I felt like Cade needed some one on one time to read a book with me and see some beautiful scenery. So we began to plan a trip. It went through MANY different iterations that went something like this: Yellowstone/Tetons (too much one on one time?) Coeur d’ Alaine with Aunt Alli (not enough one on one time) BYU Campus tour (just the right amount of one on one time but not as exciting as Yellowstone) Yellowstone (100 year flood closes Yellowstone) Tetons (where everyone goes if Yellowstone is closed, ie. too crowded) Looks like it’s BYU Campus Tour for the win!

Though it was not Cade’s first choice, it was an awesome trip. We had lots of driving time to read and discuss an amazing book-Digital Minimalism-I highly recommend it! Cade loved seeing BYU and the dorms where he’ll be living this fall. We also got to show him some of the beauties of the Wasatch Front. Overall, I’d say my mission was accomplished!

Monday:
Drove to Utah and wandered up Little Cottonwood Canyon, which I’d never seen before. WOW!!! It was so awesome Cade wanted to come back the next day to hike it.

Alli drove up to join us at the best Mexican restaurant in Salt Lake-The Red Iguana.

The night was young, so we hiked to the top of Ensign Peak for some amazing views of the valley.

Tuesday-BYU Bound
Cade totally loved the BYU campus. We found his dorm, the Cannon Center, found all his classes, ate at the Cougar Eat and shopped at the bookstore. And no trip to BYU is complete without a stop at the Creamery. Best ice cream ever!

For dinner that night we met up with Sarin at my other favorite place to eat in Provo-the Pizza Factory. Love me some long braided breadsticks.

As if walking around the entire BYU campus were not enough walking for one day, we decided to celebrate the longest day of the year by going on an evening hike up to First Falls on the Mount Timpanogas Trail. We were well rewarded. Not only was it a beautiful night and hike, but we got to see a MOOSE! They really do exist and are not, in fact, mythical creatures as I was beginning to believe! I caught a video of it because Levi and I have been looking for one for years! He was extremely jealous. I told him, “Hey, odds are you won’t have to wait as long as me to see your first moose.” That didn’t make him feel better.

And… the Non-mythical Moose!

Wednesday
We went to see some of the temples in the area, hiked the Temple Quarry hike up Little Cottonwood Canyon, ate lunch at In-n-Out and headed home.

I am really proud of this kid. He learned a lot from the book we read together and is trying hard to implement it in his life. He is doing a month-long digital declutter/detox, is taking up piano again, walking for hours a day, reading tons of books and making lots of great goals for his future.

I love May. It’s when my yard is greenest, the hills around Boise are green, lilacs and rhododendrons, my favorite flowers, are blooming and the weather is warm and wonderful-usually. This Spring has been on the colder, windier, rainier side, but it’s helping to fill the reservoirs so I can’t complain too much.

More successes this year….

Another one I’m super excited about is my Clematis.

Libby has taken an interest in flowers as well. She asked to go to the nursery with Rock’s mom and I and she bought a whole bunch of flowers to plant in her own garden box. Her friends even helped her plant them.

The last ones I am hoping will bloom this year are my hydrangeas. I’ve failed several times with them as well. This little bud gives me hope!!

Check back in mid July to see if these beauties actually bloom!

Cade graduated in May. For a kid who’s sophomore/junior year were decimated by the pandemic, he sure got the most out of his high school experience that he possibly could. He tried track and wrestling, and choir and musical theater and was in 3 plays all while getting good grades, taking piano lessons and working after school. Way to go, Caderade!

Reagan’s girlfriend, Brooke also graduated that day. Here is the studly picture his grandma captured while he was trying to find her afterward.

And….Seminary Graduation

Cade is planning to work and play this summer and then attend BYU Provo in the Fall. Congratulations, Caderade! We are so proud of you!

In May we finished up track season for Levi, tennis for Liberty and the big end of year choir concert and competitions for Cade. All the kids did amazing.

Liberty tried tennis for the first time this year. She and her doubles partner (and good friend) were undefeated! Way to go ladies!

It doesn’t start with T but Liberty did have her end of year ballet recital. She continues to love ballet and is only a year away from starting pointe!

Levi had an awesome track season. It was so fun to watch him be at the top of the pack as an 8th grader. He ran the mile, the 800, and the 4×400 relay. He was consistently in the top 5 of the mile and the 800 at each meet. Here’s the big 3 who kept pushing each other to get their best times.

He also decided to try triple jump this year just for the heck of it. He won every meet he was in! It was crazy! His best jump was 34.3. He was a natural. He was bummed when he got to districts and there were some surprise jumpers who were way better, but he still placed 6th in districts in an event he’s never done before! We are super proud of how hard he worked this season.

And Cade. This kid. From the day he was born 3 weeks early, he never ceases to surprise us. He taught himself to read at age 3 when we weren’t looking. He would only play the piano with the headphones on so every time we went to a recital we were blown away by how good he was. We never thought he’d actually win the state National History Day competition but before I knew it I was headed to DC with him to compete. He got up on stage in Into the Woods as Prince Charming and surprised us again with his acting and singing ability-never practicing at home where we could hear him. We had to look at each other and say, “this is our kid?!” He sings solos in concerts and doesn’t even tell us ahead of time! He came home a month ago to tell us that he was in the top 10 boys in the state up for a chance to compete in the Jimmy’s (High School Tony’s) on Broadway for a week.

