All Together in Utah—Day One and Two

April 30 and May 1, 2026 

Thursday was our first day of vacation in Utah, and it was so fun to have Grandpa Vore join us. We had rented a nice Airbnb in Lehi with several rooms, a beautiful backyard that had a basketball court, and in-ground trampoline, and a playground. It ended up being the perfect place for everyone to hang out during all the little pockets of downtime.

We quickly dubbed the house “Utah”—and then eventually “the Utah house.” 

That name came about the night before. Tanner and his family had just made it inside after their 18-hour drive when we decided to go back out for dinner. As we were getting ready to leave, Kaide started panicking and was nearly in tears.

“I don’t want to leave Utah!”

Poor little guy was SO confused. We had to explain that we weren’t actually leaving Utah—we were just leaving the house to go eat dinner—and promise him that we would come right back to “Utah” afterward.

It became the Utah house for the rest of the trip.

Before we moved in and made ourselves at home!

Brian, my dad and I arrived a few hours before everyone else and ate in SLC and checked out the temple renovations. Temple Square was closed down and reopening two weeks after we left—darn our bad timing. The Salt Lake City temple will have a huge open house next April-October and then be rededicated. I hope we will be able to go to the open house.

Parker was apparently otherwise occupied—either buying a new suit or making a trip to the doctor. Both happened during dinner at some point on this trip, but I can’t remember which night was which.

Friday morning started with something really special—Aubrey received her endowment at the Saratoga Springs Temple. It was such a beautiful way to begin our first full day together.

Grandpa Vore, Parker, me, Brinley, Aubrey & Brian (A big thanks to Tanner and Erin for helping with baby Cal)

I loved being in the temple with Aubrey.

I was grateful that three of Aubrey's friends were able and willing to come support her as she went through the temple for the first time.

Afterward, we made a quick surprise stop to say hi to Joseph, who works from home and see him and Kate's new house. We also got to peek in on baby Wells and see Lauron, who babysits while Joseph and Kate are at work.  

Then we went to lunch with a few of Aubrey’s friends and Erin’s MISSIONARIES! Matthew McDonald and Nate Quilter—two missionaries whom we all love and who will always have a special place in our family. ❤️

McDonald and Quilter came back to the Utah house afterward, and we spent some time throwing the football and playing b-ball in the backyard. (Mostly Tanner and Kaide spent that time with them. They are all good friends from the time they spent together in Odessa. Parker wasn't feeling great, and the rest of us hung out some and then napped. Derek was working on Friday and Brinley made the back and forth trip to their apartment in Orem.)

Later that afternoon, everyone cleaned up and got ready for family pictures (always an adventure—I posted about it here.), followed by dinner out.

I am glad someone snapped these candid shots while we were finishing up pictures--they're fun.

Temple, missionaries, family time, good food, and good friends—it was a pretty great first full day of vacation. 

Apparently I Needed Something to Do

August 28, 2026

Just one more thing about seminary and ChatGPT. (Well—to be honest, there will probably be lots more things about seminary.)

I guess God was preparing me because I have had way too much time on my hands this past year. I quit helping with my mom so I could be available to help with Kaide while Erin is in nursing school. Her schedule fluctuates from week to week, and I have only had him about 3 to maybe 10 hours a week. (Which has been AMAZING/so much fun/we do all sorts of things together—but I digress.)

I have been bored. Too much time on my hands.

At one point in June, I actually sat down and scratched out some ideas of things I could do with my time. After I wrote this, I started doing more RS visits (my current calling was 1st Counselor in Relief Society), and I really loved it. It was wonderful to think and pray about who might need a visit and then just go do it.

I didn't really do a deeper dive into the other things before our Colorado trip pulled my attention away...but all this being said, the fact that I would actually write out and admit that maybe I should volunteer for Seminary (I knew our ward needed new teachers) shows just how much I knew I needed something more in my life.

And apparently God knew what that “something more” was going to be. 😂

Also—back to ChatGPT—look at this cute printable it made from my messy notes! I did have to ask it to correct a few things a couple of times...but in less than three minutes total it made this. Incredible.

I'm sure this kind of thing will become more and more commonplace, and someday I'll look back at this and laugh that I was so amazed by it. But for 2026, I am in awe.

One Day Down

August 18, 2026

I was asked to teach Seminary in the middle of July.

Stressed. Overwhelmed. Intimidated. Drinking from a firehose. Those are probably the best words to describe the last month.

I have spent the past month training, pondering, preparing, ignoring it for a little while, stressing some more, and then preparing again. 

There have been MANY hours of online and in-person training. I have also spent a lot of time working with my team teacher. We will be teaching Monday through Thursday from 6:30–7:30 a.m. and alternating weeks. Thank goodness for a team teacher!

There was also a lot to do just to get ready for the year. We cleaned out the Seminary bags and closet up at the church and made new bags for each student with scriptures, pens, red pencils, whiteboards, and other supplies.

One of my favorite parts of preparing was getting to know the students before we ever met for class. We made home visits and met individually with all of the new students and their parents to explain Seminary and personally invite them. We also met with many of the returning students and parents, made treat bags for them, and held a Back-to-Seminary pool party.

All of that helped. The more I got to know the students, the less stressed I started to feel. I also knew my family and some friends were praying for me, which meant a lot.

We have about 20 students, and they seem GREAT. I am really excited to get to know them better.

