Noah officially invited Hazel to be his date to MoPro (Mormon Prom). It's just a church dance but they limit it to 16+ and everyone wears formal clothes. It was an exciting step for Noah and Hazel to deliberately enjoy the dance as a date, even though they were going with their friend group and would be the only couple among them.
Hazel has a great friend group. She is close with several of them. She calls Noah her best friend. She calls Delaney her best friend. I've heard her call Mike a best friend. She says Lucas is like a brother or a cousin to her. It's sweet.
Hazel, Noah, and Delaney had an adventure at Marshland where everyone ended up coated in mud. Core teen memories are being made here, people!
Somehow, Hazel accidentally tore Lucas's shirt. She bought him a replacement, but also turned the original into a crop top, which Lucas rocked.
As my ultimate reward for my 100 day food challenge, I met up with Emily at BYU Women's Conference. It was gorgeous out there - Provo in the spring is the bomb! And it was so nice to have all that time together. Believe it or not, this is the first sister trip she and I have ever been on!
Looking back at my pictures, I've got several that are bathroom-related. Is that because being with my sister reverted me to childish potty talk? I don't know, maybe. But it continuously caught our attention that due to the imbalanced gender numbers on campus, most of the men's restrooms were temporarily converted to women's use. There were warning signs galore that made Emily and me giggle a lot. And I couldn't resist texting Jack a photo of myself in front of a line of urinals to show him the unexpected place I was at the time. I truly appreciated the conversion, however, as we still spent a generous amount of time in bathroom lines.
I chose to attend women's conference as my reward because I was curious what was covered there. A few of the talks are published, but most are not. General Conference leaves me urgently craving more women's voices, and I hoped to fill that tank a little bit here. It bothers me that all this wonderful material is kept so exclusive: available only to those who have the resources to attend. I believe women's conference was created out of a craving many, many women in the church have to hear more content by and for women. I wish it were all freely given to all the women in our worldwide church.
The majority of the conference was attending classes. There was a large schedule with 10+ choices each hour to decide between. Of the seventeen I attended, a couple were disappointing, most were similar to a conference talk or a podcast that I might enjoy, and four or five were major standouts that I was so thrilled to learn from. For the rest of my life, I will tune into anything I can find by Camille Fronk Olson. I already own some books she wrote about women in the scriptures, but hearing her speak, I'm in love. I drank in the wisdom in a class about communicating better with teenagers. It was fun to listen to David Butler live.
We assembled multiple hygeine kits and enjoyed a vibrant concert.
It was a relief to hear women presenters, quoting female church leaders, displaying artwork that features women, and hearing Heavenly Mother more naturally included in our discussions. I am starving for this type of content from the church.
Emily and I had lots of good conversation. We caught up on our families, shared our testimonies, got silly, and enjoyed one another's company.
On day three, just as it was starting to feel overwhelming to be surrounded by so many women I didn't know, God sent me a tender mercy and we crossed paths with Aunt Shanna in a restroom. Turns out she was there with both my Aunt Carols! We linked up and sat together the next couple of classes and had a good chance to touch bases. I love how God understood my secret feelings and blessed me in such a simple but unexpected way.
Our last evening, Emily and I went to the Cannon Center (on-campus housing cafeteria) for dinner. We weren't allowed to bring our backpacks in, so before leaving them in the cubbies in the hall, I took my earpods out and stuck them in my pocket. Well, during the course of dinner, they must have fallen out when I pulled my phone out and I did not notice they were missing until we were leaving and I reached for them to return them to my backpack. We searched all over the cafeteria for them, but had no luck. I tried tracking them from my phone, but they wouldn't connect. I reported them lost and left with a sick pit in my stomach, knowing we were leaving in the morning and they were surely lost for good.
While perusing the art museum that evening, I got an alert on my phone that showed my earbuds' location had been discovered. They were at a home in the foothills of Provo - definitely not student housing! I mapped it, and it would have taken us an hour to walk there. It was already 9:30 at night. We didn't have a car - we'd ridden the bus from the airport, and there was no bus route that would take us close. It was infuriating to be so close and yet so far away.
