the treat the sister missionaries like princesses. They will especially love her blond hair and how tall she is. I actually told her back in June that I had the feeling that she was going to go to the Philippines. I don't know why. There are a lot of missions there, so I ended up guessing the Manila mission. Close, but not her exact mission. She will have such hard times over the next 2 years, but also so many joyful times too. I look forward to hearing about her experiences.

Start of School

The kids started school on August 14th (Ashley) and August 15th (Tyler and Camden) this year. I didn't get a picture of Ashley because she was quite grumpy on the first day of school and we barely made it on time. Tyler wasn't very excited for school either, but he did take a pic

Ashley is in 11th Grade at American Heritage School. Her classes include English, Algebra 2, Digital Design, Dramatic Improvisation, Seminary, World Religions, and Medical Anatomy and Physiology. Tyler is in 6th Grade with Mr. Cook. He is quite relaxed about discipline which makes for a chaotic classroom sometimes, but I think Tyler is enjoying his class. He has a drum set, guitar, and a foosball table in the classroom. Camden is in 4th Grade with Mrs. Oliekan (the same teacher Tyler had in 4th grade). He is loving being in her class, as well. Both boys are at Snow Springs Elementary School. 
 

Miner Family Reunion

Our biannual Miner family reunion was back at the YMCA Camp of the Rockies again this year. It's a beautiful location and the YMCA has some fun amenities. There was a fire down the mountain from Estes Park the week of the reunion, so our normal route had a road closure. GPS led us on a route through the mountains which ended up taking us into Rocky Mountain National Park. This would have been super annoying if we hadn't already been planning on buying a pass to go into the park on this trip. We ended up climbing up the winding roads to over 10,000 ft in the park. It was a beautiful drive, but caused a bit of car sickness. So we got out at the top for a bit.

We arrived at the Barclay Cabin around 4:30pm. Ashley was our only kid that was actually looking forward to the reunion. Alyssa was sad about it because Connor would not be there and she doesn't have any other cousins close to her age on this side of the family. Our boys were not that excited because they are a lot closer to their wheeler cousins than the Miner ones. However, after we got there, they found cousins to hang out with and ended up having a lot of fun.

On Saturday, most of us headed up to this mountain coaster in Estes Park. We have never done it before and it ended up being a lot of fun. Alyssa and Claire dressed in matching outfits that day without even planning it.

The kids got to play Bingo 3 of the nights we were there. Camden picked out this drawing board on the first night and spent the rest of the reunion drawing on it a lot.

On Saturday, I went with the boys and Ashley to the pool. I didn't get any pictures because I accidentally left my phone in the car. We stayed until Ashley, Tamma, and Claire were done swimming. I took them back and then tried to return with the boys, but the pool was filled to capacity, so they put us on a waitlist. We went mini golfing instead, which was also fun.

On Sunday, I went with Alyssa on a walk. We ended up on this trail that could have taken us into Rocky Mountain National Park, but we stayed on our side of the river instead. It was still beautiful.

On Monday, we joined Christy, Jeff, Becky, and anyone from their families that wanted to come at Rocky Mountain National Park. We did a hike up to Lake Haiyaha. It was kind of a stormy afternoon and it started dumping on us right when we got to the trailhead. Fortunately, it calmed to a crizzle by the time we started hiking and the sun came out at the top so that we could get some awesome pictures with the blue water of the lake.

It was so pretty and peaceful at the top. The hike down went much quicker. We stopped quickly at this waterfall on the way down.

We didn't see hardly any wildlife in the park. But we did see some elk on the drive back out.

We were a little bit late for Bingo that night, but they waited for us so it worked out. Camden got these waxy sticks on the last night. He wasn't that happy with them until I showed him how to use them. Then he quickly made some fun figures.

We also played tennis on Saturday and Monday and a lot of 1 high in the evenings. It's always fun to be with my family at these reunions. We aren't sure how many more we will have. We are looking into a location in Southern Utah for 2026, but we aren't sure if it is big enough to fit everyone.

End of Summer Fun

Ashley passed her driving test on her second attempt. I didn't go to the second test with her, so I didn't get a picture. I took this one at the first test. The driving school tested their students in Tesla's and Ashley had never driven an electric car before. She said that there were a lot of things that were different about the way the car drove, including how quickly it would stop when she took her foot off of the gas pedal and the signals would not stay on for her. That, combined with taking it during rush hour and a tester that didn't come off in the most friendly way to her made for a terrible experience. The second test went much better and we had her test in our car so she was a lot more comfortable. She will take over driving Alyssa's car when she leaves for college and then I think it will really hit her how nice the freedom is.

