Allie's Birthday Dinner

Allie wanted her birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  We got a really fun waiter, and he made it extra special for Allie.  He was the loudest shouter also, the whole restaurant definitely heard that is was Allie's birthday.  She felt special and we all had a good time going out to dinner as a family celebrating our Allie.  

Allie's Birthday - It's Devine to be Nine!

Our baby girl is officially nine years old.  She wanted wavy hair for school, so we put her hair in braids the night before.  She loved how her hair turned out and felt extra pretty and special on her special day.  She also picked out the clothes she wanted to wear.  It's fun seeing her personality and style come out as she is getting older.  

Allie is still super sweet.  She can have quite the sassy attitude at times, but she's mostly sweet.  She often asks me if she can get me a cup of crushed ice, or an ice bag if I'm not feeling well.  She loves to organize (like her mama).  She will get in the cleaning mood and go around cleaning and organizing the house.  She is a good sister, mostly, and a good friend.  She has been enjoying playing softball this season.  She is still really good at playing with her toys.  She likes Barbies, Legos, her Disney princesses, arts and crafts, coloring pages, and computer games.  She is a very good singer and likes to sing often.  She always volunteers to pray and loves saying the prayer.  We all love our Allie and are blessed to have her in our lives.

Fall Softball Begins

Fall softball has begun. Allie decided she wanted to try softball this year, so we were able to put her on the same team as Megan, with Tony being the head coach.

We were given a team that had no pitchers, so we told Megan that she would have to pitch.  Tony had held pitching and catching clinics and a few girls came out, so we have a few different girls who can now try to pitch during the game.  

I must say, Megan is the best one.  She does a good job, especially for her first year.  She threw a good number of strikes, and I was very proud of her.  

Tony is rotating all the kids in different positions so that they can all try them, besides catching and pitching.  Any girl who wants to try catching or pitching, he is letting them.  

Megan has also been hitting the ball really well.  She has gotten good hits that have gone in the outfield.  Allie has been doing great for her first season ever.  She is brave in the box and has gotten some hits.  I have been very proud of her too and how well she has taken to the sport.  It'll be a fun season watching these two girls on the field!

Trip to Auburn - Sunday

I got up this morning and showered.  Soon after I got out, the power went out.  It had gone out during the night, but then had turned back on in the early morning.  

I didn't mind too much about the power, except for my hair was wet and I couldn't blow dry it.  That bummed me out.  It always looks better when I dry blow dry it.  

Tony was able to shower, and we had the kids all get dressed for church.  We then made sure everything was picked up and cleaned at Wendy's house.  Then we packed up all our stuff and got it in the car.  After feeding the doggies, we said our goodbyes to them and then drove over to my parents' house to warm up our breakfast.  After eating, we drove to the church.

We sat behind Julie and enjoyed sacrament.  Boyd spoke before Averee, and he did a good job.  We then sang a song before it was Averee's turn.  She talked about everyday miracles.  I thought that she was very well spoken and did a great job.

Afte church we went back to Julie's house and helped her get ready for the lunch.  Once everything was ready, we prayed and ate the yummy food.  We snapped a couple pictures with Averee before saying our goodbyes and getting in the car.  We had a nine-hour drive ahead of us, so we needed to get to it.

The drive was a good one.  We started getting rain around Battle Mountain and it continued off and on until about Wendover.  At one point we were driving through a very low cloud when we came to the top of a little mountain pass.  It was pretty cool, and a little scary with how hard it was to see.

We got gas in Battle Mountain, dinner in Elko, and then was home a little after 9:00 pm.  It really wasn't too bad of drive, and we were all glad that we went to support Averee and spend time with family.

Trip to Auburn - Saturday

Saturday morning started off pretty chill.  We fed the kids pancakes for breakfast and then Tony and I went to brunch with my parents, Julie, and Gabe.

Before we left for brunch, the girls wanted to go swimming, so they did.  They jumped right it and loved having the pool to themselves and playing with the pool toys.  They both showed us their tricks before we left, and they looked like they were having so much fun living their best lives.

Julie picked up my parents and then came over with Kimball.  Kimball wanted to swim with the kids and was excited to show them the cool things that he had learned.  I later found out that Josh, too got into the pool and went swimming while we were gone.  I guess Tyler didn't want to swim in the morning.

We ate brunch at this fun nursery and food place.  They had so many beautiful plants and flowers that we looked at while we waited to be seated.  Our food was super good, probably the best breakfast burrito I have ever had.  It was nice chatting with family and enjoying the beautiful atmosphere.  

