Leap day = Lorien day

Hey, February has one extra day this year!  We decided to use our extra day to drive down and visit Lorien.  Really, we had a little family trip to San Diego planned for this weekend and needed to drive down on February 29th.  Lorien was invited on our family trip but decided to stay in LA to work and go to school.  We stopped at her apartment on the way to see her place and take her out for lunch.

We all enjoyed seeing how our collager is living in the city.

My sister-in-law gave us all mugs from Kayla's mug collection.  I took an extra and brought it to Lorien.  She was happy to have a piece to remember her cousin with. 

We were all horrified at the post-fire view of Lorien's apartment building.  The bottom 9 floors are still closed and severely damaged.  There are security guards in the elevators now keeping people from entering those floors. 

Really, looking down from Lorien's window and knowing what she saw on that horrible day was sobering.  I am so thankful she is safe!

We walked to a local Indian restaurant.  Lorien had to contend with her whole family not knowing how to walk in the city.

I cleaned up Lorien's undercut...sliceing up her neck in the process.  It was lovely to see our big girl in her college element.  I am so proud of her for doing this on her own.  She is growing and maturing so much! 

The Sac...

Adell is my fourth fourth-grader!  We moved to Danville when Lorien was starting the fourth grade.  Each kid has ventured with their fourth-grade class up to the Capital of California, Sacramento, for a field trip.  Adell is the first kid I have chaperoned on this field trip.  Adell is the kid who got my least attention at school.  Lorien and Wyatt started school at a parent participation school where I was in the classroom almost once a week.  Then I worked out a babysitting swap for Adell with two other mom's so we could be in the classroom for our Kindergarteners when Clare was in Kindergarten.  Adell got skipped altogether because I had a baby, Cotler, and no one to swap child care with.  Colter is the last child so I got to be a room mom for his Kindergarten year and be in the classroom once a week.  To make it up to poor skipped Adell, I try to go on field trips with her.  I much prefer being in the classroom...

First, we took a bus up to Sacramento.  The ride was easy and uneventful...I was especially grateful I didn't get car sick.  We started at the Capital where we toured and learned about previous governors of California.

We got a special treat in being able to sit on the floor of the Senate.  Normally, the tours only go in the gallery above but our representative, Steve Glasier, got us special permission to go down on the floor.  It was interesting!

In the legislature, we had to sit up in the gallery to view/tour the room.  It was still very cool. 

We also toured Sutter's fort.  Learning about an early pioneer in Calfornia and the advancements (for better or worse) he implemented in California.

Our last stop was a train museum...where I took zero pictures.  The trip was a success!

Lorien's accomplishments...

When Lorien was nine or ten years old, she had an excellent Sunday school teacher named Heather.  Heather was fun and very cool.  She wore wild high heels to church and always had beautifully painted fingernails.  Heather gave thoughtful lessons about the gospel of Jesus Christ all while making sure these girls knew she loved them and Jesus loved them.  When we moved to Danville, Heather kept in touch with Lorien.  Even coming to take Lorien to the movies one Saturday.  Lorien and Heather are still friends and communicate via Instagram today.  Today Heather sent me and Lorien this picture of her old Sunday school class.  It was fun to look back and remember these times of Little Lorien.

Lorien loves Dungeons and Dragons...well, I think she actually loves listening to podcasts about playing Dungeons and Dragons.  Around the time her apartment building was catching fire she drew a piece of fan art for one of the podcasts.  She posted the art on Twitter and tagged the podcast creators.  They retweeted her art and as a result, the day she was being evacuated from her apartment many other people saw, liked, or retweeted her art!  So all day, whenever she was feeling down and worried about her burning building, she'd get a little notification about someone else retweeting her art and it would cheer her up for a minute. 

Now, a few weeks later, she just got a communication from the podcast creators asking if they could use her art in their email newsletter.  She is so excited and so am I!  It is awesome to know someone likes your work!  Here is her work, by the way:

Brace face and wrestling...

Well, I had recently made complete peace with my crooked smile.  I considered it cute and quirky and something I could live with for the rest of my life.  Alas, in the summer of 2018 I chipped a front tooth.  I didn't think it was a big deal but my dentist assured me, I would continue chipping teeth as long as my teeth were crooked and crashing together incorrectly.  So I bit the bullet...literally and got braces!  Eeep.  Clare has been the braces trailblazer in our family getting her braces on a year ago in March.  Her teeth already look so much straighter!  She is my inspiration.  Hopefully, I'll get these off in a year and a half and have a straight smile without chipping teeth.  Wish me luck!

Colter and Adell started Jiu-Jitsu this month.  Colter has been asking to do martial arts for years and Adell decided she wanted to try wrestling.  Jiu-Jitsu was a great way to combine both of their interests and have them both going to the same place two days a week.  So far, they love it and can do excellent squats!

Sisters and brothers

It is family time!  A few months ago a couple of my sisters made plans to get together for a little visit.  Camie is coming out from Maine and we are meeting Jennifer in Utah for a sisters weekend!  I flew out on Valentine's day at 5 am!  I set up my traditional Valentine's breakfast and gifts and took a 4 am Uber to the airport.

It was easy pickin's this year, everyone got cash...

With my super early arrival in Salt Lake, I took the time to do an Orange Theory workout.  My brother, Chris, picked me up at the airport and let me use his car to go to my workout and drop my stuff off at Jenn's house.  Then he and I picked up Annette for a delicious street taco lunch!  So yummy!

After lunch, I took a nap and waited for Jennifer to get home.  We loaded up and got Camie from the airport!

It was a wild, wonderful, girl-time, weekend.  Friday we ate and laughed and tried to go to bed early.  Saturday we shopped, ate, laughed, watched movies, talked, and ate some more!

Sunday we slipped into church for the sacrament and then slipped over to IKEA to give Camie her very first visit inside the big blue box store.

Sunday afternoon Chris and Annette hosted a waffle dinner for all the family in the Salt Lake valley.  It was a big hit and fun to see so many family memebers.  Caleb and Shellie drove down from Idaho with their boys.  It was Gabe's birthday so we celebrated him as well.

We made a Fortnite cake for Gabe which was a massive hit!

We talked and laughed some more...everything you want to do when you are with your siblings!

Camie had to leave Monday at noon.  I didn't fly out until the butt crack of dawn Tuesday morning.  So Monday night Chris treated me and Jenn to dinner at PF Changs and we had some more sibling time.  It was a quick, fun trip.  Fun times with sisters and siblings.  I love these guys...and the other five siblings I didn't get to see on this trip. 

February things

The cousins came over for a few night sleepover.  We saw a light show at the planetarium and the kids built a crazy race track in their bedroom.  

Clare danced in her first competition (actually in January but I just got this photo in February) her team won high gold!

We watched the Super Bowl and cheered on the San Francisco 49ers.  The Kansas City Chiefs won which some of us were happy about too!

This was our seven kid set up at church that Sunday.

Will got to show off his old mission pictures for Missionary Month at church and I got to work on some water color art. 

We celebrated my lovely friend, Carrie's, birthday!

Most wonderful of all, Sadie, Angela, and Lily, came to visit one weekend from Utah.  The girls were particularly happy to be together!