After our family trip to Gulf Shores this Summer the girls went to visit my parents in Florida. The girls and Matthew if he can squeeze it in like to go spend a week or two with them each Summer. This Summer the girls went together and spent a week and a half enjoying all the fun things Florida has to offer. They spent time playing with cousins, swimming, going to the zoo, a dolphin watching cruise and late night movies.
A few days after the girls got back we celebrated Allison’s birthday #13! Welcome to your teenage years Allison! She had a sleepover with her friend they went shopping. We had a family dinner with the Kansas Terry’s on Sunday. Dad and I got her a new bike but then she decided she wanted to keep using her dads bike and just get some cool accessories for it. She has been into biking lately so she wanted a phone holder, water bottle holder, and a tracking thing that tells her how far she bikes, tracks her route, tells her how hard she was peddling, things like that. She is also trying to collect a huge collection of squishmallows so she got a few more of those for her birthday as well.
She went with a chocolate cake and right before we blew out the candles she asked me to put a turtle on it. Between Lauren, Ross, and I we were able to draw a turtle on her cake with a poop emoji (Allison’s favorite emoji) for her to blow candles out. I used sparkler candles that are harder to blow out which of course she loved.
Allison is an amazing young women and I am glad I get to have her for my daughter. She is one of the most creative people I know. She is funny and has a quick wit. We were going somewhere in the car the other day and I said I needed to grab a protein bar because I didn’t eat lunch. We started driving and I opened the bar and for some reason it was half the size they usually are and looked pretty pathetic. Allison looked at it and without missing a beat said, “Looks like your protein bar didn’t eat lunch either.”
When she does something she puts 100% of her effort into it. I love watching her grow up and developing her talents and I am excited to see what she does in the next few years. Happy Birthday Allison!
We have been lucky to have a few photographers on the team over the years that take pictures of all the boys on Matthew’s baseball team. Then they share them with everyone. Will Kent is the photographer for these pictures. I didn’t take any of them, I appreciate him sharing his talent. I need to get a photographer on Allison’s gymnastics team and Emilee’s horse lessons so I can have good pictures of them too.
These are all from the 2023 club season Spring baseball tournaments.
A few days after getting back from New York we got ready for our family Summer vacation. Matthew had a baseball tournament in Gulf Shores Alabama over the fourth of July so we invited Ross and Lauren to come with us and we found a VRBO to stay at by the beach and added a few extra days to make it our Summer trip.
On our way to drop the Guinea Pigs off and start our vacation!
It was hot! We are used to humidity in Kansas but it took a step up in Alabama. Good thing we were by the beach!
We stopped at Bass Pro in Memphis on the way home for Matthew. He loves exploring a new Bass Pro Shop.
We had several beach days and did some mini golf. We found some Outlet Stores that the girls (and everyone) really liked and spent several hours shopping there. In the evenings we played lots of board games. Ryan and Ross brought at least 30 options of games to play like they usually do and we play 2 of them over and over. Matthew played 7 baseball games. The team has been playing pretty good lately but Matthew personally has been having an amazing season. They took 2nd overall in the tournament for their age group 16U.
On the actual fourth of July we had a cookout on the beach and played in the water a little bit with the whole team. Then watched fireworks from the beach. It was a cool experience. None of us had ever seen fireworks from the beach. It is just a great place to relax and hang out. I think everyone had a nice week.
Last time we were there a few years ago we took pictures at an ice cream shop that we went to. They are some of my favorite pictures. We went back to the same place and took the pictures again in the same poses we did a few years ago. We got some souvenirs at the store and made it out without any new crabs or other living animals.
By the time we drove home I had driven through 14 states within 2 1/2 weeks. It was a busy few weeks for everyone. We squeezed a lot of fun and new memories in this Summer and there are still more to come.
DeAnna decided we should do a sister trip again this year since the Jones reunion fell through the cracks this Summer. We picked a hot place last year in San Antonio so Sherri pushed hard for New York this time. She had never been and really wanted to go. She had a list of must do activities and sites to see.
