Last Sunday we celebrated Cheyenne and Calianne's birthday!! They are sixteen and we can't believe it! Megan and Sarah and McKay came over for dinner and to help us celebrate. Afterwards, Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik came over and we had cake and opened presents. Fun times as a family! We are sure grateful for Cali and Cheyenne and all the fun they have brought into our family. They are patient, caring, determined young ladies. We love them like crazy and they are so good to us! 

Flashback to their first birthday!

More flashbacks!

Reenactment

The whole crew!

After that we had a full week of school and busyness!

Cali and Chey had tennis meets on Tuesday and Thursday. We also went to the DMV on Monday and Wednesday. We ran into reporting glitches on Monday but on Wednesday we were successful in getting their driver's licenses!!! Yay!! They both had piano lessons on Monday and ACT prep on Wednesday. Cheyenne went with me to our first Springville Youth Community Council (SYCC) meeting on Thursday and Calianne went on her first date (for ice cream after school) on Friday.

Bethany had a dentist's appointment on Monday but went to cross country practices all the rest of the week and had her first race on Friday! Mariah, Cheyenne, and Calianne were so excited for her and they all came to watch! She did great and is having a lot of fun. She also had karate this week and got to bring her new instrument, the baritone, home for some one-note practicing!

Benjamin had karate on Tuesday and Thursday and played in another football game on Wednesday. He is doing great and having fun!

Mariah had her first week of being a missionary but having no MTC to keep her busy. She did great, though! She and her new companion who is also home waiting, are planning and recording lessons in Vietnamese to go on YouTube. They also meet virtually everyday for companionship study. Also she continues to do personal study and tries to learn 100 new words a day for language study. But also, she and I got our hair cut this week and did some clothes shopping, too! We also took some pictures of her MTC experience.

On Saturday, we packed up the van and took everybody who currently lives at home (Savannah, Mariah, Chey, Cali, Beth, Ben, Kevin, and I) and went to see Grandpa Skinner and Maria in Rexburg! He got the four-wheelers out for the kids and we had hamburgers from the grill and enjoyed them with Matt and Lynzy and their kids who also came to visit. So fun! We were so happy to see family we hadn't seen in so long!

 What a week: school, tennis, football, karate, MTC, trip to St. George, and two huge milestone birthdays!

On Tuesday, Mariah doesn't have her evening MTC class, so we thought it'd be fun to have Vietnamese food as a family. There are at least four Vietnamese restaurants in Provo! Crazy, right? They are all pretty small, though, and with the twins' hectic schedule, Mariah and I decided to order the food take out and bring it home. The restaurant, Pho Plus, is right across from the new Provo temple, so while we waited, we walked around it and wished they would let us inside again! The food was great! We had pho and banh mih (which is basically soup and sandwiches). We had a special treat because Megan and Ammon came and enjoyed the dinner with us!

On Wednesday, Ben had his first flag football game. He is in the next higher league this year and the coach doesn't go on the field with them. There was a lot of rushing kids on and off the field. We found out later that Ben likes this as it means he gets to run a lot. Ha ha! In any case, it was fun!

On Thursday, Cali and Chey left with their team for a St. George tennis tournament. They had already played in two meets during the week: one at home on Monday and one in Heber on Wednesday. They played great and won their matches! After karate and Kevin's work, Beth, Ben, Kevin, and I drove down to St. George for a little vacay while we watched them play!

Springville's team is very good this year which is fun, but also means that sometimes you don't have as much of a challenge as you may be craving! Cali played on the Varsity B team with Brianna and Cheyenne played on the JV team with Elizabella. Cali played 5 matches over the two days and Cheyenne played 4 matches. Neither one of them lost a single match! Their teams won first place and got giant trophies! They also had a lot of fun with their team eating out and swimming at the pool and watching things. They also got some visits from family! My dad came up on Friday to watch their matches and Nik and Emily (my niece) came and Liz (my niece) who is going to Dixie came to watch a match, as well! Fun times!

Ben, Beth, Kevin, and I had a great time watching them although we did get very HOT! We really enjoyed visiting with the family who came including seeing Jake, Sarah, and Lila (Kevin's brother's family) for dinner. After being outside all day, we were thrilled to be staying at a place with a pool! It was a fun place to stay and had a game room we visited that night and again the next morning to play Foosball, air hockey, and miniature golf! Ben thinks we need to all go back because it was so much fun!

It was Mariah's last week of MTC training! She wanted it to go super slow, but alas, it did come to an end. She had a really great experience and has had such a great attitude! She did find out this week that she has to wait an extra week before she can go to New York City (three weeks now instead of two) and that was hard for her to accept. She is doing her best to think of good things to do with her time and counting down the days until she flies out!

In the spirit of finding good things to do, and because she loves her sisters so much, she drafted Megan and Savannah into helping her decorate the house and bake a giant cookie for Cali and Cheyenne's arrival home because on Friday, they HAD THEIR SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY!!!!

The team got them cupcakes and sent them notes and sang to them so that was really sweet. We will do all our real celebrating on Sunday as a family. 

Although the boys they like couldn't wait quite that long. Cheyenne came home with us so she could make it to her first date on Saturday night with Kimball at 9:30pm. She reports it being a real struggle to force herself to wait while he opened her door and such. Ha ha! Otherwise she had a really good time. Calianne got home an hour after Chey but she ended up inviting Richmond over so they could see each other and go for a walk. Fun to be with the boy you're sweet on even for just a few minutes to celebrate your birthday.

