Brogan Appreesh

 We’re hilarious.

A little shout out to Logan Newton, or “Brogan” as most of us call him most of the time. Because he truly is the ultimate Bro. 

These photos aren’t anything special, but my new son in law definitely is. He’s such a great big brother. Logan is FUN. He is full of energy and radiates playful joy. He loves caring for Reese. Not only does Logan love all his new younger siblings, big he loves all their friends. Logan and Reese got Ammon a job at Crumbl and had him over to their house to hang out last night when Corbin and the other YM were at camp. He calls up Scotty and Ryan. He is down to hoop with anyone gathered here. He can yap. He also totally gets my sensory need for a quiet house the 20 minutes right before dinner time and is quick to get the kids outside to offer me a few minutes of a peace in my “office”. I just love him. 

He’s just the best big buddy and I am so happy for the life he and Reese are setting up together. He’s such a good man and the blog needed a “major appreesh” for brogan! 

Girl Day

Sloane was feeling a little bummed out about not going to YW camp this week. Sometimes a Jan 1 birthday feels like a hinderance that levels her “down”.  To remind her that being born in the same calendar year as her little sister doesn’t have to be a bad thing, we had a girls day. Both of them remembered that they love a lot of the same things and 8 months between them really is not a big deal. 

They made the agenda and requested a treat, something grown up, and a visit to see their big sister at work. 

We got smoothies at Jamba Juice (they’d never been).  I told them all about how when I was in high school, the closest Jamba Juice was in Santa Cruz, so my friends and I would stop there when we drove over to the beach. We would park on Pacific Ave, get smoothies, then walk around the little surf shops for Roxy and O’Neil swag and end at lunch at Pizza My Heart. 

For our “somehing grown up” I was given this request on the fly. But I did have errands to run, which felt pretty grown up, and less boring if we were together! 

We went to the distribution center to exchange a church shirt for a different size for Bear, and they picked up a copy of the Articles of Faith in Spanish. I guess Brother Geddes in our ward told the kids that he’ll buy anyone who memorizes them in a 2nd language a candy bar. 

They do not have them memorized in English, but I appreciate their enthusiasm and will always encourage language study in my home. Their poster is now on the wall in their bedroom. 

We also stopped at Ulta for shampoo and took them with me. My mistake! Sloane REALLY wants to wear makeup. I showed them all the zillions of bottles of perfume instead and let them choose one to sample. I’ll encourage smelling good as a makeup adjacent safe launch. My excitement faded when I discovered that the perfume market is marketed for a very young crowd and the little $70 bottles are all shaped like squish mallows and other tween crazed characters. Apparently, the beauty industry has discovered the vulnerability of the tween demographic and is targeting them as well 😭. This stage of adolescence is so tricky to encourage both body positivity and also individual worth. It’s hard for boys, too, but having raised teens of both genders, dang the world is just brutal to girls. 

Don’t grow up too fast, daughters! I just love their mismatched outfits and unruly summer hair.

Reese had cookies waiting for them at crumble and the sisters thought they were coolest meeting Reese’s and Logan’s boss. 

 We also went for a walk downtown and stopped at Tuckaway to borrow something from Mary, check on our bees, and catch London to play. 

Hold Em

My house is so full right now and I wish I could freeze time and hold em all here forever. I love it. 

Last night, Aaron took Bear to the shareholder concert. Bear LOVES One Republic and was super excited. He even wore the tshirt I got when I took Quincy and friends to see them at the amp her sophomore year. 

Aaron and Bear left and the little girls disappeared into a craft upstairs.  I started dinner prep. Reese and Logan came over after work. Ryan came home for dinner.  Ammon came over for a haircut and then he and Corbin casually let me know they invited the priest quorum over for sliders and game 1 Knicks v Spurs. 

I doubled the sliders on the grill. 

Knicks winning. Sensational.

Little girls go to bed. 

Halftime: Hyrum unrolls a poker table mat and deals everyone in. 

Ryan teaches Ammon how to play poker and it takes longer than when he taught Esme and Sloane. 😂

Ryan folds. 

The rest of the boys bet big. All in. 

I wiped that table CLEAN a pair and a straight. 

Good thing it’s only chips. They’d be broke. 

Neal posted this pic on the Sunday school group chat 💀 Don’t gamble kids. 

