Celebration Time!
Matt was in charge of the Klondike campout and came home exhausted so I took Callie and Graham to Gio's 6th b-day party in Eagle Mountain on Feb 3rd. The church was all decked out for Nerf wars. I am going to copy that streamer idea. Graham enjoyed playing with the adults more than the kids since they all came to he and Callie's waists;) Gma Donna was there, she loves that she can come to these things now. We didn't have a lot of luck visiting because after all, there was a NERF WAR goin on.
What everyone was most looking forward to though was the annual
Super Bowl party at Shafer and Lindsey's February 4th 2018. Ollie was the one who stole the
show. He was making Ava and me laugh sooo hard! He is a ham! He recently cut
his own hair so I asked him about it. He made his hands into scissors and said, "I took a little slice!" He also has this dance he does with his eyes
half closed and his head cocked to the side. Lindsey said that during Sunbeams
he kept doing that the whole time. Lindsey was in there with him and he was the
ONLY kid in there but the teacher kept teaching away. Bwahahaha. It was fun to
see Romney and Raegan representing the Gouldings.
Matt was the one who brought up going to The Greatest Showman that week. We just could not convince Grayson to come see it
with us! There is a cool Olympic clip with a song from the show. Grayson asked, “Is this all you guys listen to?” Pretty much!
Pyeongchang 2018!
Pyeongchang 2018!
The
opening ceremonies in Pyeongchang South Korea were on 2-9-18. We wondered
what comments Mal would be making. We miss her giggles and comments! The first
gold medal for USA was a 17-yr-old kid from Colorado! He is the first medalist
EVER who was born after the year 2000. His name is Red and he was coming in way
hot on the snowboard (as Mallerie would say).
The Eagle has landed! And is staying landed!
On
Saturday the 10th we drove out to Farmington Bay to see the eagle migration. There were
three eagles sitting waaaay out in a field, but when you looked through the
telescopes they had set up you could see them clear as day including the
incredible detail of their faces. I don't know why the guy had the telescope set up for a kindy-gartener though. Even if expectations weren't met, Cade is a good one to have around, "The Eagle thing was way cool!" He brought some of his kids and their
exchange student Paulina. Giuseppe also came. He was a bit disappointed since
he thought the eagles would be swooping overhead and landing on arms. Nope;)
It was so
cold and windy! We decided to head to Temple Square instead and met the
Geertsen's there. We had a bit of a hard time meeting up. Lots of texts were exchanged, "Okay we are just leaving the City Creek food court." Followed by, "We are just leaving the south visitors center." When we finally DID meet up Lindsey said, "What if I was just home in my bed texting all this time." And of course I added to it, "What if I also was home pretending to be here." Har har. It was Paulina's first time so it was fun to show her
the temple and Christus. The last time I saw her it was the day she landed from Chile and she was very docile from jet lag. I told Cade I was glad to get to know her. He said, "Well...she's about the same." Watching Cal and Sol just cracks me up and kept me
smiling all day. Sol kept standing up in the stroller and taking big swigs of
Cade's Mountain Dew with a big grin on his face. No disappointment there! Solly loved having his belly rubbed while we sat in the theatre and watched videos. It was just the outing to beat the winter blues.
Graham
told me the next day as Sacrament meeting was starting that he was supposed to give a
talk in Primary. I had my New Era with me so we opened it up and found a puzzle. For his
talk he had kids come up and try and solve the puzzle.The only way to solve it was to go in order. At the end he said,
“Some people think the world was created by a big bang, but we know that there
was order in the creation. It was created by Jesus Christ by the power of the
priesthood.” Dad and I stood in the hall to listen to him. Graham said his
palms were all sweaty because the Stake leaders were there for Ward Conference.
Bless him.
Be My Valentine
I went to the State
Capitol on a field trip with Graham on Valentine's Day. I’m such a ding-a-ling; by mistake I set my alarm for an
hour after I needed to get up! Graham came in all dressed up 15-minutes before we needed to be at the school. Little did I know as I was brushing my three-day
unwashed hair into a ponytail that I would be getting a picture with the
governor…oh well (thank goodness for dry shampoo). We palled around with Luke
Searle, Katrina's friend, most of the day because he works there. He greeted us at the door and began chatting with me as soon as we started up the marble staircase. I had to pause, "Luke I have actually never been here, I've got to take it all in." He was the one who
INSISTED we get a photo with the Gov. He posted it on Instagram with the caption, "Future Senator."
Katrina was very confused as to why he would have a photo of Graham at the Capitol. (Graham asked if I could crop him a picture of just he and the Gov;)
Meeting the Governor was not on our itinerary but one of the student's distant relatives showed up and arranged it last minute. She looked like Phyllis Diller in her leopard hat and coat (word has it that she donates plenty to his campaign and can basically get what she wants). The student she was with seemed like, "How do I know you?"
The Utah State Capitol is a beautiful building. I appreciated what Governor Herbert said as he addressed the students, "Out of all the historic things you have seen today and important people you have met, none are more important than YOU guys because you are our FUTURE." There was a movie festival going on in the rotunda the first part of the day and I smiled when I saw our bus driver walking around with food and drink in hand. In the photo above he is the one taking a picture as we sit in the Gold Room normally reserved for dignitaries and Phyllis Diller. As we got on the bus our driver said, "This was a good day at the Capitol!" I had to agree.
I came home and had to make my dinner-plate size sugar cookies for
the family. Every year I finish and say, “Well, I did it again!” After dinner
Dad and I stopped over at the stake center to see how the Laurel/Priest speed
dating/dinner was going and then came home and watched Charlie Brown Valentine
with the babes as the phantom doorbell ditcher left treats. It was perfect.
Arrow of Light
It is time for Pack Meetings to come to an end for this family as Graham moves on. Last month Matt taught the boys what he does for work and then threw them all a bag of Cheetos. I was in the back waving my hands trying to get his attention. I thought it would be polite to wait and hand them out at the end of all the presentations. He didn't see me.
In February we had to miss Grayson's championship basketball game because of the Blue and Gold where Graham earned his Arrow of
Light. G ate so many sugar cookies at
the house before we headed out the door that he had gas. He had to keep getting up
and standing in the back of the gym during the magicians act. The magician was pretty
good! Our friend Pat was cracking up, "This guy is the BEST!" As we were walking
into the church earlier that evening Pat said, "Nothing like free dinner!" And then it
WASN'T a dinner! THAT was the magic trick: the disappearing dinner.
Matt painted Graham's face as the award was presented. Graham has really enjoyed Cub Scouts and does it all on his own. We posed for a photo with Dale Barney afterwards. When Grayson got his Arrow of Light the photo made our Christmas card that year. Let's see what happens in 2018! I told Dale, "You might be on our Christmas card again!"
Since everyone was starving afterwards Matt treated us to Wendy's. Just as we walked in Adam Rippon took to the ice on the big screen. The girls and me watched in hushed awe at his performance. He is a beautiful specimen to look at. As we were leaving with our food I realized I didn't have any. Matt said, "You never came to the counter to order." Adam distracted me.
I heated up a sweet potato at home.
Other 2018 Olympic highlights were when Shawn White three-peated for gold in Snowboarding. Boy was I was jumping around and hollering in the kitchen. A German bobsled tipped over just as they
crossed the finish but they still came in first AND a figure skater almost
lost her costume when the clasp came undone. She skated the whole routine
with it ready to fall off.
I spent a lot of time in the kitchen during the Olympics so I could still get things done while I watched. I tried my hand at homemade granola, peanut butter balls, and CHEEZ-ITS. Yes, homemade Cheez-its!
Dinner Party
We had dinner at Matt's secretary's house (his Stake YM secretary, not his work secretary). It was at the Bond's home on Feb 16th. I mention the date so that I can document the day that Matt's grandfather passed away. He came home from work and said, "My grandfather died today." I was so confused, "You have a living grandfather??" It was his paternal grandfather who lived in Mexico who he's never met, Miguel Cavasos. Uncle Roy has met him and is the one who gives updates now and then. I asked, "Do you think your dad was there to meet him at the vail?" It was sweet to think of.
Matt's Presidency is a fun group and I know all of the wives well (though I didn't know about their secret obsession with Nutella!) For dessert I brought homemade crème brûlée and everyone got to torch their own. Jared spread his sugar perfectly on the top. As sheriff, he said he is used to dealing with white powder.
