April

We had Spring Break the first week of April. This is how our break went:

Monday: Stockton had gone to Plain City the Friday before. He went golfing with the Broadbent boys and Grandpa. Molly went to work at Crumbl from 7-3 and then straight to work at the train from 3-7. I went to work in the morning but told Brynn and Ivy that, if their chores were done when I got home, I would take them somewhere. When I got home, their chores were done and they wanted to go to the pool. So I took them and when they got there, they ended up finding Ali Robinson (Ivy's clogging friend) and her older sister, Olivia, who is in the same dance class at school with Brynn. So they had a lot of fun with those girls and it was a good afternoon. 

Tuesday: I am typing this late and my memory is muddled. I did some work in the morning. I maybe took kids rock climbing-that is what my brain is thinking anyway. I went to meet my parents that night to collect Stockton. The only text I had gotten the whole time from him was to not pick him up too early. He had had a great time and was not ready to come home.

Wednesday: Molly had to work that morning (she picked up a second job as a morning baker at Crumbl back in March) and when she got home, the girls at I drove down to St. George. My mom had rented a few condos for anyone who wanted and everyone was going to be there. The only two not there were Stockton, who had baseball practice, and Justin, who was working on his year two school project and couldn't step away from that. We made it down safely to cousins who were anxiously waiting and those who wanted were able to do a little bit of swimming that night.

Brynn and Josie

Thursday: Ali is our family event planner, she was so awesome to reserve a couple of things for us to do down there. On Thursday morning we went to a Top Golf sort of place (different name, same activity). That was followed by some lunch and then climbing around at Dixie Rock. Then Pinkbox donuts, swimming at the condo, and a late-night trip to Bahama Bucks for snow cones. It was a short trip so we had to pack our days!

Chloe, Grace, Molly, Abby, Tessa, Gavin, Grant, Ben, Ivy, Josie, Brynn, Lucy, Harper, Spencer, Seth

Lucy, Ivy, Josie, Brynn

Brynn and Harper

Ivy, Josie, Lucy

Abby, Grace, Molly

Chloe, Josie, Ivy, Lucy

Ivy, Grandpa, Grandma, Harper

Ivy, Brynn, Harper, Molly, Abby, Grace

Ivy, Brynn, Harper

Josie, Ivy, Lucy

Ivy and Lucy

Molly went around and collected the little umbrella's from everyone's shaved ice.

Friday: Ali was able to get some baptism appointments for Friday morning at the old/newly-renovated St. George Temple. It was so pretty, I loved how they were able to maintain the historic nature of the temple. Time in the temple is always time well-spent. The three little girls got to go to Thunder Junction Park with Erin W. who forgot her dress. We did a little exploring at Snow Canyon State Park after lunch but me and my girls took off early to drive home that night. Stockton had a game the next day that I didn't want to miss so we cut our trip a little short.

Bryce, Erin M., me, Harper, Erin W., Grant, Josie, Brynn, Abby, Lucy, Tessa, Gavin, Ivy, Grace, Seth, Jeff, Grandpa, Grandma, Ben, Molly, Chloe, Spencer, Ali

Lucy, Josie, Ivy

Ivy, Josie, Lucy

Josie, Abby, Harper, Brynn, Ivy, Molly

Molly got to meet her friend, Sloane Ellingford, and her family at the Conference Center for the Saturday night Conference session. Sloane moved to Idaho at the beginning of junior year but she and Molly have stayed in touch with frequent long phone calls. They have been trying for months to figure out how to get together but it just hasn't worked. This was perfect, Molly has always wanted to attend a conference sesion and she had a great time with Sloane the the rest of the family.

Jess and Sloane Ellingford, Molly

General Conference Sunday looked a little like this:

We stayed home because Justin was still trying to get that darn paper written and even had to work on it in between sessions. I impulse-bought this Cinderella puzzle that we worked on during Conference as well.

Stockton's baseball season was in full swing that week after Spring Break, and had been for a while and continued for a while still. There were a lot of games. A lot. He was rostered on the JV team but he dressed and traveled for every Varsity game and he even dressed and played at several Sophomore games as well. That was about three games each week. I had a hard time keeping up and finally had to decide to go to all JV games, home and away, but only go to Sophomore games if they were in Heber. He loved all the time playing baseball and I heard no complaints from him.

Ivy quickly became engrossed in the Land of Stories books but Mrs. Hall only had the first couple books in the series. We had to take an emergency trip to the library to get all the remaining books. You can see that Ivy wasted no time jumping back in as she started reading right away in the car driving home.

We got behind on our Valentine's dates pretty much right away. Haha. I took Molly on her date after a soccer game. We went to Zupas and for dessert she got the strawberries drizzled with chocolate and it was delicious.

