​After Abby’s graduation, Emma, Abby and I headed up to Denver for a very special girls’ weekend to see Wicked and to relax and eat good food at the Four Season Hotel in Denver.  We ate dinner at the hotel and there was a special Wicked Theatre Menu with food named after the musical. The girls thought that was pretty neat. We all enjoyed sharing the chocolate ganache cake. After dinner we headed straight to see Wicked, which was just a short 2 block walk from our hotel. The girls had a blast seeing this amazing musical and spending time together. Afterwards we walked back to our hotel, got on our pjs, and snuggled in bed together while watching movies. It was great to sleep in and order room service for breakfast in the morning. We all ate the most amazing french toast and then headed to the heated outdoor pool for some late morning fun. The girls played in the pool and we all sat in the hot tub. We ordered sliders for lunch and relaxed by the pool for a few hours. After relaxing, we went back to the room and showered. Before heading home we decided to go to the chalk festival a few blocks away. We saw one row before it started to rain. Luckily, we grabbed one of the hotel umbrellas. We didn’t stay out for too long but saw some really great chalk drawings in our short walk from the hotel. It was fun to finally spend some one on one time with both girls. We all needed this girls weekend!
 

​Mike, Emma, Madeline and I got to celebrate Abby’s 5th grade graduation with her on the last day of school. It was so fun to watch all the kids march into the gym with upbeat music playing in the background. After a few remarks from their principal, Mrs. Hooper, the entire 5th grade sang “Best Day of My Life,” by American Authors. They sounded really good. Then they called each of the kids down one by one to get their ES completion certificates. Luckily, they did them by classes, so Abby wasn’t the last one to be called. I loved watching Abby’s excitement when she received her certificate from her teacher, Mrs. Lynch. You could just tell that they had a great relationship. Abby had excellent teachers at Mountain View, but Mrs. Lynch was definitely her favorite teacher. After that the kids got their certificates, they threw their class hats in the air and then sat down so we could all enjoy the cute slideshow, with pictures of the kids throughout elementary school and baby photos of each of them. Afterwards we all enjoyed cupcakes and lots of hugs and congratulations from friends and teachers. 

Today was a fun day filled with nostalgia, cultural and play. We started out by heading to the New Sanno hotel in Hiroo where we enjoyed a fabulous breakfast buffet. This amazing hotel is for military, retired military and government employees and we spent a lot of time there when we lived in Yokosuka. It was our home away from home. The kids LOVED the breakfast buffet, especially the French toast and the omelettes. We would occasionally order breakfast to our room and we would always ask for the special strawberry jam. Today’s breakfast did not disappoint. I think Andrew ate 5 French toast slices in under a minute. Then he went back for more. I got my special strawberry jam so that made me happy. 
After a quick stop in the souvenir shop after breakfast we headed up to see the construction that was happening on the Tokyo LDS Temple. It was pretty crazy to see that the entire temple was under construction and the church building next door was totally gone. It will be exciting to see the finished product. Since the LDS wards are now meeting in Senzokuike and Kichijoji (which are both too far for us to want to travel in church clothes) we opted for a nice walk in Arisugawa park across from the temple. It was nice to have some quiet reflection there. 

The morning started out with a run around the Imperial Palace twice with Bob Poulson...a good friend and one of my running coaches back in high school. He still coaches the high school runners for ASIJ. I ended up running almost 8 miles in the heat. I’m definitely not used to running in the heat yet. I’m glad it was a social run. Andrew and I met up with Bob later to eat udon for lunch. It was fun to catch up with Bob. After lunch we said goodbye and headed back to the hotel to rest. I think at this point we are slowing down. Disney kind of did us in I think. 

