Savannah got to help at the Provo Literacy Conference this week selling books through Funfinity. She had a great time being there! This Saturday she worked hard on her beehives, cleaning frames, and getting ready to split the hives. There could be twice as much honey in the fall!

I don't usually report on my married kids, but Megan got to go to nationals with the BYU women's racquetball team this week. She competed and got 2nd place and is now an All-American. Granted, this sport is not very big, but it is so cool that she has worked hard with early morning practices and daily training, and chose to add this to her life experience. It's so cool!

Mariah continues to work at Provo Rec and Springville Rec and she is getting tons of experience doing exactly what she wants to do and she is loving it. She's started dating her friend, Kolby, again and is very happy with that, as well. She's getting lots of running miles in as she hopes to run a marathon in June. She is very tired!

Cheyenne worked  a couple of days this week at the assisted living center. She goes to track practices everyday and is practicing piano, getting ready for Festival next month. She ran in a track meet on Friday and I was able to watch her run the 100 meter hurdles. She did great!

Calianne got really sick this week with the 24-hour stomach flu. Poor girl! Both Cali and Chey worked really hard this week on Questival which is when the kids in the high school are invited to make teams and complete a series of challenges for points. Cali was team manager so she was uploading videos every spare moment even when she was sick! Some of the things they did was: drink a whole carton of KoolAid, take a shower with their clothes on, run a mile barefoot, dye someone's hair green, and my personal favorite this year: clean someone's kitchen. Fun times! Cali also worked at Funfinity a couple days this week and went to a couple track practices. She's also found time to practice piano for the upcoming Festival. It was a busy week!

Bethany had a sick day this week, too, but got herself back to school and even back to karate and track practices. She and Ben had a tournament on Saturday. Bethany won second place in kumite and Ben took first! Afterward, Beth and I took a quick trip together down to Cedar City to see cousin, Becca, perform in an opera! Aren't we cultured? It was great fun and we got to see cousins and family and be together!

Benjamin surprised us by expressing an interest in tennis lessons this week! So, guess how long we waited for the paint to dry on that one? He had his first lesson on Friday and really enjoyed it! Also, remember the karate tournament and the first place trophy. He's doing good things.

I finished a new middle-grade novel this week. Go me! It's titled, How Engineering Solves Every Problem Including Basketball, Boys, and Afghanistan. I needed to get it done by the 28th so I can submit it for a writing conference I'll be attending in June. The conference is WIFYR (pronounced WhyFur) and stands for Writing and Illustrating For Young Readers. It is organized as a workshop/small class and we'll each be receiving and giving feedback on each other's manuscripts. I'm looking forward to it!

 

Guess who earned his brown belt on Saturday? That's right! We have a new Sensei Skinner in the family. What a lot of hard work! What a great kid! Right afterward he went to a seven-hour birthday party where they threw axes, played banana tag, had Nerf gun wars, and watched a movie. Fun times and one tired boy! He is also in the midst of reorganizing his room. He took his old bed apart and into the hallway so we could get rid of it (he did have permission)! His mattress is on the floor while we wait for his new bed to get here.

Bethany has been feeling poorly this weekend and had a fever yesterday. Today she has no voice and a bad cough. Poor girl! She finished her play on Monday of this week. She made so many good friends and had such a great time. It was a great experience. Good thing that track started on Wednesday so she could still have a reason to stay after school and do things with friends! Oh, and Tuesday she stayed after for a school dance. No wonder she's so worn out this weekend.

Cali and Cheyenne have been running track this week, too! They were at a track meet Friday night that lasted nine hours. Chey ran once and Cali was about to run when they postponed the rest of the races for the next day. It was aggravating! Cali decided not to do Saturday but Cheyenne hung out at the track all day for a couple more races. She still had a good time! Cali rested up and had work, too. When she came home, she had been asked to prom by her sweet boy, Richmond.

When Chey got home, her guy friend, Parker came over with flowers and raspberries and asked her to prom, too!

Mariah worked for Provo city and for Springville city again this week, including making rosters for 480 cub soccer participants. She loves it. She is also running, running, running. She went on a date to the BYU men's basketball game on Saturday night with Kolby and had a great time.

Savannah worked at Funfinity but couldn't find a substitute job this week, though she tried. She did her taxes instead. She also went on a date with a new guy named Chase this week and had a good time. She also officially finished the giant t-shirt quilt she made for her friends and gave it to them at a party Saturday night.

Kevin had a three day intensive at the end of the week. Bringing hope to people in pain. That's what he does. On Saturday he ran six miles with Mariah and played some tennis and helped someone move. Voluntarily putting himself in pain. That's also what he does. Ha ha! Good man!

