The kids all went to Florida this Summer to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. Allison went first. I know my mom loves it but all my kids like going to visit too, especially Allison. She can relax and not have anyone to mother. My parents always seem to find fun places or things to do while they are there too. This year they went on a swamp tour in an airboat and held some alligators. They did some school shopping. They got hooked on the show The Flash, went swimming, baked lots of cookies and treats, and did more shopping. She flew there and back on her own. I don’t love it, but I am able to take her to the gate and my mom picks her up at the gate. While she was there is was her Aunt Rachel’s birthday so they decided to make her a video with a birthday song. I will attach it to this post for your enjoyment.
On a sadder note, shortly before she left, her guinea pig Peanut passed away. We had him for almost 5 years. He was the first one she got and he had a very happy life. She took amazing care of him. He had a few vet check ups and the vet always said he was well taken care of. It was all Allison. We could tell he was getting pretty old and might not be around to much longer. She spent a lot of time with him the last few days swinging in the hammock with him wrapped in a towel snuggling with her. The morning we found he had passed away Allison and I went and found a nice wooden box to bury him in. Emilee painted some wooden grave markers for him, and Matthew and dad dug a hole for him. We buried him in the flower bed by Allison’s window.
That left us with Milo. Allison watched him pretty closely and thought he was getting lonely. Guinea pigs are pretty social creatures. We discussed it for a while. Milo is three years old and I didn’t want to get another baby. I didn’t want to get another one at all, but we looked around and found a lady that had a guinea pig rescue. She had a few male guinea pigs that were about the same age as Milo. Dad and Allison took Milo over to her house to meat the different ones and see if there were any that would make a good buddy for him. There were a few solid ‘No’s’ but Milo seemed to like a chubby chill guy named Oreo. Allison brought him home and over the next few days they became the best of friends and Allison renamed him Bubbles because Oreo was to basic. All is right with the guinea pigs once again.
Bringing Oreo, soon to be known as Bubbles, home for the first time
The city of Olathe doesn’t allow fireworks. People still do, but it limits the fun a bit. That’s why we loved going to Nebraska and having a huge firework display and doing our own right from Grandpa’s drive way. Ever since Grandma and Grandpa Terry moved to Olathe we have been anticipating a July 4th celebration at our new house! Our house is not considered inside city limits so we can light off whatever we want. Last year we lit of fireworks on the road but we didn’t have a house yet. This year we had the house!
It is always such an awesome holiday. It really is one of my favorites. It is low key and minimal prep. The point is to just relax, eat and light off fireworks. For the past few years at some point during the summer we go with Terry cousins and spend the day at World’s and Ocean’s of Fun Amusement park. Last year we didn’t go because we had a family reunion at Branson and everyone went to Silver Dollar City together instead. This year my kids were really looking forward to it and the day that worked out was July 3rd. I was a little nervous in anticipation of the heat but it ended up being a great day. It was overcast so not blistering sun and humidity but still warm enough to swim. Everyone was tall enough to go on every single ride if they wanted too for the first time too! Jovee is one of the biggest roller coaster junkies in the group and up until this year there was always one or two off limits due to height for her. Emilee has had a little anxiety about a few roller coasters since going on one when she was really young that she probably shouldn’t have. Height wise she has always been as tall as kids several years older than her. She was trying to talk herself into doing the Patriot. We got in line the first time and then when it was our turn she couldn’t do it. We watched everyone else go and then she decided she would give it another shot and the second time it was our turn she did it. She loved it and was much more relaxed about going on the rest of the rides after that. Leah is not a big roller coaster fan but for Allison’s birthday she said she would go on any ride Allison wanted her to go on with her. It was a great day. We hit all the rides we wanted then ate lunch and went to the water park side. After they were all done there we headed home with a stop at chick-fil-a on the way.
