She Passed!! Jaiden's Driver's License

Jaiden got her driver's license today!! She was the first of all of our kids that would have gotten her driver's license on time, but then Covid hit and everything shut down and so it was delayed. But it was less than two months after her birthday and so it wasn't too bad! (Janika got hers six months after her birthday, Jase got his 3 1/2 months after his birthday, Jared got his 4 months after his birthday, and Janelle almost five months after her birthday!) They all had different reasons. The first three weren't very motivated to study for the written test on their own and they had to pass that test before they could even sign up for driver's ed. A couple of the kids failed the written test and had to re-take it. Janelle was so busy once she got her permit that it was difficult getting her driving hours in -- plus she failed her driving test the first two times. Jaiden would have been right on time (had it not been for Covid -- which was totally out of her control!) But she still beat all of her siblings!

Jaiden signed up for Driver's Education last summer so that she could take it with her friend, Emily. Having those dates scheduled spurred her into getting her permit early. She started her driving hours last January and was pretty well on track keeping up with her hours since she had so many places to be (tumbling, dance...) and so she usually drove back and forth to those places (with me in the car of course!) She normally would have tested around her birthday but the driving instructor (Mr. Bundy) was behind schedule due to the shutdown. Jaiden finally did her driving hours with him the last few days of June. The first day of driving with him was pretty rough, but after that it went a lot better. She tested on July 1st and passed her test with flying colors! She only missed four points!

She wanted to immediately run out to the DLD (Driver's License Division) but when I tried to call to set up an appointment all I got was an answering machine (after trying over and over again). I got through the next morning but they said that we would have to put our contact information on a "call-back" list and they would get back to us to schedule an appointment. So that was frustrating!

After waiting about two weeks we decided to try our luck just going in without an appointment as soon as it opened. We waited for about an hour, but they said that they wouldn't get to the "walk in" line until after all of the appointments had been serviced -- and there were 128 appointments! We would have been there all day and so we gave up and went home! But I called the office while we were waiting in line and they said that the online scheduler was now open and I could set up an appointment. I wish that someone from the "call-back" list would have contacted us to let us know that!! Who knows how long we would have been waiting around for them to get back with us! We set up an appointment for Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 and were in and out in under thirty minutes! Jaiden is SO excited to finally have a license! But now she keeps complaining that she has to share a car with her sister!

Yellowstone: Janika and Brandon

We had the opportunity to spend a day at Yellowstone while in Island Park, and it was honestly way cooler than I thought it would be! My experience with national parks is just mountains, cool rocks, hiking, etc. In Yellowstone, not only is there a bunch of really cool wildlife that you just don't see every day (buffalo, bears, etc.) but the nature is AMAZING because there's just nothing else like it! If I understood correctly, the entire park is in/on a volcano (if/when it decides to erupt, it will pretty much take out a three state radius on all sides. it's HUGE.)

 Because of the volcano, it creates a really unique environment that leads to cool things like natural geysers, hot pots (that literally boil sometimes, even in the winter - naturally!!) and more. It was definitely my kind of park also because it's big enough that you have to drive from site to site instead of hiking through the whole thing, though we still did quite a bit of walking haha. All in all, it was gorgeous and I was so intrigued by the unique-ness of it all! I would highly recommend taking a trip up there! 

Camping at Navajo Lake Day 3

We slept much better last night! Rick woke up early and started cooking sausages, bacon, and eggs for breakfast. Allison had a brought a much simpler breakfast of instant oatmeal packets and donuts for their family. The sausages smelled delicious, but apparently the flies thought so too because they were buzzing everywhere!! This was really the first time we had experienced any trouble with flies. Note to self -- don't cook sausages and bacon while camping, apparently they are a fly magnet!! We ate breakfast and everyone packed everything up to head home.

We took a couple of pictures before we left. I had told everyone to look tired in the second picture, but then Rick set the timer and ran in to the picture purposely pushing everyone over!! I said, "you ruined the picture!" He said, "No, I made the picture!" We headed home and unpacked and showered. Jenna couldn't wait to go back over to Clarissa's house after we had put everything away. I guess they weren't sick of each other! Anyway, it was fun camping and we were glad that we could go!

Camping at Navajo Lake Day Two

It was a rough night last night! It was hard to get comfortable and Rick said that he didn't sleep at all the entire night. He even got up around 4:30 a.m. to try sleeping in the car but that was not successful either. There was something wrong my air mattress and it deflated about 50% in the night. It was cold, but we felt warm enough in our sleeping bags. After hot chocolate and a breakfast of pancakes everyone headed out on a hike except for Rick. He was tired from not sleeping well and his knee had been bothering him yesterday and today. The hike was about three miles round trip. It wasn't too bad, but a little steep. There was a beautiful view at the top with a cool breeze that felt amazing. We took some pictures before heading back down. On the way down I slipped once but caught myself but then a few minutes later I fell and wasn't able to catch myself. I was okay though. I guess my shoes didn't have very good traction!

 After lunch we headed to the lake. It had been so peaceful and beautiful last night when we went, but today it was very windy! Jenna, Clarissa, and Jeff swam for a little but the water was so frigid that they didn't last long! Josh had spent all morning trying to rig a fishing pole. He found a long stick and had gathered some fishing line and hooks on our walk last night. He and Bradley spent our time at the lake trying to catch some fish! No luck though, haha! The girls just walked around to the other side of the lake and back. The adults sat and visited for a while, but after our things blew away two or three times we decided to head back to camp.

