This is Eliza writing. In June 2021, we went on a trip to Utah from the 11th to the 27th, two weeks after the school year ended. It was amazing! We went because Miriam, Holly, and I had a MCO concert in Spanish Fork.
On the 11th and 12th we drove up to Utah. On road trips, Miriam and I take turns sitting by Darcy and taking care of her. Mostly, she's happy if we just switch out toys every few minutes, but sometimes she needed to be constantly read stories. She's really sweet though.
This tower was a lot harder to balance than it looks! At Grandma's house, we liked to mostly play in the yard. Miriam and I's favorite activity was this fun electric scooter that we drove around the hay fields behind the house. Miriam says "It was funner being a passenger than driving because you didn't have to be in charge of not crashing into things." I think that it's way more fun to drive, so we're both happy. Also, the field is huge. You would have to be trying to crash to hit anything.
On the 16th, we went to the Davises grandparent's house. Darcy and Brielle loved to be pulled around in a laundry basket. The rest of the kids really liked the basement. There was a bookcase in the wall that you could pull on the shelves so it would open like a door. On the other side was a little space that connected to the toy closet next to the bookshelf. We came on Oliver's birthday, so we opened presents with them. Oliver got a mini golf set, and we played with it in their yard.
That day, the Davises took us to this really cool splashpad by their house. There was the splash pad, plus a waterfall. There was also three really tall slides that weren't supposed to be waterslides, but kids slid down them when they were wet. Kids poured water down them, too. In addition to all this, there were two little ziplines! They went really fast and were awesome.
The cute babies!
It was Darcy's first birthday! She's so cute. She wasn't a fan of keeping the party hat on, but she liked the balloons.
We like the party hat!
We got her a box of Cheerios, since they are her favorite thing. She's more interested in the wrapper, though.
For her treat, she had almond butter covered cheerios that had been put in the freezer. Almond butter and cheerios were her two favorite foods.
Darcy really liked the little chair.
Miriam: When the sun was going down in Grandma's garden, Mommy, Daddy, me, and Darcy set out to do birthday pictures with a little chair and some balloons. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were also coming out. We got lots of cute pictures of Darcy smiling and being cute, but then the mosquitoes laid siege. One landed on her cheek, and when we slapped it away, she burst out crying. After that, it was pretty much failure after failure to get her to smile.
Eliza: We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Deru's house until the 17th, when we drove with them to Spanish Fork for the concert.
This was my first concert with Youth Chorus, which is the middle schoolers. It was Holland's first concert ever, which is funny considering she should've already done six concerts because she'd been doing MCO for a year. It was really cool to perform in this arena. All five choirs were there, and it was way bigger than the Mesa Arts Center. Also, it was outside. The arena is normally used for rodeos.
Holland was behind the speaker in the first concert, and it was hard to find her. The next concert, Mommy and Daddy asked her to be in the middle, and she was front and center, right in front of the conductor.
One of the coolest songs was this one about all of the locales of MCO: Arizona, California, Texas, Utah, and Idaho. They had horses carry the state flag around the middle until the song was over. It was amazing!
Darcy really liked the king bed that Mommy and Daddy slept on. I liked it too, because the last night, they decided that the mattress on the full bed was nicer and I got to sleep on the king bed all by myself.
There was this awesome mini table that had foosball and pool. It was so fun! I want one in our house. Maybe in the basement when it's finished?
I'm just about to win pool. :)
Later, we went to Wheeler Historic Farm with the Davises.
From left to right the kids are: Cole, Oliver's friend, Sophie, me, Oliver, Holly, and Miriam. All of these sculptures were made of wood, and they were so cool!
This arbor was a lot of fun. Holland said to me today that she "could climb the arches like ladders." I said that she wouldn't do that, because she might fall into the roses. It smelled really nice here.
There was this cow train that we all really liked. They were made of barrels and painted like a cow. They all had names, too. Sophie's was Hayley, and Holland's was Polly. The cow train was a nice rest, since we were all really hot.
