End of June

We knew it would be a busy week, so we celebrated Bethany‘s birthday last Sunday! We can’t believe she is 11 years old! She is still such a sweet girl and we love having her in our family. She got a lot of games for her birthday. She sure loves those! And we love her!

Monday morning Bethany left for shadow Mountain. That’s a camp that our school district offers for kids after fifth grade. None of her older sisters can believe that she’s old enough to do this thing that they’ve all done too! She had a great time though and we’re happy she got to hike and go on the huge slip and slide and hear the scary stories around the campfire. Two nights away from home! We sure missed her!

The rest of the week was full of our usual activities. Ben finished his two week tennis camp. Calianne and Cheyenne finished another week of tennis camp this time on double strategy. Sarah and Savannah worked. Mariah got to go with lots of friends to different places and help me with driving!

Thursday night after lots of packing and when Sarah was done with work, we left for our big trip to California! We stopped in Las Vegas to sleep Thursday night and got to see grandma and grandpa who we love and always love to see you! The next morning we got on the road early so we could go to the beach for a few hours. We managed to get in some boogie boarding and wave jumping and sand castle building before we went to Anna‘s wedding dinner Friday night. The dinner was wonderful and in a beautiful spot on the ocean. But the best part was being with family! What a bunch of great people!

Saturday, we played in the pool at our hotel. Kevin and the kids had a very exciting game of Marco Polo! It was fun to watch them. 

We got to the temple at 12:30 for Anna’s sealing at one. Everything was lovely and it was so special! 

We went back to the beach for about an hour in the afternoon and then we went to Anna‘s reception which was held at a friends house whose yard looks over the ocean. It was beautiful and the bride was beautiful and everyone was happy. We were so glad that we got to be a part of it. What a wonderful day!

Last Sunday was Father's Day! We made homemade buttermilk pancakes for Kevin with homemade buttermilk syrup for breakfast and had fried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner! Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik came over for dinner and we celebrated them, too! We are grateful for our father's who couldn't be there, too. We love our dads!

Cali and Cheyenne did tennis all week again from 10:30 to 1:30. This week they focused on net play. They had a fun group of kids and really enjoyed it. In the mornings, they ran cross country practices or went to basketball open gym. In the afternoons, they went to the temple with their church group one day and got ready for their evenings umpiring. They have been busy!

Sarah continues to teach at the UVU math camp and this week Ben went with her! Ben and his friend signed up and Sarah drove and they had the best time! Ben played fun games (that used math) and made a rocket and got to blast it off. He loved it. He and another friend also started their first of two weeks of tennis lessons with the city. That was in the mornings and math camp was in the afternoon. With all that, I didn't have to worry about too much time in front of the screens this week. Yay! Not to mention, on Tuesday evening, Kevin took him fishing at the reservoir. They stayed until 10 because Ben didn't want to leave!

Bethany had a fun week, too. She spent all day one day with Sophie, a new friend in the ward, and on Thursday got to go to day camp for activity days. She had great fun boating and shooting BB guns and other great stuff. At home, she continues to love making and playing with slime as do her friends in the neighborhood, Claire and Annaliese.

Mariah has been umpiring in the evenings and running cross country practices in the mornings just like the twins. She is still trying to figure out what to do with unscheduled time, she's been overscheduled for so long! She has been working on getting her paperwork figured out for school and made some great headway this week. She's a great kid.

Matching Umpire Shirts!

Savannah continues working at her job. She also convinces her sisters to play games with her now and then which has been fun! She heard Mariah wonder what to do with all the medals she has gathered through the years and thought, "I wonder if you could make a wind-chime out of them?" and then proceeded to do just that. She is a problem-solver, that one!

On Friday after Kevin and Sarah got home from work, we drove up to Idaho because cousin Jordan was getting married! We had a great visit with Grandpa and Maria and then drove up to Swan Valley Saturday afternoon where we saw Jacob and his family, and Michael, and Matt and his family, and Mary and Dena, and, of course, Jordan who made a lovely bride. We are so happy for her and Kacey and are so glad we could be there!

June 9-15

I attended a writing class all week in Draper which is about 45 minutes away. It was every morning and taught by Matthew Kirby who wrote Icefall and The clockwork three. He gave us feedback on the first 6000 words of our manuscripts. We each took a turn. There were 13 of us. It was really great, and I learned a lot and met some great new friends!

That meant, of course, that my kids were alone for part of the day every day! Good thing Mariah was bored and needed something to do! She really handled everything well. Sarah was able to help out between jobs a little bit too and that was great as well!

Beth and Ben had swimming lessons every morning from 9 to 930. They felt like they already knew everything but that it was a good review. They have now successfully graduated from swim school! We had friends come over for them a couple of days and they’ve had fun playing. They also had Karate twice a week as they will continue throughout the summer!

Cheyenne and Calianne attended another tennis camp this time close by in Provo. It was from 10:30 to 1:30 and they focused on their serves. Since they’ve also been getting up early to run with the cross country team, they’ve been pretty worn out! In the evenings, they’ve been umpiring for the city league softball games. They did manage to get together with their friends for some ultimate frisbee on Friday and went to a church dance Saturday night!

