A "Regular" Mom

We had Jyson with us for the past two weeks. Want to know what we did? Swim lessons. Every morning. Just like a regular mom. He's 11 and never taken a swim lesson before, so when we knew the two weeks he'd be with us I checked out the swim lesson schedule at the local pool. They run two week sessions and it worked out perfectly. He loved it and so did I. He's always been a fish but never learned how to swim any of the strokes or how to dive. He was so proud of passing the highest level (even though the other boys in his class were 3-4 years younger than him). Sure, it would have been fun to take a vacation somewhere, but I just wanted a taste of normal family life. Swim lessons, daily chores,  family prayer every night for two weeks. It might only happen a few weeks every summer but I'll take it and enjoy every minute of it. Gosh I love that little boy!!

May 2012

There was one more event in April - Womens Conference at BYU. This year it was just Jill, Tanya, & I. We went to the concert the night before and then the conference the next day. It was great just hanging out with some of my favorite girls!

May 11 we headed down to St. George to watch Brian Regan at the Tuacahn.
Funny as always!

We got up the next morning to go on a bike ride and realized we had a flat tire. Quick change by John to get us to the tire shop and then we were off on our bikes. A nice little mountain bike ride.

After that we went to the St. George Temple and did a session.

We also went down to Mesquite to say hi to Grandma O. I loved this picture of John helping her up the stairs. They adore each other. It's really sweet.

I took Jyson to dinner after a soccer game one night. John couldn't be there so we sent him a picture to let him know we missed him.

Date night. We went to the temple, got our favorite caramel apples, and then went to Barnes & Noble to entertain ourselves. I took this photo with my phone and it's now the wallpaper on my phone. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

Mother's Day! Jake got to call us from Japan with Skype so we could talk. Notice the Happy Mother's Day banner they had made in the background. It was great to talk to him.

As a special bonus, we also got to see Jyson on Mother's Day because his mom let us come up so Jyson could Skype with Jake for a few minutes. I don't usually love Mother's Day because the kids are always at their other mom's houses so this was a great bonus to see both boys!

I love this picture of Jake & Jyson waving at each other.

And of course...more soccer, the year-round sport.

Jyson loves to look at all of the pictures and videos on the computer. (I'm up to 10,000+ photos - all taken since we were married in 2004). Here he's watching Jake play a drum solo. I sent this to Jake.

This was my fourth year of coaching. It's a great job, mostly because of the great girls I work with. Our annual end-of-the-year retreat at Penny's cabin was so fun.

And finally, May would not be complete without Memorial Day and John's program at the Lindon City Cemetery. He does such a great job!

Gosh I love this man!

After the program was over, we drove over to a cemetery in Provo to find the grave of Dede Shepard. This girl was killed in a car accident in 1994 when she was 18 years old. John was the first responder to the scene. Her car was crushed so badly they couldn't get her out. He held her head and tried to comfort her until she died. It was a very emotional experience for him. He attended her funeral and wrote a note to her parents. They wrote him back thanking him for being with her in her final moments. He went back two years ago to find her grave and place a rose on it and did it again this year. Being there with him this year was very touching.

Spring Break in Cancun

We spent Spring Break in Cancun this year. Photo overload ahead...

Waiting to board the plane

The view from our room

 

Day 1: at the beach

Hanging out with Pancho Villa

One of many stops on the way to Chichen Itza

Lunch stop

A lovely bottle of alcohol they tried to sell us

Chichen Itza - an amazing place

Villa del Palmar - the time share we bought into while we were there

Boat ride to the island - Isla de Mujeres

Hanging out with a cat shark!

The water was so blue!

We took a golf cart around the island

We had a yummy lunch - fish cooked in 5 lbs of salt

John did a little swimming in the ocean

Ready for dinner

XPLOR theme park where we spent our last day

We drove this ATV all through the underground tunnels

We went on the zipline - 2 miles worth!

We were tired & sunburned by the end of the day!

It was such a fun trip. The best part was just hanging out with John for 7 days! Can't wait to go back!

April 2012

Bowling is one of our favorite activities. I'm predictably unpredictable, but I enjoy it. Usually Jyson just types in all our names, but this day he was Jdawg and
I was J Dawg's Mom. I loved that!

This boy, JDawg, makes me smile.

At the Court of Honor, John (who is no longer the Scoutmaster) was honored. He was surprised. It was nice that they could recognize the MANY, MANY, MANY hours he has dedicated to Scouting in our ward over the last 5 years.

Our neighborhood does an Easter egg hunt each year at the local elementary school. Jyson had fun.

The Easter bunny found our house as well.

March 2012

Jyson turned 11! For his birthday, he took his friends and cousins to play laser tag,

followed by pizza,

followed by launching rockets,

followed by cake and ice cream.

Happy birthday Jyson! Love you!!

I was in our stake's production of the The Ten Virgins. This is so not my thing, but they really needed people for the Spanish production. I agreed. I had several lines and sang a solo in Spanish. Still can't quite believe I did it, but it was a good experience. And sweet Johnny sat through multiple shows not understanding a word. That's a good husband!

We got together with the cousins for Adam's birthday. The big boys headed to the skate park.

[Sidebar: While we were at the park, I started having the most severe stomach pains. It got so bad my mom finally took me to InstaCare. They're not sure what happened, but he gave me some medicine and eventually I felt better. Weird! I felt fine by the next day.]

After that we headed to Tanya's house where the party continued. Jyson loves his cousins!

It was so fun to hang out with my mom and ALL my sisters!

We think we're pretty funny.

Ahh, cute! Love these girls!

The next weekend was a get-together with all my sisters-in-law. Love these girls too!

It's all about family!