Spring Fever and Sweet 16

This girl has been anticipating March 17, 2023 for as long as she can remember.  Sweet sixteen for Katelee Lyn McArthur-driving and dating and all the fun!  She really has been dating already...but we are going to say now she is free to a little more openly.  Haha!  

She is stylish and smart and amazing.  She took a few friends to dinner and a movie and we celebrated hard with some lemon bars and dinner as well.  The jokes never get old that she is our only non red-head born on St Patty's day.  One of the students at the high school discovered that I was Katelee's mom and said "holy cow, she looks just like you."  I was flattered, obviously but I told that student Katelee wouldn't be thrilled to hear that.  She wasn't, but diplomatically responded with, "I just don't see it."  Cheers to the non ginger who resembles me most! 

While my birthday was in January, there are a group of ladies in the neighborhood who all have birthdays between January-March, 

so we decided to celebrate ourselves and go to dinner in Midway.  I had to document the cute little globes we sat in- they were so fun! 

There were some fun school events happening in March as well...Brenna had her career day.  The seventh graders were allowed to miss school to job shadow somewhere.  The little dear told us about it pretty much the day before so her hopes of going with Shannon on a flight was challenging but Shannon made it work.  She just accompanied Brenna as she worked with another flight attendant.  

The pilot and other employees were accommodating and really made her a part of the crew.  She collected trash like a pro.  

Harrison had his wax museum and he always has his interests divided between history and sports but thankfully he settled on the historical hero of George Washington.  He was regal and knowledgeable in all things Revolutionary War and it surrounding times.  Solid work, George.   Harrison has been very much in tune with all things preidential, even when we watch movies.  He just asked "why does every movie seem to start on President's Day?'  It took me a minute to realize he read Present Day as President's Day.  Just keeping his head in the zone.  

The picture below was from 'Wacky Wednesday' where the elementary students were encouraged to put together a wild outfit as part of spirit week.  I really feel like Harrison nailed it.  The stuffed donuts on each arm really added that final touch.  haha!

Grant's final swim season wrapped up and the team celebrated with a banquet.  It is super remarkable the swimmers are up for those early morning practices and rigorous drills.  We are proud of Grant sticking with it!

And, the SNOW continues.  We have had record snowfall this season, and really we are not hating it.  Grant has cashed in on his season pass to Brighton and Katelee has been wishing she had one!  But, we know how much we need the water.  

On yet ANOTHER snow day, the kids built a snowman.  Katelee was a great supervisor to the neighbor kiddos 

and help them assemble Chad the BYU snow fan.  Of course, Harry was voting for the snow person's name to be Cosmo, but Chad was accepted in the end.  So many cups of hot chocolate have been consumed.  I do draw the line late at night so Harrison was especially disappointed when he started laying the mugs out at 9:30pm and I told him not that night since there was school in the morning.  He responded with, "What?  come on!  It soothes you down and calms your soul."

Shoveling the snow has been a great workout and while we have been happy with the powder, it was so nice to leave the cold and hit the beach for spring break!! 

We had gifted the family a trip to Cabo for Christmas and it was fabulous! 

We stayed at the Hyatt Ziva all inclusive resort and it was fancy pants!  The girls and I bunked together and Dave took the fellas to a room below ours.  We arrived on a Saturday, explored the resort and began our quest to consume all the tropical drinks available.  

We were getting out of the pool the first evening to get ready to try our first restaurant and an odd gentleman approached the girls and me, wanting to take  her picture, asking how old she was, saying "arrest me now" when I told him she was only 16.  So, we spent the rest of the days on high alert avoiding creepy 'Grandpa Cabo' as we dubbed him and watching for other people to try and pick up on our teenagers.  Sheesh.  

Grant tried bone marrow and thought it was "not too bad" but the best part was watching Katelee observing his culinary experience.  hahahaha!

We loved having our meals altogether and trying the different restaurants.  The buffet is always where Harrison's heart is.  

I was definitely nervous to leave the resort but we decided the church was close enough to take a shuttle to, so we spent part of our Holy Sabbath with the local saints.  

