HOT or NOT

We had a fun summer.

Derek pretty much checked out and spent a good chunk of his summer in cooler temps.  He first did a three-week online crash course of Psychology to knock out some credits.  His first adventure he went to a High Adventure Camp in Beaver, Utah.  The Stake organized it and drove the boys up. Derek enjoyed it, he really liked the Whitewater rafting.  From the pics I got from others it looked like there was some repelling, and cave exploring, and other fun stuff like obstacle courses, etc.  Here are some pics from other parents

Garrett K, Case L, Spencer C, Ben J
Jeff J, Kevin G, Weston T, James C
Derek

Derek says he was on the bridge, he was just far off to the left looking at a bird.  He didn't know a picture was being taken.

Derek had back to back camps in Utah with a two-day break in between.  My friends Janae T and Lanae J. picked up their boys and Derek up in Beaver and drove them north to Provo.  They stayed in a vacation rental for two days.  Janae captured a few pics.  Derek and Kevin got colds and were a little run down while in the vacation condo.  They still had fun with their buddies.

Playing Risk and eating ice cream with Weston and Kevin and a cousin of Weston.

Janae took them exploring up to Bridal Veil Falls. Derek is hidden in the second pic 

Next adventure EFY  Derek wasn't excited about EFY, but I encouraged him to go because all his friends were going to EFY in Provo, UT this year instead of Flagstaff.  I thought it would be a good experience to go to a new place and have an adventure.  He had an OK time.  I think there were some fun moments, he got split up from his buddies and didn't like his roommate.  I told him he didn't have to go anymore.  Our plan was that I would arrive in Utah on July 4th, then pick up Derek and then we would Fly to San Diego to meet the rest of the family on the 6th.  Derek  was done with his "EFY Family" and didn't want to watch fireworks with them if he could get out of it.  He texted me and asked if I wanted to hike up to the Y and watch fireworks up there.  It sounded like a great idea, so I made it happen.  We had a great time.  It was an amazing view of watching fireworks from there.

4th of July at the Wareham's

Derek and I hiking up to the Y.  It is a HIKE 10 steep switchbacks.

Beautiful Sunset- Happy Birthday America.

Lavelle Edwards Stadium, where they held Stadium of Fire.  The stadium is lit up with everyone's cell phones.

We watched fireworks pop up all over the Valley.  It was very cool to watch.

Derek and I had a fun memory hiking up and watching fireworks from Y mountain.  I love 4th of July, it is my favorite holiday and my kids have never cared for it.  It is hard to enjoy it here in the hot Valley of the Sun. I think this year Derek has a new appreciation for the holiday.

I spent the next day on a boat with the Wareham's

I picked up Derek early Saturday morning after we tracked down his lost glasses from High Adventure camp.  Then we headed to Salt Lake Airport and flew to San Diego to meet the rest of the family who drove there.

Next Adventure San Diego...

We arrived in San Diego and took an UBER to the condo.  Curtis', Real Estate Friends, Kevin Kaufman and Fred Weaver go every year, they invited us to join them.

Derek on the WakeBoard 

We walked out to a ROCKY pier

A funny thing happened in San Diego.  Kevin wanted to rent a "Lilly Pad" it is like a giant pool float that multiple people can play on in the ocean.  Curtis and Kevin went to pick it up, but they realized they couldn't transport it in the vehicle they brought to the rental place.  So they decided to rent a pontoon boat to drive it over to the bay.  When we (everyone but Kevin and Curtis) heard this plan a few of the remarks were "who let those two rent a boat?" "Do either of them actually know how to maneuver a boat?  They somehow got the boat and Lilly Pad over to the bay and even took everyone out for a ride.  It turned out to be much more fun than I expected. Kevin and Curtis returned the boat
in one piece.

The LillyPad

Making Smores

Curtis throwing the Flip Flops of the FlipFlop agent into the fire

FreddiePenn at the wheel

Is this for real the Captain of the boat?

Nick Trevillian join us for the beach fire.

