Memorial Day

 I posted these patriotic quotes on my instagram stories for Memorial Day. I also included clips from two patriotic songs I love, the first is "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band and the second is "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood

For Memorial Day we went out to Camp HiCliffs with Kefford's family for our annual Memorial Day Weinie roast and waterslide fun. Ryker brought Matthew along so he could have a buddy and those two had a lot of fun with all of the little kids. and I think the little cousins liked having another big person to torment.

Ryker and Matthew going down with Hazel throwing a beach ball at them. We found the ball on the side of the road while we were doing highway cleanup and Kefford kept it, sanitized it and brought it along with us.

It was a hot day and the waterslide was used the entire time we were there. Lots of Cousin Trains went down and everyone had a lot of fun.

Matthew, Ryker, Asher, Brielle, Qiana and Brooke

Rylee gt a splinter in her foot which Kefford was able to get out for her, she was tough and let it happen and Avynlea had fun keeping an eye on the entire operation.

For a short time the older kids had a kickball game going but it didn't last too long, not all of the big kids wanted to play and the rest petered out.

Matthew, Rylee, Brielle, Ryker, Avynlea and Allie

As we were leaving Whitney had us hold Dylan so she could pack up her stuff and so I took some pictures  of my kids holding him. 

I got sent this cute picture of Rylee, Lainey, Sadie and Qiana and they all look so cute. Lainey especially looks pretty adorable with that big smile on her face being a big kid and going down the slide.

We had another great Memorial Day being with the Peterson Family and I am glad this is another tradition we have. I like doing things with family and the Peterson's are pretty fun to do things with

Orchestra Concerts

Rylee had a couple of orchestra concerts happen within a couple days of each other. The first one was at her school on Thursday May 27th and her teacher said they were going to livestream it so I let my family know so they could watch.

It was held outside for more covid precautions, it was hot but not too bad, luckily the concert didn't last too long. First to perform were the 6th graders and then the 7th and 8th graders performed their three songs. Unfortunately the computer timed out right after Rylee's first song and so Heather, Ashleigh and Mom were not able to watch the entire thing. Bummer. Rylee did a great job and I am impressed with how much she has improved the violin.

Kefford met us there after he got off work and he was able to see her perform a couple of her songs.  He left after we took a picture with Rylee and then I had her stand in front of the brick wall so I could get a couple shots of just her. She felt awkward and did not want a picture but the kid was nice and let me take a couple of shots.

On Saturday May 29 Rylee had one more orchestra concert with the trio she has been practicing with. Their music teacher joined up with some other teachers and did a concert in the park. I did not know much about it at all and assumed that when we got there Rylee would perform and we would go home. Nope we sat and waited in the heat for two hours listening to kids perform on the piano, with guitars, with just signing, it was a lot and really boring. Finally Rylee and her group performed their one song and we could go home. I was hoping to be able to livestream it for my family but that didn't work out because we had to wait so long for her performance so I recorded her and then sent it to my family. Rylee did a great job, no surprise there, she is pretty amazing and even said because of the glare from the sun she couldn't see her music and was still able to perform. Their teacher Tamilla also played with their trio and I am sure having her join in helped them keep on track.

A group picture was taken of Tamilla with all of her music students. The two girls on either side of Rylee are part of her trio and Tamilla, her teacher, is three girls to the right of Rylee. 

PowderPuff

On Wednesday May 26th Avynlea got to play in the end of school year Powderpuff game. She did a great job and I love this shot that was taken of her during the game right after she took the flag off the girl with the ball. Avynlea hustled and played hard and the Sophomores ended up beating the Freshman in overtime with a score of 6-0. Apparently this was the first time an overtime was played in the history of MHS Powderpuff games. Luckily the Sophomores managed to step it up and score in the overtime so they could have the win.

The Fab Five

Paige and Natalie didn't play the powderpuff game so it was just Dreya, Avynlea and Hailey but they came and watched and supported their cheer besties.

They also made signs to hold up for the girls

 

Seminary Graduation

Sunday May 23 was Seminary Graduation for Ryker. We were given a link for those who couldn't come to watch at home and I sent it to my family who I knew would have been there if they lived closer. Mom and Heather tuned in to watch and Heather kept us entertained by sending screenshots of her being involved in the program. First she was sitting on the stand, then she was the speaker, next she was part of the musical number and finally she was next to Ryker as he walked across the stage.

After the program was done and the Grads got their certificates we got a picture of Ryker with his good friends...

Grace, Ryker, Matthew and Echo

Then we got a picture of our little family minus Kenedy. It is a little sad to not have our entire family at these events but that's what happens when they grow up and move away. I am proud of Ryker for this accomplishment, I hope the things he has learned in Seminary with stay with him throughout his life and continue to help strengthen his testimony. I know he learned a lot and enjoyed his Seminary classes, he would often come home and tell us things he learned or lessons that made an impact on him.

