This & That

Tessa was so excited to go to BizTown for a field trip again. Her job this year was CEO of Target River and she had to give a speech to the "community" about advertising and music. She was also given the Citizen of the Day award by the "Mayor."

Rockwell's having a real hard time breathing in the cold weather at Track practice. I took him to the doctor to try to figure out if it's asthma, and then we got some lunch. He was in no hurry to get back to school, so he was happy to talk and talk while we ate. :)

Damon has been growing his hair out so he can perm it for a while now.

It was finally long enough, and Rome's mom gave both Damon and Rome perms. He looks so stinking cute!!

We finally got some snow this winter. Tessa and Damon have had fun playing in it, and drinking hot chocolate when they get too cold.

The school librarian had the kids read through cookbooks and copy down a recipe they wanted to try. Tessa made her pink drink for the family and it was yummy!

Mel and I went and helped my dad get a room set up for my mom at Summit Assisted Living Facility. Her Alzheimer's has really intensified over the past month, and she became so miserable that she was checked into an intensive medical unit at the hospital. There are so many side effects of the Alzheimer's medications that they were moving at a slower pace with them to avoid the side effects for as long as she could. But the time has come to be much more aggressive with her medicine, and because of that, it's time for her to move into a Memory Care Unit. Matt came to town and toured a lot of facilities, and they decided on Summit. Al helped my dad shop for furniture for her room, and then Mel and I helped get everything moved in and set up.

They were able to get the medications figured out for my mom, and she was released from the hospital last week. Matt and Gary came to town and we all went to pick her up and help her get settled into Summit. We've been dreading the day when she would have to leave her home, and I'm so glad all the kids were there to support each other and help Mom and Dad with this transition.

This is very hard for everyone, but on the bright side, Summit seems like a great facility and we're so glad that we are able to go there and visit with her any time we want. She needs around-the-clock care and we're grateful to the staff at Summit that are helping her be safe and providing activities that she can participate in. When I went to visit her later in the week, she chose to stay for all the activities and seemed to enjoy them. That was good for me to see. 

Gary, Matt, Dad and I went back up the next day. It was a harder day for her, and we were glad that we could be there with her. Gary and Matt gave both my parents priesthood blessings and Gary dedicated her room. It's such a hard situation, and we're all trying to do anything we can to help Mom feel loved and safe and cared for.

Karna's mom also had Alzheimer's and she's been so sweet and understanding of the things I'm feeling and struggling with. She brought me yellow flowers to bring a little sunshine into my life and let me know that she cares. It was very sweet. This is all so hard and heartbreaking.

BYU Indoor Track Meet

 Rockwell has started Track practice at Timpanogos now. The coaches told him he will be on the mid-distance team, which means his options for events will be the 400m, 800m, and the 4x400m relay. He seemed okay with that since he loved the 400 and the relay so much last year. The season doesn't officially start for a while still, but the kids were highly encouraged to run in a BYU indoor pre-season meet. Rockwell chose to run the 400 and the 800.

He finished the 400 with a time of 56.91 seconds. He was really happy with that time!!

The indoor track at BYU is mostly in a tunnel, so we could only see him run past for about 150m of each run.

He wasn't as happy with his time for the 800. He finished in 2:20.47. We think he did great, but he's his own worst critic. He also just doesn't enjoy that length of a race, so hopefully he'll figure out how to hate it less throughout the season. :)

I guess the team feels like these pre-season meets are okay to goof around a little more. Luke ran the 800 in jean shorts and a Snoop Dogg shirt. He was out in front of his heat most the time, and the announcer was having so much fun announcing that Luke was killing it in his jorts and t-shirt. It was so funny, and Luke is a legend on the team now!! 

Intersquad Meet

Tessa had her Intersquad Meet and it was really exciting to get back to meet season!

Tessa got a haircut a couple weeks ago to get ready for competition hairdos. :) 

This is the meet where it's just Arete teams in their own gym. They bring in a couple judges and get the girls some experience performing their new routines and receiving feedback from the judge. I think it's so wise that they do this before their first competition, and then can work out any wrinkles at practice over the next couple weeks. Tessa came out with some pretty good scores for the first "meet"!!! She got a 9.3 on beam.

9.6 on floor.

Her routine song is Sax this year and Genieve put some real cute sass and flexibility in her choreography. :)

She got an 8.7 on bars.

