2023 :: week 22

 Summer Week #2

May 28

We celebrated my birthday Sunday evening. I took this picture because I liked the view of everyone singing to me. We taught our last youth temple and mission prep class of the school year and talked about maturity (how you know if your ready to serve a mission/go to the temple/get married) and spiritual momentum. 

May 29

Because last Memorial Day my mom had a stroke, I was dreading the day. I made plans to go out to breakfast with my friends Kristen and Sarah (we all have the same birthday), but then we had to reschedule last minute bc of sick kids. Instead I slept in, which felt amazing. Will spent the day with Jude and Adrian, first at the skate park, then at Sonic and the Benson house. The rest of us went to Young's Pool where we ran into several friends, which made the experience more enjoyable because the water is still pretty cold. For dinner we went to the ward picnic at Sar Ko Par Park. After the picnic we visited my parents where we all agreed to avoid having strokes in the future. In all seriousness, we are very grateful my mom is still around, and that she has improved so much this past year.

May 30

Tuesday morning we picked up yummy Chick-fil-A breakfast bowls for breakfast. The CFA near Will's school was running a promo for a "free mystery breakfast item" every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in May. Will and Anthony picked it up a few times before school got out, but the other kids wanted in on the fun. They gave away a variety of items, some better than others, with the breakfast bowl being the best. It was our first "normal" non-holiday, non-weekend, non-vacation day of summer.

May 31

Miles isn't scared of the slides anymore! Tyler came over for a few hours in the afternoon and the boys had a lot of fun playing with him. 

June 1

Imagine our delightful surprise when we pulled up to the library at the exact same time as some of our best buddies! Elliott and Nicholas picked out the same free book (The Fifth Quarter) then each collected several sports biographies before settling down and reading together for about 20 minutes. The rest of us collected books too, then we met up at Tomahawk Pool later that afternoon.

June 2

In February Leah turned 8, and though they wanted to, my parents were unable to fly to Boston to attend her baptism. Andrew decided Leah and Melanie should take a special trip to visit Memaw and Pepaw and they decided to come the first weekend in June so Melanie could also run the Hospital Hill Half Marathon. They arrived Thursday, but we didn't see them until Friday morning when we met up at Lamar's to celebrate National Donut Day. After our donuts we spent a few hours shopping from our neighbors at the Oak Park Home Neighborhood Garage Sales. Everyone came home with something--a pair of shoes for Leah, a nerf gun and tennis balls for Elliott, a book for Miles, and shorts and a bunny night light for Lauren. That afternoon we all went to the pool. Bluejacket, our beloved neighborhood pool, is finally open after 4 long years!

June 3

Will spent Thursday through Saturday in Pawhuska, OK, participating in Trek, sponsored by our stake youth program. The stake adjusted the date to the first full week of summer because in year's past mid-summer treks have been very hot. Will had a great time with his family, headed by Ma and Pa Mattox of the Cedar Creek Ward. Will's "brothers" included good friends Benji W and Adrian B (with whom he shared a tents), as well as new friend, Neil. The four "sisters" were all from the Chapel Hill Ward. Will had a great experience at trek. The work was hard, but we were told by several leaders that Will had a great attitude, was a hard worker and team player. As with many youth events this year, Will was the youngest participant. Each group pushed their handcarts for about 5 miles each day. It was a little extra difficult for Will's group as they were youngest group in the stake. After they finished their pull they had free time where they could throw around frisbees and footballs, try their hand at archery and explore the area. Will enjoyed exploring the creek bed and reported that he saw multiple snakes. One night they had a square dance. The food was good--biscuits & gravy and eggs for breakfast, burgers and sandwiches for lunch, and steak kabobs and pork chops with mashed potatoes for dinner. In the evening there were devotionals and star gazing. They were transported to the trek site via bus and on the way home one of the bus drivers kept dozing off! Someone called highway patrol and the convoy ended up arriving over and hour after the scheduled time at the stake center.