Nothing Can Stop the Black Pearl

{For 18 months I'm posting our letter to Miranda while she's on her mission to Cochabamba, Bolivia.  Our letter titles are taken from a list of family sayings & catchphrases we recorded onto a pillowcase she has with her.  You can read her adventures on her mission blog: www.hermanamadsen.blogspot.com!}


Subject title because this week I had watched Pirates 1, and we rented Pirates 5 together. That was the best name for our black suburban ever.

So first, we ended Fall Break staycation by going to Johnny Rocket's for dinner.  Wow, it was weird to eat out so much.  But we would have been doing that on a vacation!

Second of all, the kids’ pictures came back from school. 

Right? They look so awesome. 

Third, Carlie started a live online ACT prep class every Mon & Wed on the computer 4-7pm. It’s pretty cool. 

Fourth, all the kids had piano masters classes this week, but H&K’s was more a recital. With costumes. We’ll get full pics of them later. Like this week.  Kierste:

Halle:

That night, Dad & I went on a date somewhere; we’ll share the surprise with you later... it’s not another sibling; please don’t even get your hopes up. But we stopped by Slapfish on the way. It’s just so good:

And got some charcoal ice cream on the way home at Nekter, a Roxberry-esce shop started by my HS friend in CA that is exploding. That’s the restaurant; not CA. 

 Then the next night we went on our 2nd date of the week with the Robertsons to the UVU Culinary Arts Institute restaurant Forte, where we were treated to a 5-course, many-star restaurant meal. It was so amazing and fun to see students cooking, serving & presenting to us. Alex Robertson is in culinary school, so she’ll be doing that next year. :) Crab cake:

Dad’s lava cake:

And we stopped by my parents’ house on the way home, JUST BECAUSE WE CAN. It’s still so amazing that they live here!!

Friday night Derek had a camp out in Goblin Valley for Halloween weekend. :)  Wish I had pics but they didn’t share any. 

Saturday morning everyone had a soccer game. It was Connor’s last one for the Fall. He played so hard and ran so fast, but most of all he had fun; this is him just karate chopping the air because he was out there with his friends:

And this is right after he kicked the ball really hard, hovering in the air. :)

The girls had a great game, except their team is finally not undefeated. :( But they’re so fierce out there. Halle:

Kierste:

Morgan had a killer game, too. He played on the same field at the same time as the twins, so I went back & forth taking pics.  This is right after he kicked the ball very hard with the outside of his foot. 

Then Saturday, Dad & I went on our 3rd date for the week. Tsunami with the Edwards & Balls... no pics. I’m a complete failure.  

Today was Cami Christensen’s farewell. She’s going to the Philippines. Tyler MacPherson got his call this week to Nicaragua, too!  Sister Spencer got to speak as a missionary mom, and it was so wonderful to hear a little about Brooke’s mission. :) 

Then we went to Shaun’s Eagle court of honor. 

So cool; they brought in DeState - pronounced like Spanish, but Navajo. Her name means May the sun shine on you and in your face in a good way.  She was shot when she was little, so she’s missing half her shoulder, but she goes around to eagle courts and lives at the Ogden wildlife preserve. 

Today in the combined 3rd hour they had the lady who teaches the Stake Book of Mormon study class that I try to go to, teach a lesson kicking off Book of Mormon study for us. It’s was SO refreshing to hear all the ideas again: one book, one theme, one year, where you get the $1 blue book and just highlight scriptures in just one theme as you read through that year (Elder Bednar); use some of the amazing study guides that she fully listed on her handout. I can hardly wait to share this with our family. It’s so exciting to develope a thirst for the scriptures. 

I wonder if this email will let me attach the memes before it runs out of space. We’ll try:

And an oldie but a goodie that I want to get framed for my daughters:

And Elder Holland:

 Love you!!!!  ️️️️️ Mom

🎵 Rhodes Bake & Serve 🎶

{For 18 months I'm posting our letter to Miranda while she's on her mission to Cochabamba, Bolivia.  Our letter titles are taken from a list of family sayings & catchphrases we recorded onto a pillowcase she has with her.  You can read her adventures on her mission blog: www.hermanamadsen.blogspot.com!}

 ...because Season 8 of Studio C started, and we get to hear this every week... ugh.

So here’s the latest “blue & tan dress.” So do you see gray & mint, or pink & white?

Derek's tennis season ended, and they took team pics.

Haha!  It's almost like being Mike Wazowski-ed, but not quite.  I think it was amazing that a mom came and took these pictures and captioned them for them.  Thank you thank you.  But here's Derek's individual picture.  Oh my gosh!! 

