This weekend was so perfect for these boys! While the girls were having fun back home, these guys played soccer, swam, played football, tumbled, played basketball, attended the biggest church meeting ever, went to an inspiring fireside, met up with some old/new friends, ate cafeteria food and bonded more than ever! So glad Kyle took the time away from work and set this up before Jack was too old to attend!
We chatted with friends for nearly two hours before heading home to pop some corn and watch and episode of The Chosen. Next up was finishing the manicures we started earlier and dinner. We planned our morning before going to bed.
Executing our plan was easy-watch Somewhere in Time, eat more blueberry pancakes, make a giant heart shaped cookie to celebrate the boys returning and wait for their arrival! It was a great weekend-glad we made our time together special!!
The food was never ending throughout the camp. The boys enjoyed their snacks more than their meals while Kyle reminisced about his cafeteria meal days while attending his first semester of college.
Ava hasn’t done anything active in two months and hasn’t surfed on the lake since last summer. Norah was at flowrider a few weeks ago for a birthday party. I haven’t surfed at the lake since last summer! FYI surfing at the lake is completely different from surfing at flowrider, but somehow we did it! All three of us went out with the help of a rope and stayed up for awhile after letting go!!
It felt amazing to be able to surf out there! A couple of teenage boys were in the session with us, neither of which was able to get up on the surfboard and body boarded the entire hour!! The girls and I were getting out so well we decided to try to let ourselves out on the rope-which we did and stayed up!
Our final challenge was to get out by ourselves with no rope and stay up-Norah went first and soon she and Ava were surfing like pros! It took me a little longer, but my very last run before our time was up, I did it and surfed to the side without falling! It felt amazing to conquer a fear and then dominate it!!
We all felt amazing afterwards and headed to dinner, followed by a milkshake from Sonic, recommended by grandpa, and some shopping at Hobby Lobby and Target. It was a perfectly girly day!!
The one and a half hours it took us to hike the 3 mile, 700 feet of elevation gain trail was spent chatting and laughing with these beautiful girls!! It is so fun to be together doing fun things without the boys!!
Today we tried to sleep in and ate breakfast on our hike to the waterfall by the environmental center waterfall!
These cuties both ended the year at the top of their classes! Both Ben and Norah are such smart, honest and hard working kids that these teachers loved having a Komenda kid in their class this year!!
Norah either drew and edited pictures or simply printed out fun logos and made them into these glossy professional looking stickers! She used label sheets and tape to make them official stickers and was able to unload all 60+ of them at her 6th grade trade days! No one in our family has ever had this much success at a trade days! Way to go Norah!
I never got a picture of Ava on this special occasion, but was reminded of the Sunday spent a month ago with Ava while she received her Patriarchal Blessing. I have been to my own blessing 20+ years ago and have read Kyle’s but hearing your daughter’s special blessing from a loving Father in Heaven through an ordained patriarch was 10,000 better!
Being reminded of the divine heritage Ava has and displays daily was so precious! It was easy to feel the Spirit in the room before the blessing when we discussed the role Heavenly Father has in all aspects of our lives, especially small details. The Spirit was there when Kyle and I were able to describe vocally this sweet daughter of God and the Spirit was there when we heard the blessing intended for Ava!
I loved hearing what was in store for Ava both in this life and the next one and to remember what purpose we have on this Earth! Ava was fasting and probably had one of the most uplifting hours of her life today-so glad Kyle and I were able to share it with her!
Mother’s Day was wonderful, so much fun being a mom on Mother’s Day! After another crazy day I headed to the airport and got into Chicago around 10:30 A short drive and walk later I was ready for bed.
I was able to spend the day with Cassie and Amber as well as mom before heading to Michigan with Cass for a whirlwind couple of days we had overhauled all the last minute details, met with property managers, organized, staged and photographed the house! We left a few projects undone, but were able to complete previous ones that were left undone.
Kyle and the kids spoiled me with beautiful cards, delicious homemade truffles and creative signs!! Getting up early, again, for church was so much more sweet when I came hone to all of this!!
I quickly got to work looking for a dress online for Ava, no small feat. We found a couple options and they were waiting for us when we got home from FL. None of them fit the bill though, so we hit the online sites again and found a few options from Amazon of all places!
When the dresses arrived Ava selected the printed one and the shoes and petticoat we found were a perfect compliment. Having the dress/shoes figured out was a huge relief as the dance was 2 days away!
When the big day came, Ava headed out for her day date to an indoor game place around 9:15 and didn’t get back until 4:45!! The 35 minutes she had before her date picked her up was spent washing and styling her hair as well as ironing her dress and figuring out pose that were friendly but still cute!
The picture turned out beautiful with the backdrop and darling couple before Ava headed out for her dinner and the dance. The dinner took longer than expected, getting Ava to the dance and through the line to enter with only an hour to party! Her date got her home just in time for curfew!! Andrew seems like a great guy and Ava said she had so much fun all day long!!
We had to forgo the traditional BB8 pizza to celebrate the Lakers’ important win last night over some Lakers’ concession inspired hot dogs!! It was a fun day that ended with the first 45 minutes of the Force Awakens!!
Ava has been making incredible progress and even got the green light to be more active, including jumping on the trampoline! The dr will assess the stress caused by the increase in activity at our next appointment and we will go from there!
Something special happens when we have a home cooked meal, especially after fasting all day! The chicken fried chicken was delicious accompanied by the mashed potatoes and corn!