Dance Connection Recital

 

On Saturday May 22 we had The Dance Connection spring dance recital. Quite a few years ago I stepped back from teaching for the Dance Connection. Cyndi asked me if I would stay on and do administrative stuff which I had no problem agreeing to and it has been great. I have been able to choose my own hours, work from home if I needed to and not work if I couldn't. I was also available for subbing which I know they all appreciated. With Covid The Dance Connection suffered a lot. Over half of the centers they taught in stopped letting in the extra curriculars activities like dance and Cyndy had to let Hailey go which left Holly, Brigitte and Riley as the active teachers for the new dance season. At the beginning of January she told the teachers she was going to have to cut hours because they just couldn't afford to pay everyone and since Holly was part owner and on salary she was going to take some of their classes. It was hard but everyone understood, unfortunately Riley got a job offer from one of the Daycares and she took the job leaving the Dance Connection without a teacher to teach her classes. Cyndi was able to divide most of them up between Holly and Brigitte but there were 4 classes she could not fit into either of their schedules and so she took two and asked me if I would be willing to teach two. I really did not want to but I knew she was really stressed out and didn't have any other options so I said I would and started teaching Premier and Born to Succeed on Wednesdays. The second week I taught at BTS the director asked me for a copy of my child care license. Although it is a requirement fo rate teachers to teach dane in the boise daycares I did not have one because I have not been a teacher, only a sub and it has never been a problem. I couldn't get my license in time to teach the next week and it was turning into a big hassle so Cyndi asked Brigitte if she could let me teach her Dreamland Meridian class and she take the BTS class. Brigitte was fine with it and so for the rest of the year those were the two I taught. 

Dance Connection had to cancel the Spring Recital the previous year because of Covid and I know a lot of parents and dancers were really disappointed as well as the dance teachers. We knew we had to have one this year but Cyndi was super stressed about doing one and was constantly making herself sick over all the problems she was coming up with in her head about doing a recital. We basically had to hold her hand and force her to keep planning a recital because we had to have one this year. I really felt that her business would close if she did another year without a recital especially when things have been opening up and people were done with covid precautions. Finding a venue was difficult but we managed to have a church in Boise let us use their outdoor pavilion. Once we had that Cyndi spent a lot of her time worrying about the weather but we assured her no matter what it was happening and it was going to be great. Of course that day we had the recital the weather was cold with lots of rain. The church let us use their gym for the first 3 shows but then we had to be out because they had a funeral coming in. The weather was the worst at that time so it was ok and we were grateful to be able to be inside for some of the shows. 

My Premier class was in the first show and I was [retty happy we could be inside for it. Cyndi has always been the one to welcome the parents and introduce the show but she did not feel like she could do it this year and we did not want her to stress about that so I did all the speaking to the parents. I do not like public speaking but I was happy to help and let Cyndi have the time to just watch the shows and see how happy the dancers and the parents were to have a recital.

Cora, Isla, Lizzie, Kaylee, Mya, Evynn, Mila and Ezra

My premier class did a really great job and I was super proud of them. I have really liked this class and though they had their moments they were a really good class to be with. One of my stipulations with taking these classes and teaching again was that I wanted to do the same recital dances for both classes, I just didn't have it in me to have to choreograph and remember 4 more dances. I did "Mickey and Minnie on a Moonlit Night" for their ballet and "The Girls on Minnie Street" for their tap dance. 

Born to Succeed had their turn to perform later ion the day when we had to move outside. It was cold and it was rainy off and on but I never heard one complaint from either the dancers or their parents. I know everyone was just happy to have something back to normal and glad to have a recital despite the conditions. Born to Succeed was a class I did not enjoy teaching, Olivia was really hard and made going there not fun. I survived and they did a great job at recital as well. 

Avery, Olivia, Kyla, Rainee and Beatrice

After the last show we got everything cleaned up and then we had a picture taken of us teachers. McKayla didn't teach with us this year but she helped a ton at recital and we were happy to have her there and she counted as one of us. We went out to eat at Fiesta Guadalajara at the end of the night and when that was over I went home and took a hot bath to get the chill out of my bones and to relax my aching feet. Oh how glad I was that the day was over.

Cyndi, Elizabeth, Holly, Brigitte and McKayla

Ariel Swag

Friday was a colder day and I had to go to the store so I put on my Ariel sweatshirt and then decided to wear my matching Ariel shoes and once I grabbed my backpack I deiced I needed to do a quick photoshoot of this all Ariel outfit as well as the hairstyle I did that morning for my Instagram Hair page. 

It took quite a few pictures before I finally found one I liked of my hair and my outfit. The kids were all at school so I had to do this one on my own.

The winning pictures! Not too bad for someone who still really doesn't know what she is doing picture wise. :)

sidenote... the sweatshirt I happened upon at Walmart, it was on clearance for $10. The shoes which had the same exact picture as the sweatshirt Avynlea spotted while we were at Goodwill. They were brand new with tags and cost me $4 and the backpack Kefford bought me for my Birthday.

