Hex

Maddie followed in Brock's footsteps and participated in the sixth grade hexatholon.  Only 10 girls and 10 boys make it.  

She wanted her hair in a ponytail/braid.  It was pretty cute.

I only got to go to one event, so I took all the pictures.  

She got second place.

She was with all of her best friends!

Brooke, Mia, Maddie, Brailynn, Haisley, and Devyn

Rainy Day Play

We had a rainy spring and summer.  In fact, my sprinkler system was broken until the last week of July and my grass isn't dead (but my flowers are also not very pretty - this year I have given the LEAST amount of attention to my lawn and garden).

These two are so weird.  Last year Dane had a crippling fear of bad weather.  He hated the sight of clouds, and if there was thunder, rain, or lightnings... heaven help us!  Eve sometimes went along with it, but she was too little to really be influenced.

This year it hasn't been nearly as bad, but this year there are two of them, and they feed off of each other.  Sometimes there is rain or even thunder and it goes unnoticed and other times they are terrified.  However, the mere sight of clouds does  not induce terror.  So that is a win.  

I was trying to get them to overcome their fears by exploring the rain.  We wore the right clothes and boots, took out umbrellas and went searching for puddles and worms.  It was a hit.  They loved it! However, the next day, they were still scared of the rain.

We sorta turned it into a photo shoot.  Enjoy the many faces of Dane and Eve.

 

Women's Conference

I went to Women's Conference in 2018 (I was pregnant with Dane).  I then missed 2019 because I had a 4 month old, but Jason had said I could go in 2020 because Dane would be old enough and I would be pregnant with Eve.  Well...as we all know... any time anyone said "I was going to do that in 2020" it never happened.  Well it didn't happen in 2021 or 2022.  So this was the year!!!  I was so excited.  I needed it for so so many reasons.  And I guess Heavenly Father agreed with me because he made my path straight and hedged up my ways.  Things just kept working out and getting better.  Most years I go to women's conference "by myself" and I LOVE that.  I say "by myself" because my mom, aunt Jen, and Pat Thomas are also at WC and I intersect with them often.  We stay at the same hotel (but not the same room) and will eat together once or twice and will sit by each other at the keynotes sometimes.  For the last 2 years (pre covid) Krista has come with me and that has been wonderful.  She couldn't come this year, so I reached out to Veronica to see if she wanted to meet me there (she did) and then we invited Mandy Ricks.  But the week of WC Mandy had some family things come up and she couldn't come.  

One thing that I really enjoyed that I wasn't expecting was the beauty of a Utah spring.  We don't have very pretty springs here because of our April and May snow storms.  I hadn't realized how much I missed beautiful spring flowers.   The weather was perfect and it seemed that everyone in my parents neighborhood had just put in their spring flowers.  I went on early morning walks every morning and it was so good for my soul.  I love being "home".

Then I would eat a yummy breakfast (that I didn't plan, shop for, or make - which every woman just needs sometimes) in my parents beautiful backyard and just enjoyed the beauty.  One thing I admire about my mom and sisters is their ability to make things beautiful.  I have discovered I don't have that natural talent.  Part of  the reason is that I don't think that is very important, I am a little to practical and over look the need for beauty, so I don't prioritize it.  I justify that it doesn't matter.  Until I see it.  It is so healing to my soul to be in a beautiful place that someone else has prepared for me and I feel so loved, safe, and inspired.  I am filled with gratitude for the person who put in their time, talent, or money to create a beautiful space for me (I guess this is the reason for the creation).  I feel guilty that my kids have hardly known this.  I would like to increase this talent, but it seems to take time and money - and both of those are at a premium right now.  I pray for and am grateful for other women who create those spaces for my children and plan to have more beauty for my adult children and grandchildren to come home to.  Anyways, having these early morning long, beautiful, spiritual, mornings were wonderful.

I had a whole day in Salt Lake before I went to Provo for the conference and I wanted to make the most of it.  When we go to Utah things are mostly focused around the kids and I don't get to see or visit with people, because of this there are people I LOVE that I haven't seen in years!  At first I had "big plans" to see and visit with as many people as I could.  Due to scheduling conflicts I didn't hit nearly as many people as I wanted, but I just tried to enjoy the ones I could get.  

At the top of my list was my Ricks cousins.  I wanted to meet up with the 3 cousins and their mom, but I could only get 1 cousin, her daughter and my aunt Pat.  But it was wonderful and I learned so much and was richly fed by my maternal family line.  