After the game (Knicks in 6, who’s with me? I want to see manhattan light up with excitement), Ammon, Hyrum, abd Neal went home. Soren went to pack for camp, aaron and Bear went to bed (they came home early, one republic canceled), and the rest of us moved the party upstairs so we wouldn’t keep waking up Aaron. 

Man I love when Corbin is in a funny chatty mood. He doesn’t get silly like this without Quincy very often. She brings out everyone’s crazy size. Reese, Logan and I piled on the daybed and listened to Corbin tell the funniest stories last night. I think we finally called it at 1:30. 

I am loving this stage of life that my kids are in. I know it won’t last forever, but I’m holding on to all the late night laughs this summer! Even if the pretty guest room smells like farts and socks now. 

 

Seal of Biliteracy

 

Love y Libros

Congratulations to Corbin! He was awarded a $500 grant that he applied for in February to provide access to early childhood classic board books in Spanish to our community. The Children’s section director at the Bentonville Library was so grateful and Corbin’s donation. will  Thank you @bentonvilleschools for supporting bilingual education and for encouraging students to be inclusive and give back to their community. I’m really proud of Corbin for recognizing this need and his ability to do something about it all on his own. I love his compassionate heart. Bien Hecho, Corbin!

 

Summer Sam’s Club Sampler

Every year, the Owens host a pool party to sample all the inflatables and pool toys for the Sam’s Club team. We have a wide range of ages in our family, so we’ve been invited the past few years to give feedback on the toys and price points to the team. Always a super fun time! 

Corbin was still in the final four of Splash Assassins, and a purge started at the time of the party, so he came, but reluctantly. He felt very exposed out at the pool, so he stayed “fire ready” with his water gun the whole time. In fact, when a little kid thought it was super cool and asked to try it out, Corbin genuinely hesitated and then agreed “ok but only for a minute”and then sat with his back to a wall anxiously waiting for Bethany to show up to kill him. 😂 

Ironically, a surprise second purge was announced later that night as soon as he left a party at Georgias for basketball. A kid followed Corbin to the stake center and waited until he was on the court and then swooped in and got him out. Corbin was crushed, but he took the L like a man. H is now throwing his support toward Bethany, since he tried to get her like 4 times but wasn’t able to. 

Esme and Amelia were so cute in their matching swimsuits!  This crocodile successfully held up 6 little kids, and later 4 young adults. A Top tier pool toy for sure! 

Soren and King Spence got a sweet obstacle course going in all the big inflatables for all the big kids. This lasted until Esme put waaaaay too much soap on the slip n slide portion and Ryan took an eye full of suds. 

This octopus won the oldest crowd over. Oliver, Soren, Ryan, Parker, and Logan made light work of creating a mechanical bull situation out of this and cleared the little kids out pretty quickly. We probably will not be invited back next year haha

And we had to give a moment of silence to the melon ball. Once upon another summer, this lil’ baby provided countless hours of mindless carefree fun for Quincy, Parker, Ryan, Baylee, Brightyn, ZVan, Elle, and Davey between the Owens and Saumi’s pools. Ryan was first to comment on the symbolic death of melon ball. It really was a notable metaphor. I think logan picked up on this and was quick to insist they make up a new game and I’m pretty sure that’s how Octobull was born. Long live the playful hearts of young adults. Thank you Owens for a great kickoff to summer! 

 

Happy Birthday Masza!

Our neighbor friend Masza turned 80 and her husband asked if she could be celebrated at our house, since it would be easier to accommodate a surprise gathering. He took care of everything and we literally did nothing but welcome guests. We had the Willardson, Levin, Gustin, Grow, Newton, Cooper, Stewart, Blake, Chandler, Lawrence, Blaylock, Evans, Sperry, Shefchik, Dragovich, Durbin, Garouette, Wynne, Minkler, and Johnson families stop by to celebrate our sweet friend. My mom counted over 60 people. Masza has so much love for everyone and there is so much love for Masza. She expresses her thoughts and feelings and warmly and freely. I think this is a gift for my children to see someone so openly vulnerable and affectionate in today’s world where my children are exposed to so much free sharing of opinions behind the security of a screen, but clammed up and socially closed off when it comes to face to face interaction. Masza will stop your car in the middle of the road if she wants to talk to you. She sometimes operates at a different pace than we have grown comfortable with but I think it’s a wonderful thing. Everything she has to say is always worthy of the time and attention. She is brilliant and kind and grateful and faithful and giggly and generous with paise and affection. I love her. Happy Birthday Masza!