Benjamin's birthday, Go cats!! ...and bangs

I cut bangs cus I'm getting old. It reminds me of my youth.

Bangs are upkeep so they finished for the night.

The kids bought Benjamin basketball tickets for his birthday. We love the LadyCats!! It was a close game with terrible calls and a near fight with Benjamin and the refs...at least a fight in Benjamin's heart. We beat Utah a higher ranked program this year but maybe not for long...

The UofA has a unicorn statue on campus both Bella and Olivia love to visit it often. They were riding it like a bunch of toddlers 😂

 

Holman's District

 Holman is the 7th from the left. It's nice to get a visual on all the people we here about.

Benjamin's district. Almost 27 years to the day.  3rd guy from the right.

Bella and Nana in Kindergarten!!

 I had a desert segment in kindergarten and Bella works at Camp Cooper so naturally she was a perfect person to do a presentation. Nana came as her assistant. It was like the good old days when Nana was my assistant and Bella would visit the preschool. She was awesome!!! She brought several desert animal skulls and puppets. She was excellent at talking with the students and involving them in an age appropriate discussions. She taught all 4 classes at my school. 

Holman's farewell

 Holman gave an awesome talk three days before he flew out to Utah for the rest of his MTC training. He was very vulnerable and candid which made for a very entertaining and spiritual message. By nature he's more reserved but man is he a dynamic speaker. He talked about how nervous and scared he was of leaving his family but liked it to how the Savior felt very alone and scared when he bled from every pore and when he hung on the cross. And even He cried out to Heavenly Father. Is there no other way? Holman said he is worried about being alone and scared but knows he can come to the Savior for help. He talked about wanting his mission to be like a movie montage, highlighting the great events but skipping to the end. He decided that he not only needs to ensure his mission but he needs to thrive in it too. And that is his new motto, endure and thrive...I think I need a tattoo of this saying  

After sacrament we had about 60 people over at our house for lunch. To quote Sam Pershing's dad Adam, "you could almost see the love in the air." 

His siblings have all had moments of total sadness over him leaving and I was pretty stoic. Until I was getting pizza for our final dinner together. I was driving over to Costco during golden hour and it reminded me that we have been walking the creek with Holman every afternoon for two weeks, but on his last evening here we were too busy to go. The thought came to me that sometimes you never know when it's the last of something until it's over. Like when was the last time your kid sneaked into your bed or when your kid stops kissing you good night... sometimes you don't know it's the last time until it stops.

Airport went well, just us girls cried. We sure love our strong and big teddy bear. Holman is unique he always has been. There is something unique for him to give. He's got an army of loved ones praying for his happiness and success.

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A never ending hike for a never ending memory

Holman wanted one last family hike before heading to Utah for the rest of his MTC experience. Benjamin picked a doozy. We parked a car at the base of the Bear Canyon trial head and drove up to Mount Lemon to the Gordon Hibachi trail head. It was a 13 mile hike that took us 6 hours to complete.....that is slow my friends. There was some creek crossings and a bit of time being lost. It was incredibly beautiful and company couldn't be beat. We were missing Parkin because he was busy at a drama festival in which his group got a GOLD. 

Getting up the mountain took nearly an hour because we had just gotten snow so everyone wanted to go up and play in it. It was a new hike to everyone but Benjamin. The views were breathtaking. The trial ends at the top of seven falls. By the time we got to seven falls we were hiking in the dark. We had 8 in the dark creek crossings, it was freezing and rocky and it was a total miracle that nobody needed to be carried out

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Losing the lamb(s)....

Our sneaky little lambs kept getting out of their pen in our backyard so we decided to move them to the horse stalls. The horse stalls are very secure because Nancy our friend and host guest of last year tried to keep her dog back there but he ended up crawling up the hog paneling and jumping over. It made locking up the lambs at night difficult because you had to go through the horse door round them up in the same stall without letting them get out. Less then a week since there move out there, there was rain at night and nobody wanted to battle the elements to lock them up. One night they didn't get locked up and we can only assume that a bobcat got to Peaches our girl lamb. By morning her brother Cobbler had burred her face. I was devasted. I wish I had just locked them up.....such a sad ending.  Lambs should not live alone so I called a rancher friend and she took Cobbler in at least for a couple of weeks before she made a butcher appointment for him...I don't think I can do livestock again.....and should be vegetarian. 

Home MTC

Holman started the home MTC on the 9th of January. What a change that was to his routine and the family! He jumped in with language classes and gospel classes. He started early and went into the evening.  He did get an hour and a half for dinner so Holman joined Benjamin and I for our creek walks. The water was flowing and very cold!! Whenever life is overwhelming or there is too much change I find getting into nature helps. Although I don't think there is enough nature to help us with the change of Holman being gone.... His uncles and friends came over to play fussball during his breaks to change the monotony. All the while Holman would still find the time to bake fresh baked bread.