We all flew in on a Friday morning and started the adventure off by taking a bus and then the subway and then walking the last block or four to our hotel. It took us 2 1/2 hours but it was part of the New York Adventure. Our hotel was pretty close to Time Square so it was a pretty good location for walking to most places we wanted to see. Once we were settled in the hotel we walked around and explored a little and found a local pizza place that we were told was a must try for dinner.
Saturday we took a New York in A Day Bus Tour. It was about 6 hours and we got a lot of things checked off Sherri’s list that she wanted to see. We would get off and walk around a bit then get back on the bus and go to the next place. We saw lots of the city and then specifically, the Empire State building, Ground Zero, Rockefeller Center (we ate lunch here), Central Park, Times Square, several of the bridges, famous movie places and took a ferry around the Statue of Liberty towards the end. The weather was cloudy but not rainy so it was perfect. On our way back from the tour we found the Cake Boss Bakery. It is a TV show that is famous for their elaborate cakes and fancy Italian pastries. We each got 3-4 things to try then came back to the hotel and had a big dessert sampling feast. I thought the cake was good. The cannoli’s were delicious and everything else was ok. It was cool to see it in person and actually get to taste stuff.
Harry Potter StoreGround Zero MemorialWall Street
Saturday night we went to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. It was really good. We all loved it. It was very well done and had really cool magic effects. The last time I went to New York I was pregnant with Matthew and we weren’t able to get to a Broadway play. That was the one thing on my list that I wanted to do and I wasn’t disappointed.
Sunday DeAnna found us a church to go to which happened to be in the same building as the LDS temple so we got to see that too. We found a yummy place to have brunch after church and then we rented bikes and rode them around Central Park. We made it around the entire park and stopped at a few places that you see in movies a lot of that Sherri wanted to see. It is a beautiful park. I would want to spend a lot of time there if I lived in New York. It is the only place you feel like you have a little space and can see a bit of the sky.
Catholic church we went in and toured…while they still had Mass. Kind of weird.There was some cool pictures in the church building I had never seen before. Specific to this area of history from the Book of Mormon.Only tree to survive the twin tower attacks.These lovely shoes cost $1500
We walked from Central Park to our hotel by going down 5th Avenue. We went into a few of the stores like Tiffany’s, Gucci, Loui Viton, Trump Tower. We went into the Plaza Hotel and the Toy store (both from the movie Home Alone 2) We found a taco place recommended by our tour guide the day before for dinner. It was a pretty good authentic street taco. One of Sherri’s list items was to eat food from one of the corner street vendors. She said it wasn’t even though DeAnna and I both remembered it. We did get an ice cream cone and some nuts from a street vendor. When we got to the public library we found a little table and chairs and stayed there and talked for a few hours and enjoyed the good weather and pretty day.
Monday we were going to go to a building called the Edge and go to the top for a good view of the city (similar to the Empire State building). DeAnna was considering doing the adventure packet that lets you harness yourself to a staircase and walk up the OUTSIDE of the building the last 200-300 feet. Sherri and I were taking the elevator all the way to the top. However, when we woke up we quickly found out that our early evening flights had all been cancelled due to ‘weather’ and we had to figure out how to get home instead. By the time it was all figured out we had refunded my flight and changed DeAnna and Sherri’s flights to fly out of KC to their homes and we rented a car and drove from New York to KC. It took two days instead of two hours to get home but we had a fun road trip. I didn’t mind having our girls trip extended a few more days. Three drivers and no kids isn’t to bad of a road trip either. We drove through, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Several of those were new states to me that I had never been in so that was a bonus too.
Once we made it back to my house both of them flew to their next destinations from KC and the Sister Trip was officially wrapped up and in memory banks. As usual and as expected we had a great time together.
Three kids and building a house can keep a person pretty busy in the Summer. As I mentioned in the last post, the girls started their Summer off with a Girl Scout Camp. Matthew started his off with High Adventure in Colorado with the other boys in our church ward his age. They went to the sand dunes and hiked those, and the mountains. They were camped right in the middle of the two. They went white water rafting one day as well. This is his third year of going. He has had a great time each year.
