Graduation

Before graduation we had to figure out how Justin was going to do his "full" in a gown with all the decorations on it, a cap, and slippery shoes on a stage.  It took a bajillion pins but we finally got it figured out.

As a freshman in high school Justin set a challenge for himself: to do a standing full on stage at his graduation. I didn't know about this goal until just a couple of weeks before. As he walked up on stage, I found myself holding my breath just like I did at every gymnastics and/or cheer event over the past 10 years, and I offered a silent prayer. 

The person reading the graduates names whispered to him, "you ready for this?" He nodded, took a couple more steps, removed his cap, and did a perfect standing full. When he donned his cap and walked over to accept his diploma cover, the principal shook his hand and said, "well done".

So well done! 

No gown, tassel, shoes, or slippery stage could get in the way of this boy and his determination and skill.

We were honored to hang out with our honors graduate, his high school career complete with a 4.20 GPA, an academic scholarship, 11 waived college math credits (that's nearly a full semester!), and a cheer scholarship to Weber State University.

After graduation and before he left for the senior all-night party, we stopped by Kiwi-Loco for our last high school frozen yogurt celebration. When we got home he stood near the kitchen and his halo appeared, confirming my hunch that he is near teenage perfection.

Justin finished the last two months coaching his Airbound Gymnastics kids and though he thought he was burning out after 3 years of coaching and was ready to move onto the next phase of life, he found that he was a little sad to leave.

I put together an 8.5 x 11 booklet with this collage on the front cover and blank pages inside and left it at the gym during the week after he had moved to Utah.  His gym kids wrote the kindest notes! Even some of the coaches and moms left encouraging and gratitude filled words for him. 

When I gave him his book a couple of weeks later he teared up as he sat and read through his card. As much as his gym kids loved him, he also loved working with them. 

Our Madison Bobcat has grown into a Weber Wildcat.

He wears the purple and black proud and they are lucky to have him. After all, Boise State and Utah State also wanted him.

Justin's Senior Pictures

That smile gets to me every time!

When Justin and Kayla went to Boise for a tour of BSU and BSU cheer tryouts, we decided to turn the trip into a photo shoot so that we could use our favorite photographer, Michelle Ray. She had done senior pictures for Levi, Erika, Vivien, and Derek, as well as the past six years of family pictures for us and we couldn't imagine anyone else doing senior pictures for Justin.

Spencer and Michelle were kind enough to let us stay at their place which gave Michelle and I time to visit while they were on campus and then we spent the next morning doing pictures around Meridian. Michelle doesn't just takes photos, it's an experience full of laughter, jokes, borderline inappropriateness, and the pictures come back to us with full memories attached.

It was a real struggle to choose which pictures I would post here so I lumped them into categories.

 His Smile

and as Michelle requested, his smolder.


Our Music Man

Working the street for a little college funding.


The Cheerleader

They take this gig seriously!


"It looks like he's . . . leaning." 

Sit Skills . . . and don't forget the smolder.

A healthy dose of silliness,

and time with his girl, Kayla.

It is quite evident by this post that I can't choose a favorite picture to hang on the wall and I had the same problem when Levi had his senior pictures taken. I decided with Levi's pictures that I would do a book of all the pictures, which I have done for each of my seniors.

It wasn't until we were looking through all the printed books that we found twinner pictures of Derek and Justin doing the same goofy pose with their guitars.

Michelle did not tell them to do that, she's just quick with the camera to catch candid silliness.


Our love for Michelle grew even more when we received the CD of originals in the mail. The front cover had us laughing hysterically.

Evidently she got a little carried away with editing but we absolutely loved the result.  Staring at Justin's face over and over again seems to have created a mild crush on him, which I completely understand and have a similar problem with.

Memorial Day and Bear World

Grandpa Jessie Evans served in World War I

Grandpa Vern Fullmer served in World War II

We spent our Memorial Weekend at Grandpa Jesse and Grandpa Vern's graves as well as telling stories and visiting the graves of some of our other Evans and Fullmer grandparents. Hyrum always loves hearing stories about Grandpa Jesse because he is named after him and Grandpa also spent many of his younger years in Hibbard (like Hyrum), even being baptized in a river somewhere out here in Hibbard.

It was nice to share the experience with Max and Zane since these are their grandparents as well.

Sandwiched between our Saturday visit at the Menan Cemetery and our Sunday visit at the Sugar City Cemetery, we had a picnic in Idaho Falls and visited Bear World.

