The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

At the beginning of this week Aiden was still in 3B and Brandon was still out of town. Monday evening my sweet cousin-in-law sent dinner for us from Pizza Hut. She spoiled us with not only pizza but also breadsticks, soda, and dessert. By the time the kids were getting to bed I started to feel queasy. I just prayed and prayed that whatever was coming wouldn’t be too awful and that I would be able to get a fairly decent night of sleep. It turned out to be a 24 hour stomach flu bug that sucked but was manageable and I got more sleep then I thought I would that night.

Tuesday I was in and out of sleep for most of the day. Poor Zoey just watched a bunch of t.v. while I napped on the couch. I ended up attending Aiden’s court hearing that day virtually because I knew it would not go well if I tried to attend in person. The young men’s activity that evening was improv skits. I had asked Lucas multiple times between 5 and 7 if he wanted to attend and he told me yes each time. When we arrived at the church he told me that he actually didn’t want to attend. I told him to go in and that he could just watch. I ran to with Isaac and Zoey to get our pick up order from Wal-mart and called Lucas on the way back to see if he wanted us to pick him up. He told me no but by the time I drove the rest of the way home and started to unload he called wanting to be picked up. It was less than 5 minutes later. I told him to hang out in the bathroom and that I would let him know when I arrived. It’s a good thing I had been feeling progressively better since about 3:00 because this was a lot of running around.

Wednesday Zoey had speech therapy mid-day and Isaac had therapy that afternoon. No idea how the evening went except that my hubby came home about 10:00! Hooray! Things are always better when Brandon is home. <3

Thursday I met with the clinical supervisor at The Learning Center to sign papers so that we can get Lucas set up with behavioral intervention services. When I was through with that I went to pick Aiden up from juvenile detention and took him to a different group home called Gus House. I had another big stack of papers to sign when we arrived there. In the afternoon I had a meeting with Aiden’s school. I spent a good portion of the day contacting people to let them know that Aiden was out of detention and to find out when he could return to his appointments with them.

Friday there was no school due to it being end of the term. In the morning I attended a meeting at the probation office. The rest of the day I answered questions for, ran interference of, and herded three kids.

Saturday was Aiden’s first overnight home in a few weeks. Earlier in the week I had asked him if he would like a hair cut and he said that he did. I was able to get it scheduled and during my afternoon nap Brandon took Aiden to get it done. It is taking some getting used to since it had been long for awhile. Aiden got to pick the style from several options that I had looked up online and he really likes how it turned out. We gave Aiden the rest of his birthday gifts from us and in the evening he and Brandon worked to mix up cake batter and get it baked.

Sunday we went to church. I worked to frost the mini cake while Brandon and Aiden were at the missionary committee meeting and they frosted the larger cake while I napped. It was good to be able to finally give Aiden a chance to have his birthday cake. Fingers crossed that Aiden is on a positive track of forward momentum now. Thanks for reading!

This was a crazy week. There was no school on Monday due to President’s day. I am not sure what we did but in the evening Lucas and Isaac went to 4-H. We barely had long enough to go to a couple of places before we had to go back and pick them up. I ended my evening packing and getting ready to head to Utah.

Tuesday morning I finished packing for Zoey and I. We had a court hearing for Aiden that morning so I couldn’t head out until it was over. The drive was a long one, I first stopped for lunch at Freddy’s in Chubbuck. Then we continued on. The weather was snowy and the roads slippery between Downey, ID and Brigham City, UT. I stopped at the rest stop in Malad Summit. I got in and parked ok but couldn’t make it up the hill to go around and out to leave. I opted for backing down the hill to try and go out a different way. I misjudged where I was headed and got the back end of the van stuck in a snow bank. I tried and tried to get out. I was headed downhill, it shouldn’t have been so difficult. Eventually the rest stop host came and helped me out with a whole lot of ice melt. She then walked along side the van while I backed up so that I would know where I was going. That entire saga took a good 30-45 minutes.

I didn’t stop again until Ogden. It was much better travel at that point. I simply filled up on gas and then drove the remainder of the way to the Airbnb where Erica, Matt, and family were staying. We had a nice visit, Zoey and Wednesday weren’t quite sure what to think of each other but Logan sat right next to me and played games on his tablet. We left there about 5:30 and I grabbed dinner at Del Taco on the way to my mom’s house. Little did I know I would be snowed in when I woke up the next morning.