The kids took care of themselves this week while Kevin and I took ourselves off to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands to meet with my parents and enjoy the sunshine!

The kids did a great job taking care of each other. Cali and Savannah made meals. All the drivers took turns doing the driving for Beth and Ben. Chey made sure people headed to bed at ten. The house looked great when we got home though we were assured that it had been a group effort to get it looking that way since the mess might have gotten out of control?

Bethany's play performed every night that we were gone! We, however, got permission to see the dress rehearsal before we left and it was fabulous! Bethany did great as a big kid at Matilda's school and as a parent in the opening scenes. We could tell she was having a great time singing and dancing. We're so glad she got to be in the play and so pleased that all our kids took turns going to her play while we were gone so she always had someone there!

Cali and Cheyenne went to Preference while we were gone, too. Megan came over and helped with hair and makeup! Cali and Chey and their friends went in matching dinosaur dresses! It turned out to be the cutest idea ever and I think they were show stoppers at the dance. Best of all, it made it super fun for them! I'm so glad they have such good friends and feel free to express themselves in such fun ways!

So, Kevin and I had a great time in St. Thomas but getting there was a real challenge! We were supposed to leave around midnight on Tuesday night. But after the plane got delayed hour after hour, they cancelled the flight. We got booked on another flight around noon. That flight also got cancelled. We decided to give it one more try and the midnight flight to Philadelphia did actually board and fly us there! We made it to St. Thomas a day later than we had planned, but we made it!

We met my mom and dad there and they were already loving the view and the weather! We sat by the pool and talked. Kevin and I walked down to see the beach. Then we had dinner together at the restaurant by the pool.

The next day we took the ferry over to St. John. We had lunch in a lovely open-air restaurant on the beach under the mangrove trees. Then we had a very charismatic 77 year-old taxi driver named Hamilton who drove us to see all the beaches and told us some facts about the island. He dropped us at Maho Bay where he promised us we'd see sea turtles if we snorkeled there and we did! We found another taxi back to the ferry where we had dinner at the same restaurant before heading back to St. Thomas. It was a beautiful day!

The next day, Kevin and I took a kayak tour through Mangrove Lagoon and over to the Cay. We learned about Mangroves and about hermit crabs. We hiked to a blow hole and then got to go snorkeleing again. No turtles this time but lots of brightly colored fish! That night we grilled some steaks and had dinner on Mom and Dad's balcony overlooking the marina. Beautiful!

The next day, we called our St. Thomas taxi driver whose name was Lucky and had him take us to see Magen's Bay,  souvenir shop called Top of the Mountain that had world-famous banana daquiri's (we enjoyed the alcohol-free kind!), and then to the pirate's museum in Havensight. It was another beautiful day and it was fun to learn more about the island and the history of the area in the museum!

We ate by the pool again that night, but the next day we had to say goodbye to the beautiful view from our window and head home! We had so much fun and it was so fun to share it with my mom and dad!

 Guess who won the four-city basketball recreation championship??

Go Cheyenne and Calianne and Coach Dad!! They played at 6:00pm on Monday and they played great and won! That meant we waited until 8:00 for the championship game. This game was against another Springville team with alot of friends and good players on the team. They still won! They played great and there were no hard feelings as they all wanted to be in a picture together. I loved that!

Grandma and Grandpa came to watch all the games and Mariah and I, too! They even had a boy-fan cheering section. Mariah got a pictue.

So, good times!

Speaking of good times, the four oldest sisters got together for lunch this week and I got to babysit Avery! Sweet, sweet baby. I think they had a good time, too. I love that they made time to do that together.

Savannah felt better this week and worked at Funfinity for five days. She also made some more progress on the t-shirt quilt she's making for friends. She's almost done!

Mariah worked five days for Provo rec and two days for Springville rec. She seemed to have a little more time to breathe than last week. Which is good because this may be her schedule for awhile! She also went on two dates this week which was fun.

Probably the most fun Chey and Cali had this week, aside from winning their own championship game, was to go to the state championship game and watch their school girls' basketball team take state! The game was at BYU's Marriott center and the twins went early with their friends so they could sit on the front row of the very red-wearing student section. They did much screaming and had a great time. They hung out with their friends at our house for the rest of the day. Because no celebration can be too long!

Beth is still rehearsing every day for her play and making it to karate when she can. Ben is still doing karate and guitar. He spent ten minutes at dinner on Saturday night telling us all the reasons that the world should switch to an insect-based food system. I told him he should go ahead and get started with an insect farm in our backyard. Could be fun, though!

Kevin and I went to the temple Saturday afternoon. It's always nice to think about heaven for awhile. Then we came home and Kevin grilled hamburgers for all the kids at our house. He is a generous guy!