Summer fun - Jobs for boys, Tennis for Avery, 4th of July, Huntsville trip, Home projects

We got back from Disneyland on June 5th and celebrated Caleb's birthday on June 6 (see post below). Then summer vacation 2023 officially began! 

Summer sports/activities

Right away, Caleb started to have football practice in the mornings at the high school from 7-9am. Most days it was just lifting and he would get done before 9am, but I was happy he was getting out of the house and taking a break from video games. He also started working his summer job part-time at Rexburg Rapids as a lifeguard. Gabe also did this the summer he was 15. He probably only works about 20 hours per week, but that's good for him because he still feels like he works "all day." The shift that he seems to work most often is 12pm to 4pm. This is good because he goes to football in the morning, comes home for a few hours, works for a few hours, then still has the evening to himself and to be with his neighborhood friends, Benson and Jameson. Sometimes his friend Cole comes over too. 

Caleb's other big excitement was that he traded up his PS4 to a PS5. (It's a new video game system.) We sold the PS4 on the Rexburg garage sale page for $130, then sold about $40 worth of other old DVDs and old videogame accessories at Game Stop, then he chipped in about $150 and Gabe chipped in $100. It cost $400 for this new game system, which I think was ridiculous, but he was very excited about it. Gabe likes to act like he doesn't play it, but he does. Here are some pictures of Caleb:

Avery has been mostly sleeping in and relaxing this summer. However, she did do about two weeks of tennis lessons in the second half of June. She would go Monday through Thursday from 10am-11:30am and it was really nice because we would just ride bikes over to the high school and it was at those tennis courts. Then at 11:30, I would ride back over there and ride home with her again. She's tall, a fast runner, and pretty good at hitting, so I think maybe tennis could be her thing in high school. She has insisted that she doesn't want to ever do dance again, but I did also put her into a cheer/gymnastics class at Madison Gymnastics Center. It's just once a week on Thursday evenings, so she's been to that for about a month so far. Here are a few pictures of Avery. One day, we went to the Idaho Falls Zoo too.

Gabe kind of lucked out this summer with his job. He was almost about to work construction, but then at the last minute, Josh decided to call this guy, Greg, who is in charge of the ground/parks department for the city of Rexburg to see if they had any openings. Greg said he would find something for Gabe to do and he could pay him $14 per hour. Gabe wasn't sure about it at first, but he really likes the guy he spends most of the day with (Cale, this 27-year-old kid with a mullet who just got engaged) and they just drive around and check on sprinklers. He also was in charge of prepping the baseball fields for this big tournament in June and he spent a whole weekend just watching baseball games and running out in between games to reset the fields. He typically works from 7am - 3pm on Mondays - Fridays, which is a shift he really likes. I tried to stalk him one day and take some pictures, so here they are. 

4th of July 2023

This year was one of the first years that I can ever remember that we were home and Josh DIDN'T work for the 4th of July. Last year, we went to Wisconsin, which ended up being kind of a letdown because it was thunderstorming and they didn't even do fireworks at Lakeside Park! So this year, we started out by going to the parade in the morning. We sat by the Milners in front of the Family Crisis Center. The setting up chairs thing is always a hot debate in the city of Rexburg. Some people try to set up chairs in their "spot" on Main Street the night before to save it. However, Gabe was instructed by the city grounds manager on July 3 to drive around and collect chairs that were set up on Main Street that were blocking the sidewalk from local businesses. Haha He and Cale had a blast doing that. He said they got yelled at by some old ladies. Oh well. 

Anyways, after the parade (which Caleb couldn't come to because he had to work at Rexburg Rapids from 9am-3:30pm) we came home and put on our swimming suits. We stopped at Freddy's for lunch, then we went over to Rexburg Rapids. We kept Caleb company and swam there from about 1:30 - 3:30pm and Brittaini came and brought her girls too. Then, we went back home, showered and changed into comfy clothes, and got some food ready (fruit pizza) to take to the Milners. We went over to their house (next to our old house that we built!) for dinner and fireworks from about 6:00 - 10:00. Jay's parents were there and a few other friends, and we watched Jay as he tried not to start any houses on fire! He always buys some big fireworks, and we always are a little nervous. One did start to shoot towards the house, and we all got up and ran into the garage to avoid death! I was secretly happy that we didn't own the house next to him as he was lighting of fireworks!