After brunch we stopped in at the office and got us some Veteran's United swag.  I got me a hat and that is always fun.  Then Julie took us back to Wendy's and picked up Kimball.  We got the kids changed and then we took them out to lunch, because it took us so long, they were definitely hungry.  

We took them to In and Out before going to my parents' house.  We ate some blackberries, Josh shot the pellet gun, Tony helped my dad a bit, and we enjoyed chatting.  

We then went to Julie's house where Allie made Julie a birthday sign and the other kids played together.  Tony then took all the kids back to Wendy's to go swimming and play there while Julie and I prepared some of the food for the next day.  After we were done getting the food made, Tony called me and told me that Josh crashed Wendy's golf cart into a wall.  He said that everyone was okay, but he couldn't move the golf cart.  So, Julie and I got into her car and drove to go rescue them.  While we were driving there, Tony was able to figure out how to get the wheel to move so that they could push it back to Wendy's house.  Which is good, it looks like the main problem is with the wheel, so hopefully it won't be too much money to fix.  Josh felt so bad about crashing it.  He just confused the gas and the break; it was his first-time driving.  Tony was very frustrated with what happened, but we had to chalk it up to a lesson learned and move on.

After all that drama settled down, we drove to the fairgrounds where we ate at a yummy pizza place.  We were the first ones there from our group, so we ordered and enjoyed being outdoors with each other.  The girls played on the playground while the boys played chess on Tyler's phone.  Once we got our pizza, we all gobbled it up.  It was super good.  When we were about done is when the other's showed up.  We hung out with them for a little while before we decided to go back to Wendy's to get showered and ready for bed.  It was a super great, fun filled day, but also super stressful and emotional.  But isn't that how life is.  Lot of great highs, but also plenty of lows. 

Trip to Auburn - Friday

We started our trip bright and early Friday morning, around 6:00 am.  We really wanted to get going so that we could spend as much time as possible with family.  It is also nice to start driving while the sun is still raising and there isn't as much traffic.  

We picked up breakfast in Wendover and then continued on until Battle Mountain where we got gas, and all used the bathroom.  Then we drove to the Reno Costco.  We got some lunch there and walked around looking for treasures before checking out and then getting gas.  

Then we hit the road and drove straight to Julie's house.  We had a few things to give her for her birthday from us and my parents, which she was so excited about (chocolate and bottled apricots and tomatoes).

She showed us around her yard and garden that they've been working so hard on.  It is looking so good; they are so close to having the yard they've been dreaming of.  

Julie and I then went to Walmart and Sam's Club to pick up the food needed for the lunch after Averee's Fairwell talk.  It was fun shopping together and having fun.  Tony picked up the kid's pizza for dinner and then the adults were going to go out to eat after the shopping was done.  Turned out that too much stuff needed to be done, so we decided to stay and help them get their back yard all cleaned up for the lunch.  

After we were done cleaning up, we left to go to Wendy's house.  Wendy was in Spain and the boys were with Gabe, so we had her house to ourselves (and her doggies).  We stopped at Taco Tree on the way to Wendy's for Tony and I to get some dinner.  It was good. We got all unpacked at Wendy's and we got the kids showered and we then relaxed for a while, played with the dogs, and then all went to bed.  It was a long day of driving, but totally worth it to be with our family.

Frist Day of School 2023-2024

A new school year has begun! The kids were all very excited to go back to school.  Tony gave them all a father's blessing the night before.  It is always a special moment when they each get their own special blessing.  

They said that their first day of school was great.  They all have friends in their classes and like their teachers.  I think this is going to be a very good year!

Another Family Fun Day at the Cabin

We had another fun day up at the cabin.  We decided to take Koda with us and just keep him on leash while he was outside.  We didn't want him to hurt his knee or get any ticks on him.

The day started out wet and cloudy, but cleared up after a couple hours and was very sunny and beautiful.

We went on lots of four-wheeler rides and hung out in the cabin.  Tony changed out the burners in the old barbeque grill with some new ones that my mom had bought.  The kit wasn't the exact right one for that grill, but Tony made it work the best he could.  We needed the grill to work because we had marinaded steak, we wanted to grill up for lunch to make fajitas.  Tony got it working and the lunch turned out super yummy.  

I had to talk in church the next day, so I brought up my talk and fine-tuned it while enjoying the mountain air.  We decided around four it was time to clean up and go back home.  It was the perfect amount of time to relax and enjoy the cabin.

Texas Trip - Day 7 & 8: Megan's Black Eye & Lots of Driving to get Home

While playing with a toy guitar, Megan accidentally hit herself in the face with the guitar.  It caused a bruise on the side of the face, close to her eye on the day it happened.  The next few days after it happened her eye got more and more black.  It is hard to tell on the pictures, but it was looking pretty bruised.  She was a trooper about it, and it didn't seem to bother her.

