Grace's dream day

Grace's greatest dream, the one that I think she's had for the very longest, came true today.
And being there to watch it happen was pretty much the best.

In May, Grace tested to see if she would pass the requirements to be awarded her pointe shoes.
And even though we both knew she was beyond capable, we were quite sure it would take her
at least another year. She had only been taking pre-pointe for a few months and she's still only
eleven years old. So when we received the email that she had passed the test and would be
 getting her pointe shoes this summer, there was a whole lot of celebrating at our house.

And today was the day. She was invited by the two owners and teachers at her dance company,
along with their daughters and another dance friend, to go to the fitting appointment all together.
And it will be a favorite memory for all of us for a very long time to come.

Oh this Grace is the sweetest. I'm so thrilled for her. And so grateful for incredible women who
help our girl to live all of her dreams (that is not an exaggeration if you know how much
she loves dance), as well as to learn and grow, to stretch and challenge herself every day.

Oh I'm grateful for this dance company. And for our Gracie girl. It was a really good day at our house.

July service project

The July service opportunity was just the best. Not only because several of you contributed and
made it possible for this church group to continue to feed more than 150 people in the homeless
 community a filling lunch every week. But also because Jacob‘s uncle (but pretty much I claim
him as mostly my uncle because we are incredibly close and he’s one of my favorite humans
 in the whole wide world) joined us this morning at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd,
to help make those lunches. And Nate and Grace and I loved it so much.

Yes, delivering the food and helping assemble the lunches was wonderful, but also being around
the other amazing volunteers and mostly, spending time with Marty made for the best day. He’s just
our favorite. And his asking to join us this time when we volunteered was the absolute sweetest.

Oh these monthly projects have become such a blessing to me and I don’t have words for how grateful
I am God asked me to do them. He’s just the greatest. What a privilege to know Him and to love Him.

An amazing two and a half weeks

He’s off. To do humanitarian work and see the beautiful country of Cambodia for the next seventeen days.
No phone (love it) and no one he knows (yet). And it’s going to be the absolute best. I’m so excited for him.

These incredible boys

The way these boys played in their last game of the Park City tournament last night was
honestly unreal. It was truly just ninety minutes of pure joy. There is nothing as a parent,
quite like being so happy for your child, you feel like you could burst. I loved every minute of it.
Oh I'm grateful for our Nate—last night meant so much to him and he played his absolute
heart out. The whole team did. I'm just so thankful I could be there to watch it happen.

When you go outside...

...to weed the garden like you’re supposed to and the sky rewards you for good behavior.

Soccer tournaments and life lessons

Who this boy is choosing to be, how hard he works at soccer (and also in life) day in and day out, his decision to
choose kindness over and over again, how he keeps holding his head high when really difficult things happen, how he
never stops cheering for others and showing up when it matters, how he is working constantly to focus only on what he
can control (which is how he reacts) and not what he cannot (pretty much everything else)—goodness, it brings a mom
to tears. And the last three days of this particular soccer tournament sure showcased every one of these things.

Second place is not too shabby for a team of boys that were unlikely to make it into the championship at all and
if they did, were likely to lose by at least four or five (how many points the other team had beat every other team
in their group). So while taking the loss by one point in the last ten seconds of the game stung, proud would be
 an understatement when it came to how we all felt about these incredible boys. And especially for how I felt
about our Nate. I'm SO honored to know him and to love him. I can't believe I could possibly be the one
 that God loves enough to be his mom and his friend. I'll never stop being thankful for it.

I’m running out of ways to explain...

...just how happy she is this summer.

But it’s a lot. A whole lot.

This morning

I’m not sure it gets much more wonderful than being at the temple today, with our three youngest and
my Dad. To watch as Ben baptized Nate and Grace, on behalf of family members who lived long ago
(one as early as the 1300s). And then was baptized himself by another young man, for additional ancestors.

And then to be present as my Dad confirmed each of the kids, plus myself
(as they had a few extra names), for those same family members.

The sweetest morning, filled with so much gratitude for my absolute knowledge
that heaven is real and that God loves His children so very, very much.

Ben's great love

He prefers I keep the captions short, so I will just say, this boy and his love of disc golf is absolutely
 something else. Hours and hours of fieldwork a day, as many leagues as he can fit in throughout the
week (sometimes multiple leagues per day) and extra putting practice in the garage and backyard
 on the daily. It makes him so happy. Which makes me so happy. Oh our Ben Allen is the best.