One of Allison’s favorite things to do is shop. She has been doing a little more babysitting lately. She is a really fun babysitter. Way better than I ever was. She always comes up with fun games and scavenger hunts and the kids she watch always have a great time. She watched Emilee and her friend Ethan a lot this Summer. This is a giant gumball machine she found on one of her shopping adventures spending her hard earned money.
Ryan and I had a few adventures in June too. We went to Las Vegas with our friends Dani and RJ. We had a pool day, exploring day and ate at some fun restaurants while we visited and enjoyed our quick weekend getaway together.
Emilee’s one wish for her Summer was to go to a horse camp. She did that at the end of June. She has been doing her regular riding lesson each week still but she wanted to have a full week of riding everyday. The last day they did a horse show for the parents to show what they learned. She had a great time. She still loves horses and hopes to get her own someday.
Another activity Emilee loves and looks forward to each and every Summer is sleeping in. She loves to sleep and would sleep until noon everyday if we let her. Dad had to wake her up one morning “early” which means before 9AM and he thought it was hilarious getting her to wake up. She wanted nothing to do with it.
Matthew kept busy with work and baseball and weight lifting after he got back from High Adventure. He went to FSY towards the end of June. It was in Warrensburg MO at the college there. He was able to room with his cousin Ethan and several of his other good friends were there. He said it was a fun time and one of his favorite parts was the testimony meeting the last night they were there. That makes me happy that he went and had a good experience.
Matthew and Carter making cooking to entertain themselves one afternoon.
Allison went to another girls camp at the end of June with two of her friends from school that are also in her troop. It was in Tulsa Oklahoma. I picked them up and they told me all about it on the way home. They had a mean counselor, it was ridiculously hot and the food was awful but they still had a great time together. Allison wore a swim suit that had the American flag on it and got the nick name Ms America for it. She came home with an American flag cowgirl had covered in sequence do go along with her nick name. She loved it.
Here are some random other pictures I have from this month that I’ll add to the end of this post.
Birthday party for Ethan Huntsman at Main EventJaNeil decorated my room at work for me.Someone taking pictures instead of listening at church.Emi loves doing her dad’s hair.Crafts with dadEthan’s bday party.Emilee teaching Ethan how to climb trees.
If you have kids in school May is a crazy month. All the end of the year activities, awards, tests, field days, performances, and wrapping up Spring sports gets crammed into three weeks or less.
Mother’s Day was on a bit of a hectic weekend, we had baseball and softball games. This is the last year I will have one of my own kids singing to me in the Primary at church too. That is a little sad. I told Emilee to sing really loud and make my last Mother’s Day song a good one. She did. She likes to sing. Later that month when school ended and we were cleaning out back packs I found this that Emilee had made for me and forgot to give me. I am a great taxi driver. I get A LOT of practice.
Emilee tired her hand at softball again this Spring. With her glasses she did really well! Imagine that. It was a fun team of girls. They grew a lot through the season and ended up winning their tournament at the end and claiming their spot as The Blue Valley Rec 4th Grade Girls Softball Champions. After the season was over the girls challenged the parents to a game and beat us. Emilee got the, Most Improved Player award. She had a really important hit in the last season game that let them score and get into the playoffs. I think she has found a sport that she really likes and wants to continue with.
Matthew wrapped up school baseball and jumped right into Club Baseball. He has had a good season so far and is really enjoying himself. He has been hitting and fielding well. He earned his way back to leadoff hitter and is the starting short stop. He was thinking of doing football in the Fall but decided to keep focused on just baseball for now. He has grown a lot but isn’t quite big enough that he wants to go up against other people and get tackled by people who have 40+ pounds on him.
Allison made honor roll and I was able to go see her get her award. She is looking forward to 8th grade and being the leaders in the school. She is excited that she went to the same elementary school and then middle school from start to finish without switching schools. Her and her friends decided to add a Hawaiian theme to their last day of school and they all dressed up.
