A Morales Minute

 Aidan wasn't happy to start track but he needs to get out doing more exercise. I was excited to attend his first track meet. Surprisingly, so was Aidan! He kept texting me asking me when I'd get to the meet. He did discuss He did a good job for his first time!  He ran the 400. He did such a good job! He came in second. After he was done he said he felt like his legs were jello. He was spent. I reassured him that as he trains throughout the season it will get easier on him. In spite of feeling like "he was going to die" he was so upbeat! He was so proud of himself for running the entire race as fast as he could. I was proud of him! I told him I was. 

  Dairy Queen was giving out free cones again this year! They give out cones on the first day of Spring. However, the last two years they didn't do it...thanks Covid. (Tyler was at football practice so he missed out having ice cream with us. But I was nice and brought him some to have when he got home.) Sadly, free cone day always makes me think of Uncle Dick. He liked to meet us at Dairy Queen to enjoy our free cones together. The last time we got our cones was with Uncle Dick. It's a good memory that I love to remember, but also makes me miss him. 

  While sitting in church today I sat in loving amazement of my kids. Jaime sits up on the stand so it's usually just the girls and myself sitting in a church pew while the boys sat over by the sacrament table. However, since Aidan is now a Teacher in young men he doesn't pass the sacrament so he would sit with the girls and me. But this Sunday Tyler got to sit with us. My girls to the left, my boys to the right of me. I was just feeling so blessed to have them around me. Lindsey and Olivia are literally best friends so they love to sit together (and chat needless to say) and Aidan and Tyler, while they're not best friends per se, they do get along pretty well and they themselves were chatting during church. I'm grateful for their relationships with each other and with me. I'm grateful they come to church happily and never begrudgingly. I'm grateful that they have testimonies of their own. Sure they're at different places but that's normal. I'm grate

  I can't believe Lindsey is 18. She's such a treasure. She's always so happy. Looks for the good, and knows what makes her happy. She's got a contagious smile and way too gorgeous for her own good.  We celebrated her birthday by going to see her opening night play of "Anne Frank and me". She had the part of Lil' Bit/Lizbeth. She did so good! It was fun for the family to all be there to watch her perform.  Her Young Women leaders and girls from the group came to support as well. I thought the play was well done. I'd love to see Lindsey in another play but this was the only one she was able to do this year. 

The mask mandate has been lifted! Today the kids were able to go to school without wearing a mask. They could smile at friends and see each other's faces.  So this is the first day of school without a mask. :)   Why would anyone want to cover that beautiful smile!? Some places still require a mask, dr offices, public transit..but for the most part we can forget about grabbing a mask before going out the door. I just pray that we don't have to revert back to masking up. The mandate has been going on for so long that I think there'd be lots of push back if it was brought back... I hope!

Jaime and I had a fun weekend getaway with Ritchies. We go to Couerd A'lene with them every year. This year we packed in more activities than we usually get in.  We watched the musical Wicked in Spokane. It was so good. Jaime really enjoyed it as well. I think it'd be fun to go with my girls some time.  We always hit up the spa when we go to the resort. Jaime is always so good to get me a good long massage. It is one of our favorite spas to be at.  We rode the gondola up the mountain to go sledding.  We had such a good time! And it helped that I wasn't cold. We were dressed well and were able to be out on the mountain a long time.  Jaime and Brandon We had fun going down the hill and racing each other. Even two on a tube at one time racing the other two on a tube.  The moving sidewalk made going back up the hill a breeze.  In the evening we went out to the swimming pool turned hot tub! It was so pretty with the lit up igloos. With it being so hot it wasn't easy to reall