Huntsville with the Ensigns

One of my favorite things to do around the fourth of July is to go hang out with Chris and Holly and their family in this cute, white, farmhouse that they rent every summer in Huntsville, Utah. (I had to include this picture of Chris and Josh we just came across from their mission! 25 years really changes things!) We didn't go last year because we were in Wisconsin, but I think this is the third or fourth time we have gone. This time it was just our family and the Ensigns and no one else for those few days. It was really nice! We went down there on Thursday morning, July 6th and just stayed until Saturday afternoon. We did boating on Thursday night and all day on Friday. The kids spent a lot of time tubing and wake surfing. Caleb and Gabe really got the hang of it by the end, and were even throwing the rope into the back of the boat and just going without holding onto anything. Holly and I spent some time on a little beach with her two sets of twins and Avery. We also spent lots of time just riding on the boat. It was a fun couple of days!

Getting the yard done and the office fixed up

When we moved into this house in March, I knew there would be some things we needed to do to make it our own, but those things would have to wait until summer when the weather was nicer, and when I had more time because I wouldn't be teaching. One of my goals was to get the office room looking cute. We just kind of threw our Ikea desks in there when we moved in and that was it. So, I finally convinced Josh to help me one day put shiplap on the wall and get these Ikea bookshelves set up with trim around them and the desk in between. It's still not completely done (I want to put gold handles on the drawers) but it's 90 percent of the way there. Here is a before and after picture.

The yard is still a work in progress. We knew we basically would need 3 steps. Step 1: fence. Step 2: sprinklers. Step 3: Grass and bushes. The good news is, we have step one done. haha That's it! It took most of the month of June to get the supplies ordered and picked up, the fence posts set, and then the panels put in. Now it's mid-July and we are HOPING these sprinklers get done by the end of the month. Then maybe in August we can get sod laid down and get some bushes. It's a process. Sometime in the future, I want to do a pergola with some outdoor hanging lights too. I would be shocked if that happened this year though. So for now, please enjoy this picture of Gabe, Josh and the Burtons working on the fence. 

That's all for this post! I also now need to write next about our little Montana trip. Next post!

Disneyland and Southern California Beach Trip

As soon as school let out on Friday, May 26, we were all set to leave for our first-ever Disneyland trip! On Saturday, we drove to Salt Lake City and checked into a hotel near the airport where we would leave our car and take a shuttle. It was the Comfort Suites (for future reference in case I need to book it again). We also walked around at temple square for a little bit and looked at the temple renovations that were taking place. It's quite the project! They had the whole temple covered on all sides with scaffolding and the whole underground layer beneath it had been dug out all around and they were inserting these big tube-looking things underneath the temple. President Nelson announced this renovation of the temple way back in 2019 and it's been going on for over three years now! It's taking a loooong time. But I guess it's supposed to make the temple earthquake-proof... which makes me wonder when a huge earthquake is coming. Yikes.

Anyways, we ate dinner, went back to the hotel, swam a little, and then went to sleep. The next morning, we woke up early at about 5:30am and checked out, made sure our Buick was parked in a good, safe spot, and then took the shuttle van to the airport. We got checked in really fast and went to the gate. We flew from Salt Lake straight to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana and arrived by about 9:30am. Then, we went to get our rental minivan, and headed out into southern California to explore! 

The weather most of the time we were there was overcast and slightly rainy here and there. The high temperature each day was only usually about 65-68. Josh thought it was perfect weather for visiting Disneyland. I thought it could've been ten degrees warmer and sunny! Anyways, we spent Sunday just kind of driving around a little. We went to Huntington Beach and Caleb got in the water, but the rest of us just kind of sat on the beach. Avery ran around a little in the waves, just up to her ankles. We managed to meet up with a friend named Ethan that Gabe had met at OFY last summer. He is from that area and was able to come over and say hi. Then we made our way to our hotel called the Desert Inn and Suites and checked in at about 3:30. 