Her gymnastic team made it to regionals and they traveled down to Wichita to compete. Allison did really well and had a fun time. Her coach was leaving McCracken’s where Allison has been for the last 7 years. Allison decided she wanted to follow her so after Regionals we changed to Element Gymnastics. I think it will be a good fit for her. She will get a lot more one on one training.
School always gets out the Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend. For our first Summer activity we went to Arkansas and spent the weekend at Dave and Jen’s house. Matthew wasn’t able to come because he had work and baseball but the four of us had a good time. The kids love swimming with their cousins in their pool whenever they feel like it. We did an outdoor movie, games, roasted smores, did a little shopping and had a fun time visiting with everyone.
After we got back from Arkansas the girls got ready for their Girl Scout Day camp that they have gone to for the last several years. Allison is one of the youth leaders now. She likes having a little more freedom to pick what she does and spends a lot of her time with the little kids area of all the younger kids of the volunteers running the camp. She likes to do the sleepover the first night with the older girls too. She usually found Emilee once or twice throughout the day to say hello too. Dad went on Saturday and was a leader for Emilee’s group. She loved having him there. Allison didn’t go the last day of camp because she had something else going on. They handed out awards on the last day and Allison ended up winning “Best Swap” that year (it is a trinket each girl makes to trade with other girls and they pin them on their hats) Emilee went up and accepted the award for her since she was gone.
Allison helping with the little kids.Emilee getting Allison’s award for herEmilee with “Leader Dad”
I thought I already mentioned this but its pretty big so I will again. After 3+ years, and countless false promises of “one more month” Allison finally got her braces off! She was and still is pretty excited. Now we have the constant battle of getting her to wear her retainers. 🤣🤣
April wouldn’t be April if it wasn’t Easter…unless Easter was in March that year. We had a nice Easter weekend and home in Olathe. We went to church and then had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Terry and Ross and Lauren and their family. We opened Easter baskets at our house but the kids wanted to do an Easter Egg Hunt together so the parents hid the eggs for them outside. It was a beautiful Sabbath day to celebrate the resurrection of out Savior.
Even the boys wanted in on the Easter Egg HuntThe neighbors invited the girls to do bubbles with them after the egg hunt. They cam back like this.Bean taking a nap with GrandpaBest hiding spot for eggs.Easter 2023
We thought this year might creep by slowly while we wait for our house to be built. Sometimes it does seem like it is taking forever but overall it does seem to be flying by. Once Spring Break was over and it is the 8 week stretch until school is out for the Summer it really seems to fly.
It was a cold Spring but there were a few nights in April we were able to light up the fire pit and make some smore’s in the back yard. Mmmmm we all love a good smore.
Emilee was selected as the Student of the Month which they now call Leader of the Month. Luckily they awarded it on a Friday so I was able to watch her get it. They do a little intro about the person before they say who it is. They said a lot of nice things about her- she helps others, gets her work done, is kind, loves to read, is a good listener. As soon as they said this person loves horses and knows all kinds of facts about horses everyone knew the teacher was talking about Emilee.
I was a good girl and did my workout before her award ceremony even though that meant I had to show up stinky and gross. Good thing you can’t smell pictures.
Our church had a Prom Night. Matthew’s high school only lets upper classmen go to the prom. Or you can be invited to the prom by an upper classmen. Matthew didn’t go to the school prom. When the church said they were having a stake prom I asked him no less than 12 times if he and his friends were going to get a group together and go to the dance several months, and weeks in advance. You don’t have to dress formal but a lot of people do. He told me each of those 12 times that he was not planning on doing that. The day of the prom he texted me from school to tell me that he and a group of kids were going to go to prom and he was taking Campbell.🤦♀️ At least he had given her a few more days notice than he did me so she was able to find a dress and Matthew just wore his church clothes, no tux. They both had baseball/softball practice until 6:30 so they missed dinner and ended up just going to the dance. After the dance they had an after party were they are supposed to dress up as something together. They changed back into their baseball/softball uniforms and went together like that. I got no group pictures. They had a fun night. That is is the difference between a boy and girl. Boys are zero planning time, you have to drag details out of them and beg other moms for pictures. Girls want 12 outfit options, tell you all the tea and have pictures of every second of the night. Is it not adorable that they both were the number 14?!