After some time resting, we got ourselves up and headed to Nihombashi to the Pokeman Cafe. When we got there we discovered that you had to have a reservation for the cafe. Oops. I quickly got online to make a reservation for Monday morning only to find out that the entire next month was pretty much full. Oh well. We walked through the Pokeman store and bought a few things before getting back on the train. 
We decided to head to Harajuku and Shibuya. We walked from Omote-Sando to Harajuku via the main road passing the Oriental Bazaar and Kiddyland...two places I remember going to as a kid. Then I took Andrew down the crazy side shopping street in Harajuku called Takeshita street. There were lots of unique stores and a lot of crepe vendors. It was so crowded but lots of fun. We hopped on the train in Harajuku and decided to head to Shibuya. We saw Hachiko first and then went to eat ramen at Ichiran. It is a popular ramen restaurant set up so efficiently. You pay for your meal through the vending machine, wait for an open stand, sit down and hand your ticket through your personal stall, and wait for your meal. In your seating area is your own waterspout for refilling water. It was so clever. We enjoyed our ramen and then spent the rest of the evening shopping in the crowded streets of Shibuya. We bought crepes and even found a Krispy Kreme. And, of course, we walked the big intersection a few times before jumping on the train to head back to our hotel.

One of Andrew’s only requests on this trip was to go to Tokyo Disney Sea...the only park of its kind in the world. We have fond memories of this park and scary ones too as this was the place where we were when the big earthquake of 2011 happened. It was a crazy time. We weren’t worried about a big earthquake this time but instead focused on how to get in as many rides and fast passes as we could throughout the day. We started at Journey to the Center of the Earth and rode that and then got a fast pass for it. We rode the Indiana Jones ride twice and Raging Spirits. Those were our favorite rides. 
Part of the excitement of Disney is stuffing our faces with yummy treats while waiting in line. We ate cinnamon churros, caramel popcorn and Mickey popsicles. We walked all the way around the park looking for real ice cream and finally found a gelato stand. We saw parts of the Easter themed mid-day show on the water (we know...Easter is over but clearly the Japanese didn’t care) and didn’t spend more than 45 min in any line waiting for rides. That’s not to say there weren’t lines that extended all the way to 100-120 min...we just weren’t crazy enough to stand in them. The longest line we waited in said 35 min for the Nemo Searider. It ended up being 45-50 min. By the time we got to the ride...it stopped after 1 min. Technical difficulties. We hurried off the ride to catch our fast passes for Raging Spirits. They gave us a fast pass for the Nemo ride to use later but we never used them. Guess we will never know if that ride was good or not. 
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It got pretty hot in the middle of the day so we headed down in Ariel’s underground grotto and rode the jelly fish ride. Then we headed over to the carousel in the Arabian coast section. We even went back to the elevator at the Leonardo Challenge area where Andrew was said to have pushed the button right when the earthquake started. We had to go back and snap a photo. 
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We saw a variety of characters throughout the day. All Andrew wanted was a picture with goofy. As we were leaving the park we finally saw goofy. I told Andrew to quickly just run up next to him. The timid kid came out and he didn’t do it. I caught a photo of Andrew where the caption should read...I missed my chance😢 Poor kid. Oh well. At least we made it until 5pm...not 10pm like we had originally anticipated. I guess that’s what happens when you are not used to so much walking in the heat. Still...it was a super fun day. You really can’t go wrong when you are at Disney!!!

