​Andrew was not really interested in attending the HS or Mormon Prom his Junior year but he did get all dressed up to go to dinner at the Asay’s before Mormon Prom. All the Laurels and Priests were invited to the dinner regardless of whether they had a date or not.  Half of the kids showed up with dates and the other half decided to go to Mormon Prom as a group.  Andrew had a blast at the dinner but decided to come home after because he was so tired.  Two days of 5am swim practices were enough for him to be feeling rather exhausted.  Andrew promised me that he would ask someone to Prom for his senior year.  I hope he goes to Prom next year because it can be so much fun!

​In anticipation for spring Mike planted the most amazing pink lily’s in the pot on our front porch this month.  They were gorgeous and reminded me of the beautiful lily’s we saw frequently when living in Japan.  

​With only one month left until the Slacker Half Marathon I have been really focused not only on my training but also on eating smart.  Every morning after a run I make the best green smoothie consisting of ice, spinach, vanilla protein powder, avocado, almond milk and chia seeds.  It really is quite delicious and filling.

​I love how sweet Madeline looks when she is sleeping.  She usually has her thumb in her mouth and lately she has loved sleeping right next to her baby doll. 

​We love our eBags when we are packing for an upcoming trip. Each of the kids has a specific color and it makes it easy for me to make sure everyone has packed all the correct gear. 

​Emma and Abby had their first day of swim team with the Falfins swim club.  I wasn’t sure how Abby would like it since this was her very first-time swimming laps.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the biggest, happiest grin when she got out of the pool.  The first thing she said was, “I love swimming so much.”

Peter finally earned his final merit badge before working towards his Eagle Project.  The camping merit badge is a time consuming badge to earn and we are so proud of Peter for finally getting his camping merit badge. 

This has been the most exciting month to watch Madeline as her vocabulary has doubled in one month alone. She is so animated when she talks, and she can say simple phrases. Some of our favorites things she says are:

I dunno ( I don’t know) - and she puts her hands in the air whe she says it
Hmmm - she puts her finger by her chin as she thinks
​What's this
Up and down
Can count from 1-10 with 6-10 being her strongest numbers to say
Stop (she puts her hand out when she says it)
Nah (no) and es (yes)
Nigh nigh (night night)
love ewe (love you)
​
Madeline loves to be outside and she loves doing bubbles. The kids have had so much fun doing bubble with her when the sun comes out. Madeline also loves to hold the bubble gun and run around catching and popping the bubbles. She loves to sit and rock on the glider bench on the porch and will sit still for quite a long time as long as I am rocking with her on the bench. 

Madeline still loves to play with her shopping cart and will put her baby dolls in the front seat and then she wipes off the handle just like I do when she and I go to the grocery store. It is so cute to see her model what I do. Madeline also loves to color with markers, even more than she loves coloring with crayons. I love to watch her curiosity as she draws random lines with all the different colors. 

​Up and running along the coast one last time. It really is a great way to see the area. Mike enjoyed stopping to take photos so he could rest and not have to run so fast. Too bad Sara doesn’t take photos all the time when running. It would make it a lot easier. We then went back and enjoyed being in the pool one last time. The kids had a blast. Since it was Memorial Day, there were lots of events and food and fun stuff going on at the resort. It was fun to play and just enjoy the day. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it was time to go home. We headed to Airport, which was super close by and waited for our delayed flight to leave. The Orange County Airport is pretty great, so we ate at the deli and hung out before heading back to snowy Colorado.  

​Sunday! We headed over to church, which is right by the Newport Beach Temple. You know you are in Newport Beach when you pull up to the building to see a Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes, and Tesla as the first four cars in the parking lot. Church was really good, and then we walked around the Temple Grounds. It really is a beautiful temple and the grounds are impressive. After church, we went back to the resort and played family feud. We won! Go Wilhelm family! We spent our Marriott Resort cash getting more stuff for Smores and some souvenirs. The weather was great and we had lots of fun.  

​Back in the pool! Every good day starts out in the pool. Every better stay then proceeds to the beach where you can play in the sand and the water. We bought boogie boards the day before, so today was spent with the kids enjoying some pretty great waves. We even saw Dolphins swimming out in the water. Jeff and Jen came with their kids as well, so it was fun to spend the day playing with family.  We even got to explore the tide pools and find crabs, fish, and anemones. It’s fun how quickly all the cousins play together and become fast friends. Peter became the expert boogie boarder and really did great in the waves. After spending the day at the beach, we went back to the hotel and made dinner with Jen and Jeff (BBQ) and then had smores with all the kids around the campfire. With everyone there, we basically filled up all the chairs at the campfire. The sunset was unreal and the day wonderful. If this was my life everyday, I wouldn’t complain. 