The plow didn’t come down my mom’s street until about 11:00 a.m. That left Zoey and I just sort of hanging out and taking it easy. Poor Erica and Matt had no food and the person who was bringing their drop off order got stuck.  I wanted to help them out but knew I wouldn’t even make it out of the neighborhood. The moment the road was plowed I got out while I could. It’s a good thing that I had already decided to stay an extra night at that point because the roads were not pleasant. I managed to get to Walmart ok, but when I tried to leave Chick-fil-a with my lunch I got stuck. Chick-fil-a staff came to my rescue there.

I got to the neighborhood where Erica and Matt were staying and saw a lot of stuck cars. I decided to try going down and around aaaaaaaannnnnnnddddddd got stuck. I was stuck pretty good. A guy who was shoveling his driveway tried to help me get unstuck. Finally my car sort of rotated in a circle so I tried getting back up the hill the way I came. That was a joke. I ended up going east because it was downhill and found a different way out of the neighborhood. Finally I made it to the Airbnb. It was ridiculous.

Zoey, Logan, and Wednesday played while Matt, Erica, and I visited. Erica had Matt and I join her for a few games on her phone and that caused some laughter. One of the things Erica needed to guess I gave her the hint, “She’s totally outrageous.” Erica looked stumped and Matt looks over and says, “Jem.” It was great. Eventually we made a plan with our dad to meet for dinner at The Bohemian. Guess who got stuck on the way out? This girl! Another guy came to our rescue and we really just ended up gunning the engine until the van once again rotated 180 degrees and I went east and downhill out of the neighborhood once again.

Dinner was delicious. I wanted to stop at 5 Below on the way to my mom’s but it was closed, “due to the weather” when I arrived. Zoey and I ended up visiting with my mom and Randy for awhile and then going to bed. She takes a good chunk of time to settle when she sleeps in the pack-n-play.

Thursday morning mom, Erica, Zoey, and I went to eat breakfast at Oasis. On the way there Zoey and I stopped at Ruby Snap cookies for a delightful selection of goodies. After breakfast Zoey and I began our long drive back home. We stopped at Smith and Edwards along the way and stayed longer than we should have. 😉 The drive went smoothly despite a couple of areas with snow and slightly slippery roads. I ended up driving straight to Idaho Public Library so that I could meet up with Brandon and the boys for the meeting I had scheduled. That night was bittersweet as my unpacked suitcase and his recently packed suitcase sat together on our bed. He left very early Friday morning to fly to DC for the Zero Conference.

Friday Zoey and I hung out after the boys went to school. I cleaned up the basement play area so that it would be safe for Wednesday when Erica and family arrived in Idaho Falls. We ended up eating at Dixie’s Diner for lunch. After we picked Isaac up from school I watched Logan and Wednesday so that Erica and Matt could go to the Collectors Museum without kids. We had Don Alberto for dinner and then Matt and Erica returned to their Airbnb.

Saturday morning was our last time hanging out with the Guerdon Family for this trip west. We went to Abracadabra’s for breakfast and it was delicious as usual. 🙂 The kids were a bit crazy and because we were in a round corner booth Lucas get feeling like he was getting squished but it was fun to have nearly all of us all together. It’s hard when one family lives on the east coast and one lives nearly to the west coast.

Saturday was spent in front of screens. Lucas and Isaac did at least have a 4-H stem event in the afternoon so I took them to that and then Zoey and I came home and napped. We spent the evening at home.

Sunday we only went to church the 2nd hour. This gave us a bit of extra time to get ready and get out the door. I also knew that trying to keep Zoey quite during sacrament meeting without Brandon’s help would have been very difficult so I made things work the best I could for our family. In the afternoon I went to visit Aiden at 3B and Lucas, Isaac, and Zoey stayed at our house with a man from our ward. He has helped us out several times and the kids really enjoy hanging out with him. He plays board games with them and hide-n-go seek. Mom and dad aren’t quite as fun. ;P We ate dinner later on and had a quiet evening at home. Thanks for reading!

It seems that the more birthdays we have the faster the year goes. I feel like I am in a constant whirlwind of appointments, meetings, and activities that the kids or I need to attend. Days and weeks often go by in a blur with only occasional moments to catch my breath, gain some clarity, and to re-group before starting again.