June service project

Oh man, the June service project was so incredibly sweet. I was able to make two visits
to the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Ogden, dropping off several hundred dollars
worth of food for them each time, to use in their weekly sack lunches they make for the homeless
 and others in the community who might need them. And the second time I went, I had our three
 youngest with me, and they asked if we wanted to come in and help. So we spent the morning
there helping make the lunches to be distributed. It was truly the best. I’m so grateful for the
opportunity and for so many good people we are surrounded by that love others so well.

One incredible man

How could I ever fully convey how much this man means to me, how good he is to our family, how hard
 he works, how willing he is to do whatever it takes to help us all to be a better version of ourselves
(while still loving exactly who we are) and how he never stops giving, serving and loving? I simply can't. 

So I'll just say that our family could never be grateful enough to Jacob for this unreal trip I just finished
posting about. The amount of effort, research, money, time and love he put into planning and executing
this vacation could never be explained. All I know is that the hundreds of hours he spent preparing to
make it the most incredible trip ever, didn't even begin to account for how much he gave over the more
than two weeks we were away, to make it the best memory possible, for every single one of us. 

Oh this Jacob Allen, he's beyond something else.
And so far exceeds every expectation I didn't know I could have.

He never stops making all of our lives better and brighter. I never want to take that for granted.

Peru ~ Cusco edition

Our very last stop in Peru and on our vacation was Cusco. And it was a packed day and a half. 

We spent a good part of our time there watching a huge celebration in the city center
(apparently something they do every June for several days), walking a whole lot and taking
 the opportunity at the last restaurant we ate at to finally try cuy, all of us for the first time. 

(Also, do you love Cusco's flag that they fly absolutely everywhere?
Throughout Cusco, but also, it feels like in so many towns surrounding the city.
It's a huge deal and has been for more than five decades. It's fantastic.)

We also loved the sweetness of a little boy in the Cusco airport, Eli (and eventually darling Liam
who joined in), deciding Jacob was his best friend because Jacob kept doing magic tricks with him.
And the joy and excitement on this little guy's face was the cutest ever. I'm so sad that I didn't get
a picture of Jacob with him (although I do have a couple of videos that I love so much). But I did get
 some of him with our kids and the look on his face in that middle one does me in every single time. 

And finally, the very last photo on this post. Oh man, I will love that picture forever.

Those are our friends Maren and Stuart Bunderson. We first met them more than
 twenty years ago, when we lived in Missouri. They quickly became some of our favorite
people and close friends there and we have stayed in touch since that time.

Well almost exactly three years ago, Stuart and Maren were called as mission leaders of
the Cusco Peru Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And when we
found out we would be visiting Cusco, we reached out to them to let them know and to see
if they wanted to get together. We didn't want to put a bit of pressure on them, since we
knew they were finishing their mission soon and would be going home within a few days,
but we didn't want to be in their city and not even mention it to them.

Well, they were beyond kind and quickly let us know they would like to get together and
so the evening before we left, we went to dinner with them and it was the happiest night.
They are still just two of our favorite people ever and it was so, so wonderful to be with them.

Fast forward a couple of days when we were home and we received an invitation from Maren
to join the zoom call that would be their last weekly mission devotional before they went home.
 I was blown away by the privilege of being asked. And I don't have words to share how sweet
and sacred the whole thing felt to me. I shared my feelings with them in an email, so all I
will say here is, what a deeply profound honor that hour was for me. I won't ever forget it.

Peru ~ Urubamba edition

Our second to last stop was in Urubamba, or the Sacred Valley. And it was gorgeous.
The train ride alone, from Aguas Calientes to Urubamba, really was something else. And when
we arrived at the home Jacob rented for us, we were pretty smitten. It was beautiful in and
of itself, but also surrounded by some incredible views and gorgeous nature.

We spent our time there walking to and from dinner and the store in the dark (another incredibly safe
 place to visit), attending sacrament meeting with the good people of Urubamba (and singing the hymn
¡Grande eres Tú!, which touched my heart so deeply in the moment), visiting the markets in the area
(much larger and more colorful than any we had been to), enjoying the wood stove-heated hot tub out
back (at least the two youngest did) and taking a morning to hike to an ancient granary above the city,
followed by a picnic near a beautiful river (just so much gorgeousness in very few hours). 

It was a sweet couple of days in the Sacred Valley and we were thankful for it,
as well as excited to move on to our last area.