Theo, lately

Theo is a wordsmith. He is insightful and ever willing to share his thoughts on all matters. 

He is also a seafood enthusiast. Anything that comes out of the ocean is delicious to Theo. 

(When cousin Nick declined the offer to sample this freshly caught, raw conch, Theo happily took a bite. He described it as a "large, tasty, firm gummy worm".)

A few weeks ago, I was prepping salmon for dinner. Theo was drawn to the kitchen and seeing the fish, soy sauce, and garlic proceeded to pepper me with questions-

"Oh, is that soy sauce going to go on the salmon?" 

--- yes

"Mmm. That garlic will be great in there too." 

--- Thanks, Theo. I hope so.

"So, have you ever tried this recipe before?" 

--- Nope

"Yessss!" 

....

With a single word, he managed to express his thoughts on all previous dinner attempts I have ever provided.

Thanks, Theo.

Elder Jones

 And just like that, we're back. 

In October of 2023, Calvin left to serve in the Dominican Republic Santiago Mission. Every Monday afternoon we get to touch base with him over video chat.  His joy and enthusiasm for the mission is made apparent during our weekly conversations. We are incredibly proud of his willingness to serve. 

Recent highlights from Calvin:

- on top of Spanish, he is now learning Creole to better teach the Haitian people in his area

- air conditioning and hot water are rare, almost forgotten, comforts from home

- protein is vital for thriving- he averages almost a half dozen eggs per day

-the secret to life may be a consistent 8 hours of sleep of each night

- homecoming date is August 22nd, and planning to attend BYU in the Fall

Exploring Moab- Dead Horse Point

Though it was by no means a rough winter this year, it's always nice to get away to some place a bit warmer.  So when RB found out he had a three day weekend, we did some very last minute packing and hotel hunting and managed to make a quick trip down to Moab.

Since our last biking attempt wasn't what I'd call a huge success, I was a little skeptical about trying it again.  I, of course, was out voted though, so we located some "warm up" rides on the Moab Brand Trails.

Despite being on only a balance bike, Theo was able to manage the entire trail.  Pretty impressive since he basically ran the whole time.

Seeing that we all managed to survive the first day, we decided we were ready for some "real" trails at Dead Horse Point National Park.

The boys rode like champs.  Despite making a wrong turn somewhere and ending up on an 8 mile loop instead of a 3 miler

--big parenting FAIL right there--, everyone made it out alive...

  It was a loooong day of biking.

It was pretty enough to be worth it, though.  And with just the right amount of "fruit snack power-ups" everyone finished smiling.

***Full disclosure: This last pic was taken somewhere in the middle of the ride.  They most decidedly did not look this happy when we finally finished.  At some point along the end of riding Theo kept repeating, "I'll never make it.  I'll never make it.  Am I dying, Mom?"  ... but I choose to remember it this way instead.

BuckNuts

You may not know this about RB, but he kind of likes The Ohio State Buckeyes.  So when they made it to the first ever National Championship, it wasn't long before he figured out a way to make this happen:

And of course, he managed to get a few fellow fans to sit next to him--

namely, Anthony, Sidney, Opa, Uncle Wayne, and cousin Spencer,

Timmy from the good ol' BYU days,

and Jake from our Columbus days.

The littler fans back home wanted to join in the excitement too, so  I agreed to let Calvin invite a few buddies over for the game.  

Calvin proved to be an amazing party host.  

He supplied all of the decorations:

Carefully thought out the half-time entertainment:

 And created a menu that seemed to go over well with his guests:

As four little and one big boy told me before going to bed,

"It was a good night."

New Year's in St. George

For New Years this year we decided to head down to St. George with our good friends, the Crocketts.  They have four little boys as well, so it was pretty much a non-stop, how-can-we-wear-them-all-out weekend.

We started off by hiking around Snow Canyon:

The sand dunes were definitely a hit.

Despite this:

and this:

 The Crocketts lived in Columbus with us, so when the Sugar Bowl came on, it was time to head home and change into more appropriate colors.

It got a little intense at times but, luckily, there was a happy ending.

And then it was off to "bed".

We finished up the trip with checking out dinosaur tracks and doing a little off roading.  

It turns out, our Sequoia isn't all that great at being off road.  So we mostly just watched and let our boys take turns in "the cool car".

 You're welcome little boys... the next trip is going to involve a musical and museum. 

Ha, right. sniff. 

Christmas in July

Yes, it may be July now, but there are a few things I want to remember about this past Christmas.  One being that our boys were the perfect ages to REALLY get into it.  I think we were on Christmas countdown the day after Halloween.

In an attempt to make the move here to Salt Lake as easy as possible, we brought as little as possible.  Meaning very few Christmas decorations.  These little artists were happy to make up for what we lacked.

As we unpacked our fake tree and started decorating it, I noticed Malcolm staring at it a bit concerned.  He didn't say anything until it was all finished...

"So, mom, I thought when we put the ornaments and lights on the tree it would look bigger.  You know, like a regular Christmas tree?"

It's amazing to me the things they don't notice at times and the things they DO notice.  He got over our shrimpy tree eventually, well, pretty much anyway.

Each year RB's family does a hand made gift exchange.  While our family has become notorious for giving calendars and quilts, we decided to mix it up this year.  Here are Aunt Julia and Uncle Chris with their brand new, hand crafted nativity set.  The boys were very proud.

 

And perhaps one of the biggest highlights of all this Christmas, for this family anyway, was staying up late and watching this: