Fall Pillows

 Camille wanted some fall pillows, so she sewed herself some.

HOCO 2024

Homecoming 2024! Audra went with her friend from church, Evan, and Claire went with a group of girlfriends.

I know I'm biased, but they sure clean up nice!

                                          

The neighborhood crew- Claire, Audra, Taytum, and TJ

They picked out matching dresses ;) Audra's is actually a dress we bought for winter formal last year with Austin, but then winter formal was canceled so she never got to wear it until now

Audra's hair

Camille Soccer

 Camille's life now revolves around school and soccer. She begged us to try competitive soccer this year, and we decided to let her try. She tried out and made United Gold- a mid-level competitive team that doesn't travel a whole ton, which we appreciate.

She is playing mid-forward. She has a really great coach. She has practices 3 times a week, and not a whole ton of games- only about 8 per season. She is on the team for the whole year, though she might get winter off depending on what the team decides.

So far she enjoys it. It is a higher level of play, so hopefully it will get her ready for high school soccer, which is her goal.

Birthday Celebration

Went to View house for dinner and then to see Jersey Boys with this handsome guy tonight. I heard more F-words in that two hours than in the entire 5 years I taught high school, but we both really enjoyed the music and the show.

One line in the show says, "and my beautiful wife... " On the way home I told Ben it's weird men only ever say, "my beautiful wife" and never "my ugly wife." Surely some men have ugly wives.

So now I'm begging him to get up in church to bear his testimony and say, "and I'm grateful for my ugly wife Christina" because I think it would be hilarious to see all the shocked faces turn to me while I'm dying with tears of laughter, because come on- would that not be the most hilarious thing you ever heard said at church?!? Which of course got him laughing, envisioning people spitting out their water as they hear him say that, which got me laughing so hard I was crying.

And that kind of humor is why neither of us could ever have married anyone else.

Marching Band

 It isn't the competitive marching band season that Audra hoped for, but it is a marching band season nevertheless. She is a co-section leader for the trumpets. She wishes they would do more, but nevertheless she enjoys the people she plays with and playing for as much as she can.

Homecoming parade

And I get to hang out with the band moms for one last season.

College Tour Road Trip

 Audra and I did a crazy ridiculous thing. After school we hopped in the mini van and drove to Grand Junction for a tour of Grand Mesa. Audra's friend Madison kindly gave us a great tour- she showed us the whole campus and did a great job.

Grand Junction Temple which will open in just a few months!

In the end, Grand Mesa is a TINY college, and Audra decided it is too small for her.

So, we continued on our journey and headed to BYU. I mean, it was just another 3 1/2 hours, so why not?

We got to Provo just in time for lunch at The Brick Oven.

I showed her everything from Brick Oven, the SWKT, Joseph Smith Building (where I loved to go to find peace back in the day), testing center (where I found no peace), The Marriott Center (she already owns it, so she should go there, and it paid for my college as I cleaned the toilets there for 4 years while in school- little did I know I'd be cleaning Marriott toilets, unpaid, for the rest of my life), and so much more. I'm not sure I convinced her that "this is the place" (iykyk), and unfortunately The Creamery was out of their mint brownies (that would have sealed the deal, dang it!), but BYU is now in her top two choices- woo-hoo!

We stopped over at the Provo City Temple

My poor old, beloved Park Plaza! It's vandalized, all the windows are broken, and somehow not demolished- this is right across the street from BYU- how was this not  demolished- and not rebuilt?!? Still, it was sad to see my old home looking like this

Dinner at The Creamery!

It was 17 hours of driving. We are EXHAUSTED! But, she made some good decisions, learned a lot, and we had some great talks on the drive. It was worth it!