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.