​Sara and Mike started the day with a run through Newport Beach, which was a good way to be reminded that are some really, really, really rich people on this earth.  It’s weird to think that the people staying at a Vacation Resort can’t even think about owning a house in Newport Beach.  Of note, the California Coast is just beautiful and the house amazing. Also, the people were super friendly as well.  You just have to watch out for the endless contractors, lawn people, and maids that are servicing the houses of the obscenely rich.
 
Today, we went to the beach and had a lot of fun playing in the sand.  We went to Corona del Mar, which is a great little spot.  It’s not too crowded and the beach is beautiful and the amenities good with plenty of parking.  Madeline did great in the sand, and Andrew mostly sat in a chair under the umbrella and did his best impression of a teenager with nothing better to do. Peter and Emma worked construction most of the day creating giant sand castles and towns.  We enjoyed and played at the beach all day, then went back to the Villas and went swimming in the pools.  We also played tetherball, went glow golfing (Mike won a free smores pack for helping the grounds people get a frog out of the equipment), and then roasted smores around the big giant campfire.  It was a great day  

This morning we all slept in, even Madeline. With black out curtains it was really nice to not be woken up by the sun coming in through the windows. ​We spent the day just relaxing around the pool.  Marriott knows how to do vacation rentals right…too bad their ownership points system is such a rip off and horrible mess.  The pool was great and Madeline even got in on the action.  The most fun thing to see was how facile our kids are in the water.  Swimming really makes them comfortable in the water and the swim with such alacrity. 
 
At night, we went for a hike down to the beach at Crystal Cove.  It’s always fun to go to the beach.  The walk was fun and seeing the giant sand wheel chairs was worth it on its own.  There is something therapeutic about watching the waves crash on the rocks and sand.  The ocean is the one thing that you can’t get in Colorado.  It was so great.  Our family could spend all day exploring the rocks, nooks and crannies of the coastline. There is an endless amount of fun to be had. After Crystal Cove, we went out to dinner to a crab shack place.  It was OK, but the doughnuts afterward were worth it.  The coast is windy and cold at night, so we headed home after walking out on the Pier a little.
 

This spring has been such a busy time for everyone, and so Mike and I decided that our summer family trip needed to be something where we could completely relax. We looked into Hawaii and Florida but settled on California. We flew into the Orange County airport and headed to the Marriott Villa Resort in Newport Beach. The flight was pretty good except for some turbulence and Madeline wanting to go back and forth between me and Mike. All of our bags arrived except for the car seat. Ugh. The United lady told us it would be on the next fight and so we borrowed a car seat to get to our resort. Luckily the airport was pretty close to where we were headed. We stopped to at HiroNori first to eat Ramen. It was the BEST ramen we have had since Japan. From the restaurant it was only a 10 min drive to the Marriott resort. While the younger kids and I unpacked our clothes Mike and Andrew went to pick up groceries. Most of us were tired and headed to bed pretty early but Mike and Andrew went for a late swim in the peanut shaped pool by our villa.

Andrew had a great season considering the fact that he got injured early on in the season with a hand injury from a skiing accident.  He didn’t necessarily swim in his strongest events this year like the 50 free or 100 breaststroke but did well considering his circumstances.  We are not sure why he swam in the 100 backstroke so much this season but looked at this season as an opportunity to broaden his scope of events.  Andrew is never one to question his coaches so he swam in the events he was told to swim and supported his team like no one else.  During the league finals one of the other swimmers got injured and so they put Andrew in those events.  Those events were the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly, which are two of his weakest events.  I was super annoyed by his coach’s decision but Andrew didn’t even bat an eye.  That is the kind of kid he is.  He was more concerned about helping the team than himself.  Even with his injured hand he was still able to make it to the State meet swimming with the 400 freestyle relay team.  He knocked out a fast 50 freestyle time in the 200 freestyle relay at the State meet with a time of 25.60.  It was a good way to end a very crazy and frustrating season.  
​
100 Freestyle
1:00.73 4th out of 9 at Widefield
 
100 Backstroke
1:16.30 4th out of 7 at Palmer  
1:12.41 3rd out of 7 vs. Cheyenne Mountain
1:18.66 8th out of 9 vs. Coronado
1:11.27 22nd out of 26 at CSML prelims
 
100 Fly
1:14.02 6th out of 6 vs. Coronado
1:11.50 19th out of 25 at CSML prelims
 
200 Freestyle
2:24.48 5thout of 8 vs. Cheyenne Mountain
 
200 IM
2:32.26 4th out of 7 at Palmer
 
500 Freestyle
6:51.09 2nd out of 8 at Widefield
 
200 Freestyle Relay
26.46 split time vs. Rampart
26.88 split time vs. Coronado
25.60 split time at CHSAA Class 4A State Championships
 
