Hiking

We actually had a free day where we could just go do something fun as a family. We decided to check out some local trails. We started early and got in a few simple hikes before it became crowded.

Cake Decorating

Charlotte has been wanting to work on her cake decorating skills and now that I no longer have Young Women's activities on Wednesday nights, we decided it would be a perfect time for her and I to learn together.  Here are her first two figurines made out of marshmallow fondant.

Below is Jenna's birthday cake. We spent many hours on this cake. We worked on the fondant pieces one night, baked the cake the next morning, and put it together in the afternoon.

And yes, this is how she wanted to look in the picture!

Northern California, Oregon, and Washington

After Westley raced at nationals in Sacremento, we decided it would be a great opportunity to go see the redwoods and go to Oregon and Washington, since we haven't been there yet. We first drove through the various redwood forests to the Northern California coast. We have previously seen the giant sequoia trees, but we were still amazed to see the redwoods. In the first picture below, Westley is standing new the top of a fallen redwood tree and the girls are standing on the base. You can barely see them under the red arrow.

Another highlight included driving through a redwood tree. We are thankful to Westley for making us stop so he could throw up, giving Ben the time to discover that we were only about a mile from the drive through tree.

My favorite part of the trip was the beach. It was not quite what I grew up with, but it was still beautful and relaxing. I could spend all my time there happily. At one point, as we were walking past a harbor, Charlotte heard a seal and took off running. That girl loves all animals and she was enthralled. Ben loved the Oregon beaches, with the giant sand dunes, rocks, and light houses. I felt like I was in a book or movie since I had never seen beaches like them before.

We then headed inland and traveled along the scenic byway new I-84. There were many gorgeous sites including the Multnomah falls. And yes, even though it was summer, we were cold! (Also, Jenna is much taller than me now.)

We made a couple of stops in Washington along the way. One cool stop was Maryhill Stonehedge. A WWI memorial that is a full sized replica of Stonehedge. This spot also afforded us a beautiful view of the Mount Hood volcano.

First Family 5K

We set a goal as a family to all participate in a 5K together. We decided to do the Run Run Reindeer just before Christmas. The best part was the food at the end! We got donuts and Chick-fil-a sandwiches. Westley beat the rest of us by finishing in 19:11. He also won a prize for being the first kid finisher. Ben was second and then the girls and I came in more than double what Westley did!

Christmas Newsletter 2018

Merry Christmas!

We have had another great year full of creating lasting
memories - usually without the documentation! With
the kids getting older and involved in more activities
we were not able to take many trips this year, but we
were able to fly to Minnesota and visit Wisconsin and
North Dakota.

Ben stays busy with work in the City as the
Assistant Leisure Services Director. He is also teaching
a class at the university this year. Ben decided he wants to
do the St. George Ironman this next year and has been
busy training. He has also kept busy with serving in the
Bishopric in our ward and that has been a blessing to our
family.

Jill has been busy homeschooling the kids and
chauffeuring the kids to all their activities. She also
volunteers for many of their activities, including
helping with costumes and backstage at the dance
studio and the kids’ musical theater group. Jill is
still serving in the ward Young Women’s and having
a great time with the girls.

Jenna has been busy with her passion - dance. She is at
the studio five days a week taking classes and being a
Teacher’s Assistant for some younger classes. She
recently started her own dance studio in our home and
is teaching five sweet girls. According to Jenna, the best
to happen this year was to get her pointe shoes and go
en pointe in ballet. She also works hard in her
schoolwork and is a great help to her younger siblings
with their work. After a really great SAT score as a 7th
grader, she had decided to skip a grade and is doing great
in 9th grade. She was the Indian Chief and assistant
choreographer in Peter Pan this summer. She loves going
to Young Womens’ activities, girls camp, and seminary.

Westley loves sports and anything that can be remotely
competitive. Much of his free time is spent practicing
sports, playing with friends, and coding. He played
soccer, football, volleyball, basketball, and participated
in track, cross country, and ninja warrior training this
year. He ran his first half marathon and also
participated in a couple of Ninja Warrior competitions.
Westley has also began to really enjoy playing the piano
and is even taking lessons from someone besides his
mom. He has a passion for coding. After becoming
proficient in Scratch, he has been learning Python and
Javascript programming languages. He enjoys his
computer programming club and wants to work for
Nintendo someday, after being a pro football player,
an Olympic marathoner, and a concert pianist, of course.

