This week I had Chey and Cali signed up for a USTA tournament in Idaho Falls. We were originally hoping to visit family while we were there, but because of COVID concerns, that part had to be cancelled. The twins and I had a good time getting away for a few days, though, and finding out how the advanced tennis players play tennis! Chey and Cali each played two singles matches and two doubles matches. They lost every one. But they fought hard and did some good stuff and learned a lot. We had a fun time visiting some of Kevin's favorite spots when he was a kid growing up there, too.

This is Dixie's Diner and the twins got two songs from the tabletop jukebox for 25cents. Chey asked if I would get her a jukebox. I picked up her phone and said, "Yes. Here is your jukebox!" So she took a picture of all the song lists on the jukebox and will be making 25 new playlists on Spotify. Ha ha!

26 years ago on a day almost exactly like this one, Kevin and I got married here!

Kevin's house when he was a teenager! The twins liked the story of how one night, Kevin and his friends toilet-papered every house on the street except one where the adults were having a party. The effect of COVID is that the twins asked how he could waste toilet paper like that?!

Papa Tom's Pizza where Kevin would come for pizza and Pac Man.

Bethany and Ben had karate Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I'm always glad for that so they remember how to be with people and do things that don't involve a screen! Ben got together with his friend, Luke, on Friday and they rode bikes! Yay! Bethany had a late-night on Friday with Macey and Siena and remembered how to play with friends, too!

Mariah continues to study here in our "at-home-MTC" and Savannah continues to be a great companion. A couple of weeks ago, we were driving past the Provo MTC and lamented Mariah's missed chance to sit in the courtyard full of flags from around the world. So, we decided to make our own! Mariah was the one who carried it out and Savannah was the one who drove her to the flag store. We now have our own flag courtyard including flags from the places our sons-in-law served. It's really quite amazing the things that get accomplished when you put your trust in the Lord! It warms my heart!

Taiwan (Kevin), Utah (McKay), Canada (Savannah), Columbia (Ammon), Malaysia and Singapore (Megan), and New York and Vietnam (Mariah).

This week, I had Cali and Chey signed up for a tennis doubles camp at Ivory Ridge in Lehi (about 30 minutes away). On Monday, we still hadn't gotten Kevin's test results back about COVID, but he wasn't showing any symptoms and neither were they and tennis enforces social distancing even before it was a thing, so I took them anyway! Kevin did get his results back on Tuesday and they were negative. I was really glad that the twins still got to do their camp. It was three hours a day and Kevin and I took turns driving so it wasn't too hard on us. The twins learned a lot and had a good time!

The outlet mall is in Lehi, so one of the days, I took Bethany with me and we got her some new shoes for school. We also went into a shop having a great sale and got her some shorts and Ben some shirts. I also found out that is where Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is located AND THAT is where Megan just got hired!

So, on Thursday, Beth came with me to pick up the twins and all four of us went back to the Outlet mall and bought chocolate from Meg! It was so fun to see her cute face! While we were there, we also got some new shoes for the twins for the school year.

On Saturday, the twins had a doubles tournament. They got to put some of their new skills into practice. We loved that it was held at our high school. After driving to Lehi all week, it was a nice break! They made it to the championship game and came in second! Way to go!

I also took Beth and Ben back to karate this week. They have both committed to the Black Belt Club (meaning they've set the goal to do the work to become black belts) and I think they both felt like they were falling a bit behind! They had a practice belt exam this Saturday and did really well but came back very sore!

I took Chey, Cali, and Beth to get sports physicals for this school year and to get 7th grade shots for Beth. We are all glad to get that done!

Mariah continues to work very hard at learning Vietnamese. She found out that on September 14, she will go to New York, New York to start working as a missionary until Vietnam opens back up to missionaries from the states. She has a good attitude and is excited to go to New York! But she also hopes that she will be able to use her language and eventually go to Vietnam. The country and its people have already worked their way deep into her heart.

In addition to starting work at the Chocolate Factory, Megan also found out that she was accepted into BYU's Event Design Management program in the school of business. She is very excited and we are so happy for her!

Sarah went back to work this week after our COVID scare and even let Ben work a day, too! She also had some training at school and continues to work on getting her classroom ready. She is trying to convince herself that this is really happening! She will be a great teacher.

Savannah continues to help Mariah and be her companion whenever she is offline. She bears her testimony often and is a great help.

Kevin has been home all week doing online work from his home office. He is required to not go into work for two weeks from the date he was exposed. I think its been fun to see him more even if it is just for a few moments here and there throughout the day.

I quit my little accounting job because I want to spend more time writing. But, they wanted me to write up my process for each of my clients, so I've been doing that this week. In addition to taking kids places, of course. And making meals and doing dishes and laundry and cleaning stuff up. And exercising. I finished three weeks of exercising. Go me!

On Thursday night, we took the fam to get slushies!

Last Sunday we had just the residents of our house in attendance for church and dinner. Usually we have married kids and Grandma and Grandpa. But our Grandpa Gazdik fell off a ladder in Wyoming while doing some repairs on a cabin and had emergency surgery on his back. Grandma, of course, drove up immediately to be with him! He is recovering and they will be driving home this week. We are so grateful that he is on the mend. It is scary stuff!

