Bridge Walk

On the first day of school your freshman year you walk across the bridge from the football field to the school.  On your last day of school your senior year you walk across the bridge from the school to the football field.  It is a cool tradition they do! I was able to head over there after work to be there as Lucy walked across the bridge leaving school on her last day of school.  Garrett came and joined me too. Lucy is excited to be done with school, especially excited to be done with finals week.  It is also bittersweet.  I think things are feeling a little more real to her as these milestones are approaching and happening. 

Glow Art Show

We are soaking up all of the end of the year activities.  Especially all the fun elementary school things.  It is strange to think we will never attend some things again.  Our kids are growing up so fast!  Nolan did art club this year.  It was before school, and he had fun doing some extra art projects.  He was proud of how they turned out, especially since he had a cast on his dominant hand for most of art club.  They had a glow art show to exhibit the kid's artwork.  It was for the whole school and every kid had a piece of artwork in the show.  The line to get through was really long!  Nolan had three pieces in the art show.    It's fun to support him and see what things he worked hard on.  We will miss all the fun things they do in elementary school.     

Seminary Graduation

Getting up for seminary is not easy.  Especially when you are busy in the evenings with work and sports.  There were several mornings when sleeping in sounded really nice.  The kids were excited to be done with seminary and to complete another year.  Lucy finished her last year and graduated seminary. It is a huge accomplishment.  We are proud of them both for all their hard work and dedication to attend.  We are especially proud of Lucy for graduating.   

 

We had a busy productive Saturday. Nolan spent most of the day outside playing with the neighbors.  I had to call him inside every once and a while to eat something. He had so much fun playing and exploring outside. We sold Lucy's car this weekend.  She is so sad to see "Wendy" go.  She was such a good car for Lucy! We are so thankful for Braden and Lauren for thinking of Lucy when they were getting rid of their car. We would have kept the car, but it didn't pass safety and emissions when we tried to renew the plates. It had several things that needed to be done in order to pass, and we didn't want to put the money into the car.  Jordan recently gave us a different car, and the kids will need to share that car until Lucy leaves for college. They aren't thrilled by that, but it can be done with some compromising and planning.  That evening JJ and I went to Frankie Martins Garden for a concert.  Becca was celebrating her birthday, and we went to celebrate with her.  We got there and they were sitting right up front.  The music was way too loud for us.  I couldn't even talk to the person sitting next to me.  I got up and walked towards the back to get a little farther away. JJ came over too and we both decided it was too loud.  We felt awkward in this situation and didn't really know what to do. We didn't want to leave but decided we would maybe walk to a restaurant nearby and get some dessert.  As we were walking out, we ran into the Elmores.  They were just arriving.  We told them where they were sitting and how it was too loud.  They went to say hi and then we both left to walk do a restaurant down the street.  They hadn't eaten dinner, so we walked down to a pizza place.  We enjoyed visiting with them and then when we walked back a group had moved farther back.  It was much better to sit towards the back of the park.  It is such a fun place, and we had a fun evening.  We were thankful to be able to hear the music and still visit with friends.  We were glad we could celebrate with Becca!   

 

Lucy got her cast off and got her stitches removed.  She is healing really well and was able to move to a boot.  She is so excited to be in a boot.  She can take it off and air her foot out a little bit each day.  She is still not able to drive and will need to sleep in the boot.  Those things were a little disappointing, but we want to make sure we let things heal properly so this doesn't come back.  Jack was so curious about her boot when she got home.  

JJ came and had lunch with Nolan one last time at the elementary school.  You can't come have lunch with your kids in middle or high school.  This is the last time.  It's kind of sad to think we don't have a "little" kid anymore.  They are all growing up!  Nolan really enjoys when JJ comes to have lunch with him. 

Garrett and Nolan enjoy playing basketball together.  JJ has to come be a referee because emotions usually run high from mostly Nolan during the game.  Sometimes things don't end well and there are usually tears involved.  Even if things are a little rough, I am happy to see the boys spending time together, mostly getting along. 

Friday was the last day of seminary! Lucy's last day of seminary. 

 

Jelly Roll and Post Malone

The Elmores had some extra tickets to the Jelly Roll and Post Malone concert.  The invited us to come with them and we accepted and were excited.  It was down at Busch stadium.  We had never been to a concert there before.  The Udys also came which was so fun to spend some time with them.  The Munsons were also there and in between artists they came over to say hi. We had a really fun time at the concert.  We really enjoyed Jelly Roll, he was fun to see live.  We like his music and it's always fun to see someone in person.  Post Malone was good too.  I don't like his music as much.  He does a lot of songs with other artists.  It was impressive how much he drank and smoked.  During one song he was drinking, smoking, playing the guitar and singing.  Since he was so drunk he was hard to understand, he mumbled his words a lot.  It was such a fun night and fun to sing along to songs and be with friends. We were thankful to be invited and be able to have a fun time together.  We left a little early so we wouldn't get stuck in traffic.  It was a late night for us.  We joked that we are trying to keep ourselves young by staying out late on a Tuesday night.  It took us a few days to get caught back up on our sleep.    

