Thirteen

Its Darby's birthday today!  She is such a wonderful person inside and out. Not only does she have a beautiful smile and mermaid hair but she has the quickest wit and kindest heart. She can often be found playing with babies and little kids, making sure everyone feels taken care of. She is the glue that holds the siblings together and gets along with everyone. She makes us laugh so often with her sneaky sense of humor. We are so blessed that she joined our family thirteen years ago. 

Being a Sunday, Darby was still asleep when I woke up on her birthday. Jason and I thought it would be fun to let Stella wake her up. Sure enough, Stella jumped on her bed and "roo-ed" at her. We all yelled "Happy Birthday" and hugged and squeezed her. She is now a teenager!

At church she got birthday wishes and when we stayed a little late to talk to friends I found her playing with a baby. I am not surprised. She is like the Pied Piper and little kids love her.

At home she opened her presents. All the grandmas sent her money. Eva gave her some baking tools and we got her earrings and a jewelry craft set. She used it to make some earrings that very afternoon.

For dinner she wanted Reubens, which Eva and I made, and she wanted a pizookie with vanilla ice cream instead of cake. It was yummy!

Happy Birthday Darby! We love you SO much!

 

Nerf War

Briggs Gym put on a Nerf War for the kids this weekend. That is where Jason and Paige learn jiu-jitsu. She invited Cassidy to come. Jason took them and planned to stay. However, I received a text about ten minutes into it saying that it was a chaotic mess of bullets and that he was coming home. Both of us went back a while later to get them. It was indeed chaos. Mats and boxes and punching bags were set up as barriers. Bases were set up in each corner. Bullets were everywhere, even in the ceiling, and kids with Nerf guns everywhere. It was serious business. 

Paige was having fun but annoyed at one kid that kept creeping into their base and shooting them too close. Finally, time was called and they all had pizza. It seemed like a great night for the kiddos. 

 

Snow Day (Kind of)

 Last night the temperatures were supposed to dip below freezing by quite a bit. We were also supposed to get rain, which meant snow during the night or at least ice. As a precaution, the school district called a two-hour delayed start so that the sun could come up and melt the ice. Jason also had a late start time for work called. There was much rejoicing. 

In the morning we woke up to a sunny day and no snow, at least not on the Westside. However, there was snow on the mountain. Pictures of the Transmountain freeway (the one Jason takes over the mountain to work) showed snow and reports of black ice. The Eastside did get some snow, though not much, but there was ice on roadways there as well.

However, silly people online were complaining because a snow day was called with no snow. I really wish people would look beyond themselves (and maybe up at the mountain) to realize that EPISD covers such a large area that other parts of the district get different weather and that many kids walk to school (which would have been below freezing temps). I know that's not a big deal to people who live in colder climates but EP is just not used to it and not equipped for it. I think some people just like to complain.

Anyway, we woke up late, watched some TV (the girls wanted to watch a documentary about honey badgers with Dad), had hot chocolate, and enjoyed time together as a family. The sun came out and it was still cold but not icy anymore. The kids enjoyed a later start to their day. I had to rearrange the dog's vet appointment but that was easily done. Sleeping in was nice. 

Franklin Mountain Race

 Jason decided to run the 50k race of the Franklin Mountain Run. I woke up early and dropped him off at the race start near the park's visitor center. His race started at 7am. We picked up a friend of ours (Nathan Ashby) who is running the 30k. It is his first time trail running. Jason said he would call me from the last aid station so we could meet him at the finish line. It's really nice when we are close enough to do so.

He texted me a little after 5pm . I loaded the kids up into the car and left even though he wouldn't be there for a while. The turn off of the highway into the park isn't well marked and I wanted to be able to see it in the daytime. We arrived near sunset.

We waited at the finish line for about 40 minutes. it was actually a very pretty view of the city. We saw about 4 other racers come in. They looked a little wrecked. I saw someone coming down the mountain with a very bright light about waist high and I knew that was Jason. We cheered him on and the race director gave the medal to Darby to put on Jason. His time was somewhere around 11 hours. 

