June jubilee

June 1. Our ministering family, Br Gordon, has season tickets to the Rockies. There was a youth activity one night so he was unable to use them and offered them to us. The 4 of us go to go. They were AMAZING 2nd row seats. We filled my backpack with treats and stuffies and had a great time!

We got chicks again. This actually happened in late May but here's a shot of them all

And while we were at it.....because the family is still divided on furry pets we settled on a free rabbit.
At the end of June our friends, the Stamps, gave us the cute lionhead mix bunny. We named her Alice. We don't know how long she'll be with us because she enjoys her freedom. If the gate is left open she takes a run for it. We usually find her and catch her (or the neighbors do) and put her back into her cage that cannot contain this free one. So, it's kind of fun to see her frolicking around the backyard because it's like having a cat or dog....until she's something elses's dinner.

I took Jocelyn up to Loveland to help Heidi with her girls after having her new baby, Braiden! Jocelyn offered to help out. And Heidi/Dustin really appreciate it. I was proud of Jocelyn for thinking of the service.

I then took Landon down to our house for a little break. On the way we stopped at Colin's favorite restaurant, Pizza Ranch, an all-you-can-eat pizza/chicken type buffet. It was pretty good. Colin still asks when we can go back, lol.

Cecily swimming at Gma's pool.

Our next door neighbors had a garage sale. She had some cute stuff! They gave us their piano (an upgrade from our previous one that now belongs to Hannah/Sean) and this cute desk and I bought this green couch for $10, which fits perfectly in our kitchen. Cecily came free!

Girls Camp! Jocelyn's first year going! It was a blast. A separate post is coming.

Jocelyn was busy this month too! She had her first ballet recital. Jennie was able to come but we didn't capture a picture. Tyler went to the dress rehearsal because he left that night with the boys, and his dad to drive straight through to Lake Powell for a quick weekend fishing trip. Tyler loved this luxiouus boat, and we were tempted to buy into a timeshare because he missed Lake P so much. Maybe one of these years we'll go back regularly again. Anyway, they had a blast and caught a bunch of fish.

Back to the recital.....here are some pics. I was so touched watching Jocelyn perform. She takes ballet very seriously and lit up on stage. She is the tallest/oldest in her current class and stood out because of it. But also because she's one of the strongest in that level. Once summer sessions starts she'll move up to level 3. She just started last August in level 1 with very little experience. She had a 6-week tumbling/dance class when she was 5 and gymnastics which I think all helped her be prepared for ballet. Her goal is to be en pointe soon.  She also opted not to perform at the Sunday performance. Which was a tough decision. WE'll see what happens in the future should she continue to advance.

With her friend Aubrey

White swan

White swan

black crow

Taking a pic of the pro photographer taking pics.

Girls Camp 2019

Early in the year, Melissa R called me and said, "It's okay if you say no, but I wanted to say thank you for considering the position." I had no idea what she was talking about and I told her so. She then said, "you haven't been contacted by the stake yet?" And I replied, "No, I hadn't heard anything about any other callings or anything." She was so mortified and said the line of communication must have been confused and that she'd contact me later. So, for the next several days or maybe longer, I was sort of panicking. I knew she was called to be the Girls Camp director. But that's all I knew. Finally, after a week or two, a high councilor from the stake came over and "assigned" but not called me to the girls camp cook position, and asked if I'd accept. I was sort of relieved because I thought it would be assistant director or ward director or something. Though I discovered camp cook was a HUGE task it was more behind-the-scenes and I didn't have to deal with so much drama and activity planning. I was able to ask for some assistants. I had to beg to get 3. Sadly, one of them was unable to come up or help with the last month of planning because her husband was diagnosed with cancer. So, it was left to Sarah, Bev and I. Then, we had to switch camp locations completely, 2 weeks before camp. That was a stressful few days but there were miracles that occurred and camp ended up better than it would have. And it was very smooth year. But again, I only heard about some of the drama after camp....I was stuck in the kitchen so I didn't have to deal with much of it. But I also missed out on activities too. But...we got to see how the girls interacted around food! I really loved it.

Plus, it was a blessing to be up there with Jocelyn. She hardly spoke to me the 3 days we were there. She was so worried about the little things. I was shopping last minute for her toiletry and warm clothing type things. I was so consumed making sure I had my food stuff in order for the 120 people I was feeding I ended up leaving Jocelyn's last minute requests to the day of! She had an awesome time and it was nice to hear her bare her testimony on the last night at our ward meeting.