I tried to sing the hymns, but I did it in English, and it mortified a couple of the children...so naturally, I just did it a little louder!  We love going to church with saints we haven't met yet, but are so welcoming.  It is cool everytime.  

The next day, we took a couple Ubers to downtown Cabo.  We haggled a boat ride to the famous arch. 

and loved how pretty it was.  The water on the other side of the arch was a bit treacherous so we got a good bouncy ride.  

While our resort was so great, you couldn't swim in the water right off of the hotel's beach.  It was too dangerous with the rip tide and the drop off.  So, we just packed up our beach gear and our boat guides dropped us off on a good beach to play on.  

Grant was already bright pink and burned by Monday morning and it was hilarious looking at his roasted back and then glancing over to his father who was doing everything in his power to not soak up a single UV ray.  

You didn't see anyone else walking in long pants, with long sleeves and a collar flipped up covering every inch of skin.  

Dude didn't get burned, though.  So, mission accomplished. 

The next day we spent doing a little razor excursion.  

Dave thought he'd be quite the racer, but he held up the pack a little.  Brenna, Harrison and I had to tell him to go faster and faster.  He did accomodate that request when we were going through all the water! 

It was a fun ride through desert and hills and water and it brought us back to the beach to have dinner. 

It was our last night and the sunset was the best one yet!  

 

We had hoped to make it back to the resort to try a Hibachi restaurant but being on the beach together watching the sun go down was so worth it.  

We spent so much time taking pictures (especially of the younger 3)...everywhere we went we would hear 'take a picture of me,' 'take a picture of this,'  etc.  So, by the end we told the kids we needed to take pictures of ourselves now so we could catch beautiful gems like this....

It really was the perfect last night with breathtaking color.  We spent the morning of Wednesday getting our last favorite foods-smoothies, chips and salsa, and the delightful ice cream from the front bakery store.  The kids had met some other teenagers and played a last volleyball game with them.  

We wanted to have a last big spring break trip before Grant graduates and we did!  It's not like we won't ever have him on any other vacations, but we won't know which ones and this was a great one to have as his (possibly last) one with the family. The games of pool, dance shows, employees, whales jumping in the water and all the food will be some core memories for sure.  

Birthday Love

Still the season of birthdays as we entered February and hit Grant's 18th!  His age now tells us he is an adult.  It will be interesting to see how we move forward with parenting an adult!  We are pretty much clueless as parents in general, so starting a new phase with no idea what to do seems pretty on par.  Dave had to leave in the afternoon on Grant's birthday, so we celebrated a birthday breakfast for him but then invited family over after to sing to him and Shannon.  

He read to everyone Harrison's card that stated Grant is Harrison's second favorite brother (next to Jesus) and asked Grant to grow a mustache or goatee.  He is an adult now, so maybe that facial hair starts thickening up-can't change the faint color though, so even if it is there its sometimes tricky to see.

Katelee and Grant had just been to the Sweethearts dance with their friends/dates.  Hailie and Grant were looking super snazzy....

and Katelee and her close friends Izzy and Rian were pretty much twinning minus their shoes for their dance.  

Black was the go to color, poor girls were probably freezing!  February is a cold month to be getting pictures in these outfits.  

We lucked out and all the girls got picked up at house since they were getting ready here.  So we got to see them all and it was one of their first dances so she was screaming as the car drove into our driveway.  It was so funny.  

Katelee with Seth and then a pic of all the carload 

These people ask so far in advance of the actual dance, so these girls had asked this group of boys when they had been hanging out a bunch, and then they kind of stopped hanging out.  They were worried the actual date would be slightly awkward, but it turned out great and they had a wonderful time!

Boom, right after, we were celebrating Miss Brenna becoming a TEENAGER.  She has really started to look the part and we know she has been acting teenish for ages, so it is only fitting for her to be thirteen.  

She is our sassy, organized, dancing queen and we love her!  She decided to spend the day skiing for her birthday with Dave and then have a movie night with friends.  Katelee helped me decorate the basement and the squeals of teen girls suggested it was a success.  

Katelee is so good at decorating and designing, we petitioned her to help with Harrison's Valentine's Day box, one of my most dreaded school projects every single year.  I am sure I could scroll back into Feb since Grant was in kindergarten and find myself lamenting in the blog how I hate to make these boxes!  Harrison had something in mind and Katelee really pulled through...