Monday was a prep day for the new 7th graders starting their first year at the junior high. Bethany got to attend! The junior hight let the 7th graders go to each class for about fifteen minutes following a much-shortened bell schedule. It is a very fun, low-stress way for these kids to get a run-through before the bigger kids arrive. Beth loved it!

Tuesday was open house at the elementary school. This year we had assigned times by last name. So, Ben and I went at our assigned time and met his teachers (one for English, one for Chinese) and found his desks in both classrooms. His best friend, Kyler, isn't in his class but he has other friends in his class so he thinks he'll be okay!

Wednesday was the first day of school! I drove Cali and Chey to the high school (only for two more weeks until they get their license!), Kevin drove Beth to the junior high, and then later I drove Ben to elementary. Everybody's so old! They all looked great and they were all excited to go. None of them have complained about masks, they just feel lucky to be going at all, and hope it lasts! So do we all!

Wednesday was also the first day of school for someone else we know and love -- Sarah had her first day teaching her own classroom of 6th graders at Brookside Elementary! She came over that evening to get her cupcake (because school is a piece of cake!) and to get a vase for the flowers one of her students brought for her. She had a great day and was so happy! She's doing what she loves. It's so awesome to see!

The twins had tennis this week too, of course. They had a tennis match at Orem High on Tuesday and had a tournament on Friday and Saturday at our high school. They are playing on separate doubles teams right now and they both lost Tuesday and were pretty mad at themselves. During the tournament, they played four different sets on Friday and four again on Saturday! In the heat. And the smoke. AQI=98. They were beat when they got home! Both days! (I was beat when I got home and I only sat in a chair in the shade for half of the matches. Haha!) But Cheyenne and her partner were the champions of the whole tournament going undefeated! Calianne and her partner came in fourth and played great, as well! This is how they looked at the end of the second day:

Kevin would have been in Canada this weekend teaching for IITAP. Instead, he taught via Zoom online. He was glad he didn't have to fly and could be with us in the evenings, but we still missed him! He is a very hard worker. We sure love that guy and glad he's done!

Mariah continues to learn Vietnamese and tell us stories from her class and discussions. She was so thrilled to meet the Vietnam mission president and his wife this week on Zoom. She still really hopes she will get to Vietnam sometime before her mission ends!

It was our last full week without school. Because of COVID, I feel like we've been on summer break FOREVER! Will we even know how to go back to school? Ha ha! In this family, everyone is glad to be going back and excited for it, although this week has seen some of the first jitters since the closeness of the date is causing reality to set in!

The good news is that after multiple class change requests, the twins both have schedules they are happy with. Yay! That can make a big difference. Bethany starts at the junior high this year and was nervous about finding her classes, but the twins took her to the empty-but-open junior high and helped her walk her schedule. So, Beth is feeling better about things, too!

Ben has a backpack and shoes (they did go missing this week, but we found them at his friend's house!) and some new shirts and I've sewn him lots of masks. The last thing he needs is a nice haircut, but we haven't been able to get that done because his friend Nico, who will be moving soon, has been able to play alot this week. By play, I mean play computer games but that is what they like to do, and Ben just earned his computer and its what a perfect day entails for him and school will start soon to end it and Nico will move away, so I've just let them be on the computers--for this week anyway!

The twins started match play for the tennis team. They played on Monday in Alta (about an hour away). Their team did take a bus but they were required to wear masks the whole ride. The twins report that wearing masks does not make a bus quieter--louder if anything--but still harder to hear! They also had a tournament on Wednesday close by in Spanish Fork where they played four games each. They were exhausted by the end of the day but still managed to come to our first YW activity in forever--a back to school pool party. I think for the twins, even if it was exhausting, that is what entails a perfect day: tennis all day and gather with friends at the end of it! They have gathered with their friends often this week:  night games in the park, an outdoor movie another night, and frisbee at the resevoir last night.

Cheyenne tried out a new look this week.

Beth had friends over this week, too, and twice went to the Springville pool to swim with some friends. At Beth's urging, I also took her to Walmart with me to get some school supplies and new shoes. Her backpack is packed and I think she is ready to go!

I planned a family hike this Saturday and Savannah and Mariah both came with us, the twins, Beth, Ben, and me. Kevin couldn't come because he was helping our new neighbors move in. I wanted to do a hike that I'd done just a couple of years ago with Robin, but since then, I guess they've had high water in that canyon and they've got the road closed until they can fix things. Bummer for us! Still, we walked the road into the canyon for awhile. Santaquin canyon is very pretty! It was super fun being with Savannah and Mariah. Afterwards, we got some food and sat at the church next to the Payson temple watching the new brides and reminiscing about past temple trips. I am glad to hear that my children love and miss the temple. It was a fun morning!

When we got back from our morning adventure, we went over and helped our new neighbors unload their last truck. Mariah had her tag on and was standing by Savannah so, Heidi, our new neighbor said, "Oh! Hello Sisters!" thinking maybe the missionaries from the ward had come to help and Savannah said, "Actually, she's the sister," pointing to Mariah, "I'm just the sister of the Sister." Ha ha! Funny moment. Our new neighbors seem really nice.

Last Sunday, we all took a drive. We wanted to go to Bridal Veil but cars were lined along the streets at both parking lots, so we drove up to Squaw Peak instead. None of our four youngest remember ever going, so it was fun to show them this famous look-out point and it was really fun to be together. The kids played "Can you guess what primary song I'm humming?" while we drove. They're the greatest!