I took the boys to an indoor playground. We had never been there before and they thought it was awesome.

Camden called these balls his friends. The ball pit had screens in it that you could throw the balls at to knock out targets. They had fun with that when they needed a break from running and climbing.

We went up to Tibble Fork Reservoir to enjoy some paddleboarding. It was so pretty up there and the kids had a lot of fun. Lula even tolerated a ride on the lake with Ashley.

Our Stake had a mothers/sons swim party. It was kind of a disappointment this year because the Primary president accidentally booked the pool on the wrong night. So we all showed up to swim on a Friday night and then we couldn't go in because another group had reserved the pool. We had a wedding reception on the night that they had the pool party, so I didn't get the boys there until about 45 minutes before the end. They still had fun, but it would have been better on the original night.

Our neighbors took a trip to Europe and invited our kids over before school started and they left for 2 months. They had face paint and snacks and watched a movie and played. They really miss them now that they are gone.

We sure love our summer breaks and are always a little bit sad when they are over and the weather starts to get cold again.

Other Stuff We Have Done in July

The boys are really improving with their American Ninja Warrior skills. They take weekly classes with a coach and practice any chance they get outside of the gym. We have a pull up bar in our kitchen that they hang on and do pull ups on multiple times a day. It is fun to see them conquer new obstacles.

Danny and I went golfing at Hobble Creek. We only played 9 holes and I didn't totally embarrass myself. We got paired up with 2 men in their 70's and I was worried about how I would play with an audience since I haven't golfed in over 6 years. They commented a few times on how impressed they were with the way I played. I think the highlight of the morning was when I parred a hole by missing a chip onto the green and having the ball roll really fast right towards the pin and dropping into the hole. I couldn't have repeated that shot if I tried a hundred times.

We met up with Shannon and her girls at American Fork's Splash Party. They played on inflatables, waded through foam, got wet under the fireman's hose, and at some dippin dots. It was a fun afternoon.

Danny and I went up to Sundance for their summer theater production and BBQ. This year the play was "Newsies/" This is probably the 5th time we have seen this play in the past year. It was well done. We got rained on a little bit, but it wasn't too bad so we stuck it out to the end. There was a little bit of a delay so we got home later than usual. Sundance added in a nice little trail from the upper parking lot to the theater, so that was nice to take that instead of riding the tram down the hill to the lower lot and then walking back up the hill to the theater. It was about a half mile walk and really pretty.

 

Ashley's dreams came true this past week when she and Lula performed on a stage in front of a big crowd. Before COVID, Lehi used to have an animal talent show and the last time they held it was in 2019. Ashley had been working on some tricks with Lula, but she didn't feel like they were quite ready for the show that year, but she decided to work hard with her and enter her into the show the following year. Well, as we all know, the world shut down that next year so Lehi did not have their animal talent show. Unfortunately, they didn't have it in 2021, 2022, or 2023 either. However, in 2023, I noticed that American Fork had a talent show in July. So I looked up talent shows for both cities this summer and Lehi still did not have theirs, but American Fork did. So Ashley put together a demo video of some of Lula's tricks and sent it in. They accepted her and Lula into their talent show a few days later and she was sooooo excited. So the next week and half was spent putting together a 5 minute routine and testing it out in different public venues. Some places did not go well and Lula ran away. Fortunately, we tested it out in the park where she would perform a few times before the show and she always did well there. But as the night arrived, we still had not had a successful run through with an audience. So Ashley was really worried. We also did not know if they would have an over-the-head mic for Ashley since she needed both hands to do tricks with Lula. She was really nervous it wouldn't go well. The time arrived to go on stage. Tyler and Camden helped Ashley with the tricks and Danny and I stood guard on both sides of the stage to keep Lula from running. The 5 minutes went pretty well. They did have the head mic and Lula cooperated with almost all of the tricks. She got a lot of cheers and Ashley was happy with how she did. 

My childhood friend, Desiree, came into to town, so we got together to catch up on life. It was good to see her. 

Camden was in "101 Dalmatians" at the Lehi Arts Center. He was one of the dalmatian puppies and had so much fun singing and dancing on stage. We will see if we can get him into the fall production of Nemo. One of his best friends, Eliza, was in the play with him. They were so cute.

Both of his grandpa's got to come see the play.

It was only a half an hour long, but they only had 2 weeks of rehearsals, so it is probably good that it wasn't longer. It has been fun having Grandpa Miner here to visit.

