Vacationing Apart

It's been fun to get updates from our kiddos who seem too spread out and too far away from us.  Parker is snowboarding in Colorado Cole and Cole's family.  Neither of them had ever been snowboarding before, and Parker has only skied one time.  They are young and athletic and fearless though and are now snowboarding like pros.  By the end of the first day, Parker had gone down a double black and had figured out some cool tricks too.  

At the very end of day one, when they were just snowboarding down the very basic hill, Parker flipped forward and landed on his shoulder.  He was in a lot of pain and Parker, Bri and I were worried about how badly he might have hurt it.  It was hard for him to hold it up and it bruised pretty quickly.  Bri did a little questioning/diagnosing over the phone and felt like it was probably a sprain.  Parker has been carrying on since, so it's nice to know it's not broken or separated anything.

Cooper B., Parker and Cole B

Aub has FaceTimed a couple of times.  The house they are staying at in Puerto Vallarta is gorgeous and huge, and she says she feels like a princess.  Check out the picture below...you can see the beach from their private swimming pool!  Part of the package was to have a chef come in and cook breakfast and dinner everyday.  That sounds heavenly.  I am so happy for Angelique.  Now she can have just as much of a vacation as the rest of the family since she won't have to worry about meals.  That usually just falls on the mom, it seems.

This group went to church in Mexico, had a shopping trip, and have gone snorkeling.  They are planning many more adventures.

La, Aub, Shaley, Ang, Charity

I miss Park and Aub.  It's really weird being on vacation with only 1.5 of our kids.  (We get to see Brinley some.  Lucky Tanner is with us full time.)  Our family just does not feel complete when we aren't all together.  I think it is pretty cool though too that Aubrey and Parker get to have these amazing vacations with their friends.

Hanging Out in Draper

It always takes a little bit to break the ice with the cousins.  They only see each other once a year.  Denise and I were thrilled when Tanner and Lindsey agreed to play pickleball with us.  Pickleball is a combination of badminton, ping pong and tennis and seems to be trending in the U.S.  The ball used is a wiffle ball, and it was super windy.  That made it all the more challenging for our attempts at playing, but we had fun.  None of us were very good, but we tried our best.

Lindsey & Tanner

We played best of five and the teens beat me and Denise by a a game.  It was bound to happen.  They are in their prime!

Denise

Losers had to buy shakes for the winners.  Denise and I knew we were paying either way...but again, just another way to break the ice a bit with the kids.  We went to a Mom and Pop shop called Iceberg and had some deliciousness.  (Denise is participating in a health challenge at school and among other things, has been eating no sugar.  She decided to have a shake but then had to eat vegetables for dinner so she wouldn't sabotage her team.  We also went on a late night walk to earn back some of the points for eating that shake.  I'm impressed with her dedication!)

We had a casual evening watching basketball and hanging out.  Bri drove down to Provo to get Bryn.  She wanted to spend the night, attend the family ward and just hang out all day on Sunday.  Denise mentioned that she could take TRAX (Utah's light rail transportation) up to Draper, and we could pick her up from the station.  Bri said with the sweetest smile, "That's okay.  I want to get her.  More one on one time with Brinley."  He's a cute dad.

Speaking of cute dads, Bruce had to love on his girl as well.  Lindsey had her hands in her pockets and was trapped.  It was entertaining. 

Through gritted teeth and a grin, she kept quietly growling, "Dad stop....Dad Stop!!"

 And I got to snuggle with my girl!  It's been so wonderful to be with her this week.

 Tanner was not giving Bryn the time of day...so she just sat on him and tried to love on him some.

 She also wrestled with him.  Turkey boy.

The cutest snuggling of the night was Tyson with Lindsey.  He came home from seeing The Wizard of Oz and was so happy to see Lindsey.  He plopped down right next to her and started loving on her.  I thought she might get crushed--Tyse is a big guy.  She just kind of grinned, said hello and kept looking at her phone.  It was very entertaining and kind of hilarious to watch.

Lft-rt: Bruce, Lindsey, Tyson, Tanner, Brinley, & Brian

 So happy together!

Utah Babeeee!

We were planning on a calm, quiet Spring break at home in the big O.  Parker was invited to ski with friends in Colorado.  Aubrey was invited to go with her cousin, Lauron, to the beach in Mexico.  It was just going to be me, Bri and Tanner at home.

We were teasing him about all the fun we could have together: nap time, the children's museum, going to fancy restaurants each evening.  (Tanner hates going to sit down restaurants...too much waiting.)  He would just roll his eyes and tell us to just leave him out of all of the "fun."  He was just fine hanging out all by himself everyday over Spring break.

On Wednesday morning Brian was offered a job but it wouldn't start until the 17th.  On Wednesday afternoon, with the job secured, we thought, "Hey, let's drive out to Utah the day after tomorrow and visit family."  I looked up some fairly priced VRBOs (vacation rental) and also texted my amazing sister-in-law Denise about our plan.  She is always good to open her house to family, but we wanted to have another place to stay just in case. 

We Faced Time Bryn and  told her we were coming and then we texted Tanner, who was at school, to try to get him on board.  (We mentioned a basketball clinic he could attend and that he could bring the XBox for the drive.)

On Friday morning, at 4:45 a.m., we began the never ending drive....and eighteen hours later we made it to Draper, Utah.  I felt horrible and was somewhat questioning our decision.  (I had a horrible migraine and was throwing up in a bag in the backseat of the van.  Bri had to do almost all of the driving.)

However, after a a quick dinner stop in Provo with our girl on Friday night, and a beautiful Saturday with Bruce and Denise, the lengthy drive was a distant memory.  I'm so glad we decided to make the trip.

Hoping for that Mission Call

Brinley is anxiously awaiting her mission call!  We are all very interested and excited to see were she will be serving for the next 18 months.  

According to Brinley who gets her info from the the hundreds of BYU students who get their calls each week, the calls usually take 1-2 weeks from the time they are submitted.  They also come in on Tuesday mornings.  I guess you get a text letting you know you have an email with your call.

Yesterday was one week, and we were really hoping to have some news.  She went to the temple with her roommates, and when she came out and turned on her phone, she had all sorts of texts coming through.  She said her heart skipped a few beats....but "The Text" was not there.  

At 12:00 our time, I texted my brother Chris, who is currently serving as our Stake President, to see if he could tell if her call had been assigned.  He could tell and her call is still in the "ready for assignment" phase.  It was nice to have that bit of info so Bryn could go about her day without anxiously checking her phone every and email every few minutes.

I am hoping her call won't be delayed due to the Coronavirus uncertainties and with General Conference coming up.

 

Bryn, Ashlyn and Kiersten taking advantage of some nice weather and studying outside.

Sweet roomies looking out for each other.  Elena, Kiersten and Brinley are on an intramural soccer team.  Ashlyn and Katelynn took on the "soccer mom" role and made them sandwiches with cute, encouraging notes written on the baggies. 

They were victorious.  Bryn said it was a lot of fun playing and cheering on their team.  I think they only play four games total....quick season.