Mariah ran at BYU this Saturday at her second-to-last track meet. She ran the 800 and the 1600 about an hour apart. She ran hard and I think her times are amazing! We got to see her run. Kevin and I and Benjamin came as did Grandma Gazdik, Megan and Ammon, Kolby, and Kolby's mom and grandma. We made a great cheering section! It rained and was very cold but it was super fun to see Mariah do her thing!

Kevin taught for an IITAP conference this weekend on Friday and Saturday. He had to miss Mariah's second run for it but did work it out so he could be there part of the time. He taught a class with 180 attendees and the next day he was on a panel of experts. He really knows his stuff and it's neat he can share it with others.

I did homework and work this week. I also made a lot of good progress working on Mariah's wedding including delegating a huge part of my list to Megan! I spent the first part of the week wondering if Mariah's outdoor reception would be too hot and the last half of the week wondering if it would be too cold! Crazy weather! Still, there's things I can control and things I can't so I focus on the former and let go of the latter.

Savannah had a better work week this week! She was also a big help to Sarah when she needed help with her kids this week.

Bethany gave a talk in church today! She remembered while she was in the car on the way to church but decided she could still do it. I listened and she did a geat job! I love that she is comfortable sharing her thoughts with others. She had a good week going to school and to karate. She and her friends got together on Friday and Saturday night in defiance of prom, convinced they could still have a good time. It turns out that they were right!

Benjamin had a good week, too. We are all impressed with how tan he has become from track. His meet this week was cancelled because of rain and he was disappointed about that. He went to karate and guitar. I'm trying to plan good stuff for him to do this summer!

 Benjamin had track and karate this week. He also had a guitar lesson and a tennis lesson. Track has been the biggest thing, though. After two weeks in the sun, he is quite tan! He had a track meet in Springville this week. Grandma, Megan, Ammon, Sarah, Beth, and I all came to watch him run! He ran the 400, the 800, and the 4x400 and he did great! It's fun to watch him work hard and interact positively with his friends. I challenged him to a screen-free day this week. He chose Tuesday and he said it was his best day ever! I've been thinking that it's completely in his power to have days like that everyday. But maybe he still needs me to set limits.

Bethany had a good week. It started out tough but she seemed happier as the week went on! She had choir festival Wednesday afternoon and she always loves singing and being with her choir friends. She went to YW that night where they did self-care. On Thursday, she watched Ben's track meet and went to karate in the evening. On Friday, she and I went to Ross. On Saturday, she and Ben had karate to pass off some things for their belt test.

Also on Saturday, Beth, Savannah, and I drove to Kaysville (which is one hour and seven minutes away) to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It was tons of fun! A young man in our YSA ward was one of the brothers. He did great! Savannah, Beth, and I had a really fun time.

Savannah made it to work this week almost 100%. She is feeling a lot better, she just still gets headaches and nausea periodically. Poor kid!

Kevin went to Boise this week to do a training on suicide prevention. He got to see his brother Mike and his wife, Aftyn, while he was there! So that was fun. He has another big presentation next week so he is busy working on that, too. Today for the YSA ward, he brought his CampChef to the field outside their apartments and made everyone pancakes. What a guy!

Back to school this week and it was Ben's birthday!

Benjamin turned 14 years old! He is so grown up and so tall, too! On his birthday, I made him pancakes for breakfast and then he went to school and to track practice. He said he got sung to in almost every class and at track practice. His friends wanted to make sure he was thoroughly acknowledged! I think it was fun for him. That night he opened presents and requested doughnuts for his birthday treat. When I asked him what his favorite doughnut was he said, "Big ones--with no filling." He's pretty easy to please! We love that kid. He is a hard worker and very kind to others.

Benjamin also had his first track meet this week! It was on Wednesday and he ran the mile, the 400, the 800, and the 4x400. He wasn't planning on running the 400 but they asked for a volunteer since no one from his school had signed up. Ben figured, why not? So he ran it and won it--by a lot! The problem was that he had already run the mile and the 800 was the event right after the 400. So ... he was definitely a lot slower on the 800 then he otherwise would have been but he got those first place points in the 400 for his team! You go where you're needed. The best part is that he is having such a fun time.

