June 2023

June 2023 was marked with our kids going on summer trips. First Eliza went to Washington DC with her school. She will do an entirely different post about that. Later that month both Eliza and Miriam went to Young Women Camp. I don't know how we are already at the stage of life where our girls are going on major trips without us. We were pretty sad at home without them. We were definitely glad that they got to experience those things though. John actually went to Minnesota too, for work. We didn't even really go on a trip this summer as a family. Yikes. 

At home our days were filled with yard work, summer goals, and swim lessons/swim team. Our girls all helped take care of our yard. We did weeding everyday, splitting our yard into zones that we rotated through. They were good sports about it. We listened to music as we weeded. The hardest part was weeding the grass. Since we couldn't use broad leaf weed killer on the new grass, and then it got too hot to use that. This meant that we could let the weeds run rampant through the grass and just mow them down, or we could go through the grass and hand pull them. It was a lot of weeding, especially at first. Once we got into the swing of things, the weeds weren't too much to keep on top of. The whole neighborhood got to hear our music everyday at about 11am. There was a lot of "I am so Blessed." There was even more Taylor Swift. It was a good time. I love hearing the kids sing along as they work. We took turns picking songs. Inevitably Darcy would always pick "Jingle Bells" (in June). 

Not everything is easy in the summer. There are a lot of tasks involved with doing the kids' goals. Much to Holland's displeasure she still had to do a math page everyday. We got into a good grove though, and she did a lot of it waiting for swim to start everyday. It is hard to know what to do as a parent. It would be so much easier to just not make her do stuff she doesn't want to do. But I want her to learn to not be afraid of work. I want her to know that she can do things that she doesn't want to do, and it will be okay. I want her to learn that working hard pays off--if she does her work quickly and well, she can have the reward. I want her to learn delayed gratification--not trading what you want most for what you want right now. I also want her to think she is good at school. I want her to feel advanced for her class and her grade. I hope that these math pages and chores are teaching her these things. It has certainly been a journey for us to enforce doing these things. I hope it is helping more than hurting.

Saying "I love you" to Daddy in Minnesota. It was sad and John's and Ellie's trips overlapped. He had to go to Minnesota, and she left to DC before he got back. That's a long time to not see each other--just a couple of days short of two weeks. 

Their conference was really close to Mall of America so they got some exercise walking over there to eat. 

View from his flight.

He saw the roller coaster inside! I rode that roller coaster with my mom when we went on one of our trips. We had a long layover in Minneapolis. 

He says this was maybe the best shrimp he has ever had. It was at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, and he got the Shrimp New Orleans. 

The Lego store there is legit.

Math before swim! 

Dropped Ellie off at the school for her DC trip! She roomed with her friend Hazel Snyder who lived in our ward.

Getting Eliza ready to go to DC was kind of sad. Especially the night before, for whatever reason. We all got a little emotional. She kissed Darcy and Holland goodbye four different times. I dropped her off the next morning at 5:30am. She was so excited, but I immediately stared missing her like crazy. Miriam was so helpful with both John and Ellie gone. She put Darcy to bed and sang her like 1,000 songs, including "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Amazing Grace."  

On the day that I dropped Eliza off for her DC trip. Our plants had a hard day. Our poor plumeria bent in the wind. And then Darcy tipped the totem pole cactus over in the living room. Yikes. I repaired it as best I could. I put a large stake with the plumeria and wrapped it with the stretchy garden tape. I think some of the roots to the totem pole broke, but it was encouraging to see the roots that were there. 

During the following days, we missed Eliza a lot. It was a learning experience for us all to realize that we didn't have good expectations set up for how often she would check in with us or communicate at all. We quickly realized that we needed to do something with our time and not just sit home and fret about her. 

On the second day that Ellie was in DC we distracted ourselves by making chocolate bark and an extra movie night. We let Darcy watch it, and she loved it so much. Bluey was 100% a hit. 

We decided to take an evening to see the poppy fields in North Utah County. It's called Lambert Poppy Field. It was lovely. It was a walk to get there, but weirdly right by a (swanky) neighborhood. The poppies were so pretty. I loved the snowy mountains in the background. The poppies are wild, but the field has been improved with fences, paths, and benches. It was a lovely little visit. 

On Saturday we went to the Provo Farmer's Market. There were endless things that the girls had to exclaim over. We got a couple of little things--Miriam got a succulent, Holland got a fidget toy, and a snack for everyone. There is also a little splash pad that we played in. After a bit they were both acting exhausted and told me they were over stimulated. 

It was a warm day, and we were glad to have that water. 

One day Holland told me, "I normally like my food hot, but I don't like boys who think they're hot." 

Darcy told me one morning, "I dreamed about you. It was a good dream."

"I don't want to marry a good boy. I want to marry a bad boy." Yikes!  

Honestly I just love watching her talk. Darcy talks so expressively with hand gestures, eyebrows moving, jumping up and down, and so much inflection in her voice. It makes every little thing she says so cute! 

