E-Sports Banquet

Bladen finished off a wonderful year as the vice president of E-Sports.  He worked so hard making sure the E-Sports program at the high school ran smoothly, effectively, & was welcoming for anyone wanting to be a part of the team.

"Last to Leave" award was presented to him because he was literally the first to arrive to every event, practice, & social . . . & then was the very last person to leave after making sure everything was cleaned up & in it's place.  He's worked so hard & been an important part of the team.  He was on the Smash team this year as well as the Pokemon Unite team (which took the state title this year).

Next year he will serve as the E-Sports president.  We are very proud of Bladen & the leadership skills he's developed over the years in E-Sports.  The team is in for a wonderful year next year with him as the president.

We are SO proud of you Blade.

 

Taya's Senior Award Ceremony

May was a really big month for Taya.  Graduation is always a month long affair in High School.  At the beginning of the month they had the Senior Award Ceremony where she was presented with an award for having a 3.9 GPA throughout all her years of High School.

She was also awarded the Hawk Medallion (which is chosen based on grades, leadership, extracurriculars & clubs, school attendance, & many more factors.  Only a handful of kids earn it & she was one of them.). She also was awarded 6 honor cords for her time at Alta High school.  She is such an amazing young lady.

We are so very proud of her.

 

May 2026 Happenings

 

May (or "May-cember" as I like to call it), flew by in a blink of the eye.  There was so much crammed into the month of May that I hardly had time to breath.  But we had a lot of fun & accomplished SO MUCH in that time.

Bella loves walks with the family, as long as they are short.  On Memorial Day we took her on a 3 mile walk & I think that was a little much for such a little dog.  She came straight into the house, drank a TON of water, then just laid out flat on the floor & slept for 3 hours.  It was hilarious.

May brought the end of the 2025-2026 school year.  Canyon was my only kiddo around to pose for "last day" photos.  The other kids weren't required to go to school the last few days so they were off having fun with friends.

We did a really fun service project at the Draper Temple.  My kids loved it.  They got to plant hundreds of flowers to make the flower beds beautiful.  They thought it was going to be hard work with no fun, but they quickly learned that playing in dirt is actually a blast.

On May 4th, we celebrated Star Wars Day with a menu of fun Star Wars "specialties."

Jabba the Hut Dogs, Hanburgers, 7 Leia Dip, Blue Milk, Han Solo in Carbonite. . . the kids love it.

Trek celebrated his last commissioning ceremony with the AFROTC cadets.  He's been a wondeful commander & has loved those cadets like his own kids.  They love him too.  It was a bitter sweet final ceremony.  He is excited for new adventures outside of the military, but he is sure going to miss it.

He also started a new job this week with BYU Pathway.  He works from home now which is fun.  We've never seen him so much.  ha ha ha.  He is the IT Manager for all the Global Education Centers in Africa & in the Philippians.  He is loving it.

Canyon found out at the end of the year that he was selected as a WEB leader for next year.  He is VERY excited about this.  He is my little natural leader & tries to find every opportunity to lead that he can.  He will get to lead the 6th grade orientation along with several other events over the next school year.  He is very excited about it.

I also got to meet up with my Germany friends in May which is always wonderful.

Though it was a crazy busy month, we had a lot of great experiences & enjoyed as much of it as we could.  It flew by way too fast.

Bladen's Food Themed 17th Birthday Party

Bladen, who usually chooses to do a family party for his birthdays, surprised us by wanting a big food themed party this year & invited 20+ friends from ballroom, church, e-sports, german class, & more.  I have no idea where all these kids came from, because it was the first time I had met a lot of them.  And they were all fantastic kids.  Bladen's had a great year this year.  He's really put himself out there & has made a lot of connections with people.  I'm really proud of him.

He thought it would be hilarious to have a "food" themed birthday party.  And it was.  My friend Nancy sent the most hilarious things to decorate.  There was a hamburger "Happy Birthday" banner, some sandwich mylar balloons, & then tons of balloons with hamburgers, fries, tacos, pizza, & more.  She also sent food trays shaped like different fruit & cupcake toppers of different foods as well.  We had a lot of fun preparing for this one.

They had a lot of fun.  I didn't get a ton of pictures because now that my kids are all teens, they don't really want "mom" around for their parties.  They plan them themselves & carry them out really well on their own.  I try to sneak in a few pics here & there, but for the most part, they are on their own.

Bladen had a lot of fun.  They played frisbee, werewolf, chameleon, super smash bros, & more.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.

Happy birthday buddy.  We love you.

 

Bladen's 17th Birthday

Happy 17th Birthday to my Bladen!

Bladen is my sweet kiddo who radiates with love for everyone he comes in contact with.

He's smart, he's kind, he's always willing to jump in & serve anyone who needs help.  He makes me so proud every day.

For his birthday breakfast he requested: english muffin breakfast sandwiches, bacon, bananas, & ding dongs.

After breakfast we went straight into presents.  He got all sorts of fun things.  Opa & Oma got him some stickers as well as a beautiful matching track suit.  The kids, Trek, & I got him a ton of clothes.  He's been wanting new clothes for school & we got him all sorts of pants, hoodies, & a pink bomber jacket.

And then of course Nancy sent him all sorts of clothing, shoes, soaps, a camping water bladder backpack, & more.  He got totally spoiled this year in the clothing department.

Happy birthday buddy.  You're amazing & we love you.

 

Salt Lake City Half Marathon

 

Trek ran his first half marathon (also during the same days as the play & dance concerts).  He's been training for a while & was SO SO SO excited to finally do it.

He said it was completely exhausting, but he was super excited to complete it.  He said his legs were literal jello afterwards, but he did the full 13 miles in less than 2 hours.  We are SO proud of him.

Lorien's Culinary Graduation

Also the same day as Canyon's play & Craiger/Taya's dance showcase, Lorien officially graduated culinary school.  (It was a crazy busy week!)

We are SO proud of Lorien & all her hard work in culinary school.  She has worked so hard & is now working at "The Roof" Restaurant in Salt Lake City as a chef.

For the graduation, the culinary students made us a beautiful meal to celebrate the graduates.  The food was so incredibly beautiful & delicious.

It was fun hearing them read her name as a graduate.  She received her chef coat & hat & can officially call herself a chef now.

She got to hug all the chefs that taught her all her skills & made her the chef she is today.  She was so excited to see them all again.

She had a very large graduating class!  I was impressed.

We are so incredibly proud of Lorien & the amazing woman she has become.

Lorien also got to take home her final project for her last course, which was a wedding cake.  Of course Lorien made a Lord of the Rings themed wedding cake.

It was such a fun & beautiful day.  We are so proud of you Lorien.