My Parents' "Farewell"

What are we supposed to call what we used to call farewells? I just awkwardly resorted to saying, "My parents' (insert air quotes) farewell is on Father's Day" whenever people asked about my parents' final adios festivities. Is it a real thing that we aren't supposed to utter the word "farewell" when referring to the last talk before a missionary leaves, or is this one of those Mormon rumors that has snowballed into a false sense of blasphemy which resulted in farewell essentially evolving into a swear word. Does anyone else feel this way? Am I the only one that whispers "farewell" with as much reserve as one would whisper "Voldemort" at Hogwarts? Is this all in my head?!?

Anyway. My parents' air quote farewell was on Father's Day, but before that, we experienced the super awesome afternoon when my dad hooked up all his children with a free babysitter (three actually, to cover all of our children) for the afternoon. 

Because we had big plans to go to Salt Lake in an attempt to break the world record of number of people crammed into a single elevator. 

We may or may not hold the record at 17. And yeah, you're right. We weren't really there JUST for the elevator. We had the absolute pleasure and honor to accompany my parents as they were set apart to be President and Sister Thomas of the California Carlsbad Mission. 

We were ushered into a room. After I sat down, I had the realization we were possibly in the room where the Quorum of the Twelve holds their meetings. I did a quick count of chairs which confirmed my suspicions. Then my eyes bugged out of socket and I got a little star struck. 

And this was all BEFORE Elder Anderson entered the room. Before long we were in the presence of an Apostle and it was just the neatest experience ever. He went around and met each of us, talking to us and getting to know us individually like he had all the time in the world. He chatted with my parents. He asked my dad if he had any questions before he set my dad apart to which my dad said what is now his mission catch phrase: "Nope. LET'S DO THIS!" 

I was joking with my family beforehand about who would be brave enough to request a selfie with Elder Anderson, but Elder Anderson offered a photo op without even needing to be asked. What an inspired man. 

Okay, in all seriousness, it was such a special afternoon that I will treasure for the rest of my life. I felt so honored that my parents have lived in such a way to be in the position to preside over a group of missionaries. I was so proud to be their daughter and grateful that I was raised under their example of diligence, obedience, hard work, and faith. They're just the best and this day was such a great reminder of that. 

We went home (after cramming everyone in the elevator a few more times) for a specially prepared Family Home Evening. Jacob did an object lesson on obedience and then we showed videos made by each of our families which covered different sections of the missionary white handbook. You can see the Excell Family video at the bottom of this post if you dare watch it. Warning: I am not claiming to be a singer by any means, but someone had to sing our rewritten lyrics for the song, and Eli and Carson weren't volunteering to do it for me. Endure the voice and latch on to the lyrics which is the part I'm proud of. Plus those cute little boys giving me a preview of their lives in 10ish years is an added treat. 

We had a free day on Saturday to cherish our last moments with everyone together for a few years. My parents took us to Golden Corral where we attempted to enjoy a meal. 

The trouble is, my boys have rarely been to a restaurant other than dining experiences that include a play place, so Carson kind of turned Golden Corral into what he's used to from dining out -- a place to play. He ran. He jumped. He rammed into complete strangers. At one point he was attempting to play hide and seek with Eli underneath someone else's table. So that was fun. 

We were able to summon Carson back over with a bottomless bowl of ice cream. I nestled in to finish my meal feeling right at home on the little boy end of the table. 

Sunday morning came, and with that too came Voldemort...er...their farewell. Days before my mom was to give her talk, I asked her how her Spanish was coming along. She's been tirelessly spending every free minute of her time learning how to properly conjugate verbs, but she assured me she was still ill equipped to confidently speak a fluid sentence in Spanish. 

Little did I know she was just setting me up for the shock of my life! My mom ended her talk with a paragraphs-long, fluid, perfectly pronounced (to my untrained ears at least) testimony in the language she has given her life to over the last several months. I knew how much time she had spent diligently studying her Spanish (proving said diligence by falling behind on episodes of The Bachelor in the name of learning the language...scary face emoji). She was so impressive and left the whole ward in awe of her hard work and preparation. 

At the after party, I uttered the words, "My mom will want pictures of who was here." But then I only took approximately 3 pictures and got distracted. This is my best effort at capturing who was in attendance.

We seized the opportunity to get a family shot that preceded with Ben complaining, "Do I seriously have to put pants on?!?" We're all glad Ben decided the answer to that question was yes because look how cute these pictures are!



We spent the evening with the grandkids savoring their last moments with Presidente and Hermana Thomas before El MTC ripped them away from us.

Thanks for the memorable weekend, Mom and Dad! You're going to do great things in Carlsbad. I can confidently say this because I'm writing this post 1 month into your mission and I can already see it happening! LET'S DO THIS!

Surviving Summer

Eli's day revolves around screens. Every second of his life not spent in front of a computer or a TV is spent in front of me asking to be on the computer or the TV. It drives me bonkers. I am such a supporter of kids being active, playing, using their imaginations, enjoying outside, just being kids in general. It kills me that Eli holds himself captive to his fixation on all things electronic. 