We left Kyoto today and headed on the Shinkansen bound for Tokyo. After a quick 2 hr ride at speeds that would blow your socks off, we arrived at Shin-Yokohama where we got on a local train towards Yokohama. After maneuvering our way through this enormous station towards the Keikyu line, we found some gigantic lockers to store our suitcases in while we ventured down to Oppama station where we used to live. We met Kei and Koto Murata who took us to an amazing ton katsu restaurant near the station. Kei, Takeshi, Rin and Koto Murata were our neighbors for the 3 years we lived in Japan and they were some of the best neighbors we have ever had. The girls used to love playing at the park together and Kei used to teach me how to cook Japanese food at her house. I called it cooking with Kei. We have stayed in touch these last 6 years. It warmed my heart to see Kei and to catch up on life in person. Her English was definitely better than my Japanese. I think this visit meant as much to her as it did to me. As we walked to the station after lunch we just kept looking at each other saying how much we had missed each other. After a sad goodbye, Andrew and I headed up to the old house in Shonan Takatori. We managed to remember how to get there and even didn’t miss the tiny street that took us to the shortcut with the steep stairs. And yes...we didn’t stop on those stairs even though it was so hot and a million stairs to climb. After a few photos by the house we headed to the Seiyu (grocery store) to buy some treats for old times sake. We were definitely like little children in a candy store as we cleared out ALL of the Bontan Ame candies. That’s right...we took every single box. We had anticipated hiking the Takatori trail but it was way too hot and we were already getting tired so we decided to head back to Oppama station. We reminisced on the way back down about life in Japan while we enjoyed our ice cream. It was fun to remember the great life we had while living here.

Today we rented bikes to tour around Kyoto....but they weren’t just any bikes...they were electric assist bikes. Oh yes. Biking really is the coolest way to see the Shrines and Temples around Kyoto. We headed first to the outskirts of Kyoto to Tenryuji Temple and the Bamboo Forest in Arashiyama. It took about an hour to get there and probably a little longer since we got a little lost at the beginning trying to get headed in the correct direction. I’ve been told by my son that I have a terrible sense of direction. I would disagree in most cases but he was right in this case. I got us going in the wrong direction at first. Andrew was the most excited to see the bamboo forest and it did not disappoint. There were crowds of people walking through the short stretch of the bamboo forest. It makes me wonder how I ever got that shot with no one in it several years ago. I think it was mostly luck with a little help from Mike who waited patiently with me for a small window of no people. It was still amazing to see all the bamboo and be in such a beautiful place. 

Next we headed back to the center of Kyoto to see Shimogamo-Jinja Shrine but when we got there we couldn’t find a place to park our bikes legally so we moved onto the next shrine. They have very strict rules where you can and cannot park your bikes. Good thing is we weren’t too far out of the way for the next shrine and we got to bike along the Kamogawa river. The next stop was Ginkaku-ji Temple, also known as the silver temple. At this point we could tell we were starting to burn. Oh no...I had put sunscreen on but missed a few spots. Andrew...well he completely forgot to get his arms and they were already red. Or was it just that he didn’t listen to me when I told him to put it on 🤔We spent some time walking around the grounds and enjoyed some Katsu don and ice cream before heading to Heian-Jingu Shrine. This shrine is pretty spectacular looking. The grounds are enormous and the garden extending all the way in the back of the shrine was outstanding. We had fun walking through the gardens. ​

​Today was a momentous day as Peter finally got to celebrate his huge accomplishment of earning the rank of Eagle during his Eagle Court of Honor.  I ordered specialty patriotic inspired sugar cookies and had some really special people put together a cake for him. Emma Patterson and Danielle Rasmussen worked together to make the most amazing Eagle scout cake. It not only look amazing but it tasted so good. Peter was lucky to be supported by many of the people who worked with him throughout his scouting life. Dave Barkdull, Mark Hubbell, Clark Milner, Tex Johnson and Bill Sampson all showed up to support him. We were so happy that Grandma Anne and Grandpa Franz could be there to celebrate as well. Many of Peter’s friends showed up from church, in addition to Jackson who is one of Peter’s best friends from school. 

​We had a small graduation open house for Andrew the day after graduation. I had given Andrew several graduation announcements with the open house printed on there for him to give to his friends. It turns out that he didn’t hand out very many of them. It ended up being a small open house but I think that is just the way he wanted it; just intimate with his closest friends. The kids enjoyed looking at his senior album and munching on the delicious Pine Creek inspired cake pops, cookies, and cupcakes. 

