24 YEARS OLD!

I love this boy of mine. He's respectful, funny, kind, hard-working, polite, and creative. He's a movie lover and a movie critic. All he wanted for his birthday were the re-fillable movie theater drink cup and popcorn bucket. Can't wait to go to the movies with him. He loves music and Star Wars. His co-workers really like working with him. He's a good friend and he's a great big brother. Such a sense of humor. He and Allie crack me up. The Chileans love him, too. I think he served them well and with all of his big heart.

On his actual birthday, we went to dinner at Mo Bettah's Hawaiian food restaurant and went back home for cake. Edgell joined us for dinner. Kobi came over for cake and ice cream. Then Keenan and I had to head out for a wedding reception with Starlyn and Lee Hjorth.

My boy and his chocolate chip pound cake - his favorite

Kobi had just spent a week on the beach, Allie, Mitty, Kamiko, and Andrew Edgell

Dad's 80th

Dad's 80th birthday has been in the works for months. We decided upon Saturday, August 5. Derek and family, Kris and Doug, and Karen came into town. Kelly and family couldn't make it from Michigan/North Carolina.

me and Kris had a GREAT time together. She usually stays in Mapleton. I was lucky and got her in American Fork

Me and Rose

Baby Milo

Saturday morning walk with the Hunter girls and Annie Oswald

sleeping buddy

Friday night we went to tour the MTC. They have added new classroom buildings and they held a public tour. I got tickets for all of us to go. After the tour, we came to my house for BBQ pork sandwiches, potato salad, chips, and cake. It was also Ellie's 2nd birthday that weekend. She's James Sykes' little girl. It was fun to see all my siblings. We had a lot of fun together. Dad was a bit cranky. He gets that way at weddings, family photos, and graduations. It really took a toll on Kristen and mom more than any of us. I remember taking the brunt of the drama at a family reunion years ago. It's not fun.

Kris and Doug stayed at our house for a week. It was a blast. Karen came on Wednesday before the party and stayed here, too. Her family couldn't make it since school was starting soon. Since we had events on Friday and Saturday, Deb and Mark and Jen and family also stayed at my place on Friday night. I changed a lot of sheets. We sure had fun. We had every spare mattress on a floor in one place or another. We made the most of it and got a couple of sister walks in. We also enjoyed a sisters' trip to Walmart.

Saturday was the BIG day. We reserved a pavilion at a park here in American Fork. Everyone brought their own sack lunch, but we provided cake. I made a special carrot cake from Cake by Courtney's website. We surprised dad with visits from the Wasdens and Herrods and Erica and Ike Hunter for cake together. He was in a better mood on Saturday. Karen planned some fun games, including a human pinata. Clark had a tshirt on with candy attached to it. He ran and little kiddos ran after him to get candy. Scott was the pinata for the big kids.

Charlie plays corn hole

Clark, the human pinata

grandpa's special cake

Karen, me and Kris on a morning walk

Sisters Walmart run

Derek and Kenna visit

The big kids

Scott fights off Andrew, Kamiko, Christian, and Edgell (Kamiko's mission buddy that is ours now)

Hunters, Wasdens, and Herrods: friends since the 60's and before

Sunday we headed to mom and dad's for a BBQ and to see sweet Milo Hunter get blessed. That little guy is so cute. Derek and Rachel and kids came to stay at our house Monday until they left on Wednesday. Rose had spent the night one night before and had a blast with Allie. Those two are so cute. Allie is so good with her.

"The Incline"

In July, Keenan had a conference in Keystone, Colorado. It's the first (and probably last) conference I've gone to with him. More on that later.

I chose to go visit Karen in Highlands Ranch, about a 90 minute drive past Keystone, for the first part of the week. We had a BLAST. I got there Monday night. On Tuesday, we got up EARLY (5:00 am) to go on a hike before she had a meeting at 10:00 am. We figured we'd get to Manitou, park, get on the stairs, get down, and be back to her house by 10:00. Hahaha!

We got to Manitou to find that parking near the trailhead is very limited. We missed getting a parking spot, so we went into town to get free parking and a free shuttle. The hike we were doing was the Manitou Incline or known as just THE INCLINE. It's over 2,200 stairs that go up a mountain. So, we had a bit of a delay in parking the car and getting started. Then we began the ascent. I think the altitude got to me for a bit. I had to stop and felt nauseous. I drank some water and ate a bit and drank more water and felt better. What had taken Karen 75 minutes in May took us 90 minutes. Dang, we lost more time. It was quite the hike. Step after step. Karen can get me to do crazy things, that's for sure. She always finds a good challenge and I'm always up for it. After taking a few pictures at the top, we had to head down because it was already close to 8:30 and it was a 45 minute drive. Well, the walk down the back side of the incline is a nice trail, but not a short distance. It took us about an hour to get down. Good thing Karen's meeting was online. By this point, we were making plans to get to a Starbucks so she could log in and "attend." It was gonna be close, because we had to get to the bottom, get the shuttle (only comes every 20 minutes), and find a Starbucks.

Ready or not...here we go!