Darcy told me to write that she loves playing with Bearby (Big Bear) and the unicorn from her birthday. She also loves playing with her new shoes. They are pink sandals with sparkles. 

One evening at dinner, Darcy asked John, "Daddy, did Mommy marry a nice boy? Was it you?" Also, she kept saying "Oh cool." to things that day. She is so funny!

The Bishopric spoke in church one Sunday. Miriam said she was having a hard time focusing, so she went up to the afterwards and asked for a copy of their talks. The Bishop dropped off a copy of their talks, and she legit studied them afterwards. It was awesome! 

There were some ruins of a pioneer home right there also. 

Homemade pizza, yum!

Lovely new roses

The washing machine broke randomly. It stopped spinning. :( John tried repairing it a couple of time, but we ended up ordering a new one. It definitely highlighted how much and often I use the washing machine. I ended up carrying our laundry to our neighbors' houses more than once to borrow their washers. Darcy went after our bed spread with a dry erase marker. It was not great. 

Eliza made it home from DC! We were so happy to have her back with us. She had a great experience! We welcomed her home with these homemade signs. It was such a joy to go pick her up! We probably embarrassed her in front of her friends and teachers. What do you do? 

The night before Darcy turned three. My last time nursing a baby. It is so surreal that that part of my life is over. I feel really peaceful about not having any more children though. I just can't go through that again. It breaks my heart not to nurse anymore though. I loved being able to nurse our babies. It was something I had to fight for. My body made it hard. My babies' lack of instinct to suck made it hard. It was so hard to get going well, and it was totally worth it. I love being a momma to babies. How can I love that and still not face doing it again? I guess it is because I love taking care of a baby, but I can't doing the emotions/illness of pregnancy again. I can't completely check out from being a mom to my other children. Their lives will continue, and I want to be there and help with that. I can't believe that I am not going to nurse a baby again though. 

Darcy loves announcing to people that "Three year old's don't nurse." I thought it was so cute that when Aunt Kayla asked Darcy if she drinks more regular milk now, Darcy responded, "Not particularly." 

With our girl home again, we went on a Mommy Daughter date to the BYU bowling. It was delightful. We played two games. Ellie went from straight gutter balls to figuring it out. Then we explored the Eyring Science Center, which was surprisingly fun because of all of the displays in the lobby. I love hanging out with her. 

I am so glad this move has been so great for this girl. She invited a bunch of friends over for a campfire one evening and had a great time. She seems so much more confident these days. 

Sweetest girls and best dad. I am so grateful to have John be the father of my children. He is the best.

And he is ADORED

I wonder what was in those presents. :) 

I loved all of the flowers in my yard. It is so fun to see how things changed in just a year (because of a lot of work). 

John's work summer party was at Boondocks in Draper. It was a fun evening. We loved the bumper boats and ropes course. The zip line was super fun. The older girls spent a ton of time on it. I also liked playing mini gold with Darcy. 

Race cars are super fun, but also frustrating when you get stuck behind someone. I bet this is what people thought behind me. :) 

After Darcy turned three, she started swimming lessons! It was a bit of a mixed success. Sometimes, she was so scared to get in the water with her teacher (especially if there was a boy teacher or a substitute). Other times, she handled it like a pro. Never know with these new 3 year olds. 

This lily is just showing off.

On June 20th I had a milestone in my life. I got PRK surgery on my eyes! It is kind of random that we did it then, probably just tired of waiting for it. Between two sets of braces we didn't have enough saved up in our HSA account to pay for it outright, so we jumped through the hoops to pay for it over the next two years interest free. I was hoping to get LASIK but found out that I wasn't a great candidate for it. I could do the older surgery method of PRK. Instead of lifting up a flap of my eye and shaping my cornea, they removed the top epithelial layer and shaped the cornea. I had to wear contacts to cover the wound for a few days. The major downside to the PRK surgery is that the recovery time is so much slower. Instead of it being a day or two, it was about a month or more. 

The actual surgery was a bit of a traumatic event. I was so nervous to get surgery on my eyes. John gave me a beautiful blessing the night before, which helped so much. I was doing okay until the eye clamp, then I had a panic moment. Miraculously I remembered square breathing, something I had read about in a rom com book once months ago. I tried it, and it pulled me out of the panic almost immediately. It really felt like a miracle that came to mind in my time of need. It was so crazy that they removed some of my eye, then laser shaped the rest of it.  Directly after surgery I was already seeing a lot better. The next day was kind weird with my vision coming and going. I couldn't believe that I could see without my glasses or contacts. Even my close vision was coming and going, which was very odd. I have always been able to see close without corrective lenses. I was also very sensitive to light for a while. 

Because the epithelial layer was removed it had to grow back and then it had to be smoothed down like glass. That is the reason the recovery is so long on the PRK surgery. It blew my mind that at one of my follow up appointment, I was told I was seeing 40/20 which is technically legal to drive. I definitely didn't feel safe to drive with that blurry of eyes, and it didn't make me feel better that there are people out there driving with that vision. Because I couldn't see the details I felt like my reaction time was slower. It was so weird that the clear vision came and went. It started to get a lot better when I started using the eye drops without preservatives again. One memory that really stands out is swimming in our little pool, when I got some water in my eyes. I couldn't believe how clearly I could see with the water in my eyes. I think it smoothed out that layer? It really gave me hope that the surgery was successful.

