We only had four days of school this week because of a teacher development day on Friday. So, the first four days Beth had play practices and karate. Ben started chess club! So he had that twice a week and karate and his first 50 min guitar lesson. 

I only had to work four days this week, too, so I volunteered to take the house girls to their basketball practice on Friday which was pretty fun. Otherwise I finished up my grad application and submitted it. Now that's done, I will be turning my attention to taxes. One step at a time, right?

Savannah drove to BYU and got the packet she needed for her independent study class and has started working it into her schedule everyday. She is doing great and I am excited for her!

On Friday, when Beth and Ben didn't have school, one of their neighborhood friends, Claire, wanted to go to the curiosity museum as part of her birthday celebration. So, Beth, Ben, Max, Annaliese, and Claire all spent their day up at Thanksgiving point with Claire's dad. By all accounts, they had a great time!

On Saturday, Beth and Ben had a practice belt test for karate which basically entails a physically intense workout for four hours. I'm so impressed with the hard work they do there.

Also on Saturday, we got to see Mariah!! Her team had an indoor track meet at BYU! Mariah ran the mile (5 laps on an indoor track) and we got to watch her run! It was super fun. There were so many great athletes and so much excitement. Cheyenne, Calianne, Megan, Ammon, Grandma, Grandpa, Kevin, and I all came to watch. She did great! She won her heat and came within 10 seconds of her personal record on an outdoor track (which is shorter) from high school. Woot! She's been training hard hard hard. So impressed with that girl!

Afterwards, we snuck her away to the Brick Oven so we could have a little family time and eat pizza! It was so fun to have some time with her.

Mariah planned to go back to St. George on Monday for the resumption of track practice and her two jobs. But, the weather was just too snowy. So, we kept her another day! Although there was still rain and fog and iffy roads on Tuesday, she headed back to her college town and made it safely! We miss her already! School doesn't start for her until tomorrow (Monday of next week) but she has stayed very busy with all she has had to do.

Calianne went back to work on Tuesday, but stayed with us all week. Yay! She worked mornings making cookies and brownies for BYU food services. Otherwise she has been around to hang out with her siblings, reread all seven Michael Vey books, and plan some new decorations for her dorm room.

Beth and Ben went back to school on Wednesday. Bethany is trying early morning seminary this semester. It's at seven am and she has several friends in class with her. She also started play practices which start directly after school and go until a little after 4. This means Beth jumped back into school with very long days! She says she is tired! But we are hoping she will get used to it since this is what she wants.

Ben started a new semester as well as Beth. He has just a couple different classes. He now has aerobic conditioning instead of career readiness and Utah studies to replace reading. He's excited about the aerobic conditioning class. I hope he continues to love it! Both Beth and Ben went back to karate this week on Thursday and before school started, they had a great time going to the skating rink with their neighborhood friends on Tuesday for a last Hurrah!

Cheyenne doesn't start school until next week just like Cali and Mariah, but she left us on Thursday for a road trip with a group of church friends she has recently started hanging out with. They went down to St. George where one of them had a place they could stay. They were going to drive down to see some sights in Vegas one day and also try to see some cool spots around St. George on another day. We haven't heard from her much but we hope she is having a great time!

Savannah went back to work this week, although she got sick and missed a couple of days. She signed up for her first independent study college class and is working up the courage to get started on it.

I went back to work this week and have been working on getting my application ready for the MSW at BYU. It's due next week. My computer chose this week to die but since most of my files are on Onedrive, it has been more of an inconvenience than a tragedy. Ha ha!

Kevin is back at work, too. He's working on projects for his company, but also some for himself. He has set goals for the new year and is excited for his plans. He is a motivated, hard-working guy!

We had a fun party for me at Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's last Sunday night!

 We went to California this week! I told Kevin that I needed to be on a beach for my 50th birthday and so he arranged it so we could all be there! I've been on a beach when I turned 30 and 40 and now 50. It's a good tradition. I like it. Also, we went back to the Airbnb we used Halloween of 2021. Mariah was on her mission that time so we got to share it with her. So, really, it was the first time we had all been together in California for a long time! Plus, now we're joined by little Miss Avery. We had a great time! We saw the sun less than we would have liked but we were still able to boogie board and walk the beach and watch the surfers and the pelicans. We also enjoyed our big windows inside the bnb and we played games and McKay led us in dancing and songs. We split the kids into groups and they each took a night making dinner which was fabulous. Kevin still made us breakfast every morning after running with Mariah.

 

On the last night, the kids pulled out a game that they made for me for my birthday. It was a variation on the game, Clue, which they know is one of my favorites. Megan used her amazing design skills and made two boards. One had pictures of places we often go as the rooms and the mystery to solve was who did we leave behind, where, and with what? Ha! The other board was even more intricate with all the rooms from our Brookside home. Each was set up as she remembered them with the same floors and clips of wallpaper and upholstery used for authenticity. It was so clever! The mystery on the second board was who got put in timeout, for doing what, and where? The cards consisted of famous misdeeds in Skinner history such as setting the microwave on fire or cutting their sister's hair. Then each of the playing pieces was a wooden peg decorated like each member of the family, twelve in all! It was so fun. They made the rules so that each game played at the same time (so we could all play at once) and some mystery cards required that players switch between games at random intervals. So fun! What a treat! They put so much work into it, especially Megan, and I just love it! It's such a fun idea!

We left on Saturday morning which was New Year's Eve. We drove to Las Vegas where we were planning on counting in the New Year with my family. Kevin was worried about a snow storm predicted to come through on Sunday, though, so we counted down the New Year with New York and then drove the rest of the way home that night. First, though, we had a really fun time with my family. My dad made cookies and a birthday cake from scratch. My sister, Amy, made pizza dough and had a pizza bar where we could all make our own pizzas. Mom brought lots of soda. Maggie drove down from Cedar City and brought chips. Even my brother Pete came for an hour to wish me a happy birthday. All of their efforts meant a lot to me! It was so fun to be with everybody even for just a little bit. Also, that's where I got to see the other thing that they made for me! Sarah asked everyone for memories with me and she made a book called "50 memories." It was so fun to read what everyone wrote! I feel so blessed to have so many loving people in my life. What a great five decades I have had so far. It's been a beautiful life. I love you guys!