We quick dropped off our stuff, Caleb showered, and we got ready to go to Medieval Times for dinner and a show. The kids, especially Caleb, thought that was pretty cool. I remembered going to that with my family and the Schmidts when we went to DisneyWorld in Florida when I was about 12 years old and I thought it was really cool, so I had booked that for us to do on that first night there. Our green knight didn't win, but it was still fun. 

The next morning, we woke up bright and early and headed to Disneyland! Our hotel was right across the street, so it was really nice to be able to just walk in and out or go back to the hotel and take an afternoon break if we wanted to (which we did a few times). Our first morning, we had it planned to visit Disneyland or what I call "Magic Kingdom" because it was the equivalent to that in Florida. Everyone had told us to get there right at "rope drop", meaning the second it opens, and RUN to the new Star Wars rides. So we were pretty close to the rope (there's a literal rope!) and as soon as it was 8:00, we speed walked (the workers yell at you if you run) as fast as we could to the ride called Rise of the Resistance. We were close to the front of the herd, but not like, very first in line. 

We got to the ride and basically waited in line for about as long as it takes to slowly walk through all the line stuff. We didn't really stand at a standstill at all, but it still took about 25 minutes from the time we left the rope to the time we were getting on the ride, just because we had to walk through everything to get to the part where you actually board the ride. That was considered a very short wait, because the rest of the day, that ride typically had over an hour wait. So we were glad we did it first! It was cool because it had a lot of Star Wars robots and things that you would see throughout, but it wasn't really a roller coaster or anything like that. You kind of glide around in this vehicle that has about 6 people in it and see all this stuff as you "escape" from the bad guys. It moves moderately fast, but not super fast. 

After we got done with that, we went to the other Star Wars ride called "Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run." I had bought this Genie pass thing with each of our tickets as an add-on, and it was really nice because we could kind of "reserve" our next ride throughout the day, and then we didn't have to wait in line as long. For this second ride, we basically walked right on because I had a genie pass reservation. This ride was more like a ride where you sit in the little "spaceship" and the screen in front of you plays a movie and the little capsule you are in moves around so it feels like you are flying through space. It was fun, but I still prefer the good old-fashioned roller coaster track-type rides. 

The rest of that first day, we stayed in Disneyland all day and we mostly explore the Star Wars area, the Frontierland/Adventureland area, and the Tomorrowland. We didn't even set foot in Fantasyland or Toontown that first day. We rode almost everything in Tomorrowland (Buzz Lightyear ride, Space Mountain, the little go-carts, Finding Nemo submarines, the Astro Orbiter, etc.) In the Frontierland/Adventureland we didn't get to Indiana Jones or the Jungle Cruise that first day, so we went back and did those later. We did do Big Thunder Mountain railroad (I love that one, but I always feel like it should be longer), and Splash Mountain. 

We just so happened to be there the day before Splash Mountain would be closing to a total redo into "Tiana's Bayou" ride. I was glad we rode that on Monday because we only waited about 20 minutes with our genie pass, but the next day, which was the very last day it would be open, the lines had about a 3-hour wait!! Crazy. Everyone wanted to ride it one last time before it changes. Josh and Caleb got SOAKED on this ride because they sat in the front! So we had to go back to the hotel and take a break and have them change clothes. I'm trying to remember what we all did that first afternoon and evening, but it's all starting to blend together in my mind. lol I think we stayed there until about the time the park was closing, and then we left right at the end of the fireworks. 

The second day we started in California Adventure. This park is honestly not as "magical" to me as the regular Disneyland one. It really is similar to "Hollywood Studios" in Florida, but they've added on some things in the past five years to make it cooler. They added this whole "Carsland" and an "Avengers Campus." The big rides there are the Cars one (which we ran to first thing and got on in about 40 minutes), the Tower of Terror that is now redone to be a Guardians of the Galaxy ride, the Incredicoaster (the biggest roller coaster there), and a few others. The boys and Josh rode the Incredicoaster probably five times over the course of our week. Me and Avery just rode it once and that was enough for her, so I always stayed with her when the boys wanted to go back and ride it. We also did the Grizzly Rapids water raft ride (we got wet), the Monsters Inc. ride, Spiderman Webslingers, and more. I feel like by about 3:00 though, I was ready to be done with California Adventure. It was fun, but I would rather be over in the Disneyland section more. I think we even ended up going back over to Disneyland for the evening on Tuesday.

