This time of year is always the beginning of crazy town in my mind. Right before spring break; right before the chaos of so many shows, sports, end of year events, visitors, tournaments, etc! So it was truly wonderful to take a brief respite from all the busy and head off to Papeete, Tahiti for the week- our Christmas gift to the kids. We had the most wonderful trip and I hope I never forget it. All of the things that made me feel uncomfortable at the beginning of the trip, ended up making everything so incredible at the end. A house with no TVs, no internet connection, no charging stations (adaptors weren't working), no air conditioning, no Diet Dr. Pepper! How could we do this? By the end of the week... I never wanted to go back. It was so fun watching the sunsets, slowing down, going to bed early, rising early, living practically outside with the ocean breeze as you slept. We had the most amazing time snorkeling off the back porch of the house, playing with Melissa and Max's dogs- Teepapa and Tita, taking a family surf lesson, wading in the warm water, hiking around the island, shopping at the French grocery store- Carrefore. We bought souvenirs at the Papeete Market, ate the local fruits, chicken and dumplings, drank so many smoothies. We took the ferry over to Moorea a few times and snorkeled there; spent the day at Cocoa beach and swam with sharks and sting ray! Ate lunch on the beach and ordered so many Pina coladas and magnum ice cream bars we thought we would burst! It really was just a magical vacation and one we will never forget! Blake was a super star for planning this whole thing out and driving/parking/managing the language! So grateful to him.
Business as usual before the trip.... Anna started volleyball this month. She learned to serve, bump, set and spike. So proud of her! She is actually quite good at volleyball and I love watching her play! This month, parents were allowed to go to dance class and watch all that the kids had learned over the past 8 months. Loved watching my sweet and talented little dancer do her thing. She taught her friends at school a dance she had learned in her jazz class for the school talent show. The routine was SO darling from Hairspray, "Nicest Kids in Town". The routine stole the show and of course Anna was just the cutest and most animated little dancer you could imagine. Cannot even fathom the idea that this little cutie is about to graduate from elementary school and move on to middle! She had so many questions for the cute 8th grade girls who came to teach a middle school prep Girl Scout meeting. Something tells me Anna will handle middle school just fine. Weekends have been very busy for Anna this month. She tried out for a play and so she has play rehearsals on Saturday evenings. She has volleyball practice and tutoring on Fridays then always brings a friend to Grant's flag football games. They love walking around and seeing all their friends from school at the fields. Then a volleyball game on Saturday mornings! The days are usually filled with playdates with Kate, birthday parties (see Hadley's 50's party below) and/or watching other friends perform in their plays (see Anna supporting her friend Cozy in Rumpelstiltskin below). Proud of Anna for spending a lot of her free time at reading and math tutoring. A mom from school teaches math after school and sometimes even takes the girls out to frozen yogurt! This is so incredible and helpful for Anna and we are so grateful! Anna is about to get her teeth pulled this week by Dr. Miner so she can start round 2 of braces! YIKES.
Grant has kept super busy this month with Friday Night Lights flag football games to kick off the weekends. He absolutely ADORES the team he is on with a bunch of 8th graders from school/church. And of course it's always fun to watch Grant play- he's passionate, fast, and coordinated. Love this time of year when he is playing football and soccer even though it's busy. When he isn't practicing sports, he's practicing guitar or with his big 7th grade friendship group. He LOVES these kids and absolutely adores hanging with the gang. This month, they hiked through a creek at Audrey's house, visited the temple for baptisms, went to stake dances, and enjoyed a bonfire at Carson's home. This month Grant's resource teacher collected information about him from a variety of. teachers around the school for his annual IEP. The collective narrative was SO kind and SO complimentary towards Grant. He is very well liked by his teachers and friends at school. He is getting straight A's and has an incredible attitude. So proud of this kid!
Dane finished up high school soccer this month and that's always a sad thing. High school soccer is so much fun. Loved celebrating the kids at the awards ceremony and remembering all the awesome highlights of the season. Most of Dane's JV team are also on his club team at Force and this month we all traveled to Las Vegas for a soccer showcase tournament. The boys had the best time walking the strip, playing hide and seek inside Home Depot, staying up late and getting kicked out of various stores/restaurants for being such a big group of crazy boys! I loved the weekend spending time with a few parents I enjoy and watching Dane happy! Dane continues to cook for us when he has time.... a new specialty is his smash burger which is a huge hit around our house and Anna's very favorite meal. So cute that Anna bought herself a bunch of skin care items and begged each member of our family to allow her to perform a skin care routine on them. Of course Blake consented and Dane did as well. Dane enjoyed the spa treatment and now has hired Anna to perform the skin care routine regularly! Haha. Dane is gearing up to re-take the behind the wheel drivers test again. He had an incredible two hour lesson with a bus driver from La Jolla- Johny. The guy was quite harsh, but really taught Dane well and helped him gain confidence and become a better driver. So now we wait for April 10th. I'm hoping it goes well! Cute story about Dane. A few weeks ago, he asked Blake to drop him off at the Poway Plaza (movies, restaurants) to "meet up with Hiru" (soccer buddy) on a Friday night. Blake mentioned to me, he sure was wearing an awful lot of cologne to be meeting up with Hiru. Sure enough, at 10:30pm when he asked me to pick him up--- he was sitting with a girl! He later told me she had asked him on a date and they went to dinner and movies. So cute. Dane is an incredible kid. So proud of him for working so hard on retraining his brain to let go of thoughts that bother him and cling to the good in life. It's not easy but he's been working extra hard and I truly admire everything about him.