Aiden has been in juvenile detention since Feb. 10th. Long story short he got another students debit card, had it in his possession, and used it in the vending machine at school. That was the final act in a string of thefts he had committed that week and were in violation of his probation. As most of you know we have been trying to figure this kid out his entire life. As young as 6/7 months old he craved constant attention and did not do well at entertaining himself. If I had to write an e-mail for 5 minutes he would be there crying and trying to get to me through the baby gate. There have been many moments over the years where Brandon and I just shake our head and wonder incredulously why he has made the choices that he makes. Thankfully Idaho Falls has a very robust and fabulous Department of Health and Welfare with many programs that Aiden is eligible for. I still feel like we are flailing, and even with his newest psych testing and addition of extroverted autism as a new diagnosis, I wonder if we are on the correct path to wellness. When you have a kid that has as much going on as Aiden and symptoms/behaviors that could be a variety of diagnoses it is tough to figure out just exactly what is going on. My only hope is that we are getting closer. We have a pretty good team now and I am hoping that as we work together we can come up with a solid plan going forward.

Monday the 13th the kids went to school. They were supposed to go to 4-H that evening but we completely spaced it. It wasn’t the only thing I spaced this week either.

Tuesday was Valentine’s day. I had gotten the kiddos each a bath bomb, Hot Wheels car, something for their hair, and a card. My sweetheart got me a card, flowers, and some candy, I got him a free chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-a and a card that I haven’t written in and given to him yet. The boys went to 4-H at 5:00 to make chocolate covered strawberries and then we went to Noodles & Co. for our annual “romantic for the whole family” Valentine’s tradition. It was delicious.

Wednesday Zoey had speech therapy, she is learning new words and stringing them together more and more. That evening I was feeling to unwell to go visit Aiden at juvenile detention. This made it easier because then I could stay at home with the kids while Brandon went out to visit Aiden. He missed seeing me but I just felt so icky.

Thursday I had a meeting at Aiden’s school to discuss strategies, changes to his IEP, and other alternatives for his schooling. In the end it was decided to update the IEP to reflect the changes but that since we weren’t really sure where Aiden will end up we would have to wait and see. I then had a phone meeting with Lucas’ DD case manager to discuss his needs so that she could write up a plan for him. That evening I forgot about Isaac’s parent teacher conference. I looked at the clock at 5:15ish and thought oh that conference is in an hour. Next thing I know it’s 7:40 and I realized that I had missed it. Kids are distracting, can I blame it on them? On top of distracting kids I have been congested and under the weather for far too long. That messes with your brains ability to think and remember things.

I do not know what we did Friday. I am sure that it was epic! NOT. 😛 Because Brandon and I have been feeling unwell for several weeks we opted to have many fix it yourself dinner nights this go around. Mon-Fri the boys get to choose from one of like 15 dinner options and make it themselves. This has been things like nachos, bean burritos, breakfast burritos, pepperoni/cheese/crackers, pizza rolls, etc. Saturday and Sunday Brandon makes a more intensive dinner. It’s been nice to have them just fend for themselves.

Saturday Isaac had a friend over 11-2 and Lucas had a friend over 1-4. After they left we ran some errands. First we went to Deseret Industries to get Brandon some pants that don’t have holes in the knees. While there I grabbed a couple of cute skirts for myself and shoes and a dress for Zoey. After Deseret Industries we picked up a slush for Brandon and I at Sonic. We then went to Dollar Tree where I went in with Lucas and Isaac so that they could pick something fun. I needed flashlights for my primary class but was not impressed with what they had. By this time I was beyond ready to be home but we had to stop at Harbor Freight. Thankfully they had flashlights that would work for me.

Sunday we went to church. I ended up having only one kid in my primary class. Generally there are three or four. I had prepared a fun activity and a flashlight hand out for all of them. Oh well, it was ok anyway. My co-teacher and I had a nice chat while our one student worked on a heart for each member of her family. I think things worked out as they were supposed to.

In the afternoon we went to visit Aiden again. Our ministering brother Ian, came to watch the kids, they enjoy his company because he plays board games with them. When we arrived at juvenile detention we learned that we would be waiting about 50 minutes for our turn to visit with Aiden. Brandon called to make sure that it was ok with Ian and then we sat and waited. We had a good visit. Aiden seemed to be in better spirits because he has a little bit more freedom and can participate in rec activities as well as entertainment. He passed his test to move up a level as well. He gets to have TWO books in his room now. He has also been getting school work done during school time at the detention center. I think it’s good for him to not have a million distractions. I love that kid. I would have chosen a much different life for him than he has chosen for himself but I’d like to think that his insatiable appetite for learning and sense of humor help lighten his struggles.