Allison was busy doing track everyday after school in March and April. She decided to do the pole vault, discus and shot put. She did a lot of running and got in good shape. The coaches didn’t do much coaching for her events so it was more of a figure it out on your own thing. We were proud of her for trying something new and putting all the effort she put into her practices and meets. I tried to go running with her a few times. I am a tread mill runner IF I run- I like the AC on a fan in my face and stopping exactly where I started as soon as I am done. She kicked my but when we would run together. She loved the social part of it and overall had a good time. She ended the season not sure if she wanted to do it again. If she does she wants to drop shot put and discus and do the high jump instead. If she decides to do it again we will have to see about finding her a private coach to teach her the pole vault and high jump.
Emilee is trying her hand at softball again this Spring. So far it is going 100% better just for the fact that she has glasses now and can see the ball. She joined her bestie Reese’s team and it is a good fit for her. She has improved a lot in catching, throwing and hitting. We all try and help her practice batting and playing catch at home. Hopefully she sticks with it for a few more years.
Matthew made the JV baseball team. They had a really good season. A little more than half way through the season he was moved to practicing with the varsity team and going to all their games. He still played JV games but then he would go to all the varsity games and warm up with them and pinch run for them a few times. The Varsity team went to State he got to go with them and had a great experience. They lost their first game and were out but still had fun. He is hoping to get to go again his Junior and/or Senior year when he is a full time varsity player. He has grown a bit and has a little more strength behind his swing and throw so he is really enjoying himself when he plays now. It is fun to watch him.
These are the three JV players that moved up to varsity.This was the Regional Game they won to go to State
We tried to squeeze some fun things in for Spring Break this year. We started with Ryan and I taking the girls to Pinot’s Palette. It is a painting place. They teach you to paint a picture and you get to take it home when your done. The night we went was glow in the dark night too. So we had all the lights off and painted with a black light only. The picture looked way different when they turned the regular lights back on. It was a lot of fun. When we were done we went to get a cookie from Matthew who was working at his job at Twisted Sugar and couldn’t come with us. We showed him our pictures but mixed them up and had him guess who painted which picture. He didn’t guess any of us correctly.
Ryan and Matthew were finally able to go on the trip they had planned for Spring Break in March 2020 that was cancelled due to COVID. They went to Spring Training for the Royals in Arizona. They got lots of manly activities and manly talk in over the few days they were there. They saw several baseball games. Matthew ran into one of his former baseball buddies at one of them. They did some golfing, ate lots of pizza and other manly junk food. They also went to an NBA game and had a blast.
Matthew is a Phoenix Suns fan now. They ran into Frank and Eli Goldstein from Matthew’s baseball team while they were there and watched a game with them.
About mid week Matthew flew home and Ryan drove to Vegas with a mission buddy of his for their annual man-trip were they spend as much time watching as many March Madness basketball games as they can between eating at delicious buffets and trips to Bass Pro.
Left to Right- Sam, Ryan, Cory and Mike.
The girls and I stayed at home and did some fun activities on our own. We did Urban Air trampoline park, movies, sleepovers with cousins, and some rock climbing. THe weather in Arizona was beautiful. The weather in Kansas was not-we even had snow a few times. We all had a good week doing things with each other and others. Then when is was all done and we were all home we went to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant- K Macho’s and told each other all about it. It was overall a pretty good spring break.
Ryan and I went on double date with a co-worker of mine and her husband. I thought for a while that the four of us would get along. We did and we had a great time and have hung out many times since then.
The first time we hung out was also Dani’s birthday. We went country line dancing. Dani and I happen to listen to the same radio station on our way to work in the mornings and one of the radio hosts from the station was there that night so we met him while we were having a fun night dancing.