We all got to be a part of Andrew’s HS graduation today at the Air Force Academy Clune Arena. It was such a fantastic day. It’s a little surreal to think that I am old enough to have a high school graduate. I am so grateful that my parents were able to be here to celebrate with Andrew and that each of our kids got to be there to watch him graduate. The ceremony definitely felt a little long to some of our kids, but I’m so proud of them for showing up to support Andrew. After the ceremony Andrew met his best friends outside to take photos and congratulate each other. Then we headed home to give Andrew his graduation gifts before celebrating at the Steakhouse at Flying Horse. I gave Andrew his t-shirt quilt I had made for him with all his t-shirts spanning from elementary school through high school. He loved it. My parents gave him money and a new tie. Then we headed to go eat a fabulous steak dinner to celebrate this momentous day with Andrew. 
 
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​Abby and her closest friends spent much of the last few months fundraising at her school so that they could buy trees to plant on the school grounds. They gave presentations in front of the entire school and had posters throughout the school explaining their project to help beautify the outside of the school. They ended up raising almost $200. With the money they raised at school and the help of some of us parents, they were able to buy 2 really great trees. All the girls met early at school to watch the trees be planted in the ground. They even gave the trees names. It was fun to watch all their hard work pay off and to be able to contribute to improving the school grounds. 

Andrew finally had a season where he got to swim all of his favorite and best events all season long. With 7 different events that he swam in, all of them revolved around the breaststroke or freestyle strokes. Both strokes were his favorite to swim. Andrew’s goal this season was to make it to State in the 100 breastroke. Although he wasn’t seriously injured, he did face some trouble with cramping in his back again this season. He found himself either not being able to finish some of the workouts or having to skip them altogether. Despite this small hurdle, Andrew still worked extremely hard and had a really successful season, coming so close to his goal of a state time in the breaststroke. He missed it in his very last race by .87 seconds. His final and best time in the 100 breaststroke was 1:09.87. During his season he cut 8 seconds off his breastroke time, maintained a sub 1 min time in the 100 freestyle, swam the 50 freestyle in the low 25’s, and showed that despite an imperfect body to work with, he could still do amazing things. Andrew was a great leader this season as he had the role as one of the team captains. He helped to lead their team to another League Championship title, the second one he was a part of during his high school swim career.  

​50 Freestyle
26.45 5th out of 10 vs Palmer
25.97 2nd out of 7 at Widefield
25.66 37th out of 143 at Indian Invite (CMHS)
25.91 7th out of 15 vs Rampart
25.99 97th out of 240 at Mustang Invite
26.27 6th out of 10 at Coronado
25.35 14th out of 26 at CSML Prelims
25.20 14th out of 16 at CSML Finals
 
100 Freestyle
58.95 6th out of 14 vs Air Academy
58.94 4th out of 9 at Liberty
 
100 Breastroke
1:17.16 3rd out of 5 vs Palmer
1:15.58 2nd out of 6 at Widefield
1:14.58 24th out of 56 at Indian Invite (CMHS)
1:18.91 7th out of 8 vs Rampart
1:12.68 51st out of 117 at Mustang Invite
1:28.15 5th out of 6 at Liberty
1:16.55 6th out of 7 at Coronado
1:11.09 12th out of 20 at CSML Prelims
1:09.87 9th out of 15 at CSML Finals
 
200 Freestyle
2:15.90 6th out of 6 vs Air Academy

500 Freestyle
6:35.00 3rd out of 8 vs FFC
 
200 Freestyle Relay
26.31 split time vs Palmer
Total time 1:47.61 at Widefield 
26.37 split time vs Air Academy
25.34 split time at Indian Invite (CMHS)
25.58 split time vs Rampart
25.15 split time at Mustang Invite
27.20 split time at Liberty
25.13 split time at Coronado
26.54 split time vs FFC
 
200 Medley Relay
Breaststroke split time NR vs Palmer (team time 1:56.82)
Freestyle split time NR at Widefield (team time 2:12.53)
Freestyle split time 25.25 at Coronado
Butterfly split time NR vs FFC (team time 2:07.46)