Last day, ready to go home!

Fortunately, though, the cooks didn't have to be up there until after lunch so we took our time getting packed up that morning.

Because this location was closer Sarah knew of a cute restaurant in a quaint town on the way up. We stopped for brunch. This is when my diet really went downhill, haha. 

Cafe Rio. We had DANG good food prepared for these girls!

Hawaiin Haystacks

We saw a black bear!

Bev with the big wooden spoon!

Overall, we had a blast. Surprisingly, the planning and preparation phase wasn't terrible. I had a fantastic committee. We really complimented each other well. Strengthening each other and helping each other out. It was pretty constantly busy, especially in May once all the paperwork was received from the girls. We had to work around several allergies and such. But it was overall an amazing and spiritual experience. I would do it again. It really helped that we were truly treated like queens. People were so willing to help us because they knew we would be working non-stop while at camp.  We didn't have to sleep in a tent. We got to use a real bathroom, and even shower!! We had a full kitchen with running water and a roof over our heads. We didn't have to use a fire to cook and had a single fridge plus a freezer. It was amazing!!

End of year "graduations"

Colin attended preschool through the city APEX program. He actually went to Campbell Cottages which I think my sister Rose and maybe Jennie attended when they were young. He and Samuel are the only ones who attended a formal preschool because we wanted to save money.....I wish we would have just paid to have the girls go to a preschool because socially it was helpful. Plus, learning how to do routine tasks and listening skills were helpful for Samuel and Colin who had the formal preschool. We DID do a "joy school" type program for Jocelyn and Cecily. Cecily also took a music class which gave her some structure and skills.

At first he had a rough start with the head teacher because she was quite strict about writing their letter and counting each day. Colin struggled with that and I think it made him a bit nervous to go. But once he understood the routine and learned more he gained more confidence. He still couldn't recognize the letter names by the end of the year but he could count to 13. Needless to say, I was not worried as I knew he'd eventually learn the basics in Kindergarten as our children had done. And they're great students now so they all caught up.

Anyway, he finished loving his small class (about 8 students) in the afternoon. He looked forward to going twice a week. I snuck him a nap the days he had off and tried to give playdates while his siblings were at school.

In the middle of May he had a graduation which I think is one of the silliest things of our time. A waste of resources and time! There were so many parents and grandparents there! It's just preschool!! He's got about 13 more years of schooling plus college to get through. I'm kind of a scrooge about the whole thing. I will make an effort to go to my kids and family members high school and college ceremonies but all the others.....meh......Anyway, he loved getting a certificate and they surprised each kid with a graduation bear. Jocelyn was so jealous she expected one for her 6th grade continuation (since she didn't get one for "graduating" from elementary school in Utah) so we found her one to surprise her with at her ceremony (below).

Here he is with his teachers. 

Actually, Lincoln Academy handled their award ceremonies with much more efficiency and creativity. They did honor kids for their grades but every student was given an original award too based on skills they learned from texts and studies throughout the year. Cecily was awarded the "Androcles and the Lion Award" because she is so caring toward others and has a love for creatures and wants to be a Vet when she grows up. She also made the Bronze Honor Roll.

After I told Tyler about how cool the awards ceremony was and then Jocelyn's teachers emailed us in advance telling us she was getting a special honor, he left work to come to the 6th grade ceremony. Jocelyn was awarded "Excellence in Language Arts", Gold Honor Roll, and the "Prepared" student award. We were happy, that although she had many trials at this school, that the teachers recognized her hard work.

Although he is not pictured, Samuel had a "continuation" from middle school to high school ceremony and it was so long and boring. Not efficient at all. He was also on the Honor Roll, or should have been but they way they measured included previous semesters and his grades from Utah did not "count" or transfer over. Even though he was on Honor Roll there. Gma and Gpa Furber wanted to come to his ceremony and I felt kinda bad because he wasn't awarded anything else. 

We are proud of all of our kids!

May-hem

May was busy. 

Cinco de Mayo
I have learned since moving to Colorado that the Stoehr family love to celebrate or maybe it's just an excuse to get together with family, have fun and eat good food.

Lori hosted a Cinco do Mayo party complete with Fajitas, Horchata, Brazilian Lemonade, and maybe Spanish rice? I can't remember as it was months ago that it happened as I am writing this pot. 

