Qyntn and I had the opportunity to fly with Alyssa for the first time. I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous and worried about motion sickness. My friend gave me some ginger to suck on and a peppermint patch and I think they helped. The only parts that really made me nauseous were the banking turns. Our favorite part was going zero gravity. It's the coolest and Alyssa let Q fly the plane which was amazing and scary.
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| Alyssa"s about the coolest! She's a pilot and drives a motorcycle. |
After months of thinking about where we wanted to move, we narrowed it down to 2 places, Ceour d' Alene, Idaho and St. George, UT. We eventually picked Ceour d'Alene, ID.
While Q was at FSY, Ben and I hopped on an airplane to fly up and pick a home. Once we arrived, we went directly to the church, hoping to get some good info about the youth programs, seminary, schools, and places to live. We visited 2 different church buildings. At the second one, the 1st counselor in the Stake Presidency brought up something that we had not considered. If Q was going to do club ball, he would probably have practices and games on Sunday. That hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn't realize how blessed we have been to live in a state where practices are never on Sunday, and Sunday games are rare.
I didn't sleep well that night and felt uneasy. The next day we went out to look for a home. Ben wanted to find a place on the east side of the city, where it's more pretty and there are more trees. But, the sports clubs that Q would play for were 30+ minutes west in Spokane Valley. We looked at some places between the two, but Ben didn't like that those homes were on the prairie with almost no trees. If we lived where Ben wanted to be, it felt that we would be making our lives more difficult.
The process for visiting properties was also not going as smoothly as we had anticipated. Almost every property management company we contacted said we had to fill out an application and pay the application fee before they would let us tour the property. It seemed very backward. We wanted to "test drive the car," before we filled out an application. Nothing seemed to be clicking, and I felt strongly that it was not the best place for Qyntn's high school years. The next day, we caught a flight home a day early.
Two days later, we drove down to St. George. We viewed a handful of properties, and within 4 hours, we found one that felt right. Everything fell into place easily and we didn't have to jump through any hoops. Instead of feeling uneasy, I feel peace.
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| We will have access to a lagoon in the neighborhood where we want to live. |
Q went with his friend Caden to FSY at BYU. They are both 13, so they were some of the young ones. The first day he said it was horrid. The second day he asked me to check him out and that the food was buns and he was starving. We made him stay. By the end of the week he still said it was awful, but he said there were lots of cute girls in his group, he made a lot of friends, and HE BORE HIS TESTIMONY (for the first time ever without my help.) I'm proud of him for sticking it out, and sharing his testimony. He's a really good kid.
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| I took the boys to the creamery before I dropped them off. |
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| all the boys |
Our country is 250 years old! We feel blessed to be here. This year Ben and Q went to the NBA Summer League basketball games during the day while I watched the world cup games. After they got home, we grilled some burgers, went to see the movie, "Young Washington," and enjoyed the fireworks at Thanksgiving point. Unfortunately, due to wild fires across Utah, the governor banned personal fireworks...boo.
Qyntn had the opportunity to go to YM camp. They backpacked to a lake at Heber Valley and spent most of the time fishing.
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| Q caught the lucky fish. It's a palomino trout. |
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| he caught 24 fist this year |
While we were in Mexico, we listed our house for rent. 2 days later we had interested renters and a few days after that, they signed the lease. Now we have to decide where to go.
We celebrated father's day in Mexico again this year. The kids took Ben fishing and surprised him with some chilaquiles.
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| The kids found a donut that looks like it says.. #2 papa.... hahaha |
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| The girls took a trip to Le Spa. I couldn't get a massage, so I got my first pedicure in over 20 years. |
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| the water temperature was perfect! |
One of our best days in Mexico was our outdoor adventure. We took a speed boat from Nayarit to Boca de Tomatlan, then boarded the "Barbie" adventure truck and took a bumpy ride through the jungle to the a adventure park. Once we arrived, we rode mules up the mountain and then descended through the jungle in the rain on ziplines. We rappelled a waterfall, rode a zip coaster and went on some crazy waterslides. It was an adventure we will never forget. After the adventure park, we changed into dry clothes to warm up, but it was pointless,. We got completely soaked in a downpour on the bumpy, speedy boat ride back but we laughed all the way. Good times!
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| Riding mules to the top |
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| Rappelling the waterfall made me want to puke. When I was younger, I had a scary fall while rapellimg a cliff like this. I forced myself to do this one, but it didn't go much better this time. |
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| Getting splashed in the face the entire waterslide |
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| The rollercoaster zipline was insane |
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| The splash down at the end of the coaster was intense. I may have cracked a rib. |
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| The freefall by the waterfall was probably my favorite. |
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| Ziplining upside down was fun |
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| And ziplining on a small surfboard was new. |
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| The final ride was this 850 ft. Waterslide. We had to wear elbow pads and a hockey mask for safety. |
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