Birthday

 It's hard to do a real Birthday celebration in between sports, music lessons, lawn mowing jobs, and everything in between, but we went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Schwarma, and then got some frozen yogurt afterwards. It was a nice evening after a long and busy week.

Another trip around the sun has been nice. I sure am blessed!

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!

Camille and Mom

 Audra and Ben left for home, so with Claire at FSY Camille and I were left by ourselves. We headed to my favorite place on the planet, the Redondo Boardwalk.

We also stopped by my elementary school, which was recently torn down and completely rebuilt.

An Ode to the Rewards of Motherhood: A True Story in One Act

 Child 1: How did you eat dinner at your meet?

Child 2: Oh, we have the best daddy. Daddy made me a delicious dinner, and he is the best Daddy ever.

Me: Dad didn't make you dinner. I did.

Child 2: .....(silence).....

The End.

#Benough

 I have been working 12 hour days up at our rental properties (two turnovers in 3 days: Zero stars. Do not recommend.) and our portable AC unit broke. I almost went and spent $400 on a new one, but instead I decided to channel my #innerBarbie and I tore it apart and was able to fix it! Turns out she was right, I really can do anything!

I told Ben that he should take me out to dinner to celebrate, but he told me, "No. You have me, and I'm Benough." And how could I argue with that?

(Ben actually didn't say that, but it would have been funny if he had. I need to get him a t-shirt.)

Maycember

 Concerts, soccer, Bobby G Awards, Birthdays and so much more....things are insane. Here's a photo dump.

Claire participated in Battle of the Books. It is very different in middle school than elementary school. It's just one battle with all the teams, which was nice. They didn't win, but Claire had a lot of fun with this.

Camille sang the national anthem at the Rockies Game with her school choir:

It was freezing cold and super windy, so friends and food made the difference. The Rockies lost the game to the Phillies 6-3. 

Oh, yeah, and Mother's Day! The girls wrote sweet notes on my door and the ward gave us Twisted Sugar cookies. I LOVE being their mom!

All the girls had concerts.

A note about Claire: This year really started rough. I mean, REALLY rough. But last week she said, "I LOVE middle school!" How many middle schoolers can say that? But she has taken a really hard year and flipped it on its head by finding herself in sports, friends, and activities. I get a little bit emotional thinking about it because I know how much she has had to persevere and overcome to get here. I couldn't be more proud of her. Oh, and she has straight A's, too. Because she's incredible.

My friend Liese "graduated" from homeschooling. She is a powerhouse in the homeschooling community, organizing more events, co-ops, and field trips than anyone I know. She was a huge help to me through our 8 years of homeschool. In fact, she was the first homeschool mom I met- it was her activity that I went to and she patiently talked me through so much about homeschool life.

Brian Neyenhuis took Claire and Camille to the Aaronic Priesthood campout. He said his girls would have more fun if they had friends, so he would take them. It was cold and wet, but Camille had a great time and Claire had an OK time.