He had to grab his drop bag and then we went home. I made pizza with Eva and we watched a movie as a family. He fell asleep on my lap. What a way to end a race day. 

Later we checked the results. He got 19th place with a time of just over 11 hours. He was happy with that. 

Jason said the race was some of the most difficult terrain he has run on but that he was used to it since he runs in the Franklins all the time. I feel bad for people who were unaware of how bad the rocky terrain and cactus can be. Brother Ashby did not fare so well. Jason saw him at one point on the trail. He was bleeding from his face and had no shirt on. It turns out that he faceplanted into a cactus and had spines all over his face, shirt and hands. It was just too cold to be running without a shirt in the shade (not to mention the pain of cactus spines) so he DNF'ed. He also got a little lost as well. I told Jason that he probably wouldn't be running any more trail races. 

Car Trouble

About a week ago Jason's "check engine" light came on. Then, a few days later, while driving his dashboard lights all started blinking and he lost power steering. Yikes. He took his car to a mechanic that Hal recommended. A transmission issue was suspected. Jason and I talked about if now was the right time to get a new car since we had been talking about it once Brendan was on his way to get a license. But when we looked at car prices they were just too expensive, even used cars. For some cars used are almost the cost of a new one. Everything is expensive these days as the economy is taking a downturn. 

Jason had to take my car to work. It wasn't a big deal since school hadn't started up again. We heard back from the mechanic that when he was rear-ended (for a second time) a few weeks ago, it knocked some things under the car out of alignment, causing other parts to be affected as well. The frame was also slightly bent. He said he could fix it but that it would take a few days. The cost was not small but less than a new car and reasonable for the repairs needed.

Wednesday was the first day back at school. Jason took the high schoolers to seminary (which he usually does) but he had to pick them up too. When we next heard from the mechanic he said that a part they needed (a small rubber gasket) was delayed and that as soon as it came in he would complete the repairs. We had to do some car juggling to accommodate jiu-jitsu classes, youth activities, and driving classes. One day Jason had to work late and I was able to arrange with kind people from our ward to pick up the kids from school and take them to YW. Jason carpooled to work on Friday so I could have the car to go grocery shopping. 

Jason's car was able to be picked up on Friday and I am so glad to be a two-car household again. And I am so grateful for kind frineds who help us out. 

Unexpected Snow

We tried to wake up somewhat early since Winter Break is coming to a close and we need to get back in a schedule. Hail woke us up around 7am anyway. Then, as I sat down to eat breakfast I saw the hail be replaced with snow! 

It wasn't on the weather report yesterday so it was unexpected. I told all the kids to wake up and that it was snowing. They were pretty excited. 

Stella was confusedat first but then excited. She began to roll around in it and then got the zoomies aorund the whole yard. 

Darby and Paige dressed in their winter gear and had a small snowball fight in the backyard.

 Brendan came out in the snow too but just sat and watched it fall. 

A little while later the two youngest convinced Dad to take them to the park. They came back very wet and cold but happy. Apparently they had an epic snowball fight. 

Once everyone was changed and dry we had hot choccolate. The snow only lasted about two hours but it was terrific!

 

New Years Eve

Its the last day of 2022. What a year it has been! We spent the morning playing games, especially the games that Aunt Amanda sent. Jason won Stupid Deaths handily. I guess he is good at sniffing out untruths. Then we played Colorbrain. We had so much fun with this one. The kids asked to play it again and again. We laughed so hard. Later we played Overcooked on the Nintendo.

In the afternoon I made all the tasty treats for our movie marathon. This year we watched Pride and Prejudice. They are all old enough to understand these period dramas now and look forward to them. Everyone made it to midnight when we toasted with sparkling grape juice and then everyone quickly went to bed. Only a few more days of Winter Break and then back to the last half of the school year. I wonder what 2023 will hold for our family.