Basketball box for the win! Harrison carries a lot of the creativity/artsy gene as well.  I mean, he has been designing logos and jerseys since he could hold a pencil.  He created an Among Us mask from the popular video game and adopted that persona for a few days...

It is a bit unfortunate because the game you are either trying to murder before you are caught or avoid being the victim.  I hope it worked out for him, it didn't work out for his helmet to stay in one piece for very long! 

This winter kicked in with the snow storms pretty darn late, but there have been some doozies!  I hosted book club one night and it had been a snow day, so Dave had to plow the street so the ladies could walk over in the deep, deep snow.  I mean nothing could stop a book club about a seance and romance! hahaha!

So, we spent our month celebrating our people and reflecting on love.  I recently heard someone say we love people because it is the right thing to do not because they are doing the right thing.  It is easy to love when people are always kind, or little babies/children who shower you with affection.  It is a challenging privilege to love our family members and those around us when they are not being easy to love or doing what we would hope they would be.  I guess that really is true love though- being solid in those times that are hard and those times that love comes freely.  It is an honor though- to be surrounded by people to love and who give us that opportunity to consider what it means to have true charity-the greatest love of all.  

One Year Older and Wiser Too

While many people despise the month of January, we have to pay homage to the day of my birth, so I think there has to be something good!  We have had an extremely snowy winter thus far, albeit it began late- but the kids (Grant especially with his season pass) are loving snowboarding.  Definitely some good to be had in a month that provides such powdery happiness.  

We basked in the winter glory for my birthday activity as well...

Harrison, Brenna, Dave and I went out for pizza in Park City and then to explore the ice castles I  have heard so much about.  

Did we wear snow pants?  No.  Were our knees and bums frozen and wet by the end of our adventure- absolutely.  

Dave wasn't a fan of crawling on hands and feet and he only indulged us once or twice on the ice slides, but we had a great time venturing into tunnels and caves

illuminated by colorful LED lights.  Of course we missed Grant and Katelee, but it was

such a fun evening.  The frost bitten noses and toes were worth it.  Happy birthday to me!  

Grant is doing his 'last' of everything at high school as the year goes on.  This month wrapped up his high school swimming experience.  We went to support him on senior night.  

Brenna couldn't make it with dance (boy is it hard to get everyone in one place anymore), but we are proud of how Grant has stuck with swimming despite having to get up for 5am practices...which means waking up at 4:25am with the rest of the team- the seniors all pictured below.

He also had an added obstacle with having a broken neck last year, so we are all just so grateful he can walk, let alone swim.  

Coach Powers has been a great support and resource to Grant all through high school.  It was fun to see him encourage him that night and everyday through swim and chemistry.  Powers is pretty much the teacher Grant goes to whenever he has to do some attendance school catch up...which might be often.  

Congrats on all your accomplishments, senior swimmer Grant!

Swimming finished! Year 41 of life completed for me and on to year 42.  While I am undisputably one year older, one year wiser is definitely debatable.  I had heard so much growing up that you get older and realize you don't know as much as you thought...amen to that.  That realization can't equate to wisdom, can it?  One year older and chubbier too...yes, one year older and battle scared too...yes.  Maybe the experiences awaken us and that can bring wisdom.  One year older and more reflective too- absolutely.  It isn't that I am having a mid-life crisis, but I find each year I am sitting back more often and wondering how I got where I am and what do I even know?  The answer is not a lot!  And I guess I am ok with that.  I do know that when one visits an ice castle, one should wear snow pants when sliding down slippery frozen water slides.  I can be taught, but the wisdom is coming in miniscule drips to my life cup!  Here is to year 42!

 

Christmas and a New Year

The odd but comforting thing about life is it keeps on chugging along, despite death, despite tragedy and heartache, despite challenges or life change.  We know Grandpa would want the kids to have a wonderful Christmas and we spent the holiday remembering him and trying to look for the good despite the hard times ahead.  