Mothers Day

Mother's Day was a beautiful day, and I was thankful we could spend so much of it outside.  We went to church in the morning.  I was so disappointed that they didn't do the normal brunch/light lunch for the women at church.  They have done this for years.  With no warning they didn't have anything for us.  They had us all come to Relief Society for a lesson together and handed out keychains and chocolates at the end.  I wish I would have known, I would have let JJ, and the kids make me a nice breakfast.  I know I wasn't the only one disappointed in the change.  It is something I always look forward to and I tried to not let it ruin the day but for days I really did feel so sad about it.  We came home and enjoyed a nice lunch on the deck together.  It was nice to sit out there and together.  We opened up some small gifts the kids got me.  Garrett painted me a nice painted of a flower.  After making him return an expensive bouquet of flowers he bought me he got creative.  I didn't want him spending so much money on flowers but appreciated the thoughtfulness of it.  Lucy made me a pottery piece at school, but it wasn't done yet. It will be a cute little pot I can put on the windowsill in the kitchen to put my ring in while I do the dishes. Nolan worked hard making me something with his new 3D printer. I loved all the sweet presents and cards.  I could tell that a lot of thoughtfulness went into each one.  After lunch we took the kayaks to the park.  We haven't taken them out in a while, and I thought it would be a fun way to enjoy the beautiful day.  I felt bad that Lucy was in a cast still and was so limited to what she could do.  Her cast was also really hot and there wasn't a lot of shade around.  She was a good sport and watched us all take turns.  We all had fun going out on the kayaks.  I think it is time we upgrade the smaller kayak to another big one.  We went home and JJ made some steak tacos for dinner and Lucy made chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.  It was such a nice day and I enjoyed spending it with my family.  I appreciated JJ and all his work to make my day special.      

 

It is a busy and fun month for Lucy as she wraps up her senior year.  They had decision day at school.  All the seniors put a pin in the map to show where they were heading.  They had a fun time gathering in the gym and hearing about what people's plans were for next year. 

For combined youth night at church, they had a senior's night.  We brought things and set up a table for Lucy.  They had a fun trivia game we played to see how well we knew the seniors in our ward.  It was a fun evening and fun for them to celebrate the seniors in the ward. 

They recognized the seniors at the track meet.  Although this has not been the track season Lucy would have liked she still wanted to be recognized.  She has loved being a part of track and has made some fun friends and memories over the years. 

 

Dermatology

I always schedule Lucy's follow up appointments with dermatology and rheumatology pretty far out.  They book up and I like to get them on the calendar.  We got a call that we needed to move our dermatology appointment.  They only had late August, when Lucy will be most likely on her way to college or in early May.  I took the earlier one even though that meant more missed school for her and work for me.  We both have missed a lot with appointments for her foot and then surgery.  We were happy to have a nice appointment with Dr. Coughlin.  We talked about watching for changes on the face.  That is hard because she has done so much reconstruction.  We both agreed that it is tricky because it's hard to tell if things are active or if she is absorbing fat from the fat grafting.  That was a good thing to hear, we are in a good place and need to let things just be for a while.  No more procedures are in Lucy's future, and I think that is good for several reasons.  We need to see what Lucys face looks like when we let things be for a period of time. This was our last appointment in pediatric dermatology.  Dr. Coughlin gave us some names of dermatologists to start seeing in the future.  It is sad to move on from doctors that have been with us for five years now.  They have been with us during such hard and scary times.  I hope that we can find new doctors that care for Lucy just as much. Even though we are a little early and we still will follow up with Dr. Bazis in July.  It is nice to know that Lucy is practically three years in remission.  We will give a big hurrah after our appointment in July.      

 

BCI Gala

We were invited to attend the BCI Gala again this year with the Hunters.  It is one of our favorite galas and we really do love the BCI organization.  It is Kentucky Derby themed and always fun to get dressed up.  Caleb texted JJ that afternoon and one of the couples couldn't come last minute.  He asked if we knew anyone that would want to come on short notice.  We reached out to the Elmores and they were excited to come with us.  Dinner was delicious and then we had fun dancing to a few songs by the band.  It was a fun evening and fun to go out together.      

Nolan had his well child visit.  He is growing right on track and is a healthy 11 year old boy!

Lucy has some of her ceramic pieces on display at the school for the art show.  She casually mentioned it and I told her of course we would go over and see them.  She has really enjoyed taking ceramics at school.  This year she has used the wheel and learned to throw pieces.  She has come home with some really nice things. 

Garrett has been working more and recently got a raise!