I can't believe I'm saying Mickey!

Sometime earlier this summer Jarom and Alixa heard that there might be an opening to go on a Disney cruise with Jarom’s parents and all of their APs from their recently completed mission. Since nobody likes to go more than 6 months between Caribbean cruises they responded with a resounding “we’d love to!” So much of the summer was spent getting the kids excited to go on a giant boat with Grandma and Grandpa, Elders Larson and Calderwood, and Mickey, Minnie, and every Disney princess and character that they can think of. It took a lot of effort, but eventually the kids warmed up to the idea.

 Good little travelers

 First stop on the tiny little boat - the ice cream machine!

The trip started by getting rid of one family member. Taking a 1-year-old who takes long afternoon naps on a cruise is not advisable, so instead Emmy got to have a long week as an only child with Mimi and Opa. Initially Alixa was a little concerned about how it would go, because they haven’t really cared for a little baby since Mikah moved out, but the experiment could not have gone better. Emmy was a little reserved for a day or two, but she ended up having a blast, and the grandparents reported that it was an amazing week and they loved having her around. She got to out on a date with Opa to Red Lobster, read lots of stories, got lots of attention, and suffered no major injuries. Their favorite thing was her bedtime routine. All they had to do was ask her if she wanted her binkie and she would run into her room, grab her binkie and blankie and flop into her bed. Lix and Jarom are glad to have them around to do things like this and it is awesome that they had so much fun. Emmy was even a little hesitant to leave them when her real parents got back.

 The kids' favorite missionaries - Larson and Calderwood

For the rest of the clan the trip began with a flight to Orlando and a night at a hotel. To kill some time they decided to walk to a nearby Chipotle for a late lunch. On the way they tried unsuccessfully to find any alligators. The next 24 hours were filled with the gradual arrival of family members and former missionaries, some known and some new. We got on a Mickey bus and drove the 40 minutes from Orlando to Canaveral and got to see our giant floating home for the next week. The kids (and parents) could not have been more excited. After some food the first stop was the Fun Club, where the kids would spend a lot of time during the week. It took up about half a deck and had all sorts of computer games, movies, arts and crafts, games, and regular visits from Disney characters. All free, all week long, open from 7a-Midnight. Good work Disney. The kids got arm bands that track their location and almost every time a parent went to pick up Jenna the staff would look at the map and say “Jenna is in the submarine” where they kept her favorite computer games.

 How to play defense: throw your teammate into the opposing player

 Why sit on the beach when you can sit IN the beach?

 At the end of a long day. Bo nearly faceplanted in that ketchup more than once.

3 generations above. And I can't even tell who this is below, but it's such a great angle I had to post it. 

The boat is also equipped with interactive pictures that work as part of various detective searches. For each one you get a card with a scannable code on it and proceed around the boat looking for clues. Jenna and Bo had a blast with this and solved several mysteries, nabbing Captain Hook for stealing paintings and Jafar for trying to take all of Pongo’s puppies. Then of course there were the pools and waterslides up on the top deck, which occupied the kids for most of the time they didn’t spend in the Fun Club. And there were the evening shows and a movie theater where they got to watch Planes: Fire and Rescue.

 Bo moves around in his sleep. And looks awesome in his goggles.

 There was a pirate night. We have Izzy and Jake.

The boat had stops at Cozumel, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Castaway Cay. The adults went snorkeling in Mexico, stingray city on Grand Cayman, the Blue Hole in Jamaica, and had a beach day on Disney’s Island. Jenna got to tag along for the stingrays. She was excited about it up until the first instant that she saw a stingray sharing the same water as her legs. She immediately tried to climb to the top of Jarom’s head to escape the danger. Her panic lasted for a few minutes until she was safely back on the boat. There she watched everyone else and decided she wanted to give it another shot. So she bravely reentered the water and even touched some of the stingrays.

 Lix and Nancy bravely jumping from the boat. Jenna not so bravely hiding from stingrays.

On Jamaica Jarom and Lix were reunited with their old buddies Oneal and Cary and got to go back to one of their favorite places in the world. They visited on Jamaica’s Independence Day and shared the island with 3 other cruise boats, so the place was way more crowded than the last time they were there, but it was still amazing. Beautiful cold water, waterfalls and ledges to jump off of everywhere, a great rope swing, and a bunch of fearless little Jamaicans hurling themselves out of the sky for our amusement. Also got to have a great lunch of jerk chicken and a hilarious ride around the island with our favorite bus driver.

 Two classic storefronts in Jamaica

 The locals and their shenanigans

 Jarom's best impression

 Me - Tarzan, You - Jane.