His end of year/Senior Concert was fabulous. He sang the most amazing duet with his beautiful tenor voice that had the audience melting (direct quote from an audience member) and his mother (and father!) in tears. We are beyond proud of Cade and how hard he has worked at music in all its many forms over the last 4 years.

His choir sang “Do You Hear the People Sing” from Les Miserable and I snapped this picture of the ending.

He didn’t even know about this picture from the real Les Mis until I showed him. 🙂

Now we just have to get him to sing “Bring Him Home” or “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” or……

Cade’s Senior Prom was in April. The way he asked his date was really cool. They met in the musical Cinderella during his sophomore year and then, if you’ll remember, Cade played Cinderella’s prince in Into the Woods this past fall. So this is how he asked her:

And she answered him like this:

Reagan got to go to one more prom this year because he took his girlfriend, Brooke, to her Senior prom. He asked her in typical Reagan fashion; over the top and last minute. 😉 He covered her car in daffodils, her favorite flower, then stuck this huge cardboard daffodil on the top. The sign says, “I would daffodillitntly take you to prom-If yes, eat the candy, if no, eat the flowers.”

These two didn’t do a big photo shoot but I got them to come by the house after their dinner so I could get a few pictures. It was pouring down rain at the time and they were good sports.

All done with proms for a few years. I liked it better when pictures were taken by professionals AT the dance. sigh. 🙂

One awesome thing about April this year was The Addams Family musical Cade was in. The production was awesome, the singing and acting was awesome. It was really exciting to see Cade in such a well done show. He continues to surprise us with his singing and acting talent.

Cade played a boring middle aged Mel who wore a suit the whole time, until he rips it off to reveal this awesome outfit and his non boring side towards the end of the show.

Our Awesome piano teacher retired this year and this was our last recital with her. We will miss Mamadeaus!

We showed the kids The Man From Snowy River recently and Levi decided he is going to live on his own in the mountains someday and Liberty decided to play Jessica’s Theme at her recital. I absolutely love this song and it was AWESOME to hear her practicing it.

But the MOST AWESOME thing that happened in April was my husband eating a whole plate of Golden Rod Eggs and liking them!!!!

To understand this miracle, you have to know that the very first meal I ever made for him when we first started dating was this family recipe. We eat it every Easter and it is loved by all, including me. He took one bite of it and would not eat any more. I kid you not. He didn’t even pretend a little to like it to spare the feelings of his new girlfriend. It is a miracle we got married. But after 20 years old Sam I Am decided to try the green eggs and ham/golden rod eggs. And he did not hate it. I do believe Christ rising from the dead is the biggest miracle of all time, BUT Rock eating Golden Rod Eggs is a close 2nd in the Easter Miracle category.

In February I flew to Arizona to visit my good friend, Adrianne. She and her family bought a house on our cul de sac the same time we did and we hit it off right from the start. In many ways she is the friend that keeps me sane. They moved to AZ two years ago so we decided it was time for a visit. It was so awesome to talk and talk and talk and to see the sun and palm trees in the middle of winter. I used to make fun of the people who went to Hawaii in the middle of January for a pick me up, but now I get it! It truly was a pick me up.

Adrianne took me to all kinds of cool places and we barely scratched the surface. I never thought I would find Phoenix beautiful, but I did! I would love to go back. We finished off my fun trip at my favorite restaurant-only found in big cities-Maggiano’s! Sorry, Meldrum boys, you’ll have to share Adrianne with me now on a yearly basis! 😉

In March Rock and I traveled up to McCall for a ski weekend getaway in the mountains. I was finally good enough at skiing to tackle Brundage Ski Resort. We stayed at the legendary Shore Lodge which I have wanted to do forever! It was beautiful and romantic and Brundage was awesome!

I worked hard to be able to take this picture. I skied every week all winter to be able to be good enough to get up here. It was scary a lot of the time, but I am proud of the progress I made this year. I actually cried tears of joy my first time down a blue run I was so elated! I bought myself skiis and boots to celebrate! I can’t wait for next year!

Some people go to warm places for Spring break, but when your spring break is the middle of March, you go skiing! We took the three kids who like to ski up to Brundage for a day of skiing. It was really fun to be able to go on so many of the runs with the kids. They are usually bored with my level but right now Libby and I are at about the same level. She is a little braver and goes down faster than I do, though. It was a great day and an awesome way to end the season.

Some wanderings closer to home this winter were Libby’s first time at the temple,

And her Half Birthday date at Joe’s Crab Shack.

Cade went to the Sweethearts dance

Liberty had her winter ballet recital. She has graduated to 2 days a week and two dances at the recitals.

Before I wrap up this post, I have one more story to tell. Liberty might prefer I leave this out, but it is a story she will remember for the rest of her life, so I have to immortalize it on the blog. You might have noticed that Liberty’s hair is rather short in many of the pictures in this post. Well, when I was just getting back in the car after eating dinner at Maggiano’s in Phoenix I got a phone call. All I could hear were sniffles and tears on the other end of the phone. Liberty was calling to tell me that her attempt at a shorter haircut had failed-miserably. She was hysterical. She had wanted to cut her hair a little shorter than normal, and her barber, Rock, obliged. He tried to dissuade her from going too far, but she was excited to try something new and so they kept cutting. I felt so bad. There was nothing I could do from AZ. I wouldn’t be home before church the next day to help her do it so she wouldn’t be mortified. Sigh. She survived, of course, but alas, it is something all women have to experience at least once in their life. She hated it so much, she refused to wear anything but pigtails for 2 months straight. Once it got long enough she was able to get it all curly for the first time ever and was much happier. It’s been a long winter, though.