Fred, Curtis and Kevin

Beautiful Sunset

Smores with Kevin's Family

Since we were already in Southern California, we heard Disneyland had a new "Star Wars Land"  actually called Galaxy's Edge, we also heard the crowds were decent and lines were short.  We took a chance and headed up to Anaheim.  The rumors were true.

Disney is Amazing.  The kids are Star Wars fans.  I am not at all.  I do not and have never liked those movies.  Galaxy's Edge was amazing. Curtis tolerates Star Wars, heard great things about what Disney has done, so he wanted to check it out.   Disney did such a great job of recreating this fictitious place.  Disney gets every small detail.  I saw some little girls running around Galaxy Edge is Disney Princess costumes.  They looked so out of place, which I never feel that way in Disneyland, it just felt like an unusual place.   I was talking to another woman from California. She walked into Galaxy Edge and said she didn't feel like she was in California anymore. I don't know that I felt like I was in another plant, I definitely felt like I was in a foreign land.  Letters in a funny font, food with strange names, unusual clothing and odd creatures about.  It was worth the trip.  The kids loved it.  Derek was more than ready to get home to HOT Arizona. It had been nearly three weeks away for this homebody.

Walt's place

Millennium Falcon

Storm Troopers were in true character.  Kind of jerks who would not pose for a picture.

We shut down Disney.  We felt it the next day

Inside Millennium Falcon ride

Millennium Falcon at night

End of School

The School year is winding down and Trey got an award.  I liked how Jacobson did their awards each grade at a time.  Much more efficient so nobody had to sit through the entire awards assembly getting bored to death.  Trey's award was for "Understanding himself"  Mr. Foy said nice things about Trey.

Jacobson was nice for a year, but Trey has decided he wants to go back to Hancock. He said it feels more like home.  I'm ok with that, way more convenient for me.  I was proud of Trey for trying the new school and giving the gifted program a shot.  He had a great attitude, but he wants to be with his friends and "go home"

1000

In January 2018 Curtis made another bold move to leave his current brokerage and join EXP Realty.  EXP is a fairly new brokerage and didn't have much of a history.  Curtis had been watching this company for about a year when we decided it was time to make the move.  We are so happy he did.  EXP is a new concept where there is no "brick and mortar" buildings, everything is based on "the cloud" the offer stock options and best of all "revenue sharing" based on a platform that is similar to networkings and multi Level marketing, which is a perfect set up for Real Estate.

When Curtis first joined his goal was to recruit 100 agents.  He soon surpassed that and his goal kept getting bigger and bigger. He started setting all types of goals.  One of which was when he hits 1000 agents we would remodel our shower. 

A few years ago we started having issues with our shower leaking into the basement, there was mold growing in the glass block, it was tired, dated, drafty in the cold months and in great need of a remodel.  Anytime there was a shower issue we would say something referencing "1000". On March 8, 2019 it happend  Curtis had successfully established 1000 agents under him and sooner than he had originally anticipated because EXP is on FIRE.

Before Shower Remodel

The worst of the shower, leaky corner, mold etc

After Shower Remodel.  We love it.

We also painted the cabinets a darker color, and added molding around the mirror, and a chandelier above the tub.

Liftoff

Now that Trey is at Jacobson Elementary they have the Space Explorers club.  They teach the kids how to build little rockets and then they launch them.  The Rocket launch was originally scheduled back in February but they got a bunch of rain, the fields were a muddy mess.  The launch got postponed until April after Spring Break etc. I showed up and snapped a few pics.  I watched a few of the launches and they were all flawless, it was pretty cool.  As the kids advance in grades the rockets get more technical.  They do not always launch, which leads to some disappointment and tears.  

Trey's rocket way up in the sky

School Project-V Day

Trey had an assignment to make a Valentine Box.  Normally my boys don't get into this much, but Trey's teacher made this an assignment and they get graded on effort and creativity.  He wanted his box to look like Cookie Monster,  he did a great job.  Although I think I about pushed him over the edge when we spent too much time in the Craft store.  I thought he was pretty creative with the mouth/flap that opened and closed.  The challenge was the slot had to be no bigger than 2"x1",  which made them get creative in selecting Valentines that could fit in the slot.