Tuesday, Morgan had his choir concert.  How handsome is that kid?  They sounded so beautiful.

Wednesday, we went to Jeff Goodsell's art exhibit opening at the Springville Art Museum. He created this assemblage piece that is super super cool.  I'll try to get a closer view of it off Insta.

It's a Spiritual/ Religious exhibit, and his is about his spiritual journey.

Also, next to his, was this amazing piece.  I really liked the concept and principle:

The labeling says, "HOLINESS TO THE LORD/ THE HOUSE OF THE LORD." And this caption by the artist:

Then, since it was your HumpDay, we went to a really really cool mexican restaurant for part of our Fall Break; I went to eat there at lunch with Jeff Goodsell one time and finally found an excuse to bring everyone.  El Tapatio, on OLD Main St. in Payson.  It looks like a hole in the ground, but super duper awesome inside.  =)

And just so you can be just as grossed out as the kids:

Our fajitas came in these grilled half pineapples, and they had cut out the pineapple, grilled it with the meat & veggies, and put it back into the charred pineapple, and smothered it with cheese.  Oh my MexiHappiness.

Happy Half-Way Mark, Miranda!

So Fall Break started, and we decided to do a staycation to save money. Tons of chilling, and eating out for dinner, but being home together. On Thursday, Dad took the kids to a hotel for a day so I could get a million things done. I cleared our room, FILED, and cleaned the craft room. It was amazing. Here are their highlights. The hotel pool: 

Golden Corral:

Bringing the Apple TV and watching Holes at the hotel; Connor had read it in class and had been begging to watch it. And watching VOLTRON, of course. 

Here’s our beautiful weather. A storm moved and and blew Fall back into Utah, since it had started getting warm:

Then we knew we couldn’t capture it but we tried. The sky was aMAZing on our way to dinner Friday night:

We went to Texas Roadhouse:

Then stopped by Cole Abbott's wedding reception afterward, while the kids waited in the van watching a movie.  Cute idea at the entry table:



And the married boy/man... yikes.  The first of our close friends' kids to take the plunge... are we getting old or what?!?!?!

T

We tried to make it as Fall Break-ish as we could.  We kept a puzzle out on the table; the kids had an all-nighter video game/ treats marathon. 

On Saturday, Morgan went on a Mom date with me. Is like to start taking the kids and finding service together. First we picked up a leaf rake and snow shovel to bring to G&G Levies new house before they got there:

Then before we left them the housewarming gift that including heated blankets & hit chocolate, we raked their yard.  I loved it so much. 

That night, Grandpa Levie drove into town with the last load of shop tools, so Derek & I picked up Carlie & her friend Sydney from her house and we went down to help. Some of it was part of his gun stash. :)

Dad’s up to his tricks:

And during sacrament meeting, Connor was making math equations for people to solve. :)

The Elders spoke, and it was so sweet; Bishop Galloway stood up and got really choked up about how he can imagine that all the missionaries from our ward across the world have speaking assignments, and he hopes we’ll give them the attention we want ours to have, and that somewhere, ours will touch people’s hearts the way these elders are touching ours. He’s such a good man. 

G&G Levie came with us to G&G Madsens for dinner and we celebrated Kate’s bday. 

It was so cool in the new addition!!!

Ok the memes. :)

And my favorite:

I’ve been crawling my way through the Conference talks, and I’m almost done with the priesthood session; it is so amazing. I think as a family we need to have each of us take turns preparing one of the talks for FHE, so I’ve been writing just a 1-2 sentence summary of them so the kids can see the gist of them when they’re deciding. The messages are so needed... I can’t wait to go over them & over them and somehow stick them into our lives! 

Speaking of, they changed the VT program a little, to emphasize helping your VT sisters. Doing, instead of talking about caring for them. I’ve felt this for a while; like we should rake leaves in their yard while we visit; play with their kids, not just hope their kids calm down so we can hear ourselves talk. We did do that for one; she was talking about how stressed she was that she had all this Christmas stuff to do last year, so we just started wrapping the jars and packing them for her; washing the gooey sticker residue off a whole bunch of bottles she was going to use, etc. it was one of the best VT I’ve ever been on. Like Bonnie Oscarson’s talk The Needs Before Us, where she quoted elder Christofferson:  “This religion is not concerned only with self; rather, we are all called to serve. We are the eyes, hands, head, feet, and other members of the body of Christ.” And then at the end she gave the famous VT quote by pres kimball: “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”  That’s us!

Love you so much! I’m so happy that your full time job right now is to be the eyes, hands, head, and feet of the Lord. What a blessed calling!!!  Xoxoxoxox, Mom