We had a functioning schedule while school was in session, but with summer in full swing, I knew I had to do something provide Eli with a clear picture of when we would be doing screens and when we would not. I also wanted to provide him with the opportunity to be in control of when he could be on a screen and for how long. I wanted to take away the question, "Mom, can I play computer?!?"

Enter the ticket system. Enter the most brilliant idea I've ever had without ANY help from Pinterest, thank you very much. Here's how it works: Eli and Carson can earn tickets every day. Each ticket = 10 minutes of screen time. They have 12 designated ticket earning activities they can do each day. They have to do the blue tasks every day before they are allowed to do any screen time, but as soon as they are dressed, have cleared their breakfast and made their bed, they are free to do their screen time whenever they want without even asking. They just hand me their tickets and I set a timer. 

It's been AWESOME! Eli caught on to it right away and was highly motivated by it. He was also thrilled with the control I was giving him over his own screen time. He knew if he didn't have tickets, he didn't get screens. He STOPPED ASKING ABOUT SCREENS ALL DAY! It's been the best thing ever for our summer survival. 

Lincoln never finds himself alone on a bike for too long before a certain brother plops in front of him and holds him hostage on a little joy ride, giggling mischievously as Lincoln's nervousness grows. 

We went out to eat one night and every boy insisted on sitting as close to Jeff as possible. 

The boys went through this brief stint where they were obsessed with hiding from me. They were cracking me up one day at the park when I would only see flashes of them darting behind rocks and through bushes the whole time we were there. Can you spot Eli?

Eli is typically a man of few words, but one evening he was a little chatter box going on nonstop about all his great plans for the future. Including how he was going to be an electronic maker and make robots and he would have a few babies, but his robots would take care of his babies for him, and Jeff and I could live CLOSE to him but definitely not in the same house when he's older. It was funny to get a glimpse in that little boy's mind and hear all about his 6-year-old hopes and dreams. 

Then a ball flew into our garden box after the boys had just had a bath. Eli said, "Oh, I know. I'll make magic feet to get the ball." He then rounded up these two toy gardening tools we have and created some makeshift stilts to keep his feet clean while he waddled through the garden. 

Here's a little boy that could stand to worry a bit more about the cleanliness of his feet. This kid is such a climber! That little foot is always searching for a perch to give him a hoist. 

I love the words Lincoln has chosen as his first words. Among Boo-Yeah, Boys, and Dog, another one of the first words he uttered was when he had biked himself out into the middle of the road and I said to him, "Lincoln. Get back on the sidewalk." He calmly looked up at me and uttered a very exaggerated, clear, and unexpected, "Whhhhhhhyyyyyyy?"

My other favorite things he says are, "Where'd it go?" Sounds like wa-di-go? And one day I found him sitting on top of the table, on top of my computer. As soon as he knew he was caught, he looked at me and smugly said, "What?"

He also says, "Watch" for various reasons, including: 1) If he's about to do something he thinks is cool or 2) If he's about to do something he knows is naughty. 

Lincoln was working on growing a mouth full of teeth the whole month of June, which meant he found comfort laying on our bed every morning while I got ready. One morning he fell asleep which was funny because none of my kids have been the type to sleep anywhere other than in their own beds, so it was a surprise to find he had quietly put himself to sleep in my bed. 

We made a little trip down to Southern Utah for Baby Helen's baby blessing. It was a beautiful day and we're so glad we could be there. 

We had visions of getting all the cousins together for a great group shot, but the kids had other ideas. 

Adventures with Cousins

Jeff's brother and his family came to visit a few weeks ago. We showed them one of our favorite parks that we knew would be fun for the kids. It turned out the dads had just as much fun as all the little boys. We also went to the zoo and we had a campfire. It was so great to get to spend a few days with them!

One of my motherhood low points of the year was when I forgot Lincoln's shoes when we went up into the mountains to have a campfire. I had high hopes we could maybe just keep him strapped in the stroller to avoid the occasional broken beer bottle or sliced aluminum cans littering the campsite, but baby had other ideas. 

The good news is his socks provided a good enough shield from the pokiness of the wild and Lincoln seemed to have just as much fun without shoes as he would have had with shoes. 

Ben proved to be just the guy to bring along for a camp fire. Not only does he know how to start a fire in a flash, he is also certified to determine whether or not your son has a concussion after said son putts a little too much trust in the stability of a camp chair perched on a hill and flies backwards with the back of his head directly hitting a pointy rock. 

Eli was a little shaken up and had a little bit of a goose egg, but other than that he checked out alright. In no time the fire was a blazing. 

We had the perfect little campsite with a  stream nearby for the boys to frolic through. Every time I glanced over at them I would find myself contently smiling at them and thinking, THIS is summer. Cousins, water, outside, fire, family, chips, s'mores, rock throwing, green, laughing, exploring, dirt, all of it! It was my dream summer evening. 

By the end of the excursion everyone was dirty and tired, so you know we had a lot of fun!