And not to confuse you further, but Matt's secretary at work really liked my homemade cheez-its.
Variety Show!
The latest project that the Stake YM/YW have been working on is a Youth Variety Show. One of my Laurels encouraged our ward to do a skit and then she was unavailable to help with any of it. Ava came to the rescue and got the music spliced and helped choreograph. My favorite thing about all of it was how much
fun the girls had with it. They will remember it always, just as I remember being a Beehive and performing at a Stake Talent show to Erasure's, Give a Little Respect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONot8VXQHsg
The girls performed a silly 80's
aerobic routine and were SO nervous beforehand. I really enjoy our Beehives. We sat on the front row and cheered for all of the acts with our ribbon wands.
Here Matt waits backstage to let the next group know when it's time to go on stage.
Charley Jenkins (if you don't know him look him up) ended the night with a live performance that we all line danced too. One of my Laurels grabbed my arm and then said, "Sister Bocanegra!?" She wasn't expecting to feel my chiseled biceps I guess;)
Elders Feeding US!
I signed up to feed the Elders in February but oh man, I didn't plan well. I ended up in Park city that day and got home
later than I wanted to, which put me grocery shopping later than I wanted to! The missionaries were already at the house by the time I got home. Luckily Matt had arrived and they were sitting in the living room visiting. Matt thought it was very odd that he came home to an un-set table and a dark empty kitchen with the Elders on the porch. And yet Matt also told me he thought, "I know Abby has a plan." I'll take that as a compliment. I asked the Elders if they would rather have pork chops or frozen pizza. They said, "Pork chops if
that’s OK.” I said, “Absolutely, and you get to help make them!” I even put
them to work unloading the groceries (they got in some service hours in too;) One of them has never even chopped
lettuce before. The other one learned how to make gravy from scratch. I think
we all really enjoyed cooking together. They liked wearing their aprons so much that
they kept them on during dinner. They wanted us to take pictures of them to
send to their families. It was weird being on the other end of those missionary
texts. In my next letter to Mallerie I asked her if she would think it was weird if that happened at a dinner
appointment she went to. She wrote back and said that she thought it sounded fun and loves it when the families put them to work. She even asked me to send a photo of the Elders in their aprons. Below: an Elder tries steamed cabbage for the first time. Since the Elders had to eat and run Matt and I still had time to attend the temple that evening. We stopped at Sodalicious on University afterwards and I ordered the "Eternal Companion." It seemed the obvious choice.
The following Saturday we had a fun visit from Jerry and Kathy from Castle Rock who are in the ward Mallerie is serving in. Being a missionary mom is the best!
Cat-Mitt
Matt and I got to hear Mitt Romney speak at the Lincoln Day Breakfast in Midway. He is running for Senator.
I went from there to a camp
kick-off brunch and then errands with Matt and Graham. I like that Graham still
likes to come with us. It was a nice weekend. Callie was sledding in Midway
with her friends. Let me tell you about Callie. Callie loves cats. Well, she is now always TALKING
in cat, which consists of odd sorts of meowing. She said that she and her friends even talk cat to each other at school. I asked, "How do you know what each
other is saying?" She looked at me like I was crazy, "We don't!"
I started laughing at that and Graham said, "You are probably going to put
that on the Christmas card mom." Probably!
Callie
made me laugh again when she was telling me about her day at school. "Ms.
Brown came in to our class and taught us BTS Art." I asked, "What is
BTS Art?" Callie said, "It means come into our class and
teach art."
Soldier Hollow
I
took the babes to Soldier Hollow on Feb 27th for family tubing night. They said the
last time that Matt took them and the snow was so slushy they had to walk down. Not
this time! The snow was like glass. The first time I went down I realized, "I am
going freaky fast!" Even though I was digging in my heels and fingers, I STILL hit
the barricade. People were actually flying OVER the barricade so fast was that
snow! We tried going down all different ways and realized our favorite was when
we all held on to each others tubes. There were boxes and boxes of delicious
donuts and cocoa in the lodge afterwards. As Graham grabbed his THIRD donut he
said, "This is a good day." I am glad for days like that because 5th
grade has been pretty rough on him. His class is full of stinkers and his
friends keep moving. He also has his birthday to look forward to.
That means the next post will be March!