We ended our week with homemade alfredo over fettucine noodles or spaghetti squash. It was yummy. I also got our taxes filed. Any bets on whether our 2021 taxes will come first or our 2022 taxes? I am betting it will be the 2022 taxes since we got a note from the IRS stating that they would need x number more weeks to look into the information from our 2021 tax return. *eye roll* Thanks for reading!

After over a year of the blog being down all necessary updates were made and we are back in business. So much has happened since September of 2021 that there is absolutely no way that I am going to try and add the full year of activities, adventures, memories, and craziness. My plan is to finally finish the posts from our summer 2021 road trip and a few other pre-written posts, they just need photos added, and then add highlights from this last year. Some of the highlights will be, adopting Zoey, buying our house, and 40th birthday fun, among other things.

I’m not sure what to mention about this most recent week other than it was busy and is ending with Zoey and Brandon on the mend from being sick and Lucas, Isaac, and I getting sick. It seems to be a head cold. I have a bunch of congestion, a headache, post nasal drip, a sore throat, and a cough. It’s pretty miserable.

This upcoming week I’ll have a 15 year old! I can’t believe how fast Aiden has grown. Time is definitely a thief.

Oh also, all posts that are written for dates after Zoey’s adoption day will not be password protected. 🙂 Happy Sabbath day everyone!

Monday started out with Lucas doing safety patrol at the elementary again for the week. This week he was the “supervisor”, basically he walked around over seeing everyone and if someone was not there then he was their sub. We went back to having our in-home therapist come twice a week on Monday as well. She was there pretty much upon Aiden’s arrival home.

Tuesday, I took Aiden to his new therapist for the first time. He seemed in a pretty good mood when we were through so hopefully things will go well. Although, when we got home there was power struggle after power struggle, so I don’t know what is up with that.

Wednesday, Brandon and I had appointments for dental cleanings. We worked it out so that he went to his appointment at 3:15 with Lucas and Isaac and then I came later for my appointment with the other two. All the kids got into the van at that point and Brandon drove them all home. I followed when I was done with my appointment.

Thursday, I wanted some cute photos of Zoey in a new dress that she was wearing. Now that she can walk getting one proved to be difficult. My girl is always on the go! We also had the power go out at 12:15 and it was out until 3:30ish. I took somebody with me to run an errand but I can’t remember who it was. All I know is that the power was back on when we got home.

Friday the power went out at 9:00. It was originally going to come back on about noon but it ended up being out until 3:00 or so. Having the power out and Brandon not working totally through off my groove. I went back to bed about 10:00 for a bit and then he and I worked on ordering lunch about 5 to 12:00. He left to get it about 12:10 and it wasn’t until 12:38 that I realized I had forgotten to pick up Lucas and Isaac. Brandon brought the food in and then ran to go pick them up. Doh!

I took Lucas and Isaac over to the grand opening of the five below in Jordan Landing and they had fun picking out something to take home. After that they were screen zombies for the next several hours. Aiden came home about 2:15 and retired to his room. I didn’t hear from him at all until I went to get him for dinner. Perhaps I ought to check on him more often.

Later, we went over to the home of a ward member. We somehow got it in our minds that they were going to do s’mores but that wasn’t the case. We stayed for about 45 minutes of the movie Luca and then headed home. Brandon, Aiden, and Zoey had already gone home.

Saturday was a busy day. We had Kat come at 9:00 a.m. to work with Aiden, Mom and Zoey ran to the Stratton’s to get some measurements for Zoey’s blessing/sealing dress, and we also had to pack for our overnight trip to Idaho Falls. We headed out about 10:50 and went to the Fall Funfest activity that the foster/adoptive Kidz Kubby people put together for foster and adoptive families. We only stayed about 30 minutes before we had to get on the road to Idaho.

We made a pit stop in Ogden at Smith and Edwards. I let the boys each pick $1.50 worth of treats. We’d made one more stop to attend to Zoey on our way to the first house showing in Rigby. I had three homes in our list of 5 that we intended to see that I knew were high possibilities for homes we could buy. Four of them were in Idaho Falls and one in Rigby. Let’s just say that those same three homes are the ones we are trying to decide between for putting on offer on. The pros and cons of each are about equal.

