Utah 2025 Thursday & Friday

Family vaycay time! 

I wrestled a lot with the plan to go to Utah and met Aaron with significant resistance. I love our families but why go to Utah in summer when we have two kids moving there in the fall.  But here’s we are and we are having a blast!

As soon as we arrived at Aubtie Melinda and Uncle Marker’s house, the little kids disappeared, and Quincy ran to catch up with her favorite cousin Garrett. These two are opposites in oh so many ways and there’s a 9 year age gap between them, but they are besties and can talk for days. 


Hours upon hours in the pool. 

Cousin Brock was pulling together a group date with a bunch of rm buddies a few hours after we pulled up, and he spontaneously added two more dudes for these Willy sisters. Oh boy. Provo is NOT ready for this duo! It was Quincy’s first blind date. They had a really good time and were asked out again by the same two guys to go to battle of the bands the next day. We already had a big Lawrence, Oelrich, and Willy family dinner planned or they would have gone. They’re planning a night out later this week and miss Reese has a queue of friends from her mission that she wants to see.

On Friday morning the boys got up early and went fly fishing on the lower Provo river and then to lunch at Sundance. Cousin Henry and Uncle Scott are the two kings who caught anything. 



Uncle Scott Schauss, Grabdpa Rob Willardson, Aaron. Soren, Cousin Preston Low, Cousin Henry Low, Corbin, Cousin Jackson Schauss 

When they got back we went to BYU campus. We were surprised to see Cousin Hanna Willardson working there! 

My bestie Carly was on campus and we had to meet up! Even if it’s only for a few minutes, I’ll take my hug from Carly! 


Garrett gave Quincy and I a tour to find her dorm, the music building, and the cannon center. He introduced us to creamery cookies and cream milk and I got a mint brownie. 

Back at Mark’s, we had a cousin dinner. Brock and Soren teamed up and everyone commented on how they look more like siblings than the Lawrence boys do. Zack and Corbin vs Brock and Soren.


Bear and the boys hit up the golf simulator and a family soccer penalty kick comp started. 

Summer is my fave

Corbin solving a rubix cube is my fave

This boy lives to fidget and he almost has the rubix algorithm figured out. 


Thrifting is my fave! 

During ukulele camp today, Quincy and I picked up Landan S and the three of us went on a thrifting adventure to the Goodwill “bins”, a warehouse filled with bins of donated clothes. You really have to dig and you might find something super nasty in there. You also might find something awesome, like the Columbia ski coat we picked up for Corbin or the corduroy jacket or cute sweats or sweaters. All excellent name brands! You pay by the pound in weight. Fun, sustainable activity and we came home with a dozen items for $15! Landan scored a wool sweater to take on his mission, a sick vintage tee shirt, avg snowboarding pants for $4 total. 


Wilbers foodie night is my fave! We love excellent food and so do the Saumis. We put our heads together and created the best meal. I smoked tri tip and brought cookie bars and Saumwebers had a zillion sides that were all super delicious. We ate until we ached and the kids swam while the 4 parents, Quincy, Dave, and Scotty G sat around and visited for hours. Corbin and Brody talked Reese into driving them to a party in pea ridge. When she returned she jumped in the pool for her first swim in 2 years. 

Sleepy Soren is my fave

Soren joined the WJHS cross country team and has been at early morning practices all summer. A great athlete with great energy to be a great teammate in this event as a His appetite is insatiable and he struggled to remain conscious. 

Quincy took this pic of Soren on Sunday. Lol Might have been during my talk 

We went to dinner at Perla and Nathan Flory house. She made us chicken with mole and we talked about love and relationships for 4 hours!

Ena left for the Philippines this week. At her farewell open house we were pleased to notice that the Riches also keep mistletoe hanging in an archway year round. 😂 the funny part is that several young men were the ones who pointed it out to us, saying their lack if success in its purpose was two for two lol. Sorry not sorry, guys! 

Elder Carter Eggers, youngest son of friends Rob and Christy Eggers in Hollister, Ca, entered the MTC (Adriatic North Mission), this week. The night before our trip to Utah, Reese, Quincy, and I FaceTimed cousin Steven (to check on his ACL surgery recovery)  and learned Elder Eggers had just flown in. He was staying with my sister for the night and she took him to the MTC in the morning. We visited with Carter and Steven and found out Elder Eggers is in the same district as Elder Douglas! Quincy was SO happy to know he and Luke get to meet. They are both such great guys know they’ll be instant friends. 

I had a girls night with my 4 daughters one night last week while Aaron took Bear up to help at Young Men’s Camp. We didn’t take many photos but we had so much fun! We went to dinner and then on an adventure to find an Asian supermarket. Reese wanted to look for some Korean treats for the the kids to try and we found pandan leaves and sweet rice for mango sticky rice. 


I bought a bunch of rambutan and the kids and all their friends snacked on it all week. 




The triple threat have had a couple swim dates with London for an hour while I did flowers and bees at Tuckaway. Look at these summer faces! 


Robyn gave Aaron a jar of hot fudge for Father’s Day and we had ice cream Sundaes several nights last week. 


I was asked to drive a van full of boys up to young men’s camp and bring home a van full of girls from Young Women’s camp. It was fun so see so many favorites coming and going to camp! 


I set up two new nucs at the Tuckaway this week. I spent the morning out in Gravette working on bees with Greg Bench at his property. I learned so much! 

There was a lot to do and I spent a couple hours cleaning out old hives and setting up the new ones. 






Stop everything. The Saumi’s have BABY GOATS 


The spears invited us to have FHE at beaver lake with their family. Greg and Aaron took everyone out for sunset boat rides and we took turns hanging out on the shore with some of the group. The littles swam around and bugs visited. We brought Ammon with us so everyone was entertained. He’s our favorite plus one buddy. 

Ukulele Camp

We signed up the triple threat for ukulele camp at the Lutheran church, this week. They love it! I love it. The kids have a goal to learn some primary songs and I’m teaching them Count on Me by Bruno Mars. Today, I took the banjolele and joined them for the first hour of class today.  It’s great! Mr Steve teaches them how to read tabs, and they play cute little songs together like Mama’s little baby loves shortnin’ bread, this little light of mine, row row row your boat, and the Batman theme. The class will give a performance at the end of camp on Friday, but sadly we will miss it bc we’ll be in Utah. They are also learning and playing Amazing Grace at the Lutheran church worship service on Sunday morning. My favorite thing about this camp (aside from being extremely affordable) is that the age demographic in the room is generally 8-12 or 65+ and all the kids are paired up with an older partner. Everyone learns together and some of these kids are already students, and it’s always a beginner with a more proficient player. It’s a great patience exercise for everyone.  

The littles are on ukes constantly at home now. Reese plays primary songs for them and it’s the cutest. I love it! Also, check out Miss Reese in denim jeans for the first time in 18 months 😍 cutieeee