 

Ryker is Called to Serve!

The first day that we were in Hawaii Ryker got a text from Church Headquarters letting him know that his mission call was ready to be opened. We were all so excited and instantly started debating when he should open it. Kenedy and Kelsey were kind of pressuring him to open it while we were in Hawaii, Kenedy wanted to be present for the opening and Kelsey I think thought it would be a cool place to open it. Ryker had wanted to open it at home with family and friends present but I could see he was being a little too pressured to do it there and I finally told him he needed to do it his way how he always imagined it. If he wanted to open it in Hawaii that was fine but if he really wanted to do it at home with more family and friends there than he should do that. He ultimately decided to wait and thankfully we had the trip to distract us because if we had to wait a week for him to open it while we were at home we all would have gone crazy.

We made plans for him to open it Monday night, May 17th, at 7pm. Ryker invited a bunch of people to come to our house but for those that couldn't I would do an instagram live so they could tune in to watch. I put the message out on Instagram, Kefford let his family know and I told my family.

I was fine all that day, I was busy getting the house clean and I baked brownies, bought ice cream and made a hot fudge sauce for those that were going to be coming. It wasn't until about an hour before that I started to get a little panicky and kept thinking to myself that this was happening too soon. It felt crazy and a little surreal that something we had talked about and planned for since he was born was finally happening, I all of a sudden was not ready, but it was happening so I had to be ready :).

Friends and family gathered and I was able to figure out how to do Instagram live and Ryker was ready to go. Mikayla had Kenedy on FaceTime so she could be a part of it in Texas which. appreciated. Alison came with Whitneys family but Bob stayed home and so Whitney was trying to FaceTime him and we had to wait a couple of minutes for that to get figured out. Also, while I was trying to figure out how to do a live on Instagram I kept having messages form my families group chat popping up that they couldn't find the live and where was it and did they miss it and why can't they see it. It was comically frustrating and I wanted to tell them to stop messaging so I would stop getting interrupted as I was trying to get the I've going. Finally it got figured out and my family were all able to tune in. 

Ryker pulled up his email was was able to start reading. They added a couple more paragraphs to these mission calls and Ryker had a bit to read through before he got to the part we were all more interested in.

Ryker has been called to serve in The Texas Houston East mission and he reports to the mission home on September 1st!

He was happy to read right after that that he will be speaking English, Ryker did not want to have to learn a foreign language and was really happy he wasn't assigned to a mission where he would have to learn one. 

My friend and neighbor Arin Lamb came over with her two little boys for the mission call and she recorded me aa Ryker read his mission call and then took my reaction picture right when I found out where he was going. I never thought to have anyone record me during this and am so happy that she did. I was visibly nervous as he was reading and I had spent a lot of the day thinking about where he would go and if it was foreign I thought Africa but I couldn't think of anyplace in the United States where I thought he would go. I was really worried that I would be disappointed about where he was called to serve and really didn't want to be I wanted to be excited. When he read Texas Houston East I was instantly excited and thrilled and 100% all in. It felt exactly right to me and I couldn't believe I didn't think of Texas before. I knew right then that this was the perfect place for Ryker and that he was going to love being there and serving the people who live there and I couldn't think of a better place for him!

 

Flying Home

 Sunday morning it was time to fly home. We got a shuttle to the airport and the driver who picked us up was really nice and very talkative. He basically told us his life story on that drive. When we got there Kenedy got checked in pretty quick and went to her terminal but we had to wait for our gates to open and we waited for a good 45 minutes. Once we finally got our stuff checked in our family went to Kenedy's terminal to give her a proper goodbye. It was pretty emotional leaving her knowing we wouldn't see her for a couple of months and maybe longer depending on when Ryker leaves for his mission and she is done with nannying. Once we said our goodbyes we headed over to our gate to get really for our flights.

When I checked us in 24 hours before out flights we got our tickets and Rylee and Avynlea had seat numbers but Kefford, Ryker and I did not. I thought it was really weird because I checked us in right when I got the email telling us to but I decided not to worry about it. United employees must had a different schedule than those of us flying because when we got to our gate I wanted to talk to them about our tickets but once again we had to wait for the employees to show up. Once they got there I told them we needed seat assignments and they said they would figure it out and to be patient they would let us know. Finally we got our seat assignments and when we all boarded Kefford and I discovered we were upgraded to Business class...yeah! We were not sitting together but we had comfy reclining seats with a foot rest and better earphones. It was a nice flight for us going back to the mainland. Ryker did not luck out like we did and I don't know how we got the luck of the draw but we took it and enjoyed every minute of that flight!

We were all exhausted by the time we landed back in Idaho and got our luggage. We had a really fun trip and did a lot of cool things and I am so glad we got to go as a family, but it sure was nice to be home.

Aloha