Corbin Junior Prom 2026

 

Corbin had a blast at prom last weekend! He and his beautiful date, Avery, were with a big group of fun friends. Something I love about Corbin is how playful he is. He likes to DO things, and brings a lot of hype to group activities and parties. He also hangs around after and makes sure people have rides, messes are cleaned up, etc. cThey took photos, ate wrights BBQ, then skipped the dance in favor of bowling, then they had an after party at Sydney, where they jumped in the lake. 

Corbin, Avery P, Camden, Reagan N, Ammon, Sydney G, Claire J, ??, Brooklynn H, James S, Ariana D, and Hyrum J. 

I was out of town on Saturday, so I did Avery’s bouquet on Friday before I flew out. Katy P, Marianne Hess, and Heidi Stewart came in clutch with photos for me. It was so good to receive such beautiful pics throughout the evening! I believe they decided the them for the evening must be “sunshine” because of the bright colors, spring weather, and sunny smiles on kids.

Things that are the best!

 

Getting a few projects done is the best. 

Finally hanging the rest of the instruments in the music room after procrastinating for 6 months. 

It took less than an hour. 

Did a hive check. The ladies look amazing! Two very strong hives and one small but hanging in there hive. Look at those festooning bees! That means we have a lot of teenage bees and it means they are building comb in anticipation of growth and honey storage! Gonna be a good year. I don’t know a ton and have so much to learn, but I love sharing my bee knowledge with Mary and living farm life vicariously. The Saumis are so generous to host Willy hives in their bee yard. Mary and I call it a team effort to be bee moms. It’s a joint custody.

Orchestra is the best! At the semester, Soren was transferred into the 8th grade orchestra class. In February, he was selected to be in the 8th grade chamber group. He has had a few opportunities to play at school and community events with this group and he loves it! Last week, they played at a festival at Apple Glen elementary one day and at Crystal Bridges another day. He is looking forward to SDC with the whole 8th grade orchestra in May 

An Elder Tice sighting is the best! We received this text from Aaron’s sister in law, Ashley. Elder Tice is serving in her ward, and teaching her neighbor! Corbin was ecstatic about this, and sent a video back telling him, “Elder Tice, you look amazing my friend! Keep up the good work!” He then told me, “Josh needs to freshen up that fade, mom. What are alk my friends gonna do without you?” And then a gasp of realization hit, “wait. What am I going to do without you?!” Then he texted his aunt and uncle and told them, “take good care of my friend, here. Make sure he gets some Taco Bell, my man looks like he could use a Baja blast” Great work, Joshie!

Spring academic grind is the best. Corbin is “in a flow state” for the end of semester push to get a couple Bs in AP classes up to As, and to rescue a struggling APSTAT grade. I believe in him.
A 6 mile hike with Kasey is the best! Spring is springing! We got caught in the rain the last 20 minutes and it was refreshing! 

The newtons at music and the spoken word is the best 

Chaperoning 90 orchestra students is the best

My Sunday school seniors are the best! This week I got to see Davey run the Ignite summit. This is a big deal. He did a fabulous job. Bryce A received a 1000 grant through Bentonville schools to start his own business. He’s the coolest! I also went to two mission call openings for Ammon (Brazil) and Madi (Florida). Super proud of these two for committing to serve the Lord. And lastly, Mr Neal cane over and we dyed hus bright red spotted party hair back to black. He looked super sharp just in time for prom!  What a special group of kids. They’re the best class! 

Orchestra takes on Dallas part 2

 We ate Texas BBQ, Famiky Style Babes Chicken, rock climbed and zip lined, performed at the Meyerson Center, shopped at Buc-ees, played football and lawn games and ate fancy donuts in a park downtown between 4 scheduled rehearsals. 

Bolder adventure park highlights: zip lining, the big tube slides, and this arcade game that captivated 20 kids attention. It started with student and a game card. Corbin’s group of boys looked their play points together into one game where a machine spits quarters onto a plate. Knocking quarters off the plate grants more points. You also knock sponge bob character cards into a basket for big points. Collect ALL 9 character cards (which fall at random) and you earn the grand prize of 5000 tickets for the prize shop. The first few cards were collected easily, 

And then they were too invested to quit. The crowd gathered around this machine grew bigger and bigger and the suspense to the point that none of us could tear ourselves away. Noah was the best at timing the quarter shoot so he was designated shooter. The rest of us were there for moral support. All but one card remained. Sandy the Squirrel, just out of reach. 

Along came a group of girls, who asked “how long have you guys been here?” 

Without even looking up from the game they all gave answers into the air, “too long”, “shhhhh don’t jinx this, we’re so close!” And “long enough that I missed my zip lining time slot and I’m not even sad about it. Come on Sandy!” 

We watched the Sandy card get closer and closer to the prize drop. The girls gave up the remaining turns on their cards as well. Two of them almost missed their zip lining appointments as well, Bethany left by handing over her card and a charge to the boys to “win Sandy!” 

The kids  would whisper chant “Sandy. Sandy. Come on Sandy, you tease!” 

The moment Sandy dropped into the bin was victorious. They divided their winnings up at gave 2,000 to Bethany for providing the winning token. They bought a football with the rest of their pooled prize points and played football the rest of the trip anytime they had a 5 minute wait and a lawn or parking lot. 

Amanda Hutchins and I were roommates and bus chaperones together and we had a grand time. 

The whole gang except for Sandy. 

The focus was real! 

I took this pic from 2 stories up. It doesn’t look so bad but they were WAY up there! 

Pistachio cannoli donut and football 

This is the 4th year a BHS orchestra has gone to La comida in Dallas. The owners, brothers Mario and Ivan, came to the US with a dream and they are living it!   

A little shout out to some of these young besties! Hyrum, Ammon, Neal, and Bethany. 4 of the 7 best sunday school seniors. I’ve never thought of myself as short, but I look that way next to these giant hearts and personalities! 

Montgomery, Peyton “PTibby”, Corbin, James S

Our VIP chaperone tickets places us in the 3rd row at the Meyerson. Incredible. We were the closing performers. Standing ovation right away. Lots of parents and grandparents made the drive. Even Mr Puckett the vice principal at BHS was there. What a goat. We love his support for the arts, and the kids all wanted selfies with him. 

Soren and Titus ran around with the big boys and then with Flora. It was a dream day of no school for them! 

I must have set my phone down at some point because I found 25 photos just like this one on my camera roll. 

Soren made the rounds with me late one night to do room checks. I delivered candy and I guess I got talking too long to some of the girls. Hahaha Soren gave up waiting and just made him self comfortable in the stair well. It was after 1am and he couldn’t hang any longer 😂.

These kids! So talented! Chamber and Camerata + Soren and Titus, Dan Grover, Jesse Collet, Tony and Amy Talbert, Amanda Hutchings, Meredith and Kelly Davis. And our heisman trophy donut box. The other chaperones punked me and said we were doing a silly photo here. We in fact were not. 💀

 There were about a dozen other parents that came in for the performance Saturday night. Great support for great kids. 

Corbin, Noah H, Layla T, Maddie L, and Brock W.