Then I went down to Provo for the Wednesday Evening session.  It was wonderful and I LOVED being back in the Marriott Center with women from all over. The Relief Society Presidency was fantastic, I love hearing from church leaders in these more intimate type settings.   I left the session a bit early (I only missed some social media influencers speech... lame) to grab dinner with my mom, Aunt Jen, and Pat Thomas - they are my Women's Conference buddies and I have come to look forward to my time with them during WC almost as much as the classes.  

The next day is were the magic began.  I can't tell you exactly what happened or why, but I kept running into church leaders.  I am not sure if this has happened every year I just didn't know the church leaders enough to recognize them, I am not sure if this was just the first time that they went to classes and sat in the audience like everyone else, or I don't know if Heavenly Father was blessing me for my valiant effort that I make to know and love the church leaders.  Either way it doesn't matter - it made my whole year.

My very first class on Thursday I couldn't pick which one I wanted to go to.  There were 5 that were SO GOOD and I couldn't pick.  Just a few minutes before the key note was over I still didn't have a choice.   I reread the class descriptions and the class on Charity jumped out at me.  It was a weird choice.  There were better choices, even Veronica thought it was weird I picked it, but I just clearly felt I should.  I ran to class (as I always do) - to get a seat right by the exit because my next class I needed to RUN to, because it was likely going to get full.  So I was the first one in the room (except for about 20 people in the front chatting).  It was a large auditorium, so I took the last seat in the back corner by the exit.  I love getting there early because I have 30 minutes to read the book I brought.  I sat down, picked up my book and had a very clear thought: "Go up front and see if there is anyone you know".  I often run into old college or West Jordan friends at Women's Conference, so that is who I assumed I was looking for.  I got to the front of the  room and made eye contact with President Lund!!  I got shocked and embarrassed and walked away and went back to my seat.  I realized this was a chance to meet him and  thank him for all of his talks that have helped me so much (especially his BYUWC 2021 talk and S&I training 2023).  He was just sitting by himself in the front and no one was talking to him.  So I got up the courage to go up and talk to him.  We chatted for a bit about the new CH&YP and Noah's calling at the TQP.  He told me I needed to lean in and show the adult leaders how the new program was supposed to run.  I told him easier said than done.  But it was delightful and I was happy to meet him. 

At the end of the day Veronica and I went to a parenting panal and as we sat there we noticed the Sister Craig was 3 rows in front of us.  

Sister Browning was 2 rows over from her. 

And sister Eubank was 3 rows in front of that.  It seemed that most of the women around them didn't even recognize them, or didn't care.  But when class was over everyone just left.  So Veronica and I decided to put awkwardness aside and talk to each of them.  We had delightful conversations with each one, thanking them for impactful talks they have given.   

We also took a picture with one of the speakers.  She is LDS famous Lisa Valentine.  Our children love her from: Random Acts of Kindness and Once I was a Beehive and I love her from the Chat Books ads.  So we took a picture to impress our kids.

Now I was in the mind set to find other leaders, I spotted Sister Christofferson from afar.  But I did not talk with her.

I LOVE BYU campus.  I know I am sharing way too much detail, but this is my blog and I get to say what I want.  But about 15 years ago I went to WC and filled out a survey and one of the questions was "why do you come to WC?" and it gave about 20 reasons and you were supposed to check the boxes that apply (classes, social, food, get away, etc) and one of the reasons was "To enjoy BYU campus" and the time Jason and I were BYU Students and basically lived on campus and I remember scoffing at that answer.  WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD PICK "To enjoy BYU campus"  I thought it was so dumb.  Now, almost 20 years later, one of my top 3 reasons is "to enjoy BYU campus.  Pictures do not even begin to capture the beauty and the spirit.  But my heart was so happy and my spirit was at such peace walking around that I thought I might explode. 

The next day at a class I literally bumped into Sister Marriott.  I apologized for running into her and thought she looked familiar, so I glanced at her name tag as she turned to walk away and I saw it WAS her.  So we chatted, I again thanked her for one of her talks (Repairer of the Breach).

I went to a Gayle Strathern class.  She is one of my favs!  Although her class was a mostly a repeat of a class she taught 13 years ago, so that was a bummer!

Veronica was the PERFECT WC companion (even with being 30 weeks pregnant).  Veronica is my only person who really feels about the gospel the way I do.  Jason is close, Mandy is close.  But Veronica and I are zealous in a different way.  She is also very pragmatic and unemotional so I don't have to care about how she is feeling or hurting her feelings or trying to entertain her.  We both just did our own thing but also enjoyed it together.  I never have to worry about what she is thinking or being a good "host".  It was fantastic.  I also don't have to hide my weird religious zealousness like I do with almost everyone else.  So it was a nice week to just me who I am.  

The WC OG!