Loved spending time with Evelyn this month in Tahiti. She had matured so much. She was so kind to her siblings and helpful to me. She is growing more and more into a lovely person and I'm so excited to see all that life holds for her. She had the best time hanging out with Emma who came to town to tour UofU. And then she decided to attend there! So now Evelyn will get to have her buddy in Utah next year! SO fun. Funny story for Ev: for Christmas Ev wanted to go to a few concerts. For some of the concerts I bought two tickets, but Joshua Bassett- his was expensive so I asked did she want one ticket and then more gifts? Or two tickets and less gifts? She decided on ONE. So when the concert date approached and it became reality that she would be attending this concert ALONE, she got a little weirded out. We laughed about how you have to have a LOT of confidence to show up at a concert alone. HA! In line waiting to get in, she called me and she was on speaker with Grant and I. She claimed she needed to be talking to someone so she didn't feel so dumb in line by herself. Well after 10 minutes or so, Grant and I needed to get to where we were going and she didn't want to get off the phone because she didn't want to look stupid all by herself. We told her to just pretend she was talking to someone on the phone while in line because we really did need to go. And then we all started laughing so loud because that just became the most pathetic picture on earth. A solo concert attendee pretending to have a friend on the phone, all by herself in this line.... Ha! It was a good laugh. But she had an awesome time and heck, I told her now she'll have a funny thing to say for two truths and a lie: I once attended a concert all by myself.
As for me... I've definitely been a little scatter brained as of late. I think maybe it's a pre-menopausal fog? Or just too much going on? We've all been worried about Grandpa this month. He's had trouble recovering from back surgery, has a blood clot, and trouble with his legs giving out on him and falling unpredictably. This has been very unsettling for all of us- especially Nancy who is taking care of him! Sure enough a few weeks ago, he fell and broke his shoulder. It's caused him very intense pain and it can't be cast so it is a slow healing process. We have all been sick with worry but grateful that he is now in a facility that provides 24 hour around the clock care and physical therapy. It's hard to see Herb in pain, but we are hoping he is able to slowly get back to feeling himself soon. So that's been a worry and on both Blake and I's minds a lot this month. Blake is sure busy at the ortho office. I took the kids in this month and enjoyed seeing all the updates. Blake is looking to remodel a little because it needs a little boost. But this is preoccupying his mind~! Our house is a burden at the moment:(. We had another leak in the walls and the insurance isn't going to pay to re-pipe but it's quite a lot of re-piping involved. It destroyed Grant's bathroom and the walls around the cabinet/family room. It's a big mess and again.... something that takes up brain space! I randomly broke out in hives this month maybe due to stress? I have no other earthly idea why! Very strange. But just all over my stomach and legs and arms for close to a week. Then it naturally disappeared. Sent a text to my brother to wish him a happy birthday on March 5th.... then when he joked with me that I was the first person to wish him a happy birthday this year, I felt worried that my family had forgotten. Yes- my mom usually sends out birthday reminders to us as a group so that we don't forget to text our siblings on their birthdays and she hadn't yet done that! So I took it upon myself to send the family a text reminding them it was Dave's birthday and gosh, didn't they remember? Sure was proud of myself. That is until I realized that his birthday is April 5th, not March 5th. Which I know. But which I just somehow didn't register with my brain. Oh man....did my family have fun making fun of me after that text. It was a good time.
Loved seeing Mean Girls TWICE this month! Once for Chanel's birthday and once for Rachel's birthday-- all in the same weekend. Some of my favorite friends, doing my favorite thing! Broadway musical! Absolutely loved this. Loved walking even though it's been absolutely positively WET everywhere and rainy/overcast almost every day this month. It's been an interesting change and I've enjoyed not sweating on my daily walks. Our family even hiked Iron Mountain with the Henrys and Matters last Sunday because it was so cold out and not blazing hot as it usually is in San Diego mid day whilst hiking. We had a blast making it up 3 straight steep miles and then back down again. Super fun hike. I've been working a lot with my clients. Love the poem that one of them wrote about her special brain and how she processes school work. She and I have worked endlessly on to-do lists and finding confidence despite things being a little harder to organize in her mind. I really love what I do!