4th of July

We had a nice Independence Day. We skipped the parade in the morning and just hung around the house and played games together. I was feeling ambitious and made some last-minute gluten free sugar cookies. They turned out super cute and they actually tasted good, too.

I especially loved the flag ones.

We had an early BBQ because we had tickets to Stadium of Fire. Alyssa was working the event and asked us if we could drive her so she didn't have to deal with parking. We weren't going to do it, but Danny decided that he would rather not have her driving herself home so late on the 4th of July. Since we took her early, we had a couple of hours to kill. We went over to the convention center with our drone and laser tag guns. We played around in the expo hall with both for a bit and then we played hide and seek throughout the whole building. Then we went up on the rooftop to enjoy the views. Last, we headed to the kitchen for some drinks and snacks. Oh, we also stopped in the ballroom and Danny took the kids for a ride on the lift. Tyler was a bit nervous, but Ashley and Camden loved it.

When we felt like we had killed enough time, we left the car parked at the Convention Center and we rode the bus over to the stadium. Our seats were on the north side and we had plenty of room to spread out since we had 5 extra tickets that we didn't manage to give away before the event. The show was good, besides the mishap with the fireworks at the beginning that shot into the crowd and sent some people to the hospital. 

I thought I would know a lot more of the Jonas Brothers songs than I did, but I enjoyed singing along to the ones that I did know. The fireworks were cool, as always. This year they added colorful drones to the show that would fly around and make different shapes and words in the sky. They continued to appear in the middle of fireworks throughout the show. It was pretty cool. After the show, we hung out with Alyssa for a bit, knowing that she was going to have to stay until the stadium was clear. This was a mistake as it put us behind a lot of the crowd. We piled onto a crowded bus but were able to snag the seats across the back. Then the bus started moving and proceeded to crawl away from the stadium next to the Marriot Center parking lot. I think it was almost an hour before we were actually moving again. By that time, Alyssa was done working and had started the mile and a half walk to the Convention Center. We caught up to her about 6 blocks from the car and got off the bus so that we could walk the rest of the way with her. We got home close to 1pm and we all slept in late after getting to sleep so late.
 

Uncharted Worlds at Thanksgiving Point

There is an exhibit in the Thanksgiving Point gardens that takes you back in time. We decided to go check it out with Shannon, Kennedi, and Abbi. There were a lot of dinosaurs like in past years, but there were some new fun things like giant insects, giant water creatures, and other land animals. They also had a little scavenger hunt to keep the kids engaged and learning about the different creatures.

After completing the scavenger hunt and walking through the gardens, they picked up their prize at the front desk. They were pretty disappointed that it was a left-over sticker from tulip festival and not something more exciting.

Some Random Things from June

One of my good friends that I play volleyball with moved to Florida. We had a going away party for her. I miss seeing her at volleyball, but she looks like she is really enjoying their new home.

Alyssa went through all of her school notebooks and threw away a bunch of stuff. She was happy to get rid of all of that.

Ashley went to FSY at BYU with a girl that used to be in our ward. They have kept in contact since she moved and decided to go to FSY together. Ashley regretted this decision as FSY drew closer. They haven't been as close lately and Ashley dreads hanging out with her because she is a bit pushy about making Ashley do things that she doesn't want to do. And the girl won't take no for an answer. So Ashley finds it is easier to just ignore her texts and keep her distance. But she could not do that at FSY. It was a pretty miserable week for her and We thought we would have to pick her up early many times, but she was able to stick it out the whole week. She said her company was not that close and she didn't really make any friends. She said it was that way last time she went to BYU/, too. Next year we will send her somewhere different.

The Knudsen's came into town to drop Connor off at the MTC. It was fun to see them and give Alyssa and Connor a chance to hang out a little bit before not seeing each other for the next 2 years. It was kind of sad to see her say goodbye. He is going to be a great missionary.

We got to have Claire for a day while Becky and Jake went to a work retreat. We took her to Labyrinth and we all had fun trying to find our way through the rooms. I think we only actually got to the end of 3 of the rooms, but we still had fun.

Alyssa helped me organize our pantry. This is the before picture. There was a lot of expired food and it was hard to find things in the chaos. It is nice to have it organized and clean now. 

I took the boys to the curiosity museum at thanksgiving point. They have a new room that teaches all about Argentina. It was fun to visit the library, school, grocery store, etc and find out what life is like in Argentina.

The kids have all enjoyed being on summer break. We have also spent a lot of time at the pool and they have played with friends a lot, too.