These moments make my heart SOAR!  I love being there with all the women!

Last enter mercy.  We are redoing some parts of our house and Jason said I can buy new religious art work and I have been eyeing most of Dan Wilson's art.  Right before Veronica and I went to the airport we stopped by a random Deseret Book in SLC and guess who was doing a display?  Dan Wilson!  I was able to talk to him about his paintings and get some ideas about what I want and he even has an old piece that he isn't selling that matched the description of something I want and said I could still buy it!  It was awesome.  God is good. 

BIG shout out to Jason for making ALL OF IT POSSIBLE.  By all of it I meant all of it.  It is because of him that I love the gospel as much as I do, therefore desiring to go to WC.  It is because of him that I have a tradition of going to WC since I was 18.  It is because of him that I still go now that we live in Denver because he basically forces me because he knows I hate spending money on myself.  It is because of him that we have the money  for me to go WC because he works so hard for us and then freely gives that money to us (me). It is because of him the logistics let me go, he does all the stuff while I am gone (and counties to make the money) - and this year he did a lot of great "surprises for me" while I was gone and got a TON of "honey do" list stuff done (painting fence, garage door, and trim, rewiring and fixing our crawl space light, etc)  It was all fantastic.  He is the best
 

Adams Family

For the spring musical Thunder ridge's Drama department put on "Adam's Family".  Noah has become very involved in the tech side of drama.  He is very good at it and very committed.  He has made some great friends and has been very trusted by the leaders (which is rare for Freshman).  He made a goal to be lead lights by his Junior year and has actually been picked to be a "lead in training" for his sophomore year.  We have been so proud of him for finding this fun niche for him.

Brock noticed Noah's successes, opportunities, and fun and decided he wanted in on the fun and joined tech as well.  (He had a few personal reasons as well).  He actually tried out for the musical but when he didn't make it he decided to go out for "build".  Watching him try out the musical was pretty sun for all of us, he took it pretty seriously and we all enjoyed watching him learn and practice the songs and dances at home.  I was proud of him for not giving up when he didn't make it and try out for build.  

We all enjoyed going and watching the production.  Brock built the railing!  Noah did the spotlights.  I loved that they did it together.  It was a bit of a role reversal for them.  Usually Brock is the leader and the one that knows everyone, but this time it was Noah who was trying to get Brock included.  From what I am told other students were pretty impressed with how kindly they treated each other as brothers.

A few weeks later we learned that the play was nominated for the Bobby G's (the state's highest award for high school musicals.  Here is the email that was sent:

Massively HUGE

congratulations

to the ThunderRidge Theatre students and faculty for not one, not two…. But SEVEN NOMINATIONS for the Bobby G Awards!! This is a state wide competition and this is the most nominations TRHS has ever received!! The students get to perform at the awards ceremony on May 18th at the Denver Performing Arts Center Ellie Caulkins Opera House in front of over 2,000 people! You can get tickets to come (general admission) at www.Denvercenter.org. Under Education>school programs. As performers and nominees, the students will receive free admission.

We are so excited for these kids and they deserve it!!

NOMINATIONS:

Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical

Robert & Judi Newman Rising Star - Lexy Haugen as Pugsley

Outstanding Achievement in Hair & Make-Up Design - Sarah Duncan

Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design - Sarah Duncan & Katie Sokald

Outstanding Performance by a Chorus

Outstanding Achievement in Choreography - Remy Fenske and Ella Brosseau

Outstanding Achievement in Direction - Kyleen Hurley and Mackenzie Lewis

“The Bobby G Awards are a state-wide high school musical theatre program that recognizes Colorado students and educators in the areas of performance, design, direction, choreography, stage management, musical direction, orchestration, technical production, and overall production excellence. The awards ceremony serves as an opportunity for the DCPA to honor Colorado musical theatre programs and for students to celebrate and support each other.”

The boys got all dressed up and went down town for the awards with their cast. I know i have pictures of the event - but I can't find them now. (which is why I haven't blogged in a while - when I don't have pictures of a post I need to do it really puts a road block in front of me.) But I figured I needed to blog whether or not I have the pictures. They had a great time and were so proud to be involved in something so big.

Here is the email about our wins:

The students walked the red carpet outside the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and then performed in front of a packed house! The talent on display from all those in attendance was simply amazing.

ThunderRidge Theatre was nominated for 7 awards and took home two! Best Hair and Makeup Design (Sarah Duncan and Katie Soakald) and Best Choreography (Remy Fenske and Ella Brosseau.) Congratulations to them and to the whole cast!

 

ThunderRidge was the ONLY High School in Douglas County School District to win a Bobby G! We are so proud!