Anyway, to entertain ourselves on Sunday, we drove to the old Provo temple and after showing the kids where we used to live at Wymount, we walked around it just like we used to do when Savannah was still in a stroller! It was fun. The kids also played games with dad earlier in the day.

You'll notice our missionary in the pictures. She said that these could be her district pictures in front of the temple. We love being her "stand-in" district. She's been doing really well. She has district classes every day and companionship study and workshops and inbetween she does personal study and shows us the words she has to know before tomorrow. She also has done some TRCs which are when they pretend to teach someone. These stress her out, but she is doing great! She says after a week and a half she knows more Vietnamese than she knows after three and a half years of Chinese classes. When asked by Ben why? She answers promptly, "The gift of tongues!" She is seeing it at work already in her life.

We found out on Sunday that someone on Cheyenne's basketball team tested positive for COVID and they told her she needed to quarantine until the next Monday and watch for symptoms. So, we felt we needed to keep our whole family quarantined to be fair to friends. It was a rather hard week. The twins played tennis together every morning for two hours each day and got caught up on their piano, but they couldn't get together when their friends did or go to the tennis clinics they had been signed up for. Beth and Ben couldn't go to karate or play with their friends. It was hard for me to watch.

But, we rallied our spirits and abilities toward the end of the week. Calianne planned a day of sugar cookies and water fights on Thursday that Cheyenne and Beth and Ben had a great time with and Kevin and I enjoyed watching!

Then Friday, I decided we should go camping. Usually everyone has plans on a Friday so its hard to slip away. Not so this week! We packed up the van and went just right up Hobble Creek Canyon to the farthest campground, Balsam. They have campsites right along the creek. We managed to nab the last available spot. The kids played in the creek while waiting for dad to get off work and come join us. They also made some bead snakes and we played Headbands. After dinner, we made a fire and were joined by Mariah and her awesomely supportive, super-great companion, Savannah. We talked a long time while the fire went out. The next morning dad made us pancakes and bacon! Savannah and Mariah headed home and the rest of us went hiking a mile up Wardsworth. It was fun and a much-needed getaway!

We might be done with our quarantine on Monday, but Kevin was exposed to a client who tested positive during the week. Kevin got tested on Friday. If his results come back positive, we will quarantine ourselves again.

It's alright. We'll figure it out, right? We'll make it through. Come what may and love it? We're working on it.

We've had a busy week! On Sunday, it was our official day to attend church, so Mariah gave her farewell talk again to the other half of the ward and I played my violin again. This time, all her brothers and sisters were there, including brothers-in-law and Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik. It was a beautiful meeting and Mariah did great!

Monday was Bethany's birthday! She is twelve years old! It's a good thing they started her in young women's in January so she got to get some of those youth lessons and activities in before it all closed down and she got to see what it will be like! She is a beautiful, sweet, young lady and we all love her! For her birthday, she wanted to go to Brick Oven for pizza! So we all went and they sang to her and we had yummy food! She spent the day with a friend. I took them to the craft store and they picked out shoes and Sharpies and came home and decorated them for their first day of junior high! Crazy that she is getting so grown up!

Tuesday was Mariah's last day being . . . a regular citizen, not-yet-set-apart as a missionary. So, we organized a family game of basketball! Because that is how Mariah likes to party! Afterwards, she umped her final game of softball and late that night, the stake president came over and we all told her what we feel are her strengths and gave her a piece of advice and then she was set apart!

Sometimes we take "fight for the ball" a little too literally.

Mariah started the online MTC on Wednesday. She has classes on Zoom everyday and also meets with her companion (who is in California) separately for companion study. When she has personal study, Savannah is there to be her non-virtual, real-life companion and she has taken her job very seriously. She gets Mariah up and helps her set a schedule. She's been really supportive and she may be loving it just as much as Mariah! Although, its hard to say because Mariah is really loving it. She's loved getting to know her district and doubling down on the language and the spiritual workshops, too! I'm thrilled we get to watch her experience it all!

Ran into these two on the trail bright and early Wednesday morning! It's our new normal.

In addition to the Browskis and karate, Ben worked three days for Sarah this week. I'm really proud of him for taking the time away from the other things he loves to work hard and earn money even at a young age!

Saturday was Fourth of July! In the morning, a lot of our crew participated in a doubles tennis tournament! There were no age restrictions and teams could be co-ed or not. So, Megan and Cali were a team and Sarah and Cheyenne were a team! Then because their husbands didn't want to be left out of the fun, Ammon and McKay were a team! It was a lot of fun. They all lost their first matches but Ammon and McKay went on to win two more. Our females were a bit disgruntled to lose their second matches but they found an empty court and played each other and had the most fun (and the best tennis) of the day!

That afternoon, I took Beth and Ben to the Spanish Fork pool for a few hours of swimming. I had to talk them into it! But once they got there, they had a terrific time.

That night, we had hamburgers and watermelon for dinner, the kids watched a movie, and then we walked a little ways out on our trail and watched fireworks explode all across the valley. It was really quite incredible. It went on and on and on. I watched and pretended it really did mean that all the fireworks represented people who loved and celebrated America. I think somewhere in their hearts they do. It was certainly a grand celebration from our view!

God Bless the USA.