This poor bear gets fingers up his nose every time we are there. Such a boy thing!

Feeding the deer never gets boring, it's actually quite relaxing being around such a serene animal. We learned this trip not to touch their fuzzy antlers because they have hundreds of nerve endings in them and it hurts them when touched. That's why they jump back or jerk their head away if your hand goes near their antlers.

The highlight of Bear World every time!

We always have at least one we want to take home with us, and we usually have at least one who wanders right next to the van. How can something so cuddly and soft with gentle eyes and a huggable face be so dangerous?

On Sunday we took a drive over to the nature park where we had scooter races and our monkey boys hung out in the trees.

MAY

Erika, Kailee and Derek came for a brief visit so that Erika and Derek could participate in the final concert conducted by Mr. Hansen, the orchestra teacher. All previous students of Mr. Hansen were invited for a come-back performance and a farewell for his retirement. I admit, it left me teary watching them play violin and cello on stage again.

Nathan was so excited to have Derek home with his cello. Nathan first played a couple of his piano songs to which Derek improvised to make it a duet and then they pulled out the 5th grade music and Derek once again created his own version of the song so they could play together. It was the perfect boost Nathan needed to renew the excitement that he'd had at the beginning of his orchestra year.

It's adorable to see them glancing at each other out of the corner of the eye waiting to see who was going to start. It provided a good laugh and then Nathan counted them in.

My Little Fish

Nathan and Hyrum can each swim the full length of the pool, do back stroke, and are learning how to dive with Rolayne Waldron, their swim instructor.

Aaaah, Sweet Summer!

Finally!! The weather is warm enough for a lemonade stand!

The boys raked it in during their first attempt. Other neighbor kids have had a stand at the entrance of the subdivision so it was our turn. However, we were determined to change the reputation of our local country corner. Previous stops to support our neighbors left us with a bitter, bland, warm, or barely-there lemonade experience so our plan was to please the senses, spark the insulin, and carbonate the belly. Hyrum decided to make the "secret family recipe" round in the family cookbook and headed off to the stop sign to impress the neighborhood. Fizzy Raspberry Lemonade did the trick!

Hyrum even had the brilliant idea to use our tiny paper cups for free samples which got rave reviews and brought on additional sales and repeat customers at 50 center per cup. When the goods were gone and mess cleaned up they counted their loot and behold... $28!! Not bad for a couple of hours greeting friends on the corner. They were very impressed with how they had turned $6.28 worth of product into $28, and were very happy to split the profit.

Spring Soccer

Nine consecutive Saturday mornings ranging from wind, rain, frost, and extremely low temperatures to sunny and warm, with one satisfied sporty boy burning his energy and going for the goal.

Sporty Flashback

Derek age 11   ~    Justin age 9

Back in the day, the chosen summer sport was baseball. . . at least for one year. 

Derek and Justin each gave it a good effort but each found it was not their thing. 

Derek's passion was in that wooden, leaning shed behind him where he spent hours working with wood, tools, and piles of recycling to create the inventions his mind came up with. Being in the middle of an extreme growth spurt didn't make baseball fun for him. Running hurt because he is flat-footed and throwing hurt because he felt like his elbows would pop apart. 

Justin found that he truly preferred gymnastics and standing in a field or dugout just did not burn the energy busting inside him. He struggled when team members whined and didn't put in their best effort. Gymnastics was all on him and he wanted to improve and do his best. 

Summer came full of sunshine and green grass, enticing us to soak in its rays and roam barefoot in our beloved acre of the world. A freshly tilled garden calmed my anxious excitement of all the big events coming in the next few weeks. My calloused hands and newly planted rows were the trophies that I proudly cared for.

Nathan and Hyrum joined in the gardening care as they treated their individual apple trees with additional water and words of encouragement for a bounteous harvest.

Our cheerful innocence, as we took pleasure in each day, was sorely met by the notorious winds that tend to sweep through Rexburg.  For the second year in a row the playhouse lost its battle against the blustery gusts as it toppled once more to a heap on the ground.

Weakened through the torture of such a tumble twice over, it was time to turn the 2-story Chattel house into a single story Rambler. Derek took over construction with Daymia as his apprentice.

Levi took over the grill while Hyrum set up a full picnic and together they provide our first outdoor dinner of many throughout the summer.

Our productive evening ended with a volley of jokes, laughter, and occasionally, the ball.

This family of mine is pure joy! They are my laughter, my heart, and my forever!