Jump Around!!

Jackson's birthday is officially tomorrow, but he collected on one of his main gifts yesterday. Jackson invited a couple of friends and went to a place called Airborne. Will joined them as well, and man did they all have a blast. I was tired just watching them! There was several different rooms with tons of tramps to jump and flip on...But my favorite room was the XTREME room. It was a mini American Ninja Warrior course!!! So cool!!

 Here is most of the Extreme course that the boys practiced on over and over...It looked super fun and hard! 

Happy, happy birthday Jackson!! 

I'm glad you had a great time at Airborne. I love you with all my heart!!

Map of Where We've Been

I've been wanting to make a cool map poster with all the places we've been on vacations and the places that we have visited before. I purchased a thin board and glued a foam cork board to it. I bought a high quality map and attached it to the cork board. I also purchased, cut and stained frame wooded pieces and attached those to the board.

I purchased a huge bag of beads with 10 different colors, which was perfect for my family of 10! Everyone chose their own color:
          Scott (dark green)
          Me (yellow)
          Will (white)
          Jackson (light blue)
          Tyler (red)
          Gavin (dark blue)
          Brigham (light green)
          Nathan (orange)
          Preston (brown)
          New baby (will be black)

Scott and I also searched for different traveling quotes, and we came up with this one;

"We haven't been everywhere, but it's on our list..."

We enjoy traveling with the family and visiting new sites around America. It's fun to see where we've been and where we still need to go!

This craft was super easy to make and under $25.00 to put together. 

15

Wait, that can't be right. 15 years ago my first son joined our family? 15 years seems a long time ago, but that sure went by fast.

I wish you all knew Will, he's a great kid. He's the best oldest child. Will is helpful, hard working, smart and fun. He is self motivated which is great for all his little brothers that look up to him. Will isn't afraid to try anything and everything. He's participated on the wrestling team, the cross country team, football team, basketball team, golf team, musicals at school, lacrosse team, student council, several different clubs at school, scouting program and much more. 

Will has been a straight A student for as long as I can remember. He's enrolled in all Honor or advanced classes. He received his Eagle at age 13. He enjoys hunting, football, lacrosse and of course his new love skiing. He has already figured out what classes he needs to take in his Jr. and Sr. year to get him the most college credits so he can be ahead of the game. 

As summer started he vigorously looked for a job that would allow a 14 year old to do. He wanted to make some extra money so he could focus on park skiing. Will knows he can join any club or team or camp but has to pay half. He was thinking ahead, skiing cost a lot of $$!

Here are just a few pictures of him through out the years.

Will you are a stud. You're a great example to me and I love you with all my heart. Continue on the path you're on, you'll accomplish lots of wonderful things!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So now what?

One of my favorite classes I took during BYU Education Week was given by Merilee Boyack, "Doing the best you can...a little bit better"

She brought up a great point that, honestly, I've never thought of before. So now what? What's next after you're done (fill in the blank) having children, raising children, retiring... 

I have NO answer to this simple question. I've always wanted to be a mom. I don't know what life will be like after I'm done having children, raising children. Of course, I'm still a mother and then a grandmother, but what am I going to be doing? What's my plan? 

Have you thought of this? Do you know? It doesn't matter where you are in life, your age, married or not; we all need a goal to look forward to. I mean, really, most of us still have 30, 40 or even 50 years left of our lives! 

Merilee wanted us to focus on our dreams, our goals, what's in our hearts that are unfinished. She stated, "Live your life by making deliberate choices rather than responding to whatever life throws your way." She went on to say, "Don't run out of living before you run out of life."

Such great advice. I'm still in the thick of having and raising children, but I know the day will come quickly where they'll all be in school and then all out of my house. Then what? 

We need to develop our own personal road map by focusing on three main points:

1- Write: write your personal essay. What do you want to do/be in 10 years/20 years. We should write our Eulogy and obituary. Write 5 words that express who we are. Make a list of goal, dreams and ideas.

2- Note unfinished business: Finish these sentences, "I always wanted to..." and "what were the dreams of your youth?"

3- Dream BIG dreams: If you could do anything, and I mean anything, what would it be? Besides writing up a Bucket List write up