She made sombrero sugar cookies for the kids to decorate and we had an adult dessert that I am sure was yummy. I was going to make the tres leches cupcakes but we ended up doing something else yummy that I can't think of right now. Heidi made a pin the tail on the donkey game, we listened ot Mexican music and Lori also wanted a pinata for the kids.  I offered to purchase it as Colin had his eye on this spaceship pinata at Target. Heidi, Lori and I filled it with whatever candy we had in our cupboards, some of which was from Christmas! lol. Too much candy!! 

 Gpa helping Sydney. 

Steph was in town with her kiddos. She's still got the guitar skills!

It snowed. 

We planted a vegetable garden. Most of these pics were taken by Colin. We decided to garden at Gma/Gpa Furber's for several reasons. First, they have a much more space. Second, they use well water, free. Third, we could do it all together. It was the usual production of preparing the land, several weeks before. Steve/Tyler brought in manure and tilled it in. Tyler dreamt up an irrigation system inspired by the Church's farm in Sandy, Utah. That took forever to create. It worked pretty well with the current irrigation system but needs tweaking if we do it again. Then the planting. Then the watering and weeding, mostly done by Gma. She's a rockstar gardener. I think she truly loves it and it gives her something to work on each day. Then the harvesting and enjoyment. Sadly, the zucchini and pumpkins did not get enough water so they weren't plentiful. Hopefully next year!

Sam's little paper mache man and art portfolio he made in art class.

I took Cecily to Kneaders the Saturday before Mother's day because I got to eat their yummy French toast for free!

 Mother's Day selfie. I am a mother.

Cecily working on her Star Student poster with Colin's help.

Once school was officially over, the day after, in fact, I rushed over to Utah with Jennie. Our great uncle Jack passed away and his funeral was the same weekend as the annual Knell Memorial celebration. I already had a flight for that Sunday to head over for a closing in Utah so I cancelled that leg of it and drove out with Jennie/Kids on Friday. We stayed in Mt Pleasant and drove to Provo on Saturday morning for the funeral. 

Jennie driving, while I rode shotgun to Mt Pleasant.

Levi looks a lot like Uncle Jack!!

Monday, Memorial day. All of my mom's 9 siblings! She's the oldest of 10. This is the cemetery in Provo, on a beautiful mountain overlooking the valley. My mom's parents are both buried here along with several cousins who passed away too young. Afterwards we went to Sarah/Kenneth's church building for the annual breakfast of yumminess!!! A transition from our usual...we used to always go to Uncle Abe's or Aunt Julie's house but there are so many of us now and the weather was chilly not allowing us to overflow outside we quickly changed to the church building, very conventionally up the hill. Afterwards, my aunt Mary drove me up to SLC. We stopped at Saver's and did some sale shopping! And I visited with a good friend, Julie, that night. It was a great day!!

Aunt Claudia and her husband, Joe Young.

 I stopped by the SLC Cemetery on my way to visit my BFF Jessica Slade. Here is one of my more prominent LDS relatives, Erastus Snow. It was lovely to take a few minutes to stop by. Also, I had some time to spare so I drove around the Avenues downtown. I also stopped to say hello to our old landlord, Dianne McKee and her daughter Lindsay. It was a perfect visit. Short but sweet as it was the last time I saw Dianne. She passed away a short time later of cancer. She and Lindsay were such a blessing in our lives. We loved living in their basement while we transitioned to non-student life living in a "big" city. It was wonderful to visit with Jessica and her husband until late in the night. It was sooo nice catching up and visiting with Jessica, it always is. I miss living so close to her. I had rented a car this trip (thank you to Mary for helping me pick it up....I missed the pickup window by 3 minutes and the lady wouldn't let me rent it so I had to get a ride from Hannah's Sean the next morning). Thank you to my friend Pam who let me stay at her house again.

It was a fantastic few days away. I always feel so fulfilled after I've spent time with my extended family. And...it was so nice to be on my own again! Refreshing indeed.

Flying back home! Goodbye SLC!

We ended with a piano recital on May 31. No photos, only video. It was just Gma Furber (teacher) and Gpa at Steve/Lori's. Sam, Joc and Cecily and Tyler each played something. It was nice and good practice for them. Not nearly as high pressure as Tyler and I had to endure in front of a larger audience with memorized music. But it was still good.