Prom 2025: Molly's last high school dance. This ended up being a really fun weekend for her. She got along well with her date, Carter, and she absolutely loved her group. A majority of the girls were WHS soccer girls so she knew them really well. She had a blast. For their "day" date they went to the Salt Flats the week before Prom. They played games like Spikeball, grilled burgers for dinner, and generally just hung out. She got home really late (which I was not a fan of) and was extra tired the next day. But worth it because it was such a fun time.

Molly and Sophia Locke and their dates, who were twins (Jackson and Carter Duncan)

Emry Winegar, Molly, Jackie Bingham, Soph

Molly loved having all of Prom afternoon open. She was supposed to have a soccer game but it ended up being canceled...although she didn't get word until after she had driven down the canyon. They were able to turn it into a practice so it wasn't a complete waste of a drive. Then she had plenty of time to get ready. She did her own hair this time-and did a great job! Also, I loved her dress. She looked beautiful. They took their pictures somewhere by Deer Creek, had a 5-course fancy dinner at the Thunnell's, went to the dance, and hung out at Jett Wilson's house after. It was a great night for her.

Carter Duncan and Molly

Molly and Carter are furthest left

Molly on the left

Dora Powers, Molly, Georgia Rinquest, ?, ?, ?, ?, Emry, Jackie, Libbie Locke, Soph

Molly and Carter are the third couple from the bottom

Piano recital day! The last few years I've tried to get it done earlier instead of in May so I have the flexibility the rest of the year to cancel lessons when the kids have games, etc. It has worked really well. Each of my students had been practicing a memorization piece, a duet, and a fun song of their choosing. They all did so well and it's really fun for me to watch and listen to them perform.

Kessley Coleman, Alyx Coombs, Vincent Treu, Layla Treu, Travis Bowles, Bradley Baird, Tessa Baird, Lily Chappell, Emery Pearson, Mallory Pearson, Ivy, me, Haley Knowles, Oaklyn Holm, Alina Quinn, Joanna Quinn, Sam Stinebaugh (missing Taylee Baird and Reese Allen who performed first and then had to leave)

me and Lily-Lily is independent now and doesn't need a teacher anymore, plus she is moving; I will miss sitting with her at the piano each week

I got to go on Ivy's field trip to the Swaner Nature Preserve. I had a great time. I've got to take advantage of these opportunities while I can since I know they are going to be ending all too soon. I did this field trip with Stockton as well and I was impressed both times with the knowledge the workers have at the preserve. But mostly I love the time spent with Ivy.

Ivy and Kaliyah Pili

Liyah and Ivy

Liyah and Ivy

After Brynn's team got a bid for Summit, they were hyper-focused on getting ready for that. They increased their practice hours and really find-tuned every bit of their routine. The competition season was over but they still wanted to be performing in front of an audience. One opportunity they had was when the Hive cheer gym in Spanish Fork invited them to their showcase. So we drove down and watched them and they blew us away. They were clean and sharp and, with less pressure at something like this, they were so fun to watch.

Oakley Keys and Brynn at In-n-Out after the performance

Brynn had her cheer banquet before Summit. The other teams had already done their final competition and this had been scheduled for a while. Brynn did not want to get Miss MVP or Miss TCA since that is what she had gotten the last three years. She was happy to receive the award for Miss Attitude and Effort and I think they were spot on. Brynn always had a good attitude and she always works hard. She will succeed in whatever team she is on based on these two traits. She was pretty sad after this banquet knowing she will not be cheering for TCA next year. She has made so many friends and has had really great experiences with this gym.

getting her award sash from Coach McKynlee and Coach Ashley

flyers: Evan Schuler, Brynn, Claire Winsor

Coach Jacie Jones and Brynn

Shaylee Williams and Brynn

Justin and I took Molly on her senior trip. We had beautiful weather where we went and the kids had equally good weather at home. Brynn and Ivy went to Plain City for about half of it. It was warm enough to even swim (although my mom keeps the pool very warm so no surprise)! Brynn also rode the tandem bike. I loved riding that thing with my sisters when I was growing up.

Harper and Brynn

Harper, Lucy, Ivy, Brynn

Stockton had baseball all weekend so he stayed home by himself and got rides when needed. It wasn't ideal and I hated leaving him, but it all worked out and he was fine, although he was relieved when my mom got home with the girls on Sunday afternoon so he wasn't alone anymore. My mom stayed for a couple extra days at our house to get the kids to school in the mornings.

Molly is so happy that Sophia decided to join her club team. It was hard to switch teams and coaches for her senior year but Soph made it so much better.

Soph, Libbie, Molly