Wednesday we started in Disneyland and did more rides. We started with Indiana Jones. This was one ride that they didn't have at the Florida park, so it was a new experience for all of us! It was a fun one. You're in the dark and you're going through the whole ride this this SUV-type vehicle that actually rocks and moves a lot as you see all these crazy things trying to escape the temple of doom or whatever. At the end, it looks like this big ball is about to roll out and squish you, but then the vehicle dips down and goes under it. It's pretty cool and a little terrifying. We also did the classic Jungle Cruise ride. The "guide" is really what makes or breaks that ride and our lady was a sassy Hispanic lady this time and it was just ok I would say. After that, we ventured over to Fantasyland and Toontown. We did most of the rides there, but for some if the rides were super long, we just skipped them. We never did get on Dumbo, which was kind of sad for Avery, but we never wanted to wait 30 minutes and we could never get a genie pass for it. You just kind of have to take what it shows you as an option on the app, so you're constantly looking at your phone throughout the day to try and get rides booked. Overall, I was glad we had the genie pass, but there were still a handful of rides we never went on. 

That night, we also ate dinner at Cafe Orleans. This was the only dinner reservation I had made in the park and it was nice to sit down and have a nice meal there. It was also pretty expensive (I think our bill with tip was about $150, so not CRAZY expensive, but more than we would usually spend for our family at dinner time). I had the Monte Cristo sandwich that someone had told me to order because it was really good. It was really good! It was basically a glorified ham and cheese sandwich and they served it with the strawberry jam dipping sauce. I said to the waiter, "This jam is so good! Do they sell this in a jar somewhere in the park?" He leaned over and whispered, "It's Smuckers..." and then we all had a good laugh about my sophisticated palette. 

The last day we started at California Adventure again because we had to with our reservations, but we had the Park Hopper option, so we were able to go back over to Disneyland at 11:00. The boys rode the Guardians of the Galaxy ride again. I stayed off it because I remembered how my stomach felt afterward and I was like, "I think I'm good not riding again." I was watching a "Behind the Ride" episode about how they built that ride and the engineers were saying they had to build it with cables that actually pulled you down faster than the speed of gravity. So you aren't JUST simply free falling, you're being like, SUCKED down at super speeds. Your butt literally lifts off the seat a bit as you fall. Your stomach feels like it moves to your throat. It's definitely a strange feeling. The one in Florida actually moved through the building a little bit too, but this one just takes you up and then down, and then up and down again a few more times. I liked the one in Florida when it first came out because it would take you through this "hotel" and you'd move slowly at first, and then the doors would open and it would be this one big drop. Then they changed it to go up and down a few times. I liked it better when it was just one, predictable drop. Now, at the California one too, it's a lot of up, down, up down. No, thank you. 

We ended our four-day Disneyland adventure by going back over to Disneyland in the evening and riding a few more things. We got to the point where we were riding things that we had liked again. We rode Space Mountain two or three times, Small World a couple times (just because it was always easy to get on), and the Buzz Lightyear game/ride a couple times. 

After our four days, we were officially ready to be done with Disney. I think if I ever went back, I would probably just do 2 or 3 days. 4 was a bit much, but I was glad we had the time to kind of go at a leisurely pace and get to do most of the rides. There were just a couple small ones in Fantasyland and Toontown that we never did. 

On Friday morning, we checked out of the Desert Inn and we drove towards the beach. We found our little beach house in Newport that we would be sharing with Chris and Holly and their four kids. I honestly didn't even know that they had booked the downstairs of that same house until we got there. I thought that they were staying a little bit down the road. But it worked out really well because we could see each other whenever we wanted, but each family had their own little apartment. The house was divided up into a downstairs apartment, an upstairs apartment, and then I think the cleaning person had a little section of the house too, but we never really saw that part. 