The next day we had a BBQ at our place with all the KC family and my friend Dani came with her son Ethan. We played games, ate food, went and got fireworks, set of the day time ones and then repeated it all until it was dark enough to do the night time ones. We had one small incident. The kids were lighting off smoke bombs and bottle rockets and things like that. The three youngest kids like to light smoke bombs and run through the smoke. They lit what they thought was a smoke bomb and it was but it had some firework stuff in it too. So they were all standing around it and ready to start running in the smoke and it started shooting out whistlers at them. They ran pretty quick. Luckily no one was hurt. It was a good lesson to read the entire description and always stand back even if you think it is just a smoke bomb. Other than that is was just a fun time. We topped the day off with strawberry short cake and it was another successful Fourth of July!
A few years ago in 8th grade Matthew met his now best friend Carter. They goof around and have a lot of fun together. Carter also introduced Matthew to one of his now favorite hobbies-fishing. They love to go fishing together. Matthew told his dad he was a little disappointed “he wasn’t introduced to this amazing pass time and life saving skill years ago”. Matthew has a flare for dramatics sometimes too.
Anyway, these two have spent a lot of time fishing together and they love it. This Spring when the weather started to get nice enough to start fishing they decided to up their game. Instead of just fishing from the shore, they told me they were going to split the cost of a boat so they could boat around the lake and have access to all the fish.
So one Friday afternoon they headed off to Scheels and came back beaming from ear to ear with this lovely boat.
They went with an inflatable two person canoe. I asked Matt if they were concerned about poking a hole it when they are casting. He seemed pretty confident that neither of them would have issues but just in case they both do know how to swim. They have had some fun adventures in there canoe. One of the first times they went out Carter didn’t notice that his pole slipped off the boat and sank. He refused to give up on it so he spent the next hour or two walking around feeling with his toes until he finally found it. Matthew kept him company by fishing around him in the boat while he looked. I was also told there is a rule that all fish caught in the boat have to be documented with a picture.
This is a fishing picture from Florida when he went to see my mom, not from his boat trips.
These are pictures I have that I like but didn’t really need a full post about them, or didn’t go with pictures taken at the same time that I put in other posts. So I thought I would just do a collection of them here.
This is our one and only picture from Easter 2024. As much as I love pictures and documenting events, I sometimes am horrible at taking the pictures. This was the end of the day and everyone was headed to take off their Easter clothes and I insisted on one family photo. Some of us were more willing participants than others.Sherrie and Dave came to visit us for a weekend to watch some of Matthew’s games. We had some time to pass before a game and were right by Liberty Jail. So we went to the jail and still had time to pass. There happened to be a bazaar across the street from Liberty Jail so we walked around. They had this little selfie spot so I had them hope in for a picture.
Both of these pictures are in Utah when we were staying with DeAnna for my Grandpa’s funeral. I thought 6 people brushing their teeth in the bathroom was pretty cute. DeAnna made lots of good food while we were there too, Sherri wanted to document that ‘she can cook but chooses not to’. While we were in Utah, dad took Emilee and Matthew to their softball and baseball tournaments they had going on that weekend. They love it so much they decided to go watch a Royals game one of the nights we were gone.
I am not sure where we were coming back from…maybe the eclipse, but the girls were being a little grumpy to each other but when they fell asleep they snuggled right up to each other.
This is one of the many times we have had to rent a skid loader to do some lawn stuff. It won’t be the last either. Ryan and I take turns between freaking out about why we have so much land to take care of and someday it will be awesome.
We try and do an annual amusement park day with our cousins each year. Sometimes it ends up being in Branson and Silver Dollar City, sometimes Worlds/Oceans of Fun. It was a great time this year. Everyone is tall enough for all the rides. Jovee is the biggest adrenaline junky and finally hit the tallest minimum requirement for the rides she had been waiting to go on for years. We went on July 3rd which was begging for heat stroke, but the weather was cloudy and perfect so it was a great day.
We have had typical so hot and humid days you can barely go outside this Summer for sure but there have been a lot more than usual gorgeous beautiful weather days. This hammock is one of our favorite spots to hangout on those days.