​Peter had an amazing swim season this year, swimming in 9 different events. Of those events, he swam the most in the 200 and 500 freestyle. I think it’s pretty safe to say that Peter is a long-distance swimmer. Peter cut time almost every meet in the 200 and 500 freestyle, taking off a total of 30 seconds from the beginning to the end of the season in the 500 freestyle. He worked so hard to try and get a state time in the 500 free but missed it by only 10 seconds at the final meet. Peter participated in many of the relay events and even did a few events he does not normally swim. Peter’s work ethic is like nothing I have ever seen. This year Peter shifted to the faster side of the pool and was seen swimming in practice with some of the faster guys. There was even a little healthy competition between him and Andrew during practice. He worked extremely hard in and out of the pool to make sure he was ready to swim hard during the meets. 
 
50 Freestyle
28.36 7th out of 10 at Doherty
 
100 Freestyle
1:02.87 7th out of 10 at Doherty
1:04.74 3rd out of 13 vs FFC
 
100 Fly
1:15.07 6th out of 6 vs Air Academy
 
200 Freestyle
2:23.48 5th out of 5 vs Palmer
2:17.98 3rd out of 7 at Widefield
2:16.22 29th out of 48 at Indian Invite (CMHS)
2:14.43 56th out of 78 at Mustang Invite
2:13.90 5th out of 6 at Liberty
2:14.94 4th out of 9 at Coronado
2:15.19 1st out of 7 vs FFC
 
500 Freestyle
6:14.56 3rd out of 4 vs Palmer 
6:00.92 1st out of 4 at Widefield
5:55.44 18th out of 18 at Indian Invite (CMHS)
5:58.42 6th out of 8 vs Rampart
5:49.07 34th out of 46 at Mustang Invite
6.00.63 3rd out of 6 at Liberty
5:52.55 4th out of 7 at Coronado
5:43.82 12th out of 24 at CSML Prelims
5:48.68 12th out of 16 at CSML Finals
 
200 Individual Medley
2:44.16 7th out of 7 vs Rampart
 
200 Freestyle relay
28.01 split time vs Rampart
29.03 split time at Doherty
 
200 Medley Relay 
Butterfly split time NR vs Palmer (team time 2:45.01)
Backstroke split time NR at Widefield (team time 2:12.53)
Butterfly split time 32.69 vs Air Academy
Breastroke split time NR vs FFC (team time 2:02.75)
 
400 Freestyle Relay
Split time 31.49 at Palmer
Split time 35.51 at Palmer
Split time NR at Widefield (team time 4:28.72)
Split time 29.01 vs Air Academy
Split times NR at Mustang Invite (team time 4:22.05)
Split time 30.04 at Liberty
Split time 33.95 at Liberty
Split time 31.68 at Coronado
Split time 34.74 at Coronado
Split time 31.04 vs FFC
Split time 34.33 vs FFC

​Abby had her very last elementary school field day and had a blast running in the relays with her friends and classmates. The relays consisted of running only, running and jumping over tiny hurdles, and running while pushing a tire. The tire race was hilarious to watch. Although she had a great time doing the relay racing, the highlight of every field day is definitely the tug of war. Each grade has their own competitions.  Abby’s 5th grade class won the tug of war twice and lost three times. Oh, how I will miss watching Abby have fun at field day with her friends.

Today Andrew went to his first and last prom with Sam. I’m so grateful I got to experience the excitement of prom with Andrew. Andrew and Sam are quite the pair and I couldn’t be happier that they got to go with each other. We headed over to Sam's house where Andrew gave Sam her corsage and she pinned on his boutonnière. I had both of them made with real succulents and they were beautiful. It was tricky to get Andrew's boutonnière pinned on but after a few people helping we managed to get it to stay on just long enough for photos. We headed to a park off of Voyager to take group photos with some of their friends. They had fun posing and doing silly photos with their friends before heading off to Prom at the Spruce Mountain Ranch with the rest of their classmates at Pine Creek High School. Lucky Andrew got to take his dad's sweet ride and drive the 4Runner for the night. It ended up being a good thing too because when Prom was over and they were headed out, Sam realized that she had left her phone. The line to get out was crazy so Andrew made a u-turn and off-loaded it back up to grab her phone. What an adventurous night they had together.

