Best Life

This past week or so has been a lot of fun. As we near the end of the school year, we have all been squeezing in some fun wherever we can and living our best lives.

Last weekend we went with the youth in our ward down to the Willamette Valley temple open house. We took the whole family and it was very special to be in the temple as a whole family for the first time.

Last weekend was also Mother's Day. When we got home from the temple, Jeremy and I started celebrating with a date night. We went to the inaugural home game of our new WNBA team, the Portland Fire. We got free shirts and an Ashanti concert at half time. It was a great night.

 The girls continued the royal treatment by giving me a spa day the next evening. Also, not pictured, but definitely too good not to mention, Merrick spoke in church last Sunday and gave such a sweet Mother's Day tribute to me.

As the weather has warmed, Merrick has taken every free moment to go fishing. Up until this week, he hasn't caught anything, but this week his luck finally changed and he caught his first fish. His smile shows just how he felt about it.

As the cherry on top of a great week, I took Friday off of work and went with Elsie on her fieldtrip to the zoo. Since we had so many adult volunteers, our group for the fieldtrip was just Elsie, her BFF, Shay, Shay's mom, and I. The girls had so much fun despite the fact that is was a little cold and rained just a bit.

Like I said, it was a great week. We have more fun planned for this week. You'll have to come back and read about it soon.

CC Becomes a Teenager

 This was a big week in our house. Carrigan turned 13! And just like that, two of our three kids are teenagers. CC's big day fell on a Monday this year and she should have gone to school, but Elsie had the day off and I just didn't have the heart to make her go to school when Elsie got to stay home.

It turned out CC got to have her best day ever. The day started with her favorite breakfast, cinnamon rolls. Once everyone had gone off to school and work, Elsie and CC started crafting. They spent the morning doing all kinds of crafts.

Once the crafting was done, we headed out.  We started with lunch out and then went to a local farm. Much to CC's extreme pleasure, they had all kinds baby animals and even some miniature zebu, which are a type of miniature cattle. There was a baby goat that followed us around and nibbled on our shoelaces. CC was in heaven.

After the farm, we went home for dinner, cake and presents. This year we did our best to throw CC of the scent by wrapping several presents with dollar tree items. The real gift was that we have planned a family trip to Silverwood theme park. We told her by giving her a stick wrapped in foil. Get it? SILVER WOOD. She was very confused. We leave in just a couple of weeks.

I have to say, I have really lucked out with very nice teenagers thus far. I know, famous last words, but we've been really blessed so far. CC is the best and we are so lucky to have her as part of our family.

Awards Week

 This week started with awards ceremonies for both Carrigan and Merrick. Carrigan had her end of dance season party. She was given the "Sherlock" award by her peer leaders and the "Most kind-hearted" award by her adult leaders. Merrick was recognized as he was inducted into the Spanish National Honors Society. I am super proud of both of them and their accomplishments.

Also this week, we had games for both Elsie and Merrick because it would not be a week in our household without sports. Elsie had a softball game. She got to play catcher for the first time. She was not a big fan. Merrick has a basketball tournament. This is the first time I got to see him play with his spring team. It was great to see him on the court again.

Let the Games Begin

 So, I missed last week. I didn't actually forget or have any reason not to write, but it was a pretty uneventful week with no pictures or anything note worthy to share. So, for the first time on the 15 years I have been writing the blog, I just chose not to write. I guess we will call it a vacation. 

In any case, I'm back today. We had a week full of sports, like so many weeks before. Elsie had her first (and second) softball game of the season. Poor Elsie has not really been able to practice batting or catching in practice thus far this season because of her arm so she is at a bit of a disadvantage, but she is doing great. She'll get there and in the meantime, she is having a blast with her friends.

Carrigan had a track meet. She has mostly been focusing on javelin this year and is enjoying her experience. She injured her shoulder a couple weeks back, but seems to be feeling better now.

Merrick had a very busy week. He had lifeguard certification class which he will need for his job this summer lifeguarding at our neighborhood pool. He also had his first games with his new spring team, Willamette Select. He didn't feel like he played his best going straight from hard work in the pool to the games, but he pushed through. It doesn't help when you are guarding someone who weighs 100lbs more than you.

There is one thing I can say about my kids, they like to keep us busy. 

Run, Jump, Go

It's been yet another super busy week. Elsie had softball practice and a birthday party to attend. She has been such a trooper about going to practice even with her brace. She has one good arm to throw, but saying catching has been difficult is a definite understatement. She also hasn't been able to bat at all. She is now done with the brace, but we may or may not try batting this week.

Carrigan continued with track practice most days after school and she had her first track meet of the season. It was very clear that she was too nervous to fully commit on long jump, but she had a great showing in javelin. I was impressed with how far she was able to throw.

This week, Merrick started prepping for his upcoming lifeguard certification. Prior to the training, he had to pass a pretty difficult prerequisite test so Jeremy took him to the pool to practice this week. He was able to pass that yesterday. He also had 6 plus hours of online training videos to watch prior. He is diligently working away on those.

As for Jeremy and I, we had a whirlwind weekend. We left early yesterday morning for Salt Lake. We arrived around lunch time. We had lunch and after a quick power nap, we headed downtown. We walked around temple square and the downtown area, got dinner and super yummy ice cream, and then walked to a concert venue to see The Format on their reunion tour. We had such a blast, but walked, stood, and jumped around so much that we could hardly move by the end of the night. Combine that with walking through 3 airports and let's just say my watch said I earned at new exercise PR for the day.

This morning, bright and early we flew home. It has been an exhausting but fun week and weekend. While I feel physically tired, the getaway was just the emotional recharge I needed.