After the lake the kids we took naps and the kids played UNO with Rick and Allison and then the kids played games such as "The Word Game" and "Paranoia."

Tonight we had a delicious dinner of Taco Salad and then drove to an overlook at Cedar Breaks. It was a breathtaking view!

Tonight we did S'mores again and told scary stories. Everyone was pretty tired and headed to head around 11:00 or so! 

Camping at Navajo Lake Day One

We planned a camping trip with the Williams at Navajo Lake. Rick and I crammed all of our gear into two separate cars headed up. We stayed at a campground called TE-AH (#33).  It was all the way to the end, a ways past the lake. Unfortunately Rick accidentally packed the old broken tent instead of the nice new tent he recently purchased! Thankfully the Williams had some extra poles and between the three of them they were able to get it set up! After a few arguments from the kids about sleeping arrangements we finally decided to put all of the kids together in the big tent and Jeff and Allison in their own tent and Rick and I in our own tent. We thought there would only be port-a-potties and so we were very relieved to discover that there were flush toilets and sinks at the campground!

Allison and I drove over to the lake with the kids while the Dads stayed back to cut some firewood. Audrey stayed with them. The lake was beautiful and we really enjoyed our walk around it!

After our excursion around the lake we roasted hot-dogs for dinner and had S'mores. 

We talked and shared stories around the campfire. Jenna shared one and then everyone convinced Rick to share a scary story. Jaiden and Janelle also shared a scary story that they made up. They were actually really good! They obviously inherited their dad's gift of story-telling! Everyone headed to bed about 11:30.

Fourth of July!!

The usual festivities at the park were cancelled due to Covid-19 and so we did our own thing for the Fourth of July this year! (The city still had a parade and a road race, but we weren't thrilled with the parade in the past and so we passed on that.) Janelle's friend, Porter Radley, is starting his mission in a few days and so he wanted to go do something with friends. So Janelle, Jaiden, Emily, Tanisha and Porter went bowling for a few hours today. Emily creamed them all.

Janelle went to a work BBQ and then spent the rest of the evening with friends. The rest of the family (and some friends) had a rousing game of pool volleyball -- boys against the girls (girls lost) and then had a barbecue. Jaiden and Emily went to a work party at Dixie pool (even though Jaiden hasn't officially started her job yet) and then they joined up with the rest of us at the Williams for rootbeer floats and fireworks!

Allison sent me some pictures she had taken of the girls with the big box of fireworks along with a picture from 2014 of Jenna and Clarissa standing in front of a big box of fireworks. The box is probably about the same size, but the girls have sure grown! Jenna and Clarissa used to be the same height, but look how tall Clarissa is now! 

Josh Boating

Josh went boating with his soccer team at Gunlock Reservoir. It was actually his first time boating! He had a blast!!

Josh California Trip Day Four (Wednesday)

The next morning we all tried to convince Caden’s mom to let us go to the beach again that last day, but she wouldn’t let us. We all still had lots of extra money since none of us bought anything at the pier, so we finally convinced Caden’s mom to let us stop at Tilly’s on the way back. Tilly’s was pretty close to the house, and we left at about 10:00. But when we got there, there was a sign on the door that said it didn’t open until 11:00. All the stores had shorter hours because of Covid-19. That was really disappointing, but we continued our drive home. When it was lunch time we stopped at Chick-fil-a to eat. The three of us watched a movie in the car, and then we all took a nap.

We weren’t that far outside of Las Vegas when I woke up and started to read. Kamen was still asleep, but Caden was awake. Eventually, we all started hearing this weird noise coming from somewhere. It was getting louder and louder when Caden opened his front seat window and looked out towards the back of the car. When he opened the window, it smelled like burnt rubber. He put his head back in the car and told us that the tire was destroyed. I looked out the window directly behind him and saw little pieces of black flying off of the tire. Caden’s mom pulled over after that. Kamen finally woke up when we pulled over and he asked what happened. We all went outside to inspect the tire. We were in Nevada, so the temperature was a little lower than 110 degrees. Compared to the California weather, this was a nightmare.

We started moving around luggage in the back seat to get to the spare tire in her car. Kamen said he knew how to change a spare tire, but once we got the spare out, a cop pulled over and helped us put it on. After it was fixed, the officer left, and we all piled into the car. We weren’t too far out from Vegas, so Caden’s mom decided to stop at a tire repair place since we wouldn’t be able to make it all the way back home on a spare. When we made it to the place and pulled up to a worker, he said that we would have to wait in line about two and a half hours.

We were next to an outlet mall, and I turned around to look at it. Sure enough, right where I looked, there was a Tilly’s. Caden’s mom asked if there was another location of the same store somewhere else in Vegas with less of a wait, and he said that there was one about 10 minutes away. I tapped on Kamen’s shoulder and pointed at Tilly’s. We all really wanted to go because there were really cool things that we didn’t get the last time when we thought we should have saved our money for the pier. Kamen proceeded to do the same thing I did to him to Caden, and Caden asked his mom if we could go. Caden’s mom didn’t say anything, and we all assumed that that was a no. We were all disappointed the whole way to the other tire place. The worker at the other place said we would have to wait an hour for them to put on the tire. While we waited, me, Kamen and Caden went to look around at other stores nearby. Eventually, Caden’s mom found us and we all went over to Panda Express to eat since it was dinner time. I had a lot of Chick-fil-a, so I wasn’t hungry when they got some food, but Caden shared some of his orange chicken with me anyway. 

(To Be Continued...)