There were lots of animal pens that we saw. There were lambs, goats, horses, pigs, turkeys, and lots of other things. We even saw a peacock pen, but the door was open and a sign said that the peacocks were allowed to roam.
There were things to play on, too, like this big chicken coop/treehouse.
At the end, we came to this field that had some picnic tables to eat some yummy ice cream that we got. Brielle really liked the grass, but Darcy wasn't used to it. She held her legs a little above it.
While we were staying at Grandma and Grandpa Pearson's house, we came to this cool playground.
Miriam and I really liked the tornado. There was one on the playground at Monte Vista, but they took it down because kids kept getting kicked in the face.
We went to Red Butte Gardens two days later with Jane, Zuzu, and Aunt Patti. It was so beautiful!! It was huge, too, with lots of rose gardens, pavilions, trails, and ponds.
There were so many roses!
This was one of our favorite spots, with the waterfall. One of the reasons we liked it was because it was kind of hard to get to. It was one of the most beautiful spots though, I think.
Miriam and Holly are pretty annoyed that I didn't put up the picture of them on the horns, but this is the only one with Miriam in it.
There were a couple of fun swings like this. Holland thought it was too sunny here, so she's shielding herself.
This was one of my favorite pavilions. Jane and I walked down the waterfalls to get down.
There was a children's garden that was a lot of fun. We had some chips in this hideout. In another one, which was under a tree, we had a meeting.
This one wasn't one of Mommy's favorite attractions. It was built like a rattlesnake, so at one end, it's tongue was a fountain, and in the other end, it was a tiny rattle. It got gradually smaller, so at the end, I was crawling as close to the ground as I could.
This was the pond where we ate lunch. There were hornets everywhere, including by the water and large statues of them on the rock. It was really cool though, and we loved it. The bright red fish were fun, and there was a cute little table with some chairs.
That evening, we went to the Armstrong's house. We had dinner and saw this cool old player piano that they had gotten fixed. Holly said that it played like a ghost. It was bought by Grandma Lucas, a really long time ago.
We were actually outside for most of it, since I couldn't stop sneezing inside. At one point, it rained a little bit. It was so fun!
We had sundaes for dessert, and I said that Mommy's was so pretty that she had to take a picture.
I love Darcy's expression in this one. We went to Aunt Norma's house for dinner the next day. We had tacos. It was delicious!
After dinner, we had a water balloon fight with Uncle Matt. We started loosening the rubber bands keeping them closed so we could use the water balloons as water guns.
Darcy was really sweet about giving cuddles.
On the way back, we did some sightseeing. First, we went to Glen Canyon Dam. It's the dam that made Lake Powell. Normally, we don't stop to do things on car rides. We just drive home. I really like stopping to see things, though.
I love Lake Powell! The water is really low though.
We also stopped to see Horseshoe Bend, which is something we've never done before. It was really beautiful, though the lack of fences made me nervous.
Horse "shoe" Bend! :)
This trip was amazing! Unfortunately we got sick on the way back with a nasty cold. Then just a day or two later we got hit with a stomach flu. Miriam was so sick she almost had to go to the hospital. We don't like being sick.
Oh sweet Miriam. I love you so much. You are such an amazing girl in so many ways. You are thoughtful, hardworking, fun, strong, smart, kind, magnetic, and so darn cute! We feel like we won the lottery getting to have you in our family.
Beautiful girl.
At 10 years old you weighed 59 lbs which was the 11.27% and were 54 in tall which was the 42.50%.
You love reading so much! You get so excited about this or that series and love quoting it to us. In fact one day I heard you ask Ellie, "Do you ever think that books give us too much imagination because we are not focusing on the real world?"
You still love audiobooks, but you earn your audiobook time because whenever you listen to one there always seems to be a load or two of laundry waiting to be folded. You are kind of our unofficial laundry folder.