Our buddies Oneal and Cary

During the evenings and days at sea the group had wonderful dinners together and a variety of activities. There was a minute to win it game, a scavenger hunt, group photos, and a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. Lix also managed to run a 5k in sweltering heat. And as always, the staff on the boat is part of the fun of the trip. We had one server, Igor, who did great magic tricks for the kids every evening. And of course there were towel animals every night with a bunch of chocolates that Bo usually ate. After a wonderful week it was time to come home, and everyone was happy to be back on dry land and excited to see little Emmy, even though they were sad to leave vacation behind. 

 We were all happy to get this face-stuffing, book-reading, daddy-climbing, 

popsicle-sharing piece of trouble back

 And this is where Jazz spends all of her time these days.

July 31rd

It has been a really long time and for that I apologize. I’ve been bugging Alixa for weeks to do a write up of her trip out to Utah with the kids and she can’t seem to be bothered. But she can find time to watch OITNB. So I guess I’ll just put some pictures in and you can imagine what story is behind them.

 This is the greatest picture ever taken. Bo had fallen asleep on the toilet in primary. 

Some days he needs a nap.

So what has happened since we last spoke? Jenna turned 5, America turned 238, and Jarom and Alixa reached the 10-year mark of their marriage. Jazz continues to become part of the family around here. She is currently making the transition from inside cat to outside cat. This is a little more difficult with her because she is already  1 and has never been outside, so she is still pretty nervous. But she gets better every day. She plays very well with the kids, who love to chase her around and give her hugs. Except for Emmy. Emmy likes to follow her around, but doesn’t like to be closer than 2 feet. So she will often follow the cat into another room and then realize she is alone with the ferocious animal and start crying until help arrives. Jazz’s favorite pasttime is playing with Alixa’s ponytail holders. She steals them from Alixa’s bathroom counter and will bring them to you in her mouth and then wait for you to throw them across the room so she can fetch. It’s hilarious. It’s also funny to hear Alixa complain about not having any ponytail holders.

She's not a skinny girl

 Jazz with her traditional prey

 All three kids personalities really come through in this picture. Don't mess with Emmy.

July in Texas means lots of heat, and lots of heat means lots of swimming for Lix and the kids. So most of the month has been spent in the pool. Jenna is getting ready for Kindergarten and has started taking piano lessons. Bo is Jenna’s shadow and will definitely miss his buddy when she goes to school. But I think it will be an easy transition for him to become the followee instead of the follower, and Emmy loves Bo more than anyone else, so they’ll do great. Emmy is a travelin’ gal, walking and running everywhere. She loves shoes and is constantly asking people to put them on her or change her current pair for a different one. She, like her siblings before her, is incredibly loud. She had a doctor visit recently and her weight has come down out of the stratosphere, so much so that the doc was a little concerned. It’ll be sad to not have super fat Emmy anymore, but this is basically the same trajectory that the other two followed.

This is Bo's attempt at telling a joke at the Holderness Reunion. "Why did the banana flush the toilet? Because it was his banana peel!" Trust me, it's hilarious.

Alixa is still trying to find a volleyball league that she loves. She just finished one that is too far away and has some team members that she wasn’t thrilled with and has just started one that is much closer but not nearly as competitive. That might be a good thing. She says she enjoys being the one that everyone looks to as the expert. We’ll see if this one’s a keeper. She keeps getting faster as she started her half marathon training, which is bad news for Jarom. He has a lot of work ahead of him if there is any chance of him keeping up. And since they are already doing the training they’ve decided to fly out to Vegas in November to participate in the Ragnar race there with some friends. Fortunately Jarom won’t be running against her in that one.

More jokes from Bo. This time he is speaking spanish. 

 Celebrating cow appreciation day by getting free food

 This photo is a point for Utah

After a painstaking process that went through 3 kitchen tables before finally landing on the one Alixa wanted, she found another one that she actually wanted. So Jarom gamely took apart the current table and drove it back to Costco and got the new one and put it together. It is slightly smaller than the old one without the leaves, which is good, and it comes with 8 unpadded chairs, which was the biggest selling point. Jarom has also moved onto a new team at work, which means that he had to move his desk for the 4^th time since November. Still the same hospital, but a new boss working on some new stuff. He’s been at it for a couple of weeks and so far, so good.

Plus 1

In the past month Emmy has made some big transformations. She went from being a baby to being a toddler. She is walking around everywhere and her communication is progressing rapidly. You can now talk to her and she seems to understand you pretty well. This has led to some interesting interactions. Recently Alixa has been trying to get her to say things, so when Emmy will point or sign that she wants something Lix points to her own mouth and says “Say it with your mouth”. Unfortunately, instead of saying it with her mouth Emmy will now make a signal and then sticks her finger in her mouth repeatedly. It is pretty funny.

