Birthday Boys and End of the School Year

"Number 1 Twice" is what the cards from the Hoskins said.  We like that!

Emma came to help make birthday cakes.

"My mom always lets me have chocolate," is what she told me.

Lyle wanted an Oreo crust, cookies and cream ice cream topped with crumbled peanut MMs.  Rex wanted layers of chocolate brownie and cookies and cream ice cream.

They wanted a movie and popcorn on a school night for their birthday so James suggested "Cool Runnings" and they loved it.

Damon opened his mission call on Wednesday night.  Headed to Salt Lake City!

Lyle, Ben Naef, Rex, Calvin Casper, Blake Freeman, Tyson Rowley, Garrett Nielson, Isaac, Sam Withers, Ethan Perkins, and Coach Rowley.  They were a super young team but held their own.  My favorite was watching Rex pitch when Lyle was the catcher.  Pretty darn cool!

Bryant is looking an sounding good though he has some pretty wild stories.

Warm final days of Glory Academy enjoying fresh air during math time.

Final Day of Glory Academy just after a hot game of kickball for PE.

 

Scuba Diving, Mother's Day, and Talmage's First Car

We are so fortunate to have a Dad as a seminary teacher!  Who else get to have a replica of the OT Tabernacle at their family Come Follow Me?!

Dreams really do come true!  They have talked about scuba diving forever and they finally got to do it!  They all did a fantastic job but Rex and Lyle especially took to it like fish.  Sariah was frustrated because she couldn't get her ears to pop.  It was so fun to see them actually get to do it after dreaming for so long.

Friday we joined the Spechts at the cemetery to lay Grandpa Specht's body to rest.  It was a beautiful afternoon.  The raindrops started to fall just as people were leaving and by the time we got to the church for the dinner, it was a torrential downpour.  My shoes were so wet that I went barefoot for the dinner.

This lovely girl had a mother's day gift wrapped days in advance of Mother's Day.  She brought tears to my eyes when I opened it and found matching Mother/Daughter necklaces.  She brings me joy every day.

A wonderful treat was talking to Bryant in Guatemala on Mother's Day.  We didn't know for sure if we would here from him, but we hadn't talked to him since he was on a bus to his first area so it was so nice to talk to him.

Zooming with Gp and Gm for Gp's birthday and Mother's Day.

After a very hectic day of cancellations and stress, Sariah made it on a date to Forte.  

James has had a sore neck, shoulder and arm for at least a month.  The last few weeks it has just gotten worse and worse.  He went to a chiropractor two weeks ago and felt like it did nothing for him.  Talmage bought a wrecked car on Monday and he and James scheduled to go pick it up in Portland on Wednesday.  James woke up in so much pain on Wednesday we didn't know how he was going to make it to Portland and back, let alone strapping down a vehicle.  That morning, I had the thought, "when you see a wrecked car in the garage tonight, you will have witnessed a miracle."

Here's the miracle: 

Rex and Lyle were excited to help him get started on the clean up.

I was able to make an appointment for James for Thursday.  He texted me so upset about how painful it was.  This is what he came home looking like.  Fortunately, he is finally getting some relief.

Hyrum was back to javelin this week and PRed at 88 ft.

Rex and Lyle got a fancy baseball with pitching markings on it so they've put some time into practicing this week.  They have no idea what a great set up they have--alternating pitcher and catcher on every pitch.

Friday morning, Rex and Lyle got their first experience at a skate park with their classmate Liam.  Liam's little brothers were very generous to let them use their scooters.  They came away with a few bumps and blisters but want to go back soon.

 

Rainy Baseball Games, First Track Meet, Lake Giesler, and Elder Soares

Rex pitching to Lyle during Monday night's game.

The played through a downpour and some hail.  Now they are real boys.

Came home and lit the canes up.

Rex roasting a hotdog from behind his heat shield.

James pulled some of the coals from the fire so we could stand the heat.

Hyrum waiting to throw the javelin at his first track meet.

Action Sequence:

Hyrum had his last math team competition on Wednesday evening.  He had his first track meet on Tuesday.  It was nice, but a little, breezy cool.  The line for the javelin was super long and by the time it was his turn he said he threw 20 feet shorter than his warm-up.  I think he still may have had the longest throw though.

      He also ran the 4x100 and the 2^nd 100 in the medley.  

Wednesday I went with Rex and Lyle to the McNary Dam for our field trip.

Bryant had just got to shake Elder Gong's hand and was packing up to fly out to Guatemala.

We thought he would fly out early Thursday morning to Guatemala City and have a 9 hour bus ride to Coban.  We didn't hear from him that day.  When he called us for just a few minutes on Friday he said they actually stayed the night in a really cool hotel in Guatemala City after visiting the consulate and didn't take the bus to Coban until Friday.  He was in good spirits.

For the next two days, Rex and Lyle played with their bait "treasures" they found at the river.

Thursday we woke up to Lake Giesler--the pond had overflowed overnight.

Friday after school the boys decided to use Bryant's inflatable raft on Lake Giesler.

When James posted this picture on FB one of the comments was, "those boys know how to turn lemons into lemonade."

This morning we got to go to the Toyota Center and listen to Elder Soares.  We had a couple of boys who weren't feeling too perky while they were fasting.  Last night, Talmage had a YSA meeting with Elder Godoy and Sariah and Hyrum were at the Parley Building with a broadcast of Elder Soares from the Gage building.  Talmage said Elder Godoy was really funny and there were a lot of questions about marriage.  I think Sariah and Hyrum thought their meeting was good even though Hyrum was really dragging his feet beforehand.