​t-5 days till Hallie's school career is over (at least for a minute).  She is in Boise for 48 hours having fun and likely not sleeping.  Her friend Gio was going there for a farewell and she went and got dropped off at Doxeys on the way.  Senior Sunset was this last Friday.  I haven't heard about it yet but I think Senior sunrise/sunset is a pretty cool tradition and really does (in theory) wrap up the experience of senior year in a cool way!  

Aubrie and some of her friend crew are coming up to have a Memorial Day BBQ tomorrow.  I always love playing lawn games together.  I think Bricky will come too.  Pratts and Gillespies are planning to be.  OUr last hurrah in the backyard as we know it ;).  We got our site plans approved for the house and we met with Mitch yesterday and we are planning to break ground on June 8th.  He felt confident that we could be done with the inside of the house by October which would feel like such a miracle for me if that happens. 

Lucas started All Stars for baseball and has lots of baseball coming up.  Blake takes him outside to practice his pitching a few times the last 2 weeks and its helping him understand better how use mechanics to throw a strike and stop overthinking his "aim".  He throws the ball fast and hard.

Hallie and I leave for our week long bike trip and I have been trying to bike more the last week or so so I won't be so saddle sore but I don't know if it will even help.  I think we bike 30 plus miles most of the days. I am getting so much more excited once I looked through the itinerary more closely.  One of the days we ride by Terezin which was one of the main concentration camps during WW2 and we will be able to stop and tour inside.  One other thing I am anticipating is a classical concert inside one of the cathedrals (With an organ from hundreds of years ago) in Prague and the music are all favorites (Vivaldis 4 Seasons is alot of it). Anyway, more about that later with pics.  Yes, I bought padded bike shorts and gloves for Hallie and I to use! 

Blake started up with football this week, and dad and he drove around for an hour yesterday so he could apply to different places to work part time this summer.  He needs the work and a full schedule.  He is always on the go.  He applied at Sports Mall, Play it again sports, and the trampoline parks around here. 

Clara and Abby are planning a kids dance camp for the week after school gets out and she has girls camp and Brighton camp also.  It will be a fun summer.  I hope there are a lot of days that we can choose to go swimming at the reservoirs and go to the library too. Its my favorite summer days! I miss SOOOO much when we all did that together over the summers. 

I went to my scripture study group this past Thursday and we decided to study about seeing this life as a time of creation then as a test or trial to "endure" in the world sense of endure.  It is a paradigm shift and I think it opens up a lot of enthusiasm and a whole world of opportunities to do and learn and be good.  One of the thoughts I shared with the group was that we have a moment where we can choose "indifference" or we can choose "________".   And every time we choose to NOT be indifferent we are making a choice to be more like JEsus Christ.  It can feel impossible to never be indifferent, but our capacity increases over time as we keep choosing in the "moment" to act. 

Have a conversation with a new person, help a neighbor that just lost their husband, get out of a comfortable place by changing a job, taking a job, losing a job, having a hard conversation with someone you want to be closer to (child or parent or sibling especially), make an invitation to go to the temple with you, or do something random together that you both dont know how to do, do something you are scared to do, choose to teach or speak when asked.  ETC.  Don't be indifferent, choose the THING.  And it is absolutely empowering.  CREATION BRINGS WITH IT EMPOWERMENT!   That is why we should see this life as a creation instead of a trial. That perspective feels so much lighter, happier, it brings enthusiasm and joy.  I cannot wait to keep studying it.  We are studying that for a whole other month together with this study group (its about 8-10 women and we all just wanted to study more and be with people that want to learn and push ourselves in that). Its just so good. I am loving it. 

I am so happy to be your mom Robbie.  You are a good good soul.  You try hard, work hard, show humility, repent every day and know how to have a good time. You are so missed as well.  I can't wait to all be together hanging out, laughing etc.  It will be a happy day for me ;)

I literally didnt realize I was wearing it backward on our dinner/movie date on the Navi

Grandma's tshirt quilt for Hallie

Dragons last game

temple thursdays

10 mile bike ride

summer job applications

Grandpa was honored for his service as a Marine at MCO's patriotic concert (absolutely fire of a concert!)