My sweet Grandpa Jones passed away at the end of April. He was a pretty awesome person. I wasn’t as close with him as my grandma but I loved him and know he loved me and his family. I remember lots of stories about him but you always learn and hear knew things about someone when they pass away. Everyone except two cousins were able to come to his funeral so there was a lot of memories and stories shared. He was a good example. He lead by example on how to work hard, try hard, love those around you, and do what is right. He had a witty sense of humor, loved sports and was an amazing Gardner. He hasn’t been able to keep his yard up the past few years like he used to and it was a little sad to see over grown bushes and no flowers and immaculate landscaping everywhere.
My grandma passed away two years before he did. They are my first set of grandparents to pass away. It was a bit of a different feeling at his funeral having neither of them there. It was sad when Grandma Jones died but he was still there and around. When he passed too it felt heavier because it is like the closing of their generation. More finality to it. I walked around their house and took a lot of pictures because I will probably never see it again and up to this point in my life they have always been there and been a consistent, happy, familiar, predictable piece in my life. It is like a chapter closing. I don’t know how often or if I will see a lot of the cousins and aunts and uncles again. Grandma and Grandpa were the connecting piece for us. They were both amazing people and I miss them.
This is the eulogy for my Grandpa, written by my uncle Jared and edited by all his siblings.
A few days before he passed he told his kids that he thought he was dying and wanted to say goodbye to them. They are in Utah so I didn’t get to see him but i was thinking about him a lot that week. The day he passed I was planting plants in one of our flower beds. I had been doing it long enough it was starting to be more exhausting then enjoyable and I stopped for a minute and he came to my mind and I thought about a time we went to visit and when I got out of the car he and my grandma were planting dozens of petunias together in one of their flower beds and I helped them finish. Then all of the sudden I had a distinct feeling that they were both there watching me for a minute. I felt love and concern for me from them and then it was gone. I thought it was a memory but a few hours later I got the message that he had passed earlier that day. Maybe not, but I think that after he passed grandma was waiting for him and before she took him to wherever they were going they stopped by to visit me and probably other family members that weren’t able to be there when he passed. It was definitely a unique and special feeling.
His funeral wasn’t until mid May because one of his daughters was in another country after he passed for a few weeks. I went out to his funeral and brought Allison with me. It was nice to see family and talk about grandpa. His funeral was very nice. It was a lot like grandma’s but his had a little more somber note to it like I mentioned because now they were both gone. I know we get to see them again someday and they are together now which makes me happy. Besides grandma he had four brother and both his parents waiting for him that he hadn’t see for a long time. His mom passed away pretty young so it had been over 60 years since he had seen her. I bet that was a very happy reunion. He was in the military and got a 21 gun salute at his graveside and an American flag to honor his service. That was a touching experience to witness as well. You will be missed by a lot of people Grandpa. Thank you for being a good example and good leader for your family for many generations.
This is a poem that my uncle Jared read at my Grandpa’s funeral that my grandpa wrote.
These are pictures I took of pictures that were displayed at his viewing. Several of my cousins put together 7-8 picture boards of different parts of his life. They did really good job.
The glare is a little hard but he posed for the wizard in this stain glass. One of many picture boards to show his life story.
These are pictures from his funeral, the graveside service and his viewing. My aunt Kristin takes the pictures for everyone to have.
Before Allison and I left to come back to Kansas we went and spent some time at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I don’t think I will ever see it again so I wanted to walk around and sit and take pictures of things that I have always associated with their house to remember. The yard pictures don’t do it justice compared to how beautiful my grandpa kept it until he wasn’t able to anymore. Whenever we stayed at his house, he would come to the breakfast table dressed and ready to go out to the yard to work after eating a bowl of Wheaties, fresh home grown fruit and fruit juice and a slice or two of raisin bread with a healthy dab of butter spread across it.