We woke up pretty early on Tuesday morning to get on the road around 6:00 am.  We quietly got ready and loaded up our car before saying our goodbyes to Nate and Amy.  We really wanted to beat the heat and get a good start on our extra-long drive.  

We decided to drive further on this day so that our drive the next day was shorter.  The traffic was good, and we didn't have any problems.  We stopped at a gas station that had multiple options for lunch.  We got some mini pizzas and Arby's food for us all to eat.  After eating we then drove the rest of the way to the hotel in Gallup, NM.  

We checked into the hotel and unloaded our stuff into our room.  We checked out the pool and saw that it was a pretty small pool, and the hot tub was out of order.  We decided to not go swimming and just go out to dinner.  Tony found us a Mexican type of restaurant that was very Native American inspired.  Tony got another Navaho Taco and liked it.  Most the food was decent, and we all ate our fill.  That night we enjoyed relaxing in our room and then Tony got us some ice cream for a treat.

We left that next morning fairly early, after eating breakfast.  I noticed I left my ring in the room about 10 minutes into our drive, so we had to turn around and go back to the hotel.  Luckily, I found it and we were then back on the road.  We decided to have a late lunch at a pizza place that we like in Utah County, so we just had to stop a couple times to use the bathroom and get gas.  The weather was crazy on the drive home.  Lots of rain, wind, and lightning.  The traffic was slow moving on the way home after lunch.  It was raining pretty hard and that really slowed things down.  But we made it home safe, and we unloaded the car quickly and were all happy to be home after a great vacation.

Texas Trip - Day 6: Donuts, Shopping, Lunch, Chruch Pickleball, & Family Fun

We woke up planning on playing pickle ball at the park.  We loaded up the cars and drove to the park to find that the court was already occupied.  We let the kids play a little at the park before we realized that the court was going to be occupied for a long time.  We then drove to a different park that had multiple courts, but all those courts were being played on.  So, plan C was to go eat doughnuts instead.  

Nate took us to his favorite doughnut place.  Amy had to take her girls to a doctor's appointment, so it was just Nate and the boys with all of us.  The doughnuts were all very yummy.  It was a nice treat.  We then went back to Nate's house so Nate could call some people in his stake to see if we could use the Stake Center to play pickleball.  

They were able to get ahold of a sister that said we could use the building and get her key after lunch.  Woohoo. 

Nate wanted to get a pickleball net for us to use at the stake center, so Tony, Nate, Megan, and I drove to Sam's Club to see if they had a net they were selling.  They did not, so we then went to a sporting store that was nearby and he found a net there.  Woohoo, again.

We then waited at their house for Amy and the girls to get back and then we all loaded up and went to lunch at Dairy Queen.  Margie told us about the country steak fingers and gravy that she had at the DQ's in Texas, and how good they were.  So, we wanted to try them out.  They were good and it was fun to try something new.  The kids' meals also came with a frozen treat, so the girls all really liked that.  

After eating we were able to go to the Stake Center and set up Nate's new net and get our pickleball play on.  Tyler and Matt played against Tony and Nate first and that was fun to watch the teenagers get really into beating their dads.  

After that set, it was the girls and Josh's turn to play.  They rotated in and out players so more kids could play.  The nursey had a bunch of toys out, so some of the kids played there while others were playing pickleball.  

Then the adults got to play.  Nate and Amy knew the actually rules and taught us well.  They ended up beating me and Tony and we all had a great time.  

We then packed everything up and Nate and the little kids took Matt to his tennis practice at his school.  It was 106 degrees that day, so I felt bad for the kid.

The rest of us went at got shaved ice.  It was yummy, but a little different.  Some of the flavors were kind of weird, but I liked my root beer flavored shaved ice.  

After we ate our treats, we returned the stake center key and then went back to Nate and Amy's house.  We then relaxed in the nice cool house.  I started getting our bags packed and ready to go for the leaving the next day.  

Tony and Nate picked up some yummy Texas BBQ for dinner after they picked up Matt from tennis.  It was very yummy food and we all liked it.

After dinner we relaxed some more.  We watched some World Cup Women's Soccer and just enjoyed each other's company.  Allie started not feeling very good this evening, so we spent a lot of time snuggling and watching soccer.  She went to bed before the other kids (besides Oliver).  Megan and Lydia stayed up chatting with each other and so did the boys.  I really enjoyed watching the kids play together and stay up late talking.  We had such a great time with family and having the kids get four solid days of cousin time was the best.  We love spending time with family and were so glad that we made this trip happen, even during the hottest time of the year.