The sun FINALLY started to some out on Friday afternoon, and we were able to swim at the beach and at this pool at a place called Marriot Villas. Chris had a friend named Mason who was staying there with his family and kind of bummed off of them and used the pool. We also had a really good barbeque that night outside at that resort. 

On Saturday, we had more beach time. We went to the beach right by our house and hung out there. We had a lot of fun just relaxing and watching Caleb try to catch waves with the boogie board. Avery was in the water a lot too. Gabe played in the sand with Easton and Indie a lot. Avery liked playing with Ava and Ivory. Sunday we also went to this area of beach called "the wedge" and there were some huge waves there! We also went to see the new animated Spiderman movie, which was so dumb. The first one was decent (Miles Morales or something...), but this one ended on a "to be continued" and I was like, "Why did I just waste two hours of my life?" Sunday night we went out to dinner at this little spot across from our house. They had a few restaurants over there. I got Japanese food, and the boys and Avery got pizza. We packed up our stuff and got ready to fly out in the morning.

Monday morning, we flew home and got to Salt Lake at about 1:00. Josh was able to pick up his new police truck in Salt Lake, so I ended up driving the Buick back with Gabe and Avery. Caleb rode with Josh and stopped at Ikea to pick up the bookshelves that I had ordered.

Now that we are home and it is officially summer vacation, I have a loooong list of things I want to get done around this new house! My first one is getting this office figured out. I keep going bac and forth about if I want to paint the bookshelves or leave them white and just do something creative on the wall. Hopefully, it will all be cute by the time we go back to school! We also have to do our yard. We just got the fencing stuff ordered, so that will be a big project for Josh and the neighbor dads this weekend!

I still haven't officially signed my teaching contract yet. I guess they are negotiating the salaries and they should be emailing them out by the end of June. I haven't heard back anything about this BYUI part-time job I had applied for in early May, so I'm pretty certain I didn't get it. That's a bummer. I know if I would've gotten an interview, it would've still been a hard decision to make, so I guess I'm a little glad in a way that it didn't even put me in that spot of having to decide. But I'm starting to feel a little offended that I can't seem to find ANY other job besides teaching! Like, I thought I was a good, qualified employee, but apparently not! At this point, I'm basically resigned to the fact that I will probably just continue to teach for the next 1-3 years. I feel like this next year will be the hardest because I won't have a kid at the school and Josh will be gone from April-June, so that's going to be really crappy. It's also Gabe's last year at home, so I just feel like I really wanted to enjoy this last time with him in the house, but I guess I'll just be running around like a chicken with my head cut off and it'll be fine. (I'm being a bit sarcastic.) I did go ahead and plan another family vacation for during spud harvest break while I was sitting on the beach in California. (This is what happens when I am left alone with my phone and have time to look at airline tickets and vacation rentals!) So I guess I should probably keep working to pay for the expenses of these trips! Josh and I went to Kauai back in 2017 and it has always been my most favorite place in the entire world. So we had always said, "Someday, we've got to bring our kids here." Well now here we are, one year away from Gabe leaving on his mission. I was originally thinking we would go at Christmas, but everything was soooo expensive during that week. So when I saw flights for less than $500 a person and realized I had enough SkyMiles to pay for 3 tickets, I quick booked them! So, I'm excited about that trip in October!

That's about all for now! We are just enjoying the summer and hoping to get this house all figured out! Gabe is working full-time for the city ground department, which is really nice for him because he works from 7am to 3:30pm each day, Monday through Friday. He just started last week, but he seems to like it so far. Caleb has a job at Rexburg Rapids, but so far he has only worked one time. He is lifeguarding, but the shifts aren't usually more than 5 hours. I wish he could work more because he's kind of driving me crazy.  Avery is home with me, but she's starting tennis next week. It will be Monday-Thursday from 10-11:30. She also just started this gym/cheer class at Madison Gymnastics, but it's just once a week. If she likes it, I will look into more classes this fall. I really just wanted to give her an opportunity to try it and see how she feels about it. 