Harrison was thrilled with his FSU jersey and helmet- Grandpa would be proud...but a Crimson Tide set would really have been in his honor.  Grant got a snowboarding pass, Katelee some shoes and a mini fridge.

Grant gave me my most favorite blanket, Dave and I exchanged stockings and  

Brenna was thrilled (and not surprised, despite the pic) with her Lagoon season pass.  

It was a low-key day, spent playing games after church!  We (and when I saw we I mean ONLY me and Dave) loved that Christmas was on a Sunday this year.  It filled our heart with the true Christmas joy and the kids reluctantly agreed...after they changed out of their Sunday best.  haha!

We still have a couple of kids who will hang out with us as we ring in the New Year, so we played games, ate delish food, 

and of course did face masks per our tradition.  Dave loves it so much, as documented here.   

Fine, our dinner out to Ruth's Chris may be more up his alley.  A new year brings a lot of pondering, a lot of goals and lot of unknown.  The past few months have had me searching for what I DO know.  I don't think these questions are already answered completely, but I do know that the future can be bright.  There are certainties in life and in ours it is our rock of Jesus Christ.  We've been through a lot, a lot only He can know and all that only he can pull us through.  So, as we face a new year, absolutely we will do it together, and we will do it with Him.  

Til We Meet Again

The day we flew back from Disneyland, Dave met us in the airport and let us all know that he was actually leaving that evening to head to Arizona.  His dad had been hospitalized due to an adverse reaction (a poisoning really) from a medication.  Dave was able to go for a few days and help his mom and care for his dad.  We already had plans to go to Arizona for Thanksgiving, so we knew we would all get to see Carl then.  

We took turns visiting as only a few people could be in the room with Carl at a time.  Unfortunately, Harrison was too young to be admitted but he got to FaceTime with his Grandpa and send love.  

When we weren't at the hospital, we were catching up with all our family in the desert going axe throwing, playing at Uncle Brian's escape room, making Thanksgiving dinner, eating together and riding Malia's horse.  

It was really hard to head home with Carl in the hospital, but there were plans to move him to a rehab as soon as he was able to swallow and keep food down. 

 Dave and his sibling spent a lot of the Thanksgiving looking at facilities.  Once we got home, it became apparent that Carl was going downhill.  Dave flew back out again to spend time with his dad and send along all our love we could possibly relay.   His siblings gathered later and collected videos/notes to read to Carl as he spent his last days in his home.  On December 9th, Carl Junior McArthur took his last breath.

His funeral was held December 14th and we split up to travel (half of us flew and half of us drove due to skymiles, schedules, room in the car etc).  Dave took Katelee and Harrison, Grant, Brenna and I flew and made it to our hotel at around 3am.  Our sweet neighbors and friends contributed to help us with travel expenses and gave so much support that we truly appreciated.  

The service was small but streamed and I am sure many, many people tuned in to reminisce about a man who certainly impacted thousands.  Dave and Brent spoke, the sisters all shared memories, 

and it was a difficult but tender day.  Dave's siblings are never all together, so we were grateful to spend a few hours eating afterwards surrounded by love for our Dad/Father-in-law/Grandpa/Brother/Uncle/Husband.  

 

We went home to spend the rest of the Christmas holiday very reflective and appreciative for the memories we have of the best Dad/Grandpa the world has ever seen.  

We really could write pages and pages of Carl-isms- the cute, funny things that he said that made us giggle, of times he bore his testimony and taught true doctrine whether formally or as part of everyday conversation.  The pages would include all the times he ran into people he knew everytime he traveled, the pages he kept of books he read, apostles he met, scriptures to share.

He was a man that everyone loved and he loved everyone.  You could not help but adore him and feel honored that you were part of his family.  His arm wrestling, dancing, country singing, karaoke, jokes etc just added charm and joy to a celestial kind of man.  

It was so hard to say goodbye, but boy do we cherish the memories and the impact Carl has had on the world and each of us personally.  

We can not wait to hug him, have him kiss us on the cheek as he always did and show us to the food because you know, when that reunion happens with him again- there is going to be good food!  Words cannot adequately express the hole he has left, but the hope and anticipation of seeing him again is truly a gift.  Love you forever Carl McArthur!