I love yous with Hallie and Blake

 ​Anna and I went to BYU Womens Conference this past Friday.  (She was going to be down here to watch Beck run a few races for his track invitational at BYU) so it worked out well.  I felt so grateful to go.  I felt some good direction for myself and in several relationships. We went to a workshop class that was taught by our friend Emily and the focus was on finding and developing spiritual gifts. We workshopped through the whole class with this framework:  

1-recognizing and receiving

2-endure: (think of this word defined as "grow, develop, enlarge" plug in those words instead of endure

3-possess

​These are the steps to recognizing and eventually possessing spiritual gifts. 

she gave us pages of questions to think and ask ourselves that will help us recognize spiritual gifts and then asking for them. 

"where do I feel a nudge to do something??", "is there a need I could step into?" "What would it look like to use my gifts on purpose instead of on accident (would anything change?)?

There was a beautiful song that was sung during a musical presentation and these lines stood out to me "there is holiness in the waiting", "there is strength in the silence" "there are miracles in the unbearable"

Elder and Sister Bednar spoke to us to close out the conference.  

2 tidbits from Sister Bednar: she strongly spoke pf the need to "TEACH, TESTIFY and DEFEND the family" and she said, when ministering to someone--ASK them how to minister to them.  ASk them what they need in a sincere way (I don't always need to try to come up with the right or best thing to do.  Ask them!)

2 tidbits from Elder Bednar "You CANNOT light a fire in anothers soul unless it is burning bright in your own" So much of our effort really just needs to be on creating a roaring fire in our own souls.  The light will spill out of us naturally. 

The verse "Jesus SAW their faith."  it wasn't just felt. He saw it in action.  Faith is quite literally a principle of action.

Anna and I also did a fairly long hike Saturday morning while dad and the kids had a practice at DBAT (Hallie was on a day date for prom and Blake was working at DBAT)

Hallie went with DAwson (a boy she met that is from Montana and happened to be coming into town with his family and wanted to go to Prom with her).  Olive and his cousin went too.  Dad and I went over to take pics at Wheeler Farm and they all seemed like they were totally getting along and felt comfortable.  Havent downloaded the whole day but I am guessing it was a very fun senior prom.  We did dinner here and abby and Clara were the servers and they are both so outgoing they make it so much fun.  

Blake had his last baseball game this past week.  They did not make the playoffs this year (first time in a LONG time) and it was a huge bummer. Dad told me he yesterday that BLake had the top batting average for JV for the year.  He really dialed in 2nd half of the season. This morning I woke up wondering if I make Blake work hard enough here at home.  So there is that too. He and all the friends all went up to SNowpine for James birthday party and swam and played spikeball (Way into that right now).

Landon came by to show off his new diesel truck yesterday.  Drool dripped from Blakes mouth onto the truck.  Blake had Landon drive over to his friends house and they all jumped in and went to Swig in the truck ;)

Hallie finished her portion of her mission papers today and is meeting with dad today.  She put her availability for Oct 15th. It feels very real all of a sudden and there is a little bit of "wait...no," happening for me now;)

I love music and its power to help us feel the spirit.  We had an all music sac mtg last week and Lucas was one of those asked to come up and share his favorite hymn and why.  He was super nervous and had me come sit behind him, but he did it.  He chose Gethsemane.  Aubrie went up and shared her testimony and chose "It is WEll with my Soul" (fave hymn right now) and it was so good as well.  We should do that every month ;)

Man, we love you so much RObbie.  We think about you alot.  and pray for you a lot.  You are so wonderful and doing really well.  Just know how special you are and how much you are allowing HEavenly Parents to trust you.  We love you!

Linclon, Lucas and Jacob all play on the same team and Charlie was subbing.  They all batted in order too which was fun to watch.

mission picture

Ryan went to DBAT with Russ to get some pitching/hitting reps in Scottsdale on a business trip

Landon showing off the new diesel truck

Hallie and Dawson and Olive and Tieran

Clara and Abby helping to serve their prom dinner

Last JV game of the season

Henny seeing Lucas when they got here