We had many sleepouts in sleeping bags in the back yard. Grandpa often forgot to turn the sprinklers off so I remember many an early morning waking up and relocating to the living room floor soaking wet to finish the nights sleep.This is a unique staircase. My cousins and I tried everything we could think of to use as a slide to go down them.Hundreds of hours were spent by kids, grandkids, great grandkids, other family and friends in the orchard. Besides the swing and sandbox, golf, horse shoes, canoeing, gardening, family reunions, parties, yard games, obstacle courses, kickball, whiffle ball, and so many more activities to create lifetime memories were here.If you sent them a picture it would be put up somewhere in the house. They had pictures of everyone everywhere.Usually this gate would be surrounded by beautiful roses.Lots of family visits, FHE, musical performances and other family gatherings were in this living room.Upon arriving at their house, if they didn’t great you at the door, they were on their way to meet you here in the entry way of their house. I can still here the sound of the floor creaks from walking on this area of the house.They had this picture framed above there fireplace for decades.
This is the program that was handed out at his funeral. I put several paper copies in my kids memory folders too.
Allison finished up 8th grade this year! She survived middle school and is ready for her Freshman year. She did a lot during her middle school career. She tried orchestra, wrestling, weights, theater, art teachers aid, and track, all while making friends, and finding out who the good friends were and keeping up pretty good grades. She was on the honor roll each year.
Allison and Leah using their creative talents in cooking.Last day as an 8th grader.
Emilee finished 5th grade and elementary school this year! She will be moving to a new middle school next year that neither of her siblings went to so she will blaze her own path. She finished the year with a wax museum project and finished reading the Harry Potter books. She got a bunch of books from a friend to read over the summer and she is excited to read them. She is looking forward to taking a cooking class, and engineering class in middle school. She loves to build things and see how they work. She also decided that she is ready to get contacts for next year. She doesn’t want to do orchestra or band so she is going to stick with the piano.
Multi tasking while she helps with dinner.Wax museum-Lydia DarraghMrs. TapiaLast day as a 5th grader
Matthew finished his Junior year and will be a Senior next year! He supported his high school baseball varsity team at State and they ended up taking second place. Life and our family will have some big changes when he graduates. He wants to get as much baseball in as he can over the next year. He has tournaments every weekend in June and July and then Fall ball starts in September so he will have plenty. He got a new job at Costa Vida. He loves working there because of the free or discounted food he gets. He also gets to look forward to having his wisdom teeth removed this Summer and taking his Senior pictures. We are taking a family cruise that he is helping plan in October together too.
Heading to his work interview-looking spiffythis is a favorite picture of mine with Matthew
Once Spring started making its appearance we did a few projects on the outside of the house. We put in the flower beds, lined them and filled them with rocks. We got the front flower beds planted. We will keep working on them a each year. We have a plan but it is a few year plan before it will be all done. We got some patio furniture so we can enjoy our deck and the patio. One of my favorite things we did was hang patio lights from the ceiling and hung up a hammock. It is so relaxing. We love it! For our house warming gift Ryan’s parents gave us a blackstone grill. We have family gatherings and do cookouts with it a lot. The kids have been requesting a trampoline and we got that so there would be more to do outside. Fall and Spring will be really nice to use outside. Once it gets hot it gets a little buggy and is not so great but I love having some outdoor spaces to enjoy!
This is pictures of out patio lights and a rainbow we saw from our deck one night.
Mother’s Day this year was nice. Ryan and the kids made me dinner and spoiled me on Sunday. The day before we did a family service project for the local food pantry. It has been a while since we have done it and Ryan and I felt like we were due for some service. This time we went to one in Lawrence Kansas. The Harvester truck brought a bunch of food to a local church and unloaded it. The volunteers divided it up and got ready to disperse it, then a line of cars came through and we loaded it into each car. We all enjoyed it. We need to get back into it as a regular thing that we do. We went to lunch together after that and then the kids helped me plant another flower bed for part of their Mother’s Day to me. It is so nice having grown children to help with projects. It saves my back a lot!
Of course with Spring the kids started their Spring sports. Allison is finishing up her gymnastic season about the time school ends. She had sever meets and got a personal best on the bar 9.5. It was pretty awesome to see her! She added a few new flips to her floor routine that she learned as well. In the Fall she thought this might be her last season for gymnastics, but as it got closer to the end she decided she wasn’t quite ready to be done. She has at least one more year in her! After the last meet they did the end of the year banquet. They had Mexican food and cake for dessert. The girls all dressed up and seemed to have a fun time. She got the “Tootsie Roll” reward for being able to roll with whatever she is doing at the gym. She was also voted by her team to win the Spirit Award because she is always positive and helps keep everyone focused during practice and meets. She is pretty awesome. Allison excels and puts full effort into whatever she does. She is a great leader and her dad and I were proud of her for showing that this year in gymnastics. It made us happy that her team recognized it in her too.