Emma's first meet was up at Lewis Palmer MS where she ran the 1600, 800, and medley relay. I brought Madeline with me and we had a great time cheering on Emma and her teammates. Emma did well in her individual events but the highlight of this meet was when she passed a girl from another team on the last 50m of the medley relay.  She was so excited that she outran her competition on the last stretch of the race. After the first meet that took over 2 hours we decided it was best if Emma dropped the medley relay and just focused on the 1600m and 800m races.  She did well in both races, taking off time during each of the meets. During the meet at Elizabeth HS Emma got a PR of 6:02 in the mile. She cut 20 seconds off her time from the second meet. She was so excited for the last meet which was the championship track meet. Only the top runners and field athletes were asked to participate in this meet. Her main goal was to break 6 minutes in the mile. She totally did it! She ran the mile in 5:59. It was a great way to end her track season!
​
MEET 1 - LEWIS PALMER
​APRIL 9, 2019
1600 - 6:24
800 - 2:43

MEET 2 - CHALLENGER MS
​APRIL 16, 2019
1600 - 6:22
​800 - 2:41

​MEET 3 - ELIZABETH HS
​APRIL 23, 2019
1600 - 6:02
800 - 2:40

​MEET 4 - D20 STADIUM (CHAMPIONSHIP RACE)
​MAY 3, 2019
1600 - 5:59
​800 - 2:38

Today was Andrew's very last Jazz Band concert at the high school. I can't even begin to explain what a difference Jazz and Mrs. Margrave (or Flynn as the students called her) made in Andrew's life. Andrew really resonated with the Jazz style of music and he truly developed a passion for music through this program. He walked into the jazz program as a freshman, not knowing very much about jazz music or how to even play it. He picked things up very quickly and by his junior year, he joined the Advanced Jazz Band. I am so grateful that Andrew found something that resonated with him. This last concert was so much fun to watch. Andrew finally decided to solo in one of the songs. He always shied away from solos, so I was thrilled to see him solo once before he graduated. I will miss watching Andrew play the trombone. 

One of Andrew's college essays was dedicated to Jazz music and the things he learned how to play Jazz music:
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While I have many different interests, I find music, especially Jazz music, to be the most engaging experience that I get to enjoy on a daily basis. I have always been a huge fan of music, but Jazz music peaked my interest more than any other type of music. In Jazz, there are no limits to your creativity; you can express your emotions through the ways that you play. Each song that I hear is a new story, a new experience. I often find myself losing track of time whenever I listen to or play Jazz.
            
During my freshman year in high school, I had the opportunity to join the high school Jazz band as a trombonist. I had always wanted to know more about Jazz, but I had only dreamed about playing it. Learning how to play was not easy. It took many hours of hard work to begin to develop my skills, which inspired me to learn even more. A defining opportunity came when our class went to see the Dizzy Gillespie big band. I used every moment to study how these great musicians played, from their sound to their posture. Later that night, we were able to work with these musicians and learn from their experience with Jazz music. Although we were only able to work with them for thirty minutes, I learned some new techniques. One of their trombonists told me that the best way to learn Jazz was to watch good musicians play live.
            
Since then, I have been able to work with all sorts of Jazz bands and musicians from all over the state. Having an opportunity to learn more about Jazz feels like Christmas to me. Even now, I am in a music honors society where I take every opportunity I can to teach others about Jazz. I also play in our High School’s advanced Jazz band, which was created just this year. I listen to Jazz music every day and it never gets old. I’ve learned so much about music in general because of my love for Jazz music, and I will never forget the things I have learned about hard work and the feelings that come from playing Jazz.