Charlotte enjoys art, musical theater, dancing, sports,
swimming, reading, and sleeping. She was in a couple
of plays this year, including the part of Tinker Bell in
Peter Pan. She relished the role and it was perfect for
her. She also participates in several dance classes and
a choir. She just loves to perform. She also enjoys
sports including volleyball, swimming, and soccer. She
has also taken a few art and baking classes and is always
drawing. Her favorite thing to draw is ponies.

Volleyball

Westley and Charlotte both played volleyball this year. It is one of Charlotte's favorite sports to play. I think she likes it best because she gets personal space. She doesn't like people close to her. Ben and I helped coach their teams.

Frog Dissection

We did our first dissection! We dissected a frog, and the kids were not too sure they liked it. I was nervous about it too, but found it quite interesting. Good thing we have Ben in our family and he has experience with dissections.

Mom and Westley Date

Ben won some tickets to The Prince of Egypt, so Westley and I were able to go together. We had a fun time, even though it was quite cold. The sets and effects were amazing. 

Learning Pickleball

The kids and I have recently taken up pickleball as part of our homeschool PE. The kids are having a great time and I like that I don't have to run around that much.

Christmas Newsletter 2017

Merry Christmas!

We have had another great year full of creating lasting
memories. Most of our trips were for sport or family,
but it was great to visit places like Salt Lake, Kansas
City (Westley and Jill), Alaska (Ben), and Disneyland..

Ben stays busy with work (still in the City)
and coaching the University Women’s Swim
Team. He graduated with his Master’s degree in Public
Administration in the Spring and was recently promoted
at work to Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation.
He was asked to serve in the Bishopric this year and that
has been a blessing to our family.

Jill has been busy homeschooling the kids and
chauffeuring the kids to all their activities. She
also volunteers for many of their activities,
including being on the board for the kids’ musical
theater group, and helping with costumes and
backstage at the dance studio. Jill is still serving in
the ward Young Women’s and at Girls Camp this
past summer. She also made a goal to run a 5K with
Westley and has run two this year.

Jenna has been busy with her passion - dance. She is at
the studio four days a week taking classes and being a
Teacher’s Assistant for some younger classes. She was
Glinda in the studio’s production of the Wizard of Oz
this year. Jenna recently turned 13 and is super excited
to be a teenager. She also works hard in her schoolwork
and is a great help to her younger siblings with their
work. She was in three plays this year, including being
Rapunzel in 12 Dancing Princesses. She loves going to
Young Womens’ activities and loved her first Girls
Camp this past summer.

Westley loves sports and anything that can be remotely
competitive. Much of his free time is spent practicing
sports. He played soccer, football, volleyball, basketball,
and participated in track, cross country, ninja warrior
training, and swimming this year. Football is his favorite
and he still says he wants to be an “NFLer” when he
grows up.  Westley qualified for Jr. Nationals in the
1500 M this summer and he and Jill traveled to Kansas
for the meet. Over the last year, he has also learned to
code video games and has spent many hours creating
projects. He won an award for Most Technical Project
in his computer science club. He also enjoys playing with
friends, scouts, and watching sports.

Charlotte enjoys art, musical theater, dancing, sports,
swimming, reading, and sleeping. She was in three
plays this year, including a part as Pocahontas in 12
Dancing Princesses. She participates in several dance
classes and loves to perform. She was very excited to
be taking tap with some older girls this year. She also
enjoys sports including volleyball, swimming, and
soccer. She also participated in track and field this
spring. She turned 8 and was very excited to be
baptized - she had been looking forward to it for years!

Nationals

 Westley qualified for track nationals and after looking up prices, we determined he and I could go! He was very excited for the trip. Westley had many firsts: plane ride (besides one as a baby), nationals, and trip with just mom. Overall we had a great experience. He was able to run at nationals and we were able to stay an extra day to explore the area. We were able to visit many church history sites like Liberty Jail, Far West, and the Independence Visitor's center.

Disney Trip

We have been planning a trip to Disneyland for years and we were so excited to finally get to go. I read a bunch of books about Disneyland to make sure we had the best trip possible. We used the guides and plans in the book and we had a great time. We went to beach, played at the pool, and spent 3 days at Disney. Because of my wonderful research, we never had to wait in line for more than 20 minutes. Except for Peter Pan, because it was down for maintenance when we were supposed to go according to the schedule. We had to wait about 45 minutes for Peter Pan and the kids thought it was so not worth it. Otherwise it was a great trip.

The kids were able to do Jedi training and fight against some evil siths. Westley somehow was able to fight both. It's not every day you get to fight Darth Vader!