That night, we tried to map our bus route back to the airport and discovered that it wouldn't get us there on time with the Saturday schedule. Thus, we ended up hiring a lyft. When our driver arrived, we crossed our fingers and asked if he would mind driving us past the house on a small detour. Luckily, he was willing. Ten minutes later, I stood on the doorway of a large home, knocking quietly (it was early) and sweatily palming the note I planned to leave on the door if no one answered. A middle-aged woman came to the door with a friendly smile on her face. I asked if anyone in the house had been to womne's conference and she responded that the basement was full of sleeping friends who had been. Relieved, I explained that I had lost my earbuds at the Cannon Center and they tracked to her house. Perhaps they had fallen out of my pocket straight into one of her friends' tote bags? Or one of them saw them on the floor nearby and thought they were hers? She went downstairs and rummaged in her lady friends' bags, coming out with her hands full of a random assortment of electronics. Amazingly, included in that pile was my earbuds! We shared a hug and off I went to the airport, relieved and grateful.
Emily and I shared a tender goodbye hug, happy to know we'll see each other again soon at our family reunion. I practically skipped through the airport, happily singing along to my "Fav T Swift" playlist.
Filled up from the sister time, female-centered gospel discussion, and evidence of God's hand in my life, I continued to soak up the beauty in the airport art and came home satisfied and uplifted.
The reason I had an early morning flight home instead of enjoying a few more casual hours with Emily was that I wanted to be present for Hazel's prom. She had Delaney and Kate over to get ready together.
Noah's sister Eliza brought her camera to take photographs before they all left for the dance. The group was Hazel and Noah Lloyd, Kate Ellsworth, Delaney Moon, Carter Cowan, and Lucas George.
And Todd and I scored BIG because Kathryn Nelson was going to drive them (she's had her license more than a year and can take passengers) but then cancelled to attend a friend's birthday party. Todd and I volunteered to drive the group, and Hazel didn't have much of a chance to say no. Todd drove and I did a magnificent job DJing in the van. We took them to In N Out for dinner (Hazel's choice, ha ha) and then took pictures of the crew at the Oakland Temple grounds. (The dance was held in the interstake center there.)
While they were at the dance, Todd and I had a sweet date that reminded me of our newlywed days. He downloaded a movie on the ipad for us to watch, and we set up a nest in the back of the van with blankets and pillows. It was just extra nice to be alone with Todd for a couple hours after having been away for a few days. And then it was so fun to get to hear the commentary on the drive home. Sounds like it was an especially fun church dance.
Jack had his final middle school orchestra concert. This year he has been the pianist. He played with the entire class, and also played in a smaller group performance with a handful of classmates.
Additionally, he's been attending practice after school on Wednesdays and Fridays all school year to learn a couple extra songs they performed at the concert. One was a Jonas Brothers cover and Jack got to play a glockenspiel.
Uncle Doug had a work conference in San Francisco and stayed overnight with us. He came to Jack and Gemma's track meet and gave them some great pointers.
Then we all went to Hazel's spring concert at the Bankhead. They sounded so good! Doug was impressed with our music program, which made me feel especially proud of it. He's right, they sound incredible!
For our Family Fun Night, we had a pizza picnic and then played pickleball at the church gym. Everyone was especially silly and I got some prime video. It was a fun night.
We went to Brentwood and picked ten pounds of scrumptious cherries! Then the youth came over and bagged most of them up to give to the women at church for Mother's Day. We had plenty at home, too, though, AND I went back a couple weeks later and bought more. Cherry season is the best!
Jack made churros for his Monday friend treat fest. Gemma and Todd got in on the action. It was quite the experience! They turned out so light and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
We had artichokes and bread for dinner two or three times this month as they completely exploded in our garden and I didn't want them to go to waste. They are so much work, but they are also so beautiful, and soooo delicious!
Hazel and Todd picked up lilies for me for Mother's Day. Good choice! They were so beautiful and so fragrant for two solid weeks.
I think this picture comes from the night Todd went crazy and started smacking his own forehead with the volleyball. He was psycho, throwing it at himself and launching it at the kids. There was cry-laughing.
