Purple Belt

 Kayden advanced from an orange belt to a purple belt.  I got to go see him show off his moves, skill and all that he as learned over the past few months.  He did great!

The belt ceremony.  Kayden paid respect to his old belt and welcomed his new belt.

Happy 23rd!

Jeremy and I have been married for 23 years!  We decided to take the kids that were home (Jaxon is still at EFY) and go hiking in the Unitas.  We drove up through Kamas and then up into the mountains and hiked up to Wall Lake.  That is where Jeremy had taken the boys backpacking before.  It was a beautiful simple hike and very enjoyable.

Kadyen and I enjoyed sitting by the lake and skipping rocks while Jeremy and Josh climbed up to a ledge to consider jumping off into the water.  Brrrr!

 Here we are enjoying the view and each other from the cliff that Josh and Jeremy were on.

Josh and Jeremy atop the ledge for jumping.  Josh originally said he would do it if Jeremy did, but then Josh changed his mind.

 

 Jeremy opted to jump anyway.  Crazy guy.

It was a great way to spend the morning celebrating 23 years of marriage!

On the way down the mountain we stopped by to see Provo River Falls.  I had never seen it before and it was wonderful!

Josh and Kayden at the falls.

Then on the way home we stopped in Kamas and had some lunch.  We ate at a little pharmacy called Hi-Mountain.  They had some great burgers and shakes.  We loved it and will definitely have to make our way back there again....maybe for our 24th anniversary!

Farewell Elder

Good-byes are hard.  Especially when it is your oldest son leaving for two years.  But the time has come and gone and McKay is officially serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Lima, Peru.  Here are some events leading up to his departure:

 

McKay and Jeremy had one last arm wrestle to see if McKay could finally beat his dad.

 McKay couldn't win left handed either.  His dad still has it!

McKay gave a great farewell talk in church.  He was overly worried about the talk because it was supposed to be 10-15 minutes with the subject being prophets.  I told him to say what he wanted to say and call it good.  His talk was about 8 minutes and was perfect.   After church, we had friends and family over for lunch to wish McKay well and to spend time with him before he leaves.

 

 Here is McKay with two of his best friends, Justin and Parker.

 The Haacke's came down from Idaho.

  

 Group hug!

A lot of other people came to the house after, but when you house is so full and you are enjoying everyone being there, you forget to take pictures.

 Emma, McKay's cousin, wasn't able to make it to his farewell, so she came to visit him the next day before he left.  They are good friends!

Monday night our stake president, President Juchau, came to the house to set McKay apart.  He asked each of us to go around and say something about McKay.  It was tender.  Jaxon came home from EFY to see McKay set apart and to send him off at the airport.

These two brothers are the best of friends and watching them hug it out after McKay was set apart was hard on a mom's heart.

We had to leave for the airport at 4:00 AM to get McKay there on time for his 7:00 AM flight.  One last picture at home before departure.

And he is off!  A piece of my heart will be wandering around Peru for the next two years.  You can follow McKay's adventures at eldermckaywhite.blogspot.com.

EFY 2018

Jaxon and Jake at EFY 2018.  Go get 'em boys!

Josh's First Shave

Good-bye peach fuzz!

Kaleb

Our family was lucky enough to get to know this young man:

This is Kaleb.  He and his family moved into our ward when Kaleb was 12.  Kaleb was diagnosed with cancer when he was in fourth grade.  He had beaten it once but was diagnosed again just before moving into our ward.  He was one of Jeremy's deacons and his sister McKenna was in my primary class.  Kaleb and McKenna came to church with us almost every week for a couple of years while they lived here.  Jaxon and Kaleb became close friends and they loved to hang out together.  Kaleb beat cancer again but was only in remission for a couple of months before he had another relapse.  He kept finding ways to beat cancer, but cancer kept finding it's way back to Kaleb.  McKenna and Kaleb moved about 15 minutes north of us but Jaxon and Kaleb still got together quite often and Jaxon would visit Kaleb in the hospital and they would play Xbox together online.  Kaleb's family loves Jaxon and knew that Jaxon would light up Kaleb's day.  Kaleb passed away on June 12, just a couple of  months short of his 16th birthday.  The morning of Kaleb's passing we were able to take Jaxon up to Kaleb's house so that Jaxon could say good-bye.  It was one of the hardest things that I have ever done as I know that Jaxon's heart was broken.  Jaxon had been on the the Xbox with Kaleb just the night before and Jaxon knew that Kaleb wasn't doing well.  I am thankful that they had that time together that night before Kaleb passed.

The afternoon Kaleb died, we decided to go to Chick-fil-A, one of Kaleb's favorite restaurants, to toast chicken nuggets to Kaleb.

This is the display that the family had set up at Kaleb's viewing and funeral.  It was everything that Kaleb loved.  The display also showed all of Kaleb's history with cancer.

A poem written and read at Kaleb's funeral by Todd Gurney, our bishop while the Heaps family lived in our ward.

 They asked Jaxon to be a pallbearer for Kaleb.

