Trevon Leaves the Nest

This past Monday we threw Trevon a surprise party for his birthday (which is tomorrow).

We made him a yummy carrot cake from scratch, decorated the house, shared a few gifts with him (including TEXTING for his phone), and had a BBQ. This was the day Sae came to stay with us too.

On Wednesday he headed to Orem, where he will be going to college. We said our good-byes:

Trevon is in the honors program at Utah Valley University and was blessed to get an honors housing scholarship as well. He shares an apartment with two guys (at the moment), Brick and Josh, and has his own bedroom. Mike went up north with him to help him get settled, but Trevon had everything figured out and Mike was more of a tag along! Here are a few photos of his apartment and room:

 Mike's brother owns a pizza restaurant in Provo and Trevon has already started working there. He has enjoyed it so far, with some of his co-workers attending BYU. On Thursday night, they were pleasantly surprised to visit with Mike's cousins who were in town for Education Week at BYU. They met at SLAB Pizza and had a GREAT visit together.

It is hard to believe that the time has come for Trevon to leave home. He has been so excited about being on his own; grown-up and self-sufficient. We are so pleased with the young man he has grown into and look forward to watching the rest of his life unfold. WE LOVE and MISS YOU TREVON!

Sae

We are happy to introduce our exchange student Sae (pronounced "sigh") Mitsuke, from Fukui Japan. She doesn't speak much English, but we are able to communicate fine and have enjoyed getting to know her. She has an older and a younger brother and lives in an apartment. She is thirteen and likes pizza and music. She also likes strawberries and chocolate cake. She can play the piano. Her favorite colors are pink and yellow. She will be with us for two weeks, spending most of her days going on field trips and English classes.

Show Low

On Monday, July 23rd we took our family to Grandma and Papa's cabin in Linden AZ (near Show Low). We were hardly out of the car when the kids found a tree house to climb into!

Here we are enjoying the cool night time air, watching a beautiful electrical / thunder storm in the sky.

 On Tuesday, Grandma (with Mike and Sadie) made us a yummy breakfast of sausage, eggs, waffles and orange juice. The kids enjoyed chasing lizards, grasshoppers, and this horny toad! I found a rabbit too!

Trevon found this rocket in Papa's things and spent some time putting it together. He and Cameron played with the air-soft guns too.

 After enjoying a Mexican dinner with Papa and Grandma out on the town, we watched the beautiful sunset.

 On Wednesday, Papa put the boys to work, helping him clean off his driveway.

 I had to get a picture of him with his bumper sticker : Lord, deliver us from ObamaCare!

 Taking a quick rest in the hammock before heading up to Big Lake, one of our most favorite places!

 We decided to make a picnic lunch and take it to Big Lake. The girls made sandwiches while the boys were working. The flowers near the lake were beautiful. We were happy to find that last year's wildfire had not destroyed as much of the forest as we thought.  Big Lake was still beautiful!

 It was a nice day for a picnic.

 

Trevon tried to catch some crawdads ...

 

 ...and he caught a couple! Here's a BIG one! So much fun to watch and do.

Mike showed the kids how to skip rocks:

 

 We had a GREAT time.

Back at the cabin, the boys played. Corban enjoyed "racing" Cameron - Cameron on the bike and Corban on foot! The girls spent some of their time reading and watching a movie.

 Trevon and Mike went to work to repair a couple of sunroofs on Papa and Grandma's camper trailer.

 That night, we played games together. Yahtzee was not a favorite of Corban's as he had to wait too long for his turn to come around! Grandma shared some yummy cheese and caramel flavored popcorn with us.

 One of my favorite things was waking up to see Trevon and Corban in their pajamas, putting up the American Flag outside our bedroom window. Trevon would have his brothers help him raise and lower the flag every day.

 Uncle David, Jordan and Dillan were able to spend some time with us on Thursday. We went to Woodland Lake Park in Show Low. There were lots of ducks on the lake. I enjoyed walking through a wooded area. The younger kids had fun playing on the playground.

 We found some big, furry cattails down by the lake. The kids thought they looked just like hot dogs on a stick and so they pretended to cook them over the grill.

 It was another fun day together. We enjoyed a little sprinkling of rain and the sound of thunder while we were in Show Low. After the park, Papa took us to lunch at Wendy's. THANK YOU PAPA!

 Later that night (back at Papa and Grandma's) Mike made everyone some peach cobbler.

 Trevon shot off a couple of rockets. We had fun watching them.

 The boys pose in the apple tree. They sure did have fun together. They played all over the yard, shooting the air-soft guns at each other.

 We returned home on Friday night. On Saturday night, Trevon helped us make woof-ums in the backyard. The AZ mountains were still with us, and we weren't quite ready to let them go!