Matthew played for his High School team this year during the Spring. He played for JV as the short stop, and the coaches also took him to varsity games to help and fill in where they needed him. The varsity team made it to state again this year. Matthew went with them. Last year they lost the first game but this year they made it to the final game and ended up taking second. Matt loves baseball and loves to play as much as he can. There is some school politics that make the high school season not as fun but he had a good time. He was really excited to get into the competitive season with his regular team. His arm was back to full mobility in February and he worked on the strength side of it through the last semester. He was hitting well but his strength really started coming back and he started hitting some bombs at the beginning of his competitive season. His strength isn’t 100% yet but it coming back quick. He is consistently hitting doubles and triples and even got a home run during one of his HS games. It is fun to watch your kids do something they love.
High school baseball pictures
This is his FBC team
Emilee played softball again this Spring. Her team last year split in half and some stayed rec and some tried competitive. Emilee decided to try competitive. She decided to pick the same number as Matthew and she loved doing batting practice and playing catch with him. If he was able to come to her games she always came up to say hi and was super excited he was there. She played mostly short stop, center field or 1st base. She improved a lot and had a good time. Her team ended up getting 4th in the division they played in.
In April of this year there was a total lunar eclipse crossing the united states. It was similar to the one that was about 7 years ago that we went up to Lincoln Nebraska to see. Sherrie and Dave Torgerson’s house in Dardenelle Arkansas was in the direct path and they were going to have totality for almost 5 full minutes. We decided to take a very quick mini-cation and drive down Sunday afternoon to see it with them on Monday and then come home Monday afternoon. There were lots of family there which meant lots of cousins to play with. The weather was great so the kids got out water balloons and played a lot of games outside.
Allison and one of her besties Allie Sluga went on a little trip together. Allie invited her to go to the Ozarks with her and her grandparents took them for a few days. They had lots of girl time and did lots of shopping together.
I thought this was a good spot to put this picture showing Allison’t makeup talents. She is the Lorax, keeper of the trees.
Allison got one of her best scores on the beam at her last gymnastic meet this year. She got a 9.5!!
Matthew had his Junior Prom this year. He went with Campbell. They both looked great! It was a little crazy helping him get measured for a tux and getting the flowers and plans ready. Time really does fly when your kids grow up. They went in a group with his friends Ramey and Nick. They took pictures at a winery before they went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Then they stopped by our house for a few minutes before they went to the dance. When the dance was over they came home and changed then went to the after party. It was at Chicken and Pickle. It was a great place for the afterparty. Unlimited chicken fingers and pickleball to play. Matthew won a few rounds and got some of the prizes for pickle ball.
This is a side by side of their first dance together- Freshman year Homecoming dance, and Junior Prom.
Spring Break was a week earlier than it usually is for us. That might not seem like a big difference but in Kansas in the Spring that makes a big difference as far as temperature. For the first part of our Spring Break, Kenny and Sherri came to stay with us for a few days. It wasn’t quite warm enough to do a lot of yard things but Sherri helped me make a plan, and we picked out the rocks and plants to put in when it got warm enough a few weeks later. A house surrounded by three acres of mud gets messy really quick so we were anxious to get some landscaping in.
We did some shopping and visiting and went to dinner a few times while they were here too. Allison is great at babysitting and her and Emilee both enjoy spending time with cousins. KJ showed us real quick how un-baby proof our house is now.