Jaxon and his friends truly mourned.  They drew comfort from each other (right).  It was heart wrenching, yet I drew comfort from them as they comforted each other.

This is a great group of friends.  From left to right: Jake, Jaxon, Hailey, Savannah, Mia, Brinlee, Maya, Megan and Brin.  They left the luncheon and went to Costa Vida for lunch, another one of Kaleb's favorite eating spots.

Bucket List Trip to Angel's Landing

There were a few things that were on McKay's bucket list before he left on his mission.  One of those was to hike Angel's Landing in Zion's National Park.  So McKay and Jeremy hopped in the truck for a quick trip down south.  They spent the night in St. George and then got up early and went hiking.

The climb is quite narrow at at times requires you to hang on to a chain. 

At the top of Angel's Landing.  Jeremy and McKay had a good time with just the two of them and were able to have some good chats.

I Love to See the Temple

McKay got to go inside the temple tonight to receive his own endowments in preparation of serving his mission to Peru.  It was surreal to be in the temple with him.  It also brought back the memories I had of when I went to the temple for the first time.  McKay's mission departure date has been moved up from July 17 to June 27.  Families are forever and I am forever grateful!

Trip Out East

The summer started with a bang as we jumped on a plane to New Jersey as soon a McKay's graduation ended.  We took a red eye flight (NO FUN) to Philadelphia and then drove on to Aunt Caprice and Uncle Scott's house just in time to see Cousin Shane get married to Kait.  Despite our exhaustion from our travels, it was quite the party.

There was a lot of dancing going on.  Much to my surprise and delight, all my boys hit the dance floor.

   I especially loved when Kayden took Grandma Haacke into his arms and slow danced with her.

 They had a photo booth set up at the reception and all the cousins took full advantage.  There were many pictures taken of the kids.

 Kayden really loved the photo booth and stepped in to get his picture taken many times with any willing participant.

I even jumped in on the fun more than once.  But my favorite was the one with my sisters.  I just love them.

The day after all the wedding festivities we all hit the beach board walk.  We had a great time playing games in the arcade and being with all the cousins.  But we loved getting pizza on the board walk at The Three Brothers.  Truly a great New York pizza!

The whole family set up shop at the Cobb house.  We swam in the pool, took naps, went to church, played games, ate fried Oreos, barbecued, visited, laughed and made memories together.  Uncle Scott had plenty of prizes for all the nieces and nephews.

Uncle Scott even had all the kids read a statement and promise to adhere to it's words when playing a game to win prizes.  It worked for the most part, until someone swiped the Jazz Basketball hat away from Kayden.

Scott and Caprice had quite the set up to fit us all comfortably in their house.  They fit six beds in their basement (only five are seen above).  The kids also had a good time with Uncle Scott's slot machines.

The whole family took a day and went into New York City.  We went and visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, went up Freedom Tower, visited the NBA store, saw and experienced the whispering arches at Grand Central Station, rode the subway, visited Time Square, bought some golf balls for Grandpa White at the M&M Store and ate Pizza at John's on 44th Street.

The top picture is at the 9/11 Memorial Fountain.  Such a somber place and a perfect memorial to those that lost their lives.  Bottom is inside the 9/11 Museum where you are able to write a message and it projected onto the foundation of the old Twin Towers.  Both Josh and Kayden wrote a message that is projected behind them.

 

Various items that were from Ground Zero that are in the museum.  It is still such a shock and seeing these things really puts things into perspective.

 

Left: a staircase that took many survivors to safety.  Right: the only pane of glass from a window in the towers that amazingly did not break when the towers fell.

The top of Freedom Tower.  The views were stunning!  We were also a little tired and needed a break while we were visiting the top of the tower.

 

 More views from Freedom Tower.

At the top of Freedom Tower then had screen that showed you what the road down below would look like.  Josh and Kayden had a good time pretending they were free falling to the road below.  We had a good laugh.

The whispering arches in Grand Central Station.  If you whisper in the corner of one of the arches, you can hear what the person is saying in the arch across the way.  It was pretty cool and something that I had not heard of before.  Cousin Sara showed them to us!

Left: Oh the pizza at John's is something that we all dream about!  It was fun to go back there and eat pizza again.  Plus the inside is stunning...that ceiling and all that stained glass!  Right: walking through Time Square.

After spending a few days with family, we decided we would tour parts of the East Coast that the boys hadn't seen yet.  We drove over to Philadelphia and saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, ate Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches, visited the Mint to see how coins were made (no pictures were allowed) and climbed the Rocky stairs.
 

Left: Josh with the Washington statue just outside of Independence Hall.  Right top: the Liberty Bell.  Right Bottom: Kayden in the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed in Independence Hall.

Where the Declaration of Independence was debated and signed.  (Fitting, because we always have lots of debating going on at our house!)
 

 Me and my boys....I loved them.  It was a hot day and humid day!
 

We had had a good time finding our inner Rocky by racing up the same stairs Rocky did.  The boys had compared their muscles to Rocky's and decided they aren't half bad (top left).  Top right: getting ready to race up the stairs.  Bottom:  The boys at the top of the stairs and the family at the top with the view behind us.

