2024 Moments: Week 47

 I’m feeling frustrated with myself right now. Because I didn’t keep a day to day journal of the week, like I do when we travel. So here we are having to start from scratch. I know I’ll miss lots of moments. It was the best week. 

We packed up Sunday and got on the road to head to Arizona! We left Jax in Washington. It was cool to see Ty step up into big brother mode. He truly grew this week. 

The 21 hour drive to Arizona was probably the easier long distance drive we have ever done. And guess what, ZERO personal screen time. It was amazing. We listened to books together and watched a movie together, listened to songs together, or colored and looked out the window. We got to Landon’s parents house on Tuesday afternoon and then spent four hours trying to settle the boys and get the rest of our stuff for our adventure with the Dittos.

Biggest shout out to Landon’s parents, who watched our kids for four days and five nights. That was as a lot and they are amazing! The boys went to lots of parks and the zoo and were spoiled with quality time with their grandparents. It was a huge sacrifice for Landon’s parents on our behalf. And I don’t think our boys will ever forget this week! 

We picked up the Dittos Tuesday evening at the airport. Spent the night in Seligam on Route 66, which is the city that inspired cars. Then woke up and made our way to Havasupai trailhead. (Note: if you do this backpacking trip, don’t forget to stop an hour before the trailhead to get your wristbands….ahem…)

The 11 miles into camp was mostly downhill and honestly didn’t feel too bad. The village was much bigger and further advanced than any of us anticipated. There was one of our churches there in the village. Amazon boxes were being brought in both by mule and by helicopter. Such a different life!!! We loved the fried bread! 

Landon and Kelly found the most epic campsite. We unloaded, set up camp, and made our way back to Havasupai Falls. And wow! The boys got in. We took pictures. It is SOOOO blue!! We went back and had dinner. Oh my goodness food tastes soooo good when you camp. It got dark quick and we were beyond grateful that we could build fires!! 

Day two we had breakfast and loaded up to go to lower falls. I didn’t know it at the time but I purposefully moved my chair to sit in the sun that morning, and it was the only time we ever saw the sun that day. Annie and I agreed that today was much harder than we anticipated. 8 miles. And a lot of it was technical miles. Sidebar, how did they get all the supplies down there? From giant ladders to picnic tables to ropes to railroad materials…. So much work! And also, if this was off the reservation, so much of it would NOT be allowed 😂. 

Mooney falls was a masterpiece! Truly! 

Beaver Falls was layers of beauty! 

I felt proud of myself for getting in and swimming… in the moment. And then I could not get my body to get warm again until we got back to camp and I curled up in my sleeping back at 4:00pm in the afternoon😂. The ONLY reason I got out was because of the fire landon and made.  Thank heavens for fires! And mountain house meals. And friends! 

Landon gave us all a “medicine sleeping cocktail” that night, and boy did it work. We went to bed at 9:00pm and really didn’t get out of our tent til 7:20am. Except for when I went pee and 6:51, but I thought it was 5:51, and it was in wide open spaces. So I live on the wild side. 

We packed up and hiked out that morning. Annie and I thought it was really challenging and the boys “expected it to be harder”….. but to be fair we finished before them so we must have pushed ourselves a lot more. They also told us, while we were playing with fire one night, that we reminded them of 13 year old deacons… so the only thing we can conclude is that they are slower than 13 year old deacons. Embarrassing really. 

After we celebrated for finishing our hike. We got in the car for 3 hours and 18 minutes. Though Landon obediently made that drive in 2 hours and 45 minutes. We grabbed dinner and went and stayed in quite the… interesting home. But it had a hot tub. That wasn’t quite hot enough for Annie, but kind of perfect for me, thanks Annie! And we chatted and searched for BYU tickets. 

Saturday morning we woke up, watched the sunrise, got addicted to looking for tickets, watched college game day and headed to the game. Oh that game. What a rough 3.5 quarters. Amazing 6 minutes. And bummer lose. GAH! So sad. But we handled the loss fairly well. Stuffed our faces and our soul with: Bahama Bucks, Mesa Temple and Pete’s Fish and chips. 

Annie also gave me the best birthday present and it made me cry. A child’s storybook of The Book of Mormon! Then we said goodbye. And that was sad. 