When Mariah wasn’t driving kids all over the place for me in the mornings, she was umpiring at night. She also has begun workouts with the cross country team. It’s a good way for her to get the workouts in that she needs for the Dixie team. It’s making her pretty tired though as well! Something about those 6 mile runs…

Sarah started her job at UVU teaching in a kids math camp. She had training last week, but this week the kids were there and she taught from 1 to 4. She absolutely loves it! It’s really fun to ask her about it and see her enthusiasm. I am particularly impressed since she has been waking up at 4:30 to do custodial work from 5 to 8 at BYU. She uses that time to listen to elementary audiobooks so she’ll know which books to have in the classroom! In the evenings, she either does things with her ward or with McKay!

Savannah continues to work full time but this Saturday night she and I watched The Mummy together! I told her that I had watched it years ago and could just remember a lot of screaming and running. It turned out I was pretty spot on! Ha ha!

Kevin taught in a conference last weekend in Arkansas. He thought he’d get home late Sunday night but his flight into Dallas got delayed and his flight out of Dallas got canceled and he ended up not getting home until Monday morning. We were glad to have him back at all! Poor guy! In addition, he’s had a bad cold all week with a cough that he can’t seem to kick. Sleeping on the floor of the Dallas airport though, has made him extra grateful for his own bed!

Our family went all different directions this week! Savannah, Sarah, and Dad stayed home to work and Dad left on Thursday to do work in Arkansas. Mariah went to Idaho to work at a basketball camp. And Mom, Cheyenne, Calianne, Bethany, and Benjamin went to Las Vegas to visit family and for C&C to attend tennis camp.

Cali and Chey attended a Wilson tennis camp at UNLV. They say they were the oldest ones there but that they learned a lot. Cheyenne even won Camper of the Week and was awarded a new tennis racquet! They were there every day from 8:30 to 2:30. That worked out well since then they could still visit with family in the afternoons.

On Monday, Grandma and I took Beth and Ben to the splash pad in the morning and in the afternoon Amy and her family came over to visit. On Tuesday, Grandma, Amy, and I went to the temple while Beth and Ben played at Amy's house. Afterward, we went to Pete and Monica's house to swim! On Wednesday morning, Grandpa and I took Beth, Ben, and Emma on a hike in the desert in 100 degree heat. It was beautiful and exciting, but we are going to try again in the winter. Ha ha!

That afternoon, Amy and I (and our kids) met Kim at the Fashion Show Mall. It was great fun to see her again and to see some of the fun shops.

On Thursday, we spent all day at Pete and Monica's! We had great fun swimming in the pool, playing games, visiting, and eating prosciutto. It was a great summer-family-visiting kind of day!

Friday it was time to say goodbye! What a great trip! Grandma, Grandpa, Ben, and I took a selfie!

Meanwhile, Mariah was having a great time being a coach at her basketball camp in Idaho. She had been very nervous before she left. She didn't know anyone. She was younger than all the other coaches. She didn't know if she would know enough about basketball to be able to contribute. She ended up having the time of her life! She learned more about basketball, more about leadership, and more about herself. She loved the other assistant-coaches and made new life-time friends. She couldn't say enough about how great it had been. We are so happy for her and that she is finding ways to use her passion to build the world.

We both got back late Friday night. Savannah and Sarah were so happy to see us! We were all so happy to see each other!

Saturday morning we went to the Art City Days parade! Half our family had been experiencing 100 degree weather in Las Vegas and the weather for the parade was only 50 this year! I nearly froze. Ha ha! Still, it was great fun, as always, and Chey and Cali got to be banner holders as part of YCC!

McKay came, too!

That night we watched the fireworks. It was a crazy, travelling, full week, but we are glad to be back together again and glad for the good memories we got to create!

Monday was Memorial Day and Kevin took the day off! He's been wanting to show us a trail he found up our canyon that leads to a beautiful overlook so we all went Monday morning. McKay and Dakota came, too! We had a great time being together and drinking in the beauty of the mountains. Our shoes drank up the morning dew so we were all wet up to our knees but it was worth it!

It was our first week of summer vacation! So, I made Beth and Ben start their workbooks and they still had karate, but other than that they played with friends and tried not to get too bored!

Cali and Chey went to open gyms for basketball and open courts for tennis and hung out at home some and hung out with friends some.

Savannah worked and Sarah worked on getting more work. Mariah had training for her new job and tried to hang out more with her fam. She and Ben put up the hammocks and read books one day!

We had a really fun visit Friday night when cousin Samantha with her husband, David, and son, Onan, stayed over on their way to the airport. What cute people! We loved seeing them. Sam and Savannah stayed up late playing games.

They left super early Saturday morning and we went and ran in the Nestle 5K that we do every year. Kevin's arm had been hurting him and he told us all that he would just walk this year. But when he got there, he couldn't resist and he placed third in his age category! None of us were surprised. Mariah placed second in her age category. Go Mariah! The rest of us finished and we were proud of ourselves. We didn't win any prizes in the raffle this year, but we did catch three frisbees and we like our new t-shirts!