Savannah and Megan finished their last finals of Winter semester 2017 this week.  We’re so proud of them and all their hard work. That meant, too, that they packed and cleaned and moved back home!  Yay! We are happy to have them back! Savannah will keep working at BYU’s IT department this summer. They are even putting her through an Amazon Architect certification class for free! She’ll start that on Tuesday. Megan will continue to work at the Cannon Creamery through next week and then she will put her full effort into getting ready for the MTC.

Meanwhile, in Rexburg, Sarah started classes at BYU-I! I got two excited calls from her one after her first day of classes and the next after her second day. She loves her classes and is excited about them! She also restarted her job as math tutor at the math lab and on-line. Yep, there’s some poor folks already having trouble in their math classes! Good thing she is there to save the day!

Mariah continued with track practice and played some basketball games. She had a track meet on Saturday. She ran the 800m in the morning and the 3200m in the afternoon. It was a long day (track meets typically are!). Kevin and I watched her run the 3200m which her coaches wanted to see at 11:45, but which she ran right around 12 minutes. (which still to me is like WOW!!) She came in 4^th but only because the 3^rd runner cut her off. It was an exciting race!

Cheyenne and Calianne continued to have track practice. They also had piano lessons and helped with weeding during YW. They had a track meet on Friday. They’re both running great. Cali even took 15 seconds off her 800 time! They’ve also taken time to go to the tennis courts a couple of times this week with the nicer weather!

Bethany and Benjamin had karate this week and a belt test on Thursday. They are both now official black-stripe belts in junior dragons! Yay! Next they’ll test into the solid-colored ranks. They are pretty cool!

On Saturday Bethany invited a bunch of girls from Brookside to have a bit of a party. She is quite a cute hostess. They had a good time.

Ben had two soccer games this week and he is getting better and better! He’s fun to watch.

Megan Rose Skinner received her mission call on Friday!  There was much screaming and excitement. It took us until 9:30 that night to gather all the people who we needed to be there.  She opened it and found that she has been called to the Singapore, Malaysia mission, speaking Malay and leaving June 6! Her hands were shaking and she couldn't stop smiling and she said repeatedly, "I'm just so excited!" We are so excited for her, too! Finals will be done on Thursday, and then we've got some work to do!

We saw Savannah this week, too!  She was here for the call opening, of course! But she came by a couple of other days, too.  She is really looking forward to the end of all the work of this semester! We are looking forward to having her home living with us again!

Meanwhile, Sarah finished up her last week of living with us for a bit! She had her last day at the Brick Oven. Many tears were shed--not!! She and I went to see a movie together in the middle of the day and ate a whole tub of popcorn. So fun! She picked up her friend, Brittney from the airport on Thursday night and she hung out with us until Saturday morning when the two of them headed up the road to college life and achievements and new experiences! Go Sarah!

Mariah had track practices all week and a track meet on Friday! She PRed in the two mile with a time of 11:56. Go girl! She also has been playing Powder Puff Football for the last couple of weeks and been having a grand time. They eventually lost twice and are done but she got to wear her pink shirt and score some touch downs in the meantime.  Saturday was prom! She looked lovely and went with a boy in our new ward. They had a great time and strengthened a new friendship I think!

Cheyenne and Calianne had track practice all week and are keeping to their challenge of playing piano for an hour a day six days a week for one month. Cheyenne is working on planting us some flowers in the front flower bed. Calianne made us Monster Cookies this week in the apron she sewed herself in her sewing class at school! They both ran in another track meet on Friday at SHS and both did super!

 

Bethany had karate and sewing this week. She also had friends over and enjoyed hanging out with her older sisters. It is hard being nine when everyone else is having big life moments like getting a mission call to Singapore! Poor dear. We are trying to convince her to enjoy being a kid a little while longer!

 

Benjamin had cub scouts this week and karate and guitar and soccer. He is really enjoying soccer and I'm so glad I signed him up! He knows nothing, of course, but he is catching on fast and he sure loves to run.

 

Kevin was called and sustained to be the first counselor in the newly-reorganized Elder's Quorum last Sunday. He is really looking forward to serving in this way and getting to know more people because of it! He will do great.

 

I am writing and loving it as the days get prettier and warmer. This morning was warm enough to sit out on my veranda and write the blog. Happy sigh.

 

 

Monday was Ben's 8th birthday!  He's growing up so fast! Tuesday was Grandma Gazdik's birthday, so we celebrated both birthdays at once.  They are birthday buddies!  We ate enchiladas and opened presents and had cake.  Savannah and Meg took a break from college to be there, too!  It was tons of fun.  We love both those people and are so blessed to have them in our lives.

Because of this very-important birthday, I did something on Wednesday that I haven't done as a parent EVER.  I went to my very first pack meeting! Ben did great.  He said, "See you later, Mom!" as he got out of the car in the parking lot.  I had to say, "Wait! I'm coming too!" I was impressed with his confidence! I definitely need to get him one of those cool shirts everyone was wearing, but even without it, he fit right in. This will be a cool new adventure!

Ben also had his first soccer game this week.  He played Saturday morning, the weather was great, and Kevin and I had a great time watching him run around with the cool blue sky as background.  He also had karate and guitar this week and had a friends over a couple times.  What a busy week!

Cali and Chey had another track meet on Friday.  Sarah and I went to watch and it was COLD!  Cheyenne's coaches switched her to sprints so she ran hurdles, the 100m, the 4x100, and the 200m.  Calianne stayed in distance and ran the mile, the 800, the 400, and the 4x400.  Which means, between the two of them, they ran every event except the medley! Wow! Way to fill the time so no one's bored, huh? They both ran great! They both finished sewing pajama pants at school and Friday was pajama day at school as well as the day of their meet, so they wore their track shirts and their new pamjama pants.  They looked super stylin'!