We spent one day at Hogle Zoo. It should be noted that we nonchalantly discussed whether to go to Hogle Zoo on Monday or Tuesday. We ultimately picked Monday for no obvious reason other than that seemingly insignificant decision ended up SAVING OUR LIVES. I checked the news Tuesday afternoon and saw that a leopard had escaped from its cage on Tuesday! We were one small decision away from being eaten alive by an uncaged, oversized cat. I have no doubts that cat spent the entire day we were there plotting his intricate escape plan. I also have no doubts that if we were there on Tuesday and the cat didn't get to me first, the claustrophobia would have after being crammed in a gift shop for an hour and a half with 3 little screaming people. Thankfully, we all survived the zoo without an uncaged cat-astrophe. 

If you want to know what it feels like to be a caged leopard desperate to escape, go ahead and visit the bird show. Because once you sit down for the bird show, they don't let you leave. Even if you have a 18-month-old who is D-O-N-E with the show and screaming his head off, they WILL NOT let you go lest the sight of someone standing up sends Alfonzo the bird flying in the wrong direction and the whole show is shot. With each signal of distress expressed by my baby, and with every creep I attempted to make towards the exit, I had a 16-year-old intern whisper to me that I wasn't allowed to stand up no matter what and to just sit tight, paying no mind to the little animal I had in my lap flapping and flailing around with more vigor than the birds holding us captive. So yeah, Leopard. I get the feeling of needing to hop outside the box for a little breather. 

Eli loved showing us around because he had just been to the zoo on a field trip so he was our designated tour guide. 

We made our way back to the house for a popsicle refresher after a hot day. 

I feel the need to mention the gigantic bump on Lincoln's head is a MOSQUITO BITE! What?!? Can one be allergic to mosquitos? He got a bite right below his eye shortly after this and his whole eye swelled up so much he could barely see. 

We played a bit at the house and then it was time to send the cousins on their way. It was so great to have them! 

The Start of Summer

I've told you before, but Eli drops his drawers the second he gets home from school every day. No one was more excited than him that summer was just around the corner, so he could wear his comfy cotton shorts 24/7. I was excited at the thought of escaping the random laundry piles Eli left behind after his wardrobe changes that often made me question if Eli had been transfigured.

Eli had kindergarten graduation. You know, I thought I was a non-supporter of making a spectacle of finishing the first year of school, but it was actually just about the cutest thing I ever saw and I can see what all the hype is about. Eli was a total doll. He danced. He sang. He was sooooo nervous before the big performance. It was a good wrap up to a great year. 

And as if the performance alone wasn't the icing on the cake of a fabulous first year of school, Eli handed me this little gem which officially converted me to the shenanigans of a kindergarten graduation. 

Summer started right away with a visit from cousins! Madison loved following me around usually because Lincoln was always close by and she LOVES Baby Lincoln. 

This perfectly depicts her time with us. 

They had the whole trampoline to themselves, but she insisted on positioning herself as squished next to Lincoln as possible. It was hilarious and adorable. 

Unfortunately Lincoln wasn't quite having it because he was breaking in -- I kid you not -- 6 teeth (at least, including all his molars)! As soon as the Golden crew left, he crashed and wouldn't let me do anything but lay with him while we watched our favorite unnamed guilty pleasure reality TV shows for 2 straight hours. 

He had been fine all day, but turned miserable so quickly. I finally took his temperature after he started refusing to leave my chest and it was 104 the first time I took it! Yikes!! I gave him a dose of Tylenol and luckily the fever dropped almost immediately to a more reasonable temperature and never quite made it back up that high, but we almost made a quick trip to the ER. It was so weird because he had no runny nose, no cough, no nothing except for the fever and teeth. But the fever seemed way too high for just teeth coming in. It was a weird day, but he turned it around by the next day and pulled himself out of the high temps with a few more teeth to show for it. 

Eli's birthday was on the first day of summer this year. He was so, so excited to turn 6!

The boys went through a DinoTrux phase (which they're already over, Boo!). Eli got Garby for his birthday. Had I know before purchasing Garby that he is the show's comic relief through bodily functions, I would not have so eagerly bought him, but Eli loved him and of course found him hilarious, so we'll call that a birthday success. 

Eli also got a daddy date where he and Jeff went to pick out a bike. We accidentally backed over Eli's last bike mere hours after he had finally learned how to ride it without training wheels. It was so sad. The good news is it's true what they say about riding a bike. Once you learn, you never forget, Eli still picked it right up even though it had almost been a year since he had given it a try. 

Eli requested a BB8 cake. I think he liked it? Is this the face of a boy who likes his birthday cake? I'm still trying to decide. 

There we go. 

Shout out to my Grandpa for teaching Eli how to use a lighter. I should also shout out that I may or may not have caught my boys with a lighter in their room one evening after hearing suspicious, quiet giggling. From what I've gathered, a lighter had fallen out of where I usually keep them (way up high) in the pantry with all the moving and cleaning I had been up to. The boys snuck the lighter up to their room and were "just trying to start the carpet on fire." No big deal. 

Cue lecture, lecture, lecture, fear tactics, more lecture, and relocation/lock down of all lighters. Until his birthday. And then I gave my blossoming pyro full reign of the flames.

The best birthday surprise of all was that Eli's cousins from Guam came into town just in time for the celebration! More to come on a fun weekend with them!