 

finally feeling better

the steps from near the top

The kid who took this pic ended up helping us get to our car

 When we got to the shuttle place, we found out it had just left. I recognized a young man that was getting into a car in the nearby parking lot. I asked him and his driver if we could hitch a ride to the lot where our car was. They were happy to give us a ride. The guy I recognized was 17, entering his senior year in high school. He was with his brother-in-law, in his 20's I would guess. They were so nice to take us. We got to Starbucks in time. Karen had her meeting, then we drove toward Highlands Ranch. We had to stop at another Starbucks for meeting #2. We also stopped at the outlet mall to find Colorado t-shirts. We finally got home in the afternoon. It had been quite the morning. Fun times with Karen. We also stopped at the Savor Spice shop, my favorite place for herbs and spices. I got a fantastic Bourbon Barrel Smoked Black Pepper that I've been making everyone smell when they come to my house. I'm such a cooking nerd.

We also ate at Panda Express and just had fun. I left Wednesday afternoon to head back to Keystone. I stopped at Savory Spice AGAIN to pick up a few more items. Their herbs and spices are so fresh and unique. They make great gifts. Cathy Voorhees needed more Mt. Elbert, the awesome all purpose seasoning salt we LOVE.

When I got to Keystone, I found out the conference included all of Keenan's meals and entertainment through Thursday. I was very tempted to head back to Karen's house. I made the most of it, though. I went on a paddle board. I'd always wondered if those were hard or not. It wasn't hard. I also went on long walks and ate what leftovers Keenan brought back for me. It wasn't my favorite couple's retreat, for sure, but Keystone is pretty. I was happy to get on the road Friday morning.

Don't worry. I was on a bridge above this momma and baby moose. It was pretty cool, though.

Tomo and Reo

On the evening of July 4 we picked up 2 Japanese exchange students that were to be ours for a couple of weeks. They are from Saitama, Japan and are both 19, almost 20. They came for an automotive program at UVU. It was our responsibility to show them what family life is like in America, to get them to and from school, and to feed the breakfast and dinner.

The boys spoke VERY LITTLE English, but we managed, especially after Allie started using google images. We would just show them pictures of things to see if they liked it or not or if they wanted to try it or not. Brooke Walker also downloaded an app on her phone that allowed her to speak in English and it translated what she said into Japanese. We used google translate a lot, too, just typing what we wanted to say and having them read it. Clark House, Kamiko's friend who served a mission in Japan, came over one night and that was great. He talked to them a bit, explaining that they could eat anything in the fridge, freezer, or pantry and that they didn't have to eat anything if they didn't want to.

We sure crammed a lot into the 13 days they were with us. We did the following:

JCW's burgers
BYU foods lab
Orem Owlz game
Tibble Fork in American Fork Canyon
Bridal Veil falls
Rockwell Ice Cream
Shave ice
Fireworks and BBQ on the 4th
Timpanogos cave
Temple Square (there was a Japanese sister who took them on a tour)
7 Peaks for a couple of hours
American Fork Antique Car Show
Winco
Walmart
Music and the Spoken Word
Church at our ward
Traverse Mountain Outlets
Carheads Automotive to meet our mechanics
Chick fil-A, it was cow appreciation day so we made them dress like cows to get a free entree
Ping pong and baseball at Watkins'
Lots of time with Kamiko, Allie, Brooke, Kobi, and other friends
Family bbq before they left with lots of Chileans invited

I would totally do it again. We had a great time. The boys were so nice and genuinely appreciative of what we did. I wrote a more detailed blog post about their visit. Here's the link: http://www.2womenofacertainage.com/how-to-host-short-term-exchange-students/

Highlights:

seeing Tomo put the brochure he got at Temple Square in his backpack
finding out that our boys scored #1 and #2 on their exam
watching them try root beer
seeing them enjoy the fresh smell of Provo Canyon
watching Reo sleep anywhere and everywhere
figuring out how to pull up hymns in Japanese so they would know what we were singing about
the kindness of the Watkins family (baseball, ping pong, dogs, video games, etc.)


Here are lots of pictures!

The apple pie I made for Tomo. Reo didn't like sweets much.

Reo and Tomo at Temple Square

Tomo and Reo with Keenan, watching antique cars cruise main st.

At Music and the Spoken Word. Reo slept.

Cow Appreciation Day. 

In a paddle boat at Tibble Fork with Starlyn

Playing video games at Watkins

Enjoying burgers at JCW's

Reo's farewell Instagram post

Brock Watkins was nice enough to give Tomo one of his bats. Tomo is a huge baseball fan. Brock and Tomo also threw a ball together and batted off their T in the garage. 

Reo hanging with Mitty. Both the boys loved the cat. Tomo has a cat at home.

Day #1 Hokulia Shave Ice. The boys were tired, but we needed to stay awake for fireworks.

Temple Square: Keenan, me, Allie, Reo, Tomo, Kobi, Brooke

Tibble Fork Gang: Erin, Starlyn, me, Keenan, Reo, Tomo, Kobi and Erin's roommate

Relaxing at Tibble Fork with Kob and Keenan

Just before we dropped OUR boys off. What a great time!