After spending the day in Philidelphia, we made our way south to go visit Washington DC.

Our first stop in DC was at the White House.  It is such a small world.  We knew that our friends, the Boren Family, was also visiting Washington DC the same week as us.  But since it is such a big place with so many things to see we never dreamed we would run into them.  But as we were getting ready to go visit the White House McKay said, "Hey!  There's the Boren's!"  It was fun to see them even though we see them at home all the time.

We enjoyed seeing the inside of the White House.  It is a very historical place and it was neat to walk where so many presidents have walked.

 Just outside of the White House after the tour.

 We walked around much of Washington DC the rest of the day.  The Washington Monument was closed, but it was still really cool to see.

 The view of the mall and the Washington monument while we were visiting the Lincoln Monument.

We walked past the Korean War monument on the way to see the World War II memorial.  I love the respect and tribute that the memorials bring.

My favorite memorial of the day was the World War II memorial.  There are 4,048 bronze stars behind Josh and I.  Each star represents 100 American soldiers that were killed in the war.

There is a large fountain in the middle of the memorial that is very peaceful and drowns out the noise around the memorial.  It was a good spot to take a rest from all our walking and have a snack.

We found the columns representing Utah at the WWII memorial.

We paid a visit and gave our respects to Abe Lincoln.  Then we went on a tour of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing to see how paper money is printed.  McKay was impressed by the case of $1,000,000.

Our second day in Washington DC we went and toured the US Capital Building.  We had a guided tour through Senator Hatch's office that was really cool.  We even got to ride the train that the senators ride that goes from the Senate building to the Capital under the streets.

Because Senator Hatch is third in line to the presidency, he has a special office in the Capital where he meets with leaders from other countries or hold special meetings with other important people.  The boys each had a turn sitting at his desk.  Behind them is an original portrait of Abraham Lincoln that was used to commission the penny.

The Capital's rotunda was amazing.

Left: During our tour, we got to see the statues that Utah has contributed to the Capital Building.  We found Brigham Young in a nice corner in the old Senate Room.  Right:  We just finished our tour of the Capital.  Our tour also included seeing the Senate and House of Representatives floors.  It was a really great tour and we saw a lot!

We went and visited a couple of the Smithsonian Museums.  Visiting the Air and Space Museum was a the top of McKay's must see.  He wanted to take his time see and reading about all the displays.  Jeremy stayed with him and Josh, Kayden, and Jaxon and I went at a much faster pace.  We all ditched McKay at the Air and Space Museum (Really, he was taking forever!) and went to the Museum of Natural History.  There were a lot of fun things to see there and wish we would have had more time to see it all.  We met back up with McKay when all the museums were closing.

To bring some excitement to our meals, we decided to search some restaurants that had been featured on the Food Network.  Left: We went to a diner that was famous for their French toast that was pretty tasty.  McKay, however, got a huge hamburger.  We all enjoyed watching him try and eat it.  Left: Our favorite spot was the Tortilla Cafe.  It is a Salvadoran cafe with some Mexican flair and it did not disappoint.  Everything we tried there was delicious--except the fried plantains.

After the whirlwind tour of DC, we drove down to Richmond, Virginia--are old stomping grounds where we lived for four years while attending Dental School.  We saw our old apartement, went to the dental school, visited the zoo, at pizza at Bottoms Up, walked along the James River and saw the "Give me liberty or give me death!" church in downtown.

Left: We took the boys to see where we lived.  McKay and Jaxon would play in the grassy area that was behind our house.  Then we took the boys down to the Dental School.  Things had really changed since Jeremy went to school there and it was all really neat to see.  There were even some of the staff that was there that still remembered Jeremy!

We went and visited our dear friends the Andelin Family.  Jeremy served in the bishopric for the singles ward with Jim.  The Andelins own the Metro Richmond Zoo.  The zoo was quite small when we lived in Richmond and now it is huge with a lot more animals and attractions!

 One of their new attractions is a zip line.  It is one of the longest, most fun zip lines I have ever gone on.  The boys loved it and the time that we spent at the zoo was one of their favorite things we did on the whole vacation. 

 We got to zip line over different parts of the zoo.

 Josh

 McKay (who was chased by an emu type bird as he zipped over his enclosure).

 Jaxon (who was also chased, but not as much)

Kayden (who interested the bird a little, but not as much as McKay did).

Jeremy and the pesky bird who was bored with us by that time.

 

 After the zip line we walked around the zoo to see all the animals before closing time.  Our favorite was the parakeets.  There were a bunch of them in the enclosure and they would climb on an offered finger.  Then after a bit we discovered that these parakeets were quite comfortable and we had them all over us.  We had a good laugh as they climbed on our heads, picked the sweat off our necks as we enjoyed playing with them.

Left and bottom: Walking (or sitting) along the James River.  It is such a beautiful place.  Top right: the church where the "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech was given.  These were the last things we did before we flew out of the Richmond airport.

It was a very busy, very fun vacation.  We had a good time together walking down memory lane and making new memories before our lives are going to change.