The Marston Family: May 2025

Proms, Blake's birthday, Mother's day, boating trips, bishop's chats and a very very special wedding. These are just a few of the moments we enjoyed this past whirlwind of a month. Loved having Evelyn home for memorial day weekend. Her visit was multi-faceted... partly to rest, relax and see us and then partly to spend some time with Reha. We've been busy busy with all things graduation/college prep as we head into this next season of life with Dane graduating on June 12th. It's a strange emotional roller coaster for me to be so happy for his next chapter and yet also so sad to know he won't be in that bedroom by the family room come August 20th. Change is never easy.

Youth events have kept both Blake and I AND our kids very busy. We enjoyed a beautiful temple trip where we met up with Grandma and Grandpa inside the temple, we put together an incredible Mormon Prom at the stake center with Elizabeth Judd at the helm! We have prepped and prepared for pinewood derby throughout the month--- happening next week! Organized Bishop's chats-- in fact this month we had a theme- Star Wars, since the chat took place on May 4th. Many good times. Our morning skills class wrapped up for the year as well. I do believe Anna and the girls learned quite a few coping skills and hopefully figured out how to go about managing the ups and downs of life a little better. It was a really fun year and now there's just one more year to go before Anna advances to high school and I retire!

Blake's birthday was enthusiastically celebrated at the office- as usual. The girls always think of the best gifts and found him a whole bunch of San Diego Football Club (our new professional club) garb. He loved it and for his birthday, he and I attended the game and had the best time. He's getting to be an old man, that's for sure- at 48 years old!

Such a highlight of the month was celebrating Coach Conor McFadden's wedding day with all of the soccer families we have been close with over the past 10 years. Seriously a special day for all of our boys who look up to Conor as their big brother/mentor. And special for all of the parents who love him to death too! Fanciest and most heartwarming day of the month by a long shot!

Mother's Day was sweet and special. Loved the notes and pictures the kids sent me. Loved my yummy steak dinner with smashed potatoes by Dane. Loved the sweet song the youth and primary sang in church and helping Blake put together the roses for all the women in the ward. Loved making my kids pose with me and knowing they for once couldn't give me any grief over it! Loved celebrating my own mother and Nancy and just about having my heart explode at the wonderful mentors and support systems they have been for me throughout my entire life.

Ev enjoyed a visit from the Paces in Utah. They attended the Kilby block party together along with hikes and shows. Ev is pretty excited to have Katy move up in a few months. She is working on small goals to increase her social connections. Words cannot describe how proud I am of her hard work in school and the work she puts into her own growth in so many ways. As a young adult she is constantly interested in becoming self aware and then fixing the problem. It's not easy to be on your own, in a challenging academic program and especially with some health concerns and social anxiety on top! But she handles it so well and I can visibly see the changes month to month!

Grant continues to be a pretty great driver all around town. He is a natural and I rarely go into fight or flight whilst sitting next to him in the passenger seat. Although, we have argued a few times because when I do get anxious, he doesn't appreciate it and I don't appreciate that he doesn't appreciate it and then we are in a standoff. Since he's a pretty great kid, I typically back down but it's not easy to be in charge of a new driver! Along with driving, Grant is basically living his best life surfing every weekend, buying used boards, working on them and then turning around and selling them for more cash. He's busy with soccer practices, Spanish tests, and baking his famous chocolate chip cookies. He just finished out the seminary year with the actual best seminary teachers on earth- Bro and Sis Wurtz. Both the boys had amazing seminary teachers and I framed these awesome pictures of the Savior with the one lamb to thank them for their hard work throughout the year. Not easy putting up with these Marston boys!

Dane has a bad case of senior-itis for sure! He is always pushing the limit with skipping school and seminary and really seemingly checked out a little from his purpose at the current moment. I've never dealt with this before because I didn't feel that way as a senior and Evelyn graduated a full year early... so I'm trying to be understanding but we are clashing a little at the moment! Besides this challenge of "effort" he's a lovely boy in every way. He and Kenzie continue to have a very loving relationship- they looked so cute together for both mormon prom and Poway High's senior prom. Celebrated Kenzie's birthday at Universal Studios (she had never been) and took the whole gang of soccer boys out for a senior boating trip this past weekend. Loved hearing Dane speak in church last week at our senior sacrament meeting and then celebrating all of the seniors afterwards at the snack'n with seniors event. Dane earned the semmy (seminary award) for being the most likely to give you the shirt off his back. I'm sad that he didn't go enough this last year to graduate, but I still hold out the fact that he could do the make ups this summer if I push it! I'd love him to earn that achievement since he did attend for so many years! Absolutely adored watching Dane perform in the Poway High spring choir concert!~. He was truly out of his element and so it was the cutest/funniest thing ever. Loved seeing all the soccer boys there! ha! If you asked what will I miss the most once Dane moves away- I don't think I could tell you. It might be his wonderful cooking, the way he helps out with driving, taking care of Coco and all household tasks? His funny sense of humor? I think what I'll miss most is his calm and kind aura and the way he knows how to make each of us feel special.

after party at our house- cereal bar!

Dane was at work!

Anna is truly growing up right in front of our eyes- both physically and socially. She continues to be the biggest social butterfly known to man and would spend time with friends every moment of her life if left to her own devices. Her low points in the week are definitely her Barton tutoring sessions which have been known to cause a crash out on many occasions. She absolutely despises these reading sessions but she knows they are necessary for her future academic success. She works so hard in school to keep up and does so with an incredible attitude so the whole thing is just plain hard for me to watch. I get that she's tired after school and doesn't want to continue doing the thing she is not good at (reading) for an extra hour after a long day. And yet, I feel to take her out would be to say the least, bad parenting. It's hard. Thankfully she has plenty of hobbies she loves like dancing and tennis and working out and spending time with friends. These seem to uplift her and stabilize the hard parts of life. Coco is about the most important thing in Anna's life and she just spends SO much time playing and teaching and loving her little dog. She takes Coco skateboarding and walking and swimming and so on. It's a very happy part of her life. Cannot fully believe that Anna will be in 8th grade- last year of middle school next year.

Lots of babysitting Sophie!

Enjoyed celebrating Jessica's birthday this month with a hike through Torrey Pines and a taco lunch afterwards. I feel so blessed to have these friends I've known for the whole 14 years of living in San Diego. Sameen is moving next week to another San Diego neighborhood-- thankfully not too far, but it was wild helping her pack up and remembering all the memories in her home, that used to be my home too! Love my new friends here on the other side of Poway too-- we attend all the sporting events for each others' kids because why not? Our kids love to go and we love to support it as well. We hike and help each other put together the world's largest/longest charcuterie board for a wedding open house- ha!

Working on our counseling business has been busy but wonderful. I love working with our counselors and this month had the chance to teach two seminars on incorporating executive functioning skills into the therapeutic setting. The counselors are all so kind and fun to work with and it makes he happy to be a part of it. So life is certainly busy in the best of ways and I'm grateful for it all.