I think that's all I can think of for now! I hope this summer doesn't fly by super fast, but I know it probably will!

Caleb's 15th Birthday

I need to make a special post dedicated to Caleb turning 15! We didn't do a whole lot to celebrate because we got home from Disneyland the day before his birthday, but he had his friends Benson and Jameson over and we got him an ice cream cake. He is officially about a half inch taller than Josh and they currently both weigh exactly 272 pounds! (Josh is hoping to lose about 20 pounds. Caleb seems to carry it better because he looks thinner/more muscular than Josh... but don't tell Josh I said that!)

Here is a picture of Caleb on his birthday!

A Visit from Grandma Sue and End of the School Year Activities

 I am totally playing catch-up as I write this. It's June now, but I'm going to date this post back to the end of May and pretend I wrote it on time. lol

Visit from Grandma Sue

Ok! So, as the longest winter EVER drew to a close, my mom planned a trip to come out and visit us and see our new, new home! ;) It even snowed a little one morning when she was here! Mid-April and still getting snow!!! (People were NOT happy.) We had officially moved into our new Summerfield house in mid-March and she came out about a week after our spring break trip to St. George. She was here from Wednesday, April  19 to Sunday, April 23. It was only four days, but it was really fun to spend time with her and have her see our house. We went to see to new Super Mario Bros. movie, went to the pool, played foosball, went shopping in Idaho Falls, and just hung out! The kids had school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but I took off and got a sub because my 8th graders were just doing iSAT testing that week anyways. Here are some pictures!

Avery's DARE Graduation

Avery is our last kid to graduate from DARE! Am I sad that I won't have to sit through another one of those DARE graduations ever again? No. lol But, she really ended on a high note because she apparently was one of the DARE essay winners! We didn't even know this until that night. She was sitting up there in a front row on the bleachers, and my friend Brittaini leaned over and said, "Is she one of the essay winners? They moved her down to sit on the front row!" Sure enough, when they announced the winners (two from each class I think) she was one of them! However, technically she didn't write an essay. They were given the choice to either write an essay or make a video. She chose the video option and we helped her film it using Zeus, playing the part of a drug dog. It was pretty cute. Here are some pictures of her with her little medal!

Caleb finished his first track season

Caleb did really well in track this year. He had decided to do track on a whim (how he typically decides to do anything) because the track coach was his ag science teacher, Mrs. Hassard, and she kind of talked him into it. He had lots of track meets and I only went to a couple because they were typically out of town and during the school day. One of the highlights was when he took third place in the shot put and the Bear Grizz meet in Idaho Falls. He was third place out of all the freshmen throwers and I think there were about 30 of them! In the end, he did make it to districts, but he didn't make it to state (only one freshman from Madison made it to state - Mia Walsh, who is a super fast runner). It was a fun experience for him to try something new. I don't know if he will do it next year, but maybe!

End of the school year

I probably should've taken some last-day-of-school pictures of my own kids standing outside our front door, but instead, I took lots of pictures of my students in our classes. This school year, I had some really fun, really outgoing students. I feel like this year challenged me because the students really were so outgoing and outspoken in class, so it was hard to keep them listening to me all the time. But we really had a lot of fun and I feel like I was able to bond with this group more than any group before. They were some really good kids that I will miss. It feels weird not seeing them every day now because they really became "my kids." The last few weeks of school we were busy doing the How-To speeches and then the last week of school was basically one giant party. They got their yearbooks Tuesday, had the attendance final Wednesday, and then had two half-days on Thursday and Friday, so it was kind of weird. Tuesday was really the last day that I saw most of my students. Here are some pictures!

Yard getting started

Last odds and ends to talk about... The Kartchner people finally got our concrete poured for our driveway and back patio, our AC installed, and our final grade done in our yard. This summer, we need to get our sprinklers, our fence, and our grass laid down! It will be a process, but it better all be done by the end of August! Here are a couple more pictures of me with the kids on Mother's Day (Caleb is on his tippy toes... he is still an inch shorter than Gabe) and Avery with some friends at a neighborhood pool party!