Mariah had a track meet on Friday, too!  Hers was actually Friday and Saturday.  Kevin watched her Friday when she ran the mile.  Saturday she ran the 800.  She led the entire way but got passed in the last 100m!  Exciting!  She's joined a powder puff football team for school and they had practice Saturday night.  Afterwards, she and Cali went to the high school play.  On Friday night, Mariah got together with two of her best friends from elementary school, Jessica and Maddie, and they had a great time being goofy together again!

Bethany had karate this week and piano lessons.  She's sounding really good!  She also had friends over a couple of times, but also enjoyed playing some games by herself.  She and I played Ben's new card game together Saturday night.  It was fun!

Sarah worked every day at Brick Oven this week but is done with substituting. It's always fun to hear her stories and talk about her life!  She leaves next week for school and we are going to miss her!! But we are excited for her, too!

Kevin mowed our lawn for the first time this spring.  It's a lot bigger than he's used to, with a pretty significant hill. He said maybe he will need to hire this job out!  Maybe it won't wipe him out quite so much if he doesn't run 5 miles (up and down our hills) before. LOL! We are still really enjoying our house. We decided that every sunset is gorgeous here.  Saturday, our girls all sat outside and enjoyed the sunny grass and mountain views in our backyard.

I didn't write an update last week because we were in Las Vegas celebrating Easter with my family!  My sister, Amy, had a barbecue and Easter egg hunt on Saturday and invited anyone in the family who wanted to come.  I think we surprised her when we all decided that we did!  Diane's family was the only one who couldn't make it, because Missouri is very far away. :(  There were also some adult grandkids who couldn't make it, including our own Megan who needed to be in Provo for some other commitments.  We kept her close on the phone, though.

We stayed with my mom and dad and watched both sessions of conference Saturday before heading to Amy's.  We even hopped over to a park in between to enjoy the warm weather. Conference was great and we love watching with my mom and dad.

The party at Amy's was great! I got to talk to my brother Pete and talk to all his kids which is always great fun.  I also got to talk to my brother Dave and get caught up on his life.  Talking to my sisters is always prized time and I got to do that and talk to their kids too!  Great visiting and great food.  I'm so glad we got to go!

On Sunday we snuck back over to Amy's to visit with her and Maggie's family between conference sessions, but we came back to Mom's for a lovely dinner before we had to head back to Utah.  We needed to get back for a funeral on Monday and we needed to get Savannah back to classes.  We were so glad she could come spend Easter with us for the first time in three years! Yay!

Our trip to Las Vegas started our week of spring break!  So on Monday we needed to do the funeral.  Rod Evans had been our home teacher for several years, so we brought the whole family to pay respects.  

For the rest of spring break, we asked the kids to each pick one activity and we'd do it as a family.  So, Tuesday morning we went to the Provo Rec Center because Sarah wanted to have a family basketball game and Cheyenne wanted to swim!  We did both and Sarah and I even played some racquetball.  (I still have bruises from that family basketball game!)

After a picnic lunch, we met Megan at BYU because Dad wanted to bowl!  We played two games and Kevin played on both lanes both times so he got four games!  It was a ton of fun.

Afterwards we went out to eat.  Yum!  Then back to our house because Beth wanted to have a movie night!  We watched The Greatest Showman.  Kevin, Ben, and I hadn't seen it and we all had a fun time watching it together!

On Wednesday morning we were supposed to go hiking (because Mom) but we were exhausted and sore from the rec center followed by bowling!  So, we played games together on Jack Box TV because that's what Mariah wanted to do together.  It was perfect!

Ben wanted to play laser tag!  Mariah had to go to track practice that afternoon but Dad and I had to go back to work on Thursday, so we went while Mariah was at track.  We went to Nickel City and shot at each other in a dark room and Calianne (she was Gladiator) totally won  (I was Jinx)!  And we had a great time.  It was the first time for a lot of us, so it was fun to do a new thing!

That night, we did a small walk after dinner on our own mountain path and decided to count it as our hike.  The sunset was beautiful, but so are the kids. Love them! And all our time together!

Thursday Kevin and I did do work.  Beth and Ben had friends over to play and Sarah, Mariah, Cali, and Chey went to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdiks for food, games, and a sleepover.  Fun times!

Friday we had Ben's birthday party!!  Monday is his birthday but spring break is a great time to have a party.  We based the party around . . . Minecraft! (You were going to guess that weren't you?) So, we played Zombies vs. Villagers and had a Ghast piñata, and shot a bow and arrow at a Creeper and our cupcakes even had little Minecraft toppers.  The biggest hit though was making Minecraft necklaces with melty beads.  They were so cool!  Ben made six more after the party!  Sarah, Cali, and Chey all helped and everyone had a good time.  One more party for the books!

Friday late afternoon, Kevin came home early from work to have a party celebrating the season with his Bantam basketball team.  Now is a good time to mention that they had their last game the week before Easter and on the way home, he bought Cali and Chey Slurpees!  They had fun at the party and played some more basketball and had candy and pizza and treats.  Fun times!

Saturday was rainy, rainy, RAINY and we all kind of did our own thing.  In the morning, though, BYU had a 5K Color Run.  That meant that after the race they got to explode powder color on everyone!  Megan has always wanted to do that, so she got her sisters involved, too!  Savannah, Sarah, Megan, Mariah, and Ammon all joined in the fun.  They made some great memories.