You help out at home in so many other ways too. You and Eliza take turns on doing dishes and cleaning the table at dinner time. One evening I chuckled when I heard you ways "The most annoying thing in the universe is ranch stuck on plates."
I swear, you didn't mind getting your birthday photos taken despite what this picture shows.
Another day I heard you tell us "Keep your outternal things still."
You went through a phase where you ended your sentences to us by callings us "Peeps."
Another day we were playing at the park and I was taking a little video, "Don't sow me on the video...I don't want to be seen in my weakened state." You were laying on the grass. :)
You have been a champion with this move. Your friend Nina was really sad about you leaving, but you have been so sweet to write her letters and do zoom calls with her. You have had such a good attitude about moving to a new school too. You say that all of the girls are just good friends and there is no one being excluded. I love that.
Your new teacher, Mrs. Drumm, is encouraging you to learn chess. You have taken a real liking to it. You and Ellie like to play chess pretty regularly. I heard you tell her once, "Little do you know that you are putting yourself in checkmate." You are so funny.
What makes you happy? Spending time with my family. I like to cuddle and play games with my family.
What is your favorite animal? Deer, dolphin, sea turtle, panda
What is your favorite color? Dark Green
What is your favorite thing to eat? I can't decide. I like to eat chocolate. I like those Godiva Hearts you guys have. (Me too!) I like pesto burgers.
What is your favorite thing to do? I like to read and cuddle.
What is your favorite TV show/ movie? Magic School Bus is my favorite TV show. Right now I am really liking Encanto for a movie.
What are you really good at? Reading fast.
10 years old!
What do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be a stay at home mom but if that doesn't work out, I want to be a dermatologist because I like examining people's skin and poking it.
What is your favorite song? I really like "Ask of God."
What do you and your mom do together? We play games together like this morning playing Dutch Blitz.
What do you and your dad do together? We fold laundry together sometimes.
What is your favorite book? This is such a hard question. Hey, you're not supposed to type that! Mommy! You're not supposed to.... I can't decide. One of my favorite books is "Moon Rising." Another favorite book is, "Force of Fire." "Fablehaven" book 5.
What’s the best thing about being you? Being the middle child, which is also bad but also good. It's good because when I am the older middle child I get almost all of the same privileges as the oldest but I don't all of the responsibility. It's bad because being the middle child means I don't get the pity and innocence of being a younger child. And I have to do more chores that the younger children. And I don't get teen Tuesday as soon as Ellie does.
What is something that makes your family special? Whenever we go on a trip we get an ornament as a souvenir from the that trip. And we inherited ones from our Grandparents.
What do you love doing? Reading. I also love verbally day dreaming and eating fruit and chocolate.
What do you know enough about that you could teach others? I know enough about math that I could teach them up to a 5th grade level. I know how to play a lot of board and card games.
What is the best thing that has happened to you? Being born. If I hadn't been born I wouldn't have had other things.
If you had three wishes what would they be? 1. To be an animus. (Magic to do anything you want.) 2. End world poverty. 3. End any problems with nature. The animals that were going extinct would stop going extinct. Global warming would end, and pollution would end.
For your birthday treat you told me, "I am not really a pie person. It is good enough to have for my birthday, but I prefer cheesecake." Turns out you had banana splits.
Miriam is here to tell you about her birthday: In my defense banana splits are delicious and I forgot I said that, BUT I am definitely having chocolate cheesecake next year.
I loved my presents. How can anyone not like pretzels dipped in chocolate? I loved squirting my sisters with the water guns. Another one was coupons to a water park and zipline which was AWESOME! Also I'd been complaining about not having enough water on hikes and the cords on headphones getting tangled, so the camelback and wireless headphones were perfect. But the best present of all was getting to have with my family on my birthday.
I loved the day and the people in it, All in all it was a pretty amazing birthday!
I can't believe how fast you're growing up. You are such an amazing girl. You brighten our lives everyday. I love you times a million! Love, Mommy