She was about to fall after her long hang kip, but she caught herself luckily with a back hip circle. I'm sure that's what took her into the 8's. The rest of her routine looked great and she has really improved her form on the skills that were in last year's routine.

She got 9.55 on vault. 

An all-around score of 37.15 is pretty dang good at the very first meet of the season! Way to go Tessa girl!!

Rocky Point

Matt & Lori rented the condo at Rocky Point again, and they planned a sibling trip down there. They're always so generous to share with their family and friends. Gary wasn't able to come sadly, he and Julie had a trip to Belize at the same time. :( Mel, Al, and I flew to Mesa Sunday night, and then we drove down to Mexico Monday morning. Lori and Elena's plans ended up falling through for the week, and so they came too and I'm so glad they did!!

The first thing you do when you get to Rocky Point is go straight out to the balcony. The warmth, the sounds of the ocean, the views.....it's just amazing!!

Maizy came too! She loves long walks on the beach. :)

When hunger won out over the beauty of the balcony, we drove into town and had lunch at La Curva.

Then we stopped at the Tortilla Factory and stocked up for the week. :)

Then we headed down to the beach for the afternoon.

The sunsets are gorgeous every night!

And I love waking up to the sunrise through the glass doors. Mel and I sleep in the living room and we leave the sliding glass door open so we can hear the waves all night. I sleep so well there!

I love to run on the beach in the mornings while the tide is out.

I found some wall clings of The Office characters and brought them down to do a fun "thank you" for Matt & Lori. While Matt and Elena were at the gym I made thought bubbles for how each character would say thank you and hung them in their room. It was fun to hear them laugh while they found them all.

It was so fun to spend time every day reading and napping on the beach with my siblings! We also watched a few football games. It was seriously such a fun week!!

The hot tub felt so good too!

Mel randomly sent a picture of me sleeping to all of us one day. Haha!

The best places to watch the sunset are from the hot tub or from the balcony. Matt, Lori, and Elena spent Christmas in Rocky Point and had decorated the condo so cute and cozy!

There were dolphins that would swim past every evening at sunset. One night they were putting on quite a show!! They were jumping all the way out of the water. It was awesome!

On New Year's Eve we were watching the Nashville Countdown, and the front door and the balcony door were both open to let some air in. A big gust came through and the blow up Christmas tree blew across the room and out on the balcony. My reflexes kicked right in and I ran out on the balcony and grabbed the tree and the star before it blew over. I came back in and said, "I saved Christmas!" It was pretty funny!

Lori brought supplies for us to make ugly Christmas sweater cookies. That was a lot of fun!

I made a BYU sweater.

Matt and Mel loved their MDH sweater. Haha! When they were kids they had an MDH club since both of their initials are the same. It's a very exclusive club. :)

We cheered in 2025 on the balcony. It was such a fun New Year's Eve!!

I treated myself to a pina colada on the beach one day.

We went to Wrecked at the Reef for dinner one night. It's fun to eat on the beach and watch the sun set.

I love the live music!

One of the mornings I woke up to the most beautiful sunrise!!

It was just gorgeous!!

Matt had done a polar plunge in the ocean one of the days and kept trying to get one of us to do it with him. It was a hard pass for me all week, but I don't know what came over me on our last day there. I just said yes without even really thinking about it. We ran down and dove in!

It was very cold!! But it was fun and did make me feel alive. :) I'm glad I did it once.

The sunset on our last night was amazing!! It lasted so long and was just extra colorful and beautiful.

It was so so so fun to spend a week in Rocky Point with my siblings and Lori and Elena. The laughs, relaxation, conversation, and total lack of a schedule were such a nice break from reality. Thank you Matt & Lori for taking us there, and thank you Paul for doing all the things at home!!

I bought a hummingbird blanket at Wrecked at the Reef. I knew I couldn't fit it in my suitcase but we were all pretty sure that I could just carry it on to the plane. When they started giving the boarding instructions at the airport, they said that a full-size blanket counts as your personal item. Al, Mel and I all started rearranging and combining everything in our bags to cram the blanket in somewhere. It was so squishy but we barely fit it in Al's bag. Once we had everything zipped up, I realized I was still holding Al's visor and we weren't sure we were going to be able to fit it in anywhere. I said I would just wear it. :)