Father's Day Flee

 More info to come! 

Josh's Graduation!!

Six down, one to go!! Congratulations, Josh!! Josh graduated with a 4.0 GPA!! All of our children have graduated with either a 3.9 or 4.0!! Josh got several honor cords, but ended up losing one somehow during graduation. 

I had told Rick that one of us needed to go an hour early in order to get seats on the shady side! He offered and said that when he got there a little after 7:00 a.m. it was already really crowded! He was lucky to get seats! I came thirty minutes early and had a difficult time even finding parking! 

It turned out to be a little chilly in the shade. Whereas the people on the other side of the stadium were all fanning themselves because it was so hot in the sun! Rick had first put on a long-sleeved shirt and I said, "Why are you wearing long-sleeves? It is going to be really hot!" So he changed, but then he wished that he hadn't listened to me because he was cold! By the time our seventh child graduates we should have it figured out -- come over an hour early to get in line in order to get the shady side, but bring a jacket! 

The program was good and the students who spoke did a great job on their speeches. Josh's friends were the Valedictorian and Salutatorian. Josh sang with the other senior madrigals for the musical number. The program ended in about 90 minutes. We took some pictures and then took Josh out to lunch at a restaurant called Bishops. It was really good. Then we came home and took naps!! Tonight he will go to Grad Night at the RINQ! 

Yesterday I made candy leis for Josh. They took a lot longer than I remembered. In fact it took several hours to make the four leis. It also took a good while to iron Josh's graduation gown. I think Josh is glad to have high school behind him. Rick and I are glad that he is graduated and can now move on to bigger and better things! Now he can start focusing on mission preparation!! 

Josh Jensen and Bridget Layton 

Adam Parkhurst, Josh Jensen, Caleb Parkhurst 

A few of the soccer seniors... Zach Buck, Ethan Scott, Brock Boyce, Josh Jensen, Kadan Morris

To see all of the past graduation posts, click HERE!! 

Josh: Seminary Graduation!

 Josh graduated from Seminary tonight!! Congratulations, Josh! 

To see our past Seminary Graduation posts, click HERE! 

1940's Style Hangar Dance

Tonight Rick and I had the opportunity to go to a 1940's style dance with a live band. It was a lot of fun! Jenna went with Ethan Allred. It was "kind-of" a date -- and we have a "no-dating until 16" rule. But I let this slide since Ethan's whole family was attending the dance and Rick and I were attending the dance also. Some of Ethan's friends also came to the dance. Ethan's family is in our ward. His mom is the Young Women's President and his sister used to be one of our carolers years ago. 

Jenna went over to Ethan's house for a few "swing dancing lessons" prior to the dance. Ethan's parents are really good at swing dancing and gave Jenna and Ethan a few lessons. She had a lot of fun! (The only down side is that she injured herself during one of the practice sessions last week and I ended up taking her to the Chiropractor for a few visits. The chiropractor said that her ribs had popped out and she would need a few adjustments.)

 Anyway, she seemed fine tonight and had a great time! Jenna mostly danced with Ethan, but she also danced with one of the other guys in the group, and also danced with her dad a few times. Jenna and Ethan even taught us some of dance moves they had learned! Ethan also danced with his little sister and his mom. It was fun to go dress up and go dancing -- we don't get to do that very often!  

After the dance the group of teenagers went hot-tubbing at one of the girls' houses! 

Zion's National Park

We went to Zion's National Park with Jase, Ellen, Evan, and Eli. I think the last time I went hiking at Zions was in 2016! A lot has changed since then! It was crowded back then, but now it was insane! As we drove up there were signs saying that there was no available parking in the park and that visitors needed to park in Springdale. In Springdale there are hotels and restaurants with available parking, but each place was charging $25.00 just to park there. There were several kiosks with which to pay. So not only do you need to buy a pass to get into the park, you also need to pay another $25.00 just to park! It is ridiculous! 

After parking you need to ride a huge shuttle bus into the park -- which was crammed with visitors squished in with every seat taken and then everyone else standing with very little room. The driver announces interesting landmarks, but it is so crowded you can't see much of anything. The bus drops you off at the visitor's center and then you catch another bus to get to your desired trailhead. All of this took a long time. Two of the trailheads were closed. There were intercoms making announcements making it feel more like an amusement park rather than a national park. 

We finally got to the trailhead of a very short hike, since we Evan and Eli wouldn't make it very far. It was basically a half mile walk to a picnic area. That is as far as we got into the park! Then we ate some snacks and then rode the long bus back! After we got to our cars we went to a nearby park so that the boys could run around and so that we could eat our picnic. This was the most pleasant part of the journey! It is sad that Zions has gotten so overly crowded! 

We departed ways since we had the 40's dance tonight and Jase and Ellen and their boys went camping at a place they had found a ways outside of the park. Luckily it was a wide open space with nothing but land for the boys to run around! I am sure it was difficult camping with two young boys, but they said that it went well!    

Jenna: SCMS Awards Night

Jenna had her awards night for Snow Canyon Middle School tonight. I told her that I wanted her to go, especially since she had to miss it last year due to dance. All of the teachers get to choose one student for the 8th grade and one student for the 9th grade for an award in their field of study. Last year I didn't know that Jenna would be receiving any extra special awards (other than high GPA) and then she received the department award in history. It made me with we had gone! See that post HERE. 

This year there was another surprise. She almost didn't want to go to the awards ceremony tonight because she said she was probably just getting the award for high grades, which many students get. But we had a surprise this year also! Her Chinese teacher picked Jenna to receive the award for Chinese! So that was a fun surprise! We also got to see her friends sing the national anthem and she got to take pictures and hang out with her friends after the ceremony, so I think she was glad that I made her come, ha ha!! 

Jenna and Claire wore their matching dresses!! (Yes it was planned!) 

Clarissa got the award for Language Arts! 

Josh, Jr, Grace, Anna, Clarissa, Jenna, Brinkley 

Jenna had hung out with friends after the ceremony and it was too dark to take any pictures just of her with her award and so I made her take a couple more the next day before school!