Of course, getting ready to actually teach them was a whole different story.

I am glad I have Britney and my dad to rely on. They are both seminary teaching pros. I ask them random questions every day. I have also used ChatGPT more times than I can count this past month. 😂 I have asked for help with object lessons, class expectations and classroom control, icebreakers, Doctrinal Mastery games, student questionnaires, inexpensive birthday treats, Google Slides, presenter notes, and probably 100 other things I have already forgotten.

I spent over an HOUR preparing a TEN-MINUTE devotional for our first day on Monday. Thankfully, my team teacher taught the actual lesson that morning. Bless her.

On the first day of seminary, I woke up to this sweet message from Aubrey...it made my day. Tanner also called that evening to see how things went. 

Then it was my turn to prepare Tuesday's lesson. I don't even know how many hours that took-probably over five.

I literally wore my mouthpiece while preparing because apparently I have been clenching my teeth without even realizing it.  I think that gives a pretty accurate picture of my stress level.

The format of Seminary is different from anything I have taught in so long, and right now it is hard to know where to start, what to include, what to leave out, and how to fit it all together. (Mostly, I am trying to remember how to engage youth and incorporate the digital world more.)

Meanwhile, my house has looked like Seminary exploded inside it. Student supplies, questionnaires, scriptures, lesson materials, papers, and teaching prep have taken over my kitchen counters and tables.

Last night I decided I needed to get out of the house and clear my head. It was a blazing 97 degrees at 7:00 p.m., so I went to the mall to walk. I somehow ended up stopping for a 25 minute massage from the Chinese massage place.

SO WORTH IT. 

I keep reminding myself that this will come line upon line. I will eventually figure out what works and get into a flow. And most importantly, with God all things are possible.

Then came my first day actually teaching.

I was pretty proud of myself when I got up at 5:15 and was out the door by 5:35. That might be a personal record.

I got to the church extra early because I wanted to try out my slideshow.

It was working...except my presenter notes were showing on the big TV for the entire class to see.

Not ideal.

I messed with it for a while until I managed to make it even worse, and then it wouldn't display on the big screen AT ALL.

Ugh.

So I left that mess for a minute, went into the Relief Society room to set up our Doctrinal Mastery game, and then spotted Bishop Bird walking into the building. I flagged him down and asked for help. He got the slideshow working well enough, and at that point there was nothing left to do but—

GO FOR IT.

And you know what? It went well.

Our opening song wouldn't play correctly from my phone, so one of the students sat down at the piano and played it for us with absolutely no preparation. Many of the students had also come prepared to share their favorite hymns about Jesus Christ, and it was beautiful listening to the songs they had chosen and why they loved them.

We got into the scriptures. We talked about how to find Psalms and other books of scripture and how to use footnotes and cross-references. These are little things, but I loved seeing them actually opening their scriptures and learning how to use them.

And I was glad we played our Doctrinal Mastery game—"Bloody Knuckles." We divided into teams, asked questions, and had them race to the middle to grab dry-erase markers worth different points. A little friendly competition at 6:30 in the morning never hurts. 

One day down. Whew!

I know it is going to get easier with time. Right now, Seminary feels pretty all-consuming. There is so much to learn, so much to prepare, and so much I want to do well.

But a month ago, I mostly felt intimidated and overwhelmed. Today, after actually standing in front of those students and teaching them, I feel a little different.

I don't have to know exactly how to do all of this yet, but hopefully, somewhere along the way, I'll stop needing the mouthpiece. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Postscript

After reading my blog, my amazing 91 year young father-in-law, who taught seminary for over 30 years and is still teaching youth Sunday School sent me this message. I love it.: 

How lucky you are as I have always loved teaching Seminary and now they think I am too old!!!!! 

Things have changed I am sure but one thing is still the same!!! After a while you look on your class members as your kids! You want them to all go on missions, school and most of all like Captain Moroni you want the Devil to have no power over them. Love, Jerry

Meeting Baby Cal

April 30, 2026 

(Day 1 of our Utah trip)

At the end of April and beginning of May, we got to have everyone together for a little family reunion/vacation. We combined picking Aubrey up from BYU with Cal’s baby blessing and decided to turn the whole thing into a family vacation. Brian and I flew out to Utah. Parker drove down from Idaho, Tanner and his family made the drive from Texas, and even Grandpa Vore was able to join in on the fun.

One of the best parts was everyone getting to meet baby Cal. Brian (Papa😉) finally got to meet this little guy in person, along with (Great) Grandpa Vore, Tanner, Erin, Kaide, and Parker. Sadly Parker wasn't feeling well and had to keep his distance...but otherwise, lots of first-time snuggles for Cal—and lots of people pretty excited to finally get their hands on him!

Bri greeted Brinley in the front hall of our AirBnb to hug his baby girl and his new grandbaby.

Kaide wasn’t quite sure what to do with Cal and pretty much kept a solid two to three foot distance. I think he was expecting a cousin who could be a little more interactive. Derek was cute about commiserating with him. He said, “I hear you, Kaide. I’ve kind of always felt that way about babies…until now.” 

Great Grandpa Vore 

Isn’t he precious? Let me just say, it was hard for anyone to get a turn holding him for very long. There was always someone waiting to steal him away.

Real newborn life. But no worries—these two are already pros.

Lots of baby snuggles, and everyone together. Pretty much the best way to start our week.