Todd hosted Survivor Night 2.0 for our youth group. We were holding a tri-ward activity, so there were twice as many kids there as last year. To adapt, Todd asked our friend Pete Andrus to be Jeff Probst the Second, and we rotated the kids in indoor and outdoor competitions simultaneously. It was a huge event! Some of the competitions were repeats from last year (Bubble Toes, giant puzzle board, food challenge, water slingshot) and some were new additions (puzzle races, number combinations, untying knots, blindfold partner caller competition).
Gemma got some sort of canned oysters and threw up in her hand! poor girl.
The other highlight of May was flying Suzanne out for our girls weekend with her and Chrissy. We used the cabin as our getaway location and had just over 48 hours of paradise together.
We went for lots of walks, played several games, and talked about absolutely EVERYTHING.
We were celebrating Suzanne's 40th birthday, so we did a few extra special things. It was toooooo cold to skinny dip, but we did jump off the dock together into the freezing snow-melt lake. Exhilarating!
Chrissy made cookies and brought candles. We landed on the absolute most hilarious discovery that the church library app has silly voices and cried ourselves silly exploring them before choosing one to sing a primary happy birthday song - was it robot? or mermish?
Chrissy got a paddle board for Mother's Day and brought it with her, so we all had our own ride. We paddled back and forth and all over, and did planks and other impressive moves on our boards.
We did face masks in the hammocks both days ... and found out it is impossible to take pictures in them without looking flipping scary!
Getting ready for an evening walk, I was looking for hats for everyone and came across our balaklavas. Because Chrissy and Suzanne are for reals my best friends, when I asked if they wanted to wear them while we walked, they said yes! Where is that picture>! Dang it, why didn't I take one? I took video, but no pictures! We felt like ninjas, so Suzanne started doing parkour moves off the rocks, and then we turend n Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and sang it at the top of our lungs as we walked. Thus was born, the Ninja Parkour Karaoke phenomenon.
When we came home from that, we decked ourselves out in glow sticks and interpretive danced to my bongo drums. Are you kidding me?! It was the most amazing weekend of my life.
Gemma's piano teacher will be out of town for the summer, so Jack agreed to be her summer teacher. He knows his stuff, and has been strict with her practicing with a metronome. I feel like I'm getting a glimpse of what his teacher is like through this experiment. He has been listening like a hawk when she practices and calling out corrections. He is definitely taking ownership of her progress.
Todd and I went to Hazel's end of year music awards. She will be second violin lead again next year in Chamber Orchestra.
Gemma and Jack had their third and final track meet. Gemma enjoys the sprints but is most competitive in the longer races. Jack likes the long jump and relay races.
Hazel had a sand volleyball banquet to finish off the season. She loved the season.
We went to the cabin for Memorial Day weekend. It was nice to get out on the lake, and we definitely needed to work for a few hours to clear the land around the house for fire protection. It was difficult to be up there while Hazel was trying to study for finals, though. That's going to be the hard part of this new school schedule.
It was definitely end of the school year around here. All the kids were squirelly and had extra fun with their friends. It seemed like Hazel went swimming every day, whether at a pool, a lake, or the beach.
Jack promoted out of middle school. It was exciting to celebrate that milestone with him. He was celebrated for carrying a 4.0 GPA every term for all of middle school, and for scoring above grade level in state testing for math and English language arts. He was one of only nine out of 200 students with both distinctions. I don't think he realizes how exceptional he is.
His favorite teacher from the school, Mrs, No, came to the ceremony even though she teaches 7th grade English and Social Studies. Jack's friend group came to her classroom for lunch every Tuesday this year - her lunch bunch. I love how much of a positive impact she had on Jack and I made sure to let her know she was so influential and I was grateful.
Gemma's friend Lia hosted an end of year party for their friend group. Her mom Mercedez asked me to help her host. I loved being there to watch the girls interact and listen to their conversations. They played volleyball and had a water fight, and designed hats.
It feels weird to be in summer before June hits, but I don't think I'll complain much!