200 Medley Relay
Breaststroke split time 34.85 at Widefield
Breaststroke split time 34.90 vs. Cheyenne Mountain
Fly split time 31.59 vs. Rampart
 
400 Freestyle Relay
28.57 split time vs. Cheyenne Mountain
33.20 split time vs. Cheyenne Mountain
29.60 split time at Widefield
33.26 split time at Widefield
28.68 split time vs. Rampart
31.84 split time vs. Rampart
28.30 split time at CSML prelims
31.84 split time at CSML prelims

This was Peter's first season swimming on the Boys Pine Creek HS swim team.  He originally decided to do swim to give his knees a break from all of his running.  What started out as a way to cross train quickly turned into his love for this sport and his teammates.  Most of the season he was coached by Matt and Romana Gilbert and received lots of support and advice by some of the more experienced swimmers on the team.

Peter really showed some great improvement over the course of his season. He improved in all of his events and even knocked his 500 free time down by 40 seconds. He ended up swimming the 200 and 500 freestyle events the most.  The coaches spent a lot of time working on Peter’s freestyle form after realizing he was developing a little bit of tendonitis in his shoulder due to bad form. It was after he fixed his form that we really saw him improve.  

​50 Freestyle
34.00 7thout of 11 vs. Cheyenne Mountain
32.62 12thout of 16 vs. Rampart
32.18 12thout of 14 vs. Coronado
 
100 Freestyle
 
1:11.89 12thout of 15 vs. Rampart
 
100 Backstroke
1:36.29 9thout of 10 at Fountain Fort Carson
 
100 Fly
1:59.53 7thout of 7 at Widefield
                  
100 Breastroke
1:41.01  8thout of 9  vs. Cheyenne Mountain
1:36.29  9thout of 10 at Fountain Fort Carson
 
200 Freestyle
2:41.40 9thout of 11 at Fountain Fort Carson
2:33.25 8thout of 10 vs. Coronado
2:34.17 9thout of 12 vs. Liberty
2:28.11 6thout of 10   at AA Invite
            
500 Freestyle
7:32.21 7thout of 7 at Palmer
7:41.65 4thout of 8 at Widefield
6:43.02 6thout of 7 vs. Liberty
6:42.52 6thout of 7 at AA Invite 
6:55.91 16thout of 21 at CSML Prelims
6:42.98 15thout of 16 at CSML Finals
 
200 Freestyle relay
34.79 split time vs. Cheyenne Mountain
32.57 split time at Fountain Fort Carson
33.23 split time at Widefield
32.57 split time at Fountain Fort Carson
32.28 split time vs. Coronado
32.23 split time vs. Liberty
33.05 split time at CSML prelims
 
 
200 Medley Relay
Freestyle split time 31.50 vs. Rampart
 
400 Freestyle relay
split time 35.24 at Widefield
split time 39.45 at Widefield
36.29 split time vs. Cheyenne Mountain
39.61 split time vs. Cheyenne Mountain
35.81 split time at Fountain Fort Carson
39.30 split time at Fountain Fort Carson
33.68 split time vs. Rampart
36.80 split time vs. Rampart
34.94 split time vs. Coronado
42.77 split time vs. Coronado
33.96 split time vs. Liberty
36.39 split time vs. Liberty
28.30 split time at CSML Prelims
31.84 split time at CSML Prelims
 

​I had the BEST Mother’s Day this year.  As always, Mike goes above and beyond to make this day special for me.  He started out with a giant breakfast of buttermilk pancakes, bacon, berries, and chocolate milk.  Yummy. We snapped a few quick photos of me and the kids before heading to church. During Relief Society we had the most ridiculous spread of food.  Needless to say, Mike didn’t have to make a special lunch because I had one at church. After church I got to take a nap without interruptions and then had a fantastic dinner of chicken cordon bleu. The kids were pleasant and kind all day, which was the best present I could have received from them.  I feel so blessed to be a mother to all these awesome kids of mine. They all bring me so much JOY! I can't believe that I have been on this journey for almost 17 years. I have grown and learned so much from my kids. I can't imagine doing anything else in my life.

​It is always so much fun to pop over to the elementary school to see a little bit of field day.  My favorite events to watch are the tug-o-war and the dashes and relays. This year Mike was working close to home so he was able to come and see Abby at the tug-o-war with Madeline and me. Abby’s class won a few times but it was the other class with the really big kids that ended up winning the entire thing.  Madeline and I came back after lunch to watch Abby run in a few of the dashes.  Abby had so much fun showing off Madeline to her friends and just being social.