Kellie in Buffalo, NY

 In June I was able to fly to Buffalo, NY for a week and help my friend Katie (Angerbauer) Egan while she was dealing with chemo treatments. She is only 35 years old and dealing with breast cancer. She has 3 little kids- ages 1 1/2, 5 and 8 and I am grateful I was able to provide a little relief for her and her family. Jeremy (her husband and Cade's good friend and college roommate) was just finishing his medical residency. They had a home being built in Oklahoma and Jeremy started his new full-time job as a surgeon the first of July. In Katie's words, "you can't make this kind of crazy life up!" Cade's mom was able to take care of all of my kids while I went to take care of Katie's. The kiddos were having a rough time but they were all trying their very best. Katie was such an inspiration to me of looking to the future with faith and making jokes to help her be strong. She was always so positive and I am so grateful for all I learned from her while I was there!

Hiking Date

 

Cade and I went on a hiking date to Lower Bell Canyon in Sandy. It was long and hard and SO much fun. The last half of the trail had water coming down and made it a great adventure. When we got to the falls the water was AMAZING and HUGE. I love being in the outdoors with Cade. So fun. 

Big Jerry: New Family Addition

 Well, we did it. We got a bus...or a 15 passenger van which is just like a bus. We rented one for Goblin Valley and couldn't turn back! It was near impossible to find but I kept passing by an auto place on state street and finally called them to ask if they had an AWD big van. It cost a lot but we are SUPER excited about future family road trips!!!! We went on our first road trip to Cali in June and then entire 11 hours there, there was no screaming, crying, fighting, etc. We looked at each other when we got there and we said to each other, "This van...was definitely worth buying!" 

Oh, and it BARELY fits in our third car garage spot...so that's another reason I was good with buying it!

Piano Recital

The girls did their spring piano recital and did a great job. Becky Seamons has been a blessing with how close she is and her knowledge. The girls really enjoy taking lessons from her and her daughters. 

End of School Fun

Random fun things towards the end of the school year. 

The end of school BBQ. Grandma Close was so nice to watch Jane and Benson so I could go because Lucy's lunch starts at 11:00 and Emma's wasn't until 12:15. But ended up that the office sent them all out at the same time for me to eat with. It was fun. 

 

Mrs. Bagley- one of the worlds greatest teachers ever living. Reese had her for 5th grade when my neighbor told me that she was moving from the school she worked at to ours. I am SO glad. All of my girls got to know her because they all went to hang out in her class room after a lot of school days. She truly loves children. Reese is SO sad to not have her next year. 

We took the girls to The Rush Fun Center while Gma and Gpa watched Benson and Jane. We actually had a fabulous time. We went bowling, swing off of a trapeze rope into foam blocks, played mini golf, did bumper cars and our favorite- raced in go carts. The go carts we did 4 or 5 times cause we loved it so much. Lucy was definitely nervous about them but after she got through the first time she absolutely loved it and wanted to keep doing it! 

We went to The Riverwoods with all of our kids except Emma- she was at the end of school party. We brought Reese's friend, Kenzie with us. The kids were starving at one point and Cade and I decided to be brave. We took all 6 of them to a fancy restaurant full of lots of adults. They thought it was pretty fun and they did better than expected. Reese even was brave and try the appetizer...you can tell she wasn't a fan haha. 

Emma's last orchestra concert for the year. It was so fun to see how much they all progressed throughout the year and how their songs got harder. She has LOVED orchestra and it's been fun for her to be a part of a group. 

I helped in Nora's class for their end of school year "Carnival of Knowledge". Mrs. Webster is a phenomenal teacher. She made it seem like it wasn't a big deal but they had all sorts of carnival games, snow cones, prizes, and the cutest decorations. We loved it. 

Hope of America

 Reese was involved in a really neat program called “Hope of America” along with 100’s and 100’s of 5 graders all around Utah County. It was such a neat thing! They performed at the Marriott Center on BYU campus. It was so cool to watch and kudos goes out to all the 5th grade teachers and those who put on the production.

Spring Sports

 This spring we decided to dive into the crazy world of spring sports. It was intense and I made a big calendar to go on our kitchen wall so we could keep track of all the overlapping schedules. 

Emma and Nora did PG Track Club. Nora wanted to do it and since Emma hadn’t decided on anything else to do I signed her up as well. She wasn’t super happy about that but has done awesome. Both girls are pretty fast and it fun to watch them! 

Lucy did Futsol (indoor soccer) and had a great time. She made a few goals and loves being active. It wasn’t intense with Futsol- just each Saturday morning. 

Reese did soccer and found a new love for something active! The whole season was only 6 weeks but was 3-4 times each week. Made it a very busy 6 weeks. She said during the season “Mom! I think I found my thing!” She loves it and is excited to keep doing it. 

Being that busy is not my favorite but I love cheering my girls on in things that are active or that they enjoy doing.