 And now that Emily has turned one and is leaving so many of her cute baby characteristics behind Lix has once again entered into her baby hungry mode. In a likely-to-fail attempt to steer her off that course Jarom signed off on the adoption of a different new family member, a 1-year old Siamese cat. A family in their old ward moved and couldn’t take her, so she has moved in to the guest room at our house. We are only a week into this little experiment, but it is going pretty well. The first few days she basically wouldn’t go near anyone, which is understandable considering we pulled her out of her home and everyone she knew. She is still a little skittish, but has warmed up to everyone (including the kids). Jenna and Bo decided she should be named Jasmine, but we are lazy and just call her Jazz. She is a very good cat and we think she will fit in quite well here with the rest of the gang.

Summer is off to a great start here. It is hot and sunny, which means hanging out at the pool all the time, but isn’t yet into the 100 degree days of July and August when you don’t want to do anything. Jenna got some tennis lessons from Mimi and Opa and has been enjoying them. I don’t see Wimbledon in her future quite yet, but she has a good time playing and her instructors are a lot of fun. She is also starting swim lessons, and is learning different strokes and techniques this year and is doing really well. It’s like she had a state champion swimmer donate her genetics or something. Bo is also doing swim lessons this year and enjoys them. He is learning to float on his back and learning to kick and hold his breath under water. Emmy isn’t learning to swim yet, but she does enjoy putting floaties on her arms. They are just giant pretty bracelets to her. Lix spends most of her days trying to figure out how to apply sunscreen. This is something that you might imagine she would be good at by now, but it seems like once a week there is a story about forgetting to put it on or not realizing that SPF 5 does nothing or some other brain fart that caused her to burn.

 So stylish

 Emmy sometimes gets tired of watching Dad teach lacrosse

 Lots of pool time makes for a sleepy Bo. You gotta catch z's when you can.

The family took a road trip up to Kansas City over Memorial Day weekend to visit the Rosses and the Calls, some of their favorite people from their time at BYU. It has been about 6 years since the last time they had seen them, so there was a lot of catching up to do. Now the trio of families has 9 kids, so much of the weekend was a zoo. The kids enjoyed the rolling hills and general greenness of KC, and had a great time playing with the other kids and jumping on the trampoline. The parents had a great evening out sans children one evening and everyone got to visit Cabellas for the first time. The kids thought the stuffed animals were the best thing ever. It was basically as good as the zoo, but with a giant gun section. The long drive home didn’t go as smoothly as the ride out, probably because there wasn’t a fun vacation on the end of it. Emmy spent about the last 90 minutes of the drive screaming at everybody, which was awesome.

 Jenna caught a fish (It is in the pic, trust me)

At Cabellas 

Jarom is still doing some private lacrosse coaching with the Ogdens. He has been getting requests from some other kids and parents to expand his client pool. He isn’t interested in doing that right now, but it is nice to know that if he gets fired he can fall back on something. The whole family went to watch one of Zach’s games last week and he scored 3 goals. Every time everyone looked over at Jarom and told him what a good job he was doing with him. I guess Zach doesn’t get any credit.

As payment for his time and expertise, Rob offered to install new lights in the kitchen and family room. Alixa could not have been more excited about this little home improvement. We put in 8 can lights, removed the awful fluorescent light in the middle of the kitchen and replaced it with three hanging island lights. We also got a new chandelier to go over the table. It is all very bright and looks much nicer.

Shortly after the installation was completed Alixa’s parents moved from their apartment in McKinney into a rental home here in Frisco, right next to the FAC. Alixa is very excited about the ability to easily drop the kids off for sleepovers and playdates with Mimi and Opa. Sadly, now that they have more room her parents decided to Indian give their kitchen table that we had been using for the past few years. So some furniture stores were visited and Alixa settled on a table from Costco that she and Jarom assembled. It is very big and not round, so it changes the feel of the kitchen significantly, but we are very happy with it. Now Alixa just wants to paint the cabinets white and she says she will be finished with the kitchen.

 Bo caught a fish too

 

All ready to swim

Lix is doing Whole 30 during June, which basically means she isn’t supposed to eat anything that is processed. It has been challenging because it means she has to cook every meal and can’t grab anything on the go, but she continues to lose weight and keeps getting healthier. Jarom has tried some of the things that she has made and they have all been amazing, even the whipped cauliflower that she used instead of mashed potatoes. She and Jarom also signed up to run a half marathon together in October, which is fun in theory but not so much in practice. They still have another month or two before they have to start really training, which is nice. It’ll be good for Jarom to have a competitive goal though. Alixa wants to break 2 hours and Jarom just wants to be able to beat his wife. Please don’t repeat that last sentence out of context.

 At the color run 5k she ran as a start to her half marathon training