Bethany and her friends participated in Questival this week! Questival is a high school activity that they do once a year where friends make teams and then complete items on a list for points. Some highlights this year were eating an entire box of Twinkies, eating pancakes in the mountains, having a dance contest, and going on a date. Beth and her friends were in the top 12 on Wednesday but were eliminated on Thursday. They made it really far! It really wore Beth out, tho. She had early-morning choir rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday and then stayed with her friends all afternoon and into the evening for Questival. On top of that, she had after-school social dance practice on Wednesday, a performance on Thursday night, AND she got a very bad head cold. No school on Thursday or Friday for her while she slept and slept. She is starting to feel better today so that is good news! Also, her dance performance was super fun to watch. She is a great dancer.

Savannah was sick this week with a head cold. She didn't make it to most of work and that has her feeling bad. She's committed to giving it another go this upcoming week and we are all rooting for her.

Kevin was also sick this week. He tested positive for strep. That's hard stuff! He was able to cancel some of his stuff on Tuesday, but Wednesday through Friday he had a couple coming from out of town for an intensive so he powered through -- like he does. He is starting to feel better, too so that is good news.

I am very grateful that I haven't been sick! Because school has been a bit much last week and next. Plus I'm getting some more hours at work. I'm loving the greener days here, though, and the sunshine.

This was the week of our spring break! So, on the first day I went out for a morning walk to enjoy the spring-ness. This is what it looked like:

No worries! We needed Monday and Tuesday to get some work done, at least Kevin and I did. Beth and Claire and Annaliese went to the movies on Monday and had fun. Ben went running Tuesday morning and then was worn out the rest of the day!

Wednesday morning we left for our campsite at Willow Beach in Arizona.  Since we were driving through St. George, we stopped to give Mariah a hug and she gave us a tour of the old jail because the jail is now used to store marathon supplies. It has a strange sort of symmetry about it.

We got to Willow Beach in the afternoon and it was beautiful! Willow Beach is on the Colorado River south of Hoover Dam. We set up our tent and I made dinner with a beautiful view. The temperature was just the right sort of cool/warm. AFter dinner we went down to the marina and walked around the water. The kids played some games around the table that night before we headed to bed in the quiet of the desert. A coyote woke us up at some point in the night but we all went back to sleep.

The next morning we had breakfast and headed out early on paddleboards to see the celebrated "Emerald Cove" which was a mile and a half up-river. We knew the wind was supposed to pick up later in the day and so we hurried, hoping to beat the wind. The trip to the cove was beautiful! The weather was super calm as we drifted in the emerald waters of the cove and relaxed for a minute before heading back. We made it a mile before the wind hit which was pretty good! But that left a half mile of being blown backward. I found a small sandy beach and thought it looked like a pretty good place to just stay for the rest of my life. Fortunately, Kevin urged me onward and we all lived to tell the tale!

Since we had worked so hard and because any further paddle boarding was out of the question, we headed into Boulder City for some hamburgers! On our way back, we stopped to see the Hoover Dam and the amazing Memorial Bridge. The wind was steadily getting worse. We held on to our hats and glasses and said prayers of gratitude that our feet were on the ground and not on a paddle board!

Back at camp, we discovered our tent had been blown down, a pole sleeve had ripped and it was un-put-back-up-able. My mom and dad were only an hour away in Las Vegas and were planning on us coming the next day. Instead, we packed up camp and surprised them by coming a day early!

We had a great time staying with my mom and dad and getting to visit with them. On Friday, the girls and I went to the mall to wander and window shop. Afterwards, my sister Amy and her family and my brother Pete and two of his boys came to visit! It was such a fun time!

On Saturday, we drove to UNLV because Mariah was running! We saw her run the 1500 and then the 800. She did fabulous! She works so hard and runs so fast! It's fun that she has been able to keep competing even in college! AFter her races, we got to bring her back to Grandma and Grandpa's with us. That night we had a great dinner and then had a made-from-scratch birthday cake made special by Grandpa for Benjamin. It was super yummy!

On Sunday we needed to leave but we've been able to listen to general conference in the car. We dropped Mariah off in St. George on our way and had a picnic lunch. We are looking forward to when we don't need to leave her four hours away anymore!

We had a fun trip!