After looking at houses we got dinner at Arby’s. We wanted to eat at Red Robin but it was 7:00 and the wait time was 50 minutes. We drove over to Noodles & Co. which was inexplicably closed. This led us to Arby’s. We got to the hotel about 8:30 and began the process of unloading and getting the kids ready for bed. The chaos of this nearly always gets me ornery. Eventually though, all of the kids were settled in and we had peaceful silence.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and the kids swam in the pool. We checked out of the hotel and started our drive home. We stopped for snacks at Dollar Tree and got lunch at Sonic before heading all the way home.

Once home we had a pretty quick turn around before Brandon, Lucas, Isaac, Zoey, and I had to head to Tiff and Jared’s. My dad came out and took Aiden to dinner and the book store while we were gone.

It has been quite the week. Monday my mom, sister, and I all woke up bright and early and were headed to the LA airport to catch our flights home from California. I got home a little bit before Brandon got home from picking everyone up so I tried to get in a little cat nap. My brain was whirring so that didn’t end up happening. On top of that I got to “hit the ground running” as far as parenting goes because Aiden was being difficult all afternoon and through out the evening.

We attempted to have bacon cheeseburgers from Burger King for dinner but when Brandon got there they told him that they were out of hamburger patties! At Burger King! We ended up just piece mealing it here at home.

Tuesday afternoon I had an appointment with a new therapist for Aiden.

Wednesday morning I went over to the middle school after dropping the kids off and started to get Aiden registered. Later on, after picking everyone up from their various places and taking them home, I took Aiden to finish getting him registered for school. We got his schedule all worked out so that he will be ready start on Monday.  It was also Sept. 15th which is the birthday of our previous infant foster placement Zyven. I made sure to give a little shout out to him as well. <3

Thursday I attended the final family meeting for Aiden’s day treatment. The plan was to create a safety plan that we could refer to here at home and at school but things didn’t go as smoothly as we had hoped and so that had to be put on pause for the afternoon.

Things ran a little late at Day Treatment so I had Brandon meet me at the school so that he could bring Zoey to me and head out to donate plasma on time. Aiden was so silent and non reacting on the way home that it weirded me out a bit. For me, it was more concerning than his usual combative behavior. Thankfully, I had a few errands to run before we arrived at home and he was more jovial by that time. His in home therapist arrived about 30 minutes later and that gave me piece of mind as well.

I am not entirely sure why but the evening ended with Zoey in the tub with two dum dums. She had a great time sucking on them, rinsing them in water, then sucking on them some more. She is just so funny. <3

Friday was pretty crazy.  I around lunch time I took Zoey to go pick up Chick-fil-a for Brandon, she, and I. We stopped at home long enough for me to take Brandon’s food in the house and then headed to the elementary to pick up Lucas and Isaac. From there I believe we just came home and I put Zoey down for her nap.

Soon enough it was time to go pick up Aiden. It was his last day and apparently there was paperwork to fill out, discharge info. to be given, and a whole lot of stuff for Aiden to bring home from his time there. His therapist had managed to finish up the safety plan so I was glad to see that.

In the evening my sweet hubby took the boys to the elementary school carnival and outdoor movie. I originally was going to go but knowing how busy our Saturday was going to be and the fact that Zoey might not get a nap, combined with the possibility of a late night, I just got to the point where I had to bow out. Zoey had a pretty rough day as well. She fell while walking with a book and it hurt her eye and later on she fell and bonked her head. Being a toddler who hasn’t fully mastered walking is tough. The boys had a good time though and enjoyed being able to play games and watch Boss Baby: Family Business.

Saturday I was able to sleep in until nearly 9:00. The boys were upstairs quietly watching T.V. when I got up. There hadn’t even been any disagreements or yelling that I could tell. They were so quiet in fact that I had thought they were still in bed. I had them get dressed a bit later so that we could be ready to head out when Brandon got home. When he arrived we got in the van and headed to Santaquin to look at a house.  I had really hoped it was the house for us. I actually wouldn’t have minded living in Santaquin. Unfortunately the home was in worse shape than our current one and there was no way I was going to pay $350,000 for it no matter how much more square feet or acreage there was. The back patio was awesome though, I would have loved it.  House hunting really sucks, particularly when you have been at it for 10+ months in a psychotic housing market.

After looking at the house we let the kids have their choice of lunch at Macey’s. They always take forever to decide and our initial monetary limit ended up being not quite enough. We managed with an Arctic Circle burger for Lucas, sushi for Brandon and Aiden, deli Asian food for me, and Isaac said he wasn’t much hungry so he got a fruit roll up and hog wash. My food was cold by the time I got to eat it. That was a pretty big bummer. The mac-n-cheese that I got for Zoey from the deli was delicious though!