Because of the panic during surgery and the long recovery I really really didn't want to do a follow up surgery in order to get my vision where I wanted it to be. I was overwhelmingly happy and relieved to find out at my 3 month appointment that I am seeing 20/15 individually in each eye and together. Thank heavens! I am so glad that the expensive surgery worked! 

Life continued on after the surgery. We did yard work (with sunglasses on because my eyes were so sensitive). It was weird to hang out inside with sunglasses on, even going to church with sunglasses on.  The Jacobsons were visiting family in Utah and came to hang out for the evening. It was really nice to see them, even if John beat us all at Splendor two times! I love that our kids play well together!

The girls did a real swim meet with the community team, Piranhas. It is so fun to watch them. At their first meet, Miriam beat three boys in her breaststroke heat. They both did great. 

I love how good of friends my kids are. One day I overheard Eliza and Miriam discussing the logistics of traveling together after they have their own families. That same day Holland and Darcy played so well together. I hope they stay good friends. Darcy is so loving too. She kept singing to me "I love you today" again and again.

Sleeping behind her door because we started locking in her. She was in a bad habit of not staying in bed. It only took a day or two of this for her to get in a much better habit of sleeping in her bed. 

Our Madagascar Palm was doing so poorly inside. The top started dying and was oozing black goo. After being moved outside, it got another chance at life. The dead top branched! It looks so much better!

There were happy days at swimming lessons for Darcy too. 

This is the 3rd time this year that this amaryllis bloomed!!

We finally got a new washing machine! We got a mini washing machine base to go with it so it would be the same height as the dryer. It feels super luxurious to wash clothes whenever we want to. 

We dropped off the girls at Young Women Camp. It was so sad to do that. Miriam got a little teary. Holland was my big helper while they were gone. She really stepped up how much she was doing to help with things. The girls had a great time at camp. Miriam made some friends. It was freezing. There was issues with tents leaking, but thankfully our girls' tent was sound. They had a wonderful, spiritual, fun time. Miriam came home and told me that hygiene goes out at camp, at least 10x. It kind of grossed me out. We were so glad to have them home again. Holland and I made this Welcome Home sign and Darcy made her own on the other walls. We went to the park to kill time until they came home. Bicentennial Park is such a good one for Darcy at this age. 

Eliza: It was way fun. We had some really good spiritual experiences this year, better than last year, not that last year was bad. We had good solo time, and we got the letters from our parents. We made a lot of jewelry. One of my favorite activities was when we decorated some Books of Mormon. We went on a few walks in the morning, which was beautiful. 

Miriam: So the first day, we drove all the way up there. My friends and I did a lot of games, and it was super fun. When we got up there we set up the tents, and after we set up the tents we went down to the really big river. It was like a foot of rapids. There are lots of sharp rocks. We found this log that was like 10 inches wide. Then we scooted on our bums across the river. And it was really scary. And we explored and found some flowers. We made little bouquets and put them in pots and put them outside our tents. Then we had lunch, and then we went to flag, which is when all the wards in the stake came together where we had a prayer and a little devotional with testimonies. Then we went back to our campsite and had dinner and went to bed. The next morning it was really cold so we had hot chocolate with breakfast. Then we painted Books of Mormon. This wasn't paint pens, it was solid paint brushes and big paints so you could cover the whole area and make it super fancy. Then it started to rain. And so we all grabbed and activity bin (nail polish, hair tinsel, jewelry making) and took it took our tents. We made earrings, bracelets, necklaces and key chains while we waited out the storm. Our leaders were making fires and dinner. Then they had us come outside and eat dinner under the canopies. Then we started planning our skits for the next day for the big stake activities. They gave us a bag of random materials for us to work with. They gave us a ninja vest, wizard wand, and fairy wings. And so it ended up that we were the wise old rocks, and we had to tell people advice on how to defeat the dragon for the book of all knowing. Then the last thing we did that day, we went on a little hunt for our hoodies. We had to find the password to find our hoodies. The next day there were two big stake activities. One of them, we came together and did our skits. Some were a lot better than others (our was a better one). Then we had solo time when we hiked up and sat alone in the trees where we could hear the river and read our scriptures, and we read the letters from the parents. Then it started raining really hard at our campsite so we started to make fires, but the stake still wanted us to come to the activity. It was only raining at our campsite, and it was raining so hard the we couldn't get a fire started. Then we trekked through the rain to get to the stake activity where we played a couple of get to know you games and charity projects. Then we came back to our campsite where we had strawberry shortcake. Then we had our testimony by the fire until almost 11pm. We were all crying because it was so emotional and spiritual. Then we went to bed, and we drove home and got ice cream along the way. It was super fun. 

They're home! 

Date night at Olive Garden!