Wednesday: Happy Birthday, Liam!

Jena started the day with her first job site experience with her trainer from CHOICES job skills training at the DI.  She saw some people that she had worked with years ago as a young missionary which was fun for her.  Gary picked her up as I had a meeting with Brandon Hatch, the CEO of DBH as we prepared for an upcoming public hearing on some Mental Health stuff in our state.  Brandon lives in our ward and is actually the other Gospel Doctrine teacher with me and was our former Bishop so we have many ties with each other. I will be taking the lead on some activities for parents of adult children with mental health issues. It is because of our friendship and connections that I think Brandon is willing to take a big step into the unknown to make a difference for families of those with psychosis related illnesses.  I am sure there will be more about that later.  However, we had a great meeting talking about priorities in our state and he gave some good guidance on things to highlight during my public statement.

As we tried to find the best time to have cake and ice cream with Liam, we settled on Wednesday afternoon at our house.  That way, Gary could slip away as he needed to attend his last training for the Syracuse Temple which is going to be dedicated in just a few hours (we are so excited.)

Anyway, back to the cake--Liam is a big minecraft fan so that was the theme of his cake.

So cute and yummy, too.

Jena made a poster for Liam's birthday and using her phone drew him a Batman symbol

This coffee table has been around since 1989--from Hong Kong. It is getting worn on the top, but still solid and the perfect size for playing games with grandkids...or opening presents as in this case. It was fun to share our new space with them.

We also had Minecraft paper plates, but no pictures.  He told me he had a great birthday turning 10!

Wednesday was a good and productive day! On to Thursday.....

Tuesday Travels

We headed up to Ogden to pick up Liam for a pre-birthday breakfast lunch.  He loves IHOP so we headed to one near his home.  It is actually is the same place Jena and I took Jessica for lunch a couple of weeks ago.  Like Mother, Like Son--in this case.  He knew immediately one thing he wanted Cinnamon "somethings."  They had had them over a year ago when they went to IHOP in California during their vacation.  I looked through the menu and we found them Cinnamon Dippers. He was so excited.

Doing the puzzles on the children's menu

Our selfie--which I love

It's your birthday lunch with Grandma.
You can choose whatever side you want.
French fries and pancakes...

Liam's Breakfast lunch with his dippers as well

When Jena and I picked up Liam, Alex was telling me where she and Carter wanted to go for their lunch in September and Zander was giving his input for his December birthday.  It made me happy that they want to spend time with us.  We won't do this every year, but I thought this first year back, I wanted to do the lunch thing.  Our out of state grandchildren will get visits with us this year and maybe we can work in a lunch as well.  Last time we visited Scarlett and family, she was the one who informed us that the girls all had to do lunch together.  We will keep that tradition going in some form or another as well.

We made it back home from lunch for me to start cooking sloppy joes for Jena's Cast party that night and then for me to attend my weekly Zoom meeting with the Utah Shattering Silence Coalition as we prepare for upcoming hearings and a symposium in September.

Then Jena and I were off again to travel to Centerville for her cast party. It was a beautiful night for a picnic. It was so great to talk to parents--old friends who we have loved and connected with over the years, not just in Friend to Friend, but Special Olympics, school, and Utah Down Syndrome Foundation.  We didn't know when Jena entered our family, just how much our lives were going to expand outwards.  Just a blessing....

And If you think watching them perform on stage is amazing, you should see them line up and sing along with songs of their choices.  With an outstanding DJ and music system, we enjoyed about 2 hours of singing, dancing, and singing along.  We gave the park joggers and other visitors a very unique but amazing show, I am sure.  Makes me excited as we are intending to start again our yearly Early New Years Eve Family Party in December.  I intended to get on that DJ's schedule in the next couple of weeks.

Jena watching the show for a bit

and then she started dancing and singing as well.

Jena got the mic for the ending song from their show Deny Gravity...Here she is saying the opening words by Witch Glenna with a bit of coaching....and then they all sang and danced their hearts out.  Oh, how we love them all!

One of the moms reminded me that I was the first person she talked to who had a child with Down Syndrome.  She had gotten a prenatal diagnosis and had reached out to our phone number which I happened to answer.  We talked for an hour or more.  She said that she hadn't even ever known or even really seen a person with Down syndrome.  Later meeting Jena was so helpful to her as she and her husband processed their surprise and their grief as they waited for their sweet son to arrive. Finn is a ball of joy and they are so grateful for him and the life they have built around him. I had forgotten that she was one of the moms I had talked to in that situation over 11 years ago, but it is good to know that in a small tiny way, it mattered to them. We matter to each other!! Never forget that.

Monday Moments

Monday morning, Jena and I surprised each other by both wearing our Arkansas Eclipse shirts, so of course, we had to take a picture. 

photo credit to Gary

Monday morning, I got to watch the five little kids of one of the sisters I minister to--They range in age from 2 to 10.  I grabbed three books from our newly organized library wall to read to them along with a couple of other activities and we had a great time.  They loved the books which were new to them, but ones that my kids or grandkids have enjoyed.  I love little kids.

Then Monday evening, Gary and I headed to Centerpointe Theatre to watch Jena perform in her second show with her Friend to Friend cast.  Fun music and made me want to actually see Wicked which I haven't wanted to because I was never a Wizard of Oz fan (I think I was at one point as a child, but then when you watched it once a year when it came on network TV with your whole family because you have 7 younger siblings so there was always someone who wanted to see it, it got a bit old. Ironic to think about now with VHS, DVDs and now streaming, my children probably have watched certain shows many more times than the 12 or so Wizard of Ozs we watched together as a family in the 60s and 70s.. Times change.

Jena in "Popular"

The boys did a fun number called "Dancing Through Life"
It was so fun.

Again, so grateful for this program and the leadership and coaches which make it work.  Jena has already reminded us that it starts back the Friday after Labor Day.

Time Is Flying By So Fast

Why is that?  While we were serving our missions, many times time was fast, but there were days and weeks which past slowly.  Now it seems like time just whizzes on.

When I sat down to download my pictures, my first thought was these are from a week ago, I must not have erased them from my phone.  Nope--these are things which all happened in the past 7 days--Unbelievable!

I assume this is a function of getting older, but maybe it is just my own experience.  Let me know when you get older, if the same thing happens to you!  I can still remember watching the clock in my 6th grade classroom and it feeling like "forever" for the minutes to tick to the end of the class day OR waiting for Christmas or a vacation seemed to be so hard. Not any longer......