Our next stop was Hutchings Museum in Lehi. It was a cute little museum. The best part was that they had a scavenger hunt that could be done around the museum and the prize was a polished rock. About the time we were done looking around Isaac started to feel nauseous so I sent he and Brandon into the bathroom in case Isaac needed to toss his cookies. The other kids and I finished up and the two boys chose their polished rocks. At this point I had Brandon open the door so that I could have Isaac choose a rock and then I took the kids outside to the van.

We ended our adventurous day at Sweet Rolled Tacos for a fun little ice cream dessert in a waffle cone shaped like a taco shell. It was pretty fun and delicious but man was it expensive. I don’t think we will be going again anytime soon. It was definitely a go at least once place though.

We spent the evening at home. The boys played electronics for awhile. We had some random things for dinner. I picked up in the living room a bit. As we were getting the kids to bed, Isaac alerted me to a bug bite on his hand. It was pretty swollen, covering almost the top of his hand, red, and tender to the touch. I debated on taking him to instacare or calling telehealth when I remembered that the last time he had a major reaction to a bug bite they simply told me to watch it and sent us home. I pulled up the clinician’s notes from that visit and we opted to give him allergy meds, ibuprofin, put ice on the swelling, and then some hydrocortisone cream. We also circled the redness to see if it’s worse or better in the morning. It was a long busy day and by the end of it I was exhausted.

Sunday morning Isaac’s hand was more swollen so I took him to Kids Care. They said that the things we had done for it were the exact right things and that it could continue to swell for another day or two. There were no antibiotics given but I did ask for a cream to help prevent this kind of swelling in the future.

After Kids Care Isaac and I joined the family at church. I really enjoyed the lesson in Sunday school. The instructor felt like she should go over D&C 98 again and I am really glad that she did. The way she presented it felt like we were being given a game plan for how to handle our trials.

When we got home Zoey and I took a nap, Lucas and Isaac watched T.V. and  Brandon and Aiden met with the bishop and ran an errand.

In the evening my dad came over for dinner. We chatted for a bit and just before 7:00 Aiden went to a fireside at the church. It was a fairly good sabbath day, restful, spiritual, and with delicious food.

This was a fabulous week because we celebrated two very special occasions. Monday afternoon we officially became a family of six because we got to adopt Zoey into our family. She has been such a sunny spot in this time of covid, family stress, and world chaos. She has been “ours” since we brought her home from the hospital June 15^th or 2020 and now it is legally true as well. It was a nice hearing. We went to the boardroom at the West Valley DCFS office so that the whole thing would be a little bit more special than all of us just sitting around the computer at home. I invited my sister-in-law down to take photos for us so that we could document our special day. Zoey was darling as usual. The whole thing didn’t take very long and after giving our thanks and receiving congratulations we headed to NPS. Why NPS? We had time to kill before meeting up with my dad, mom, and step-father at Johnny Rockets. We got all sorts of randomness as usual.

Dinner at Johnny Rockets was yummy. Zoey enjoyed her food and was of course the girl of the hour. My mom wrote her the very first card that she would get from grandma. <3 It was such a joyous afternoon and evening. We did stop in at the Disney store on the way back to the car and I got Zoey a Disney beach towel because she didn’t have one yet.

I don’t have any recollection of what we did on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday but Friday I took Isaac and Zoey in for their well child checks. I also had some virtual showings with Matt for homes in Massachusetts.

We spent some of the evening packing for an overnight trip to Idaho. After dinner we had the missionaries over to visit again in preparation for Isaac to be baptized the next day. They taught our family about the plan of salvation and were very patient with our wild boys.

Saturday, we had Isaac’s baptism bright and early. He had to be dunked twice because his toe popped out of the water. We had decided to keep things simple and instead of a big to do with breakfast or lunch just had a candy bar thanking everyone for coming.

After the baptism we drove to Idaho to look at some houses. We started in Pocatello and worked north to Idaho Falls. After we finished seeing the homes, we ate dinner at Pizza Pie Café and talked about the houses a bit. There were three really good options, but we decided that we needed to get more info. from eBay before jumping in with both feet.

We drove back to Pocatello after dinner because that’s where our hotel for the night was. There was a not so pleasant power struggle with our teenager son about sleeping arrangements but eventually we all went to bed.

Sunday we drove home and had a really chill rest of the day, aside from unpacking of course.