Don’t tell Landon I told you this, but I’m always so grateful for his push for adventure(during and after the fact). I think one of my talents is that im pretty content with a lot, I don’t need a lot to feel happy. But had I married someone else, I wouldn’t have the gift of experiencing the world like I have had. 

I love Annie for her endless optimism, her LAUGH and true friendship. One way I know I have a really good friend, is they challenge what I say. Which then pushes me to think a little differently or act a little differently. How did I end up in ANNIES WARD??? Wild! God. Love her. 

Everyone that knows Kelly, knows he knows how to play hard. But I’m pretty certain, scratch that, I’m positive that he knows how to work harder. If I can help my boys learn to work as hard as he does, they’ll be set. 

We love the Dittos

 We drove straight to family and thanked mama and papa woolf PROFUSELY for watching our children.

The last 24 hours have been great. Cousins laughing! Getting Jax with us again! Seeing all our family. Family is good. I love them all!! Happy Thanksgiving week!!! It’s going to be a good one! 

Oh and my obsession for my nieces and nephew is out of control. I love them all!!!! 

Hallie is so mature and talented and loving and hilarious. I literally gave her a twirling hug when I saw her!!! 

Cope is tender hearted and fun and sweetly reserved (reminds me of my Ty) 

Ruthie is my soul mate I think! She is spunky and fierce. 

Blaire and Jojo are just the sweetest babies!! I loved holding and loving on them a little today! 

Can’t wait to see Oakley and Avie tomorrow. 

PS: Luke lost his first tooth today. I pulled it right out. Easiest tooth pull ever! 

2024 Moments: Week 45

I get to the end of the week every single week and wonder how I fit it all in.

There were a lot of mentally and emotionally charged discussions and thoughts this week. Election Tuesday. Landon and I are grateful to have so many close friends and family with such different world views. We were having discussions with all of them throughout the night on Tuesday. Some were ecstatic, some relieved, some shocked and some devastated. What I learned from the last four months is that every single one of our friends and family had legitimate reasons to feel and think and vote the way they did. I learned that there can be two rights to the same issue. I learned that every issue is nuanced. And every heart has reasons to push them in a direction. After the last four months, I feel even more confident in our world and in our country because of all the people that I know! No matter who they voted for, I am surrounded, physically and virtually, by a lot of really good, hard working, genuine, honest, thoughtful, loving people. And I believe that is a pretty good place to land! 

Side note: I think one of my core values, is to make sure I never exist in echo chambers. It matters so deeply to me to surround myself with people from all walks of life and with all sorts of world views. 

Our boys are brilliantly awesome. They are all working so hard in so many good things. I sent four videos to our parents this week of simple moments. Jaxson working so hard on a piano piece he’s been working on for months. Ty reading the scriptures, with his cute glasses on, out loud. Luke singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game and Briggy dribbling the ball in the kitchen. Here is the reality. Our life is not always pretty. And I’m grumpy and get frustrated with my kids more than I wish I did. And they get grumpy and frustrated with me more than I wish they did. But I believe they have a pretty beautiful childhood. And the older they get the more and more I want to be apart of it all. I would say that the thing I am most grateful for tonight when it comes to our boys, is I believe they already know how to work hard and push themselves. I watch them do it every day.

Young women’s and young men’s is coming along. We had some really beautiful moments this weekend with the young women! I was so proud of so many of them!!! It’s been quite the roller coaster the last three months, but this weekend made me feel like I’m finally getting a hang of it. Landon had to decorate for the young men’s award night, tonight. He did an awesome job! And our Sunday was super full because of it. Well partially. We also had multiple meetings and church. But I made a wicked good pot roast. 

Things we have started in YWs:

Munch and minister. Find something new to eat and then go minister to someone. 

Peach and pit: which is just a cuties way of telling everyone one good thing and one bad thing in your week.

Greet and eat: Trying to create a soft landing for when the girls come into class in Sundays. A way for them to just chat and gather for a minute before we split into classes. 

And I’m just now realizing that all of our things have something to do with food. Oh well. Food makes everything better!

The BYU game was something else!!! 22-21. We will never forget it! 

And it’s been four years. Four years since I was pregnant. That feels like a big deal. Are we really moving on from that chapter of our life? I think so….. I think so!