Ryan had to go to a conference in Omaha for work for the last part of our Spring Break. On the last day of his conference, the kids and I drove up and we had a fun mini-cation in Omaha Nebraska. We stayed in a hotel for two nights. When we got there and checked in the first thing we did was an escape room. One of the family Christmas gifts we got was a “family escape room night” and we hadn’t done it yet. We picked a room with a batman theme that had a 17% success rate. I thought is was a lot of fun. Each of us picked a piece of the puzzle and worked on it. Allison solved hers then jumped to someone else and helped them finish. She could have easily finished it by herself. It is fun to see how her brain works through things. By the end the puzzle Matthew had was the last one and tricky because it seemed like we didn’t have all the info we needed but we had found all the clues. Someone finally came on the intercom and told us that we were missing half of his puzzle because one of the keys we found accidently opened two things instead of just one and we used it to open the one it shouldn’t have been able to open, so we thought we had found all the clues but had missed one. Once we figured that out and found the other half we solved it with time to spare. Technically they said since they had to help us we didn’t get a free t-shirt. I think since it was an error in their puzzles that required them to help us that shouldn’t have counted. Ryan and I didn’t debate with them though so our kids didn’t have to crawl under a table and die from embarrassment. We went and got dinner then tried out an ice cream place right by our hotel that turned out to be delightfully delicious. Later that night we went and saw Kung-Fu Panda in the movie theater together.
The next day we went to the Omaha Zoo. The last time we went to the zoo as a family we were still in the stroller, carrying snacks and hungry, hot, or need to use the bathroom every five minute stage. It was a fun time and we saw lots of animals but after a full day at the zoo, there was still a lot of zoo left to see and everyone was exhausted. Let me tell you, going to the zoo with three grown children is A-MAZ-ING! If anyone wanted to carry something they carried it themselves. We ate breakfast before we went and planned on getting lunch there. However, we were able to walk through the entire zoo and see everything we wanted to see in a few hours. By the time we were hungry we were done and went and found a restaurant outside the zoo. We picked a Mexican restaurant called Mexicity. It was a local restaurant and we could barely understand the owner because of his accent but he made delightful authentic Mexican food. It was so good. All of us practically licked our plates clean. A few months later we still talk about how good it was. A little hidden gem in Omaha Nebraska. Who would have guessed!?
After dinner we headed back to our hotel and stopped at the ice cream place on the way again. They had some different flavors than the day before so we each got something different to try and share. We played games at the hotel lobby that night, then headed home the next morning. We usually get two rooms when we stay in hotels now. The kids share a room and Ryan and I get our own. Everyone get a bed and everyone is happy. It was a pretty fun trip.
We have been trying to have a family game night once a week or so. It is a little tricky because all of us have to much going on but we do what we can. Sometimes it is a board game or card game but one night Emilee requested we play hide-n-seek. The last time we played it took all of us almost an hour to find Matthew. He was still small enough to fit under the sink in a bathroom and none of us even thought to look. So he was our current hide-n-seek champion. Allison claimed the thrown this time though. After a few rounds, it was dads turn to find everyone. Allison, requested a little assistance to get up in her spot. She was the last to be found and it took a little clue for dad to see her. Can you see her?
Matthew kept himself busy with the Stake basketball tournament on the weekends in February. The first week we went to our new ward they announced it then were moving on because they assumed no one wanted to play since they had passed on participating the year before. Matthew looks forward to this every year though so he boldly raised his hand and said he wanted to play. The bishopric said they would find another ward or two to combine with so they could have a full team so he could play. He immediately wished he had kept his mouth shut and just played with Heritage Park Ward again. Despite combining with two other wards, when he went to the first game, there was only three of the required five minimum players needed for a team. They borrowed a few people from other teams and had a game. After that Matt just brought his own friends from school to play. They won a few games but usually lost. Ryan coached them when he was home otherwise it was just them, I was usually the only person that came to cheer them on. Not the greatest year of Stake basketball but they had fun. He likes playing basketball for fun not competitively so he has a good time. This picture is the score when they played Heritage Park. They actually held their own pretty good up to half time. Then they got smoked.
Emilee was excited the weather was warmer than usual for February because she got to start her riding lessons back up sooner. She still loves it and looks forward to her lesson every week. There is a new horse called Artemis that is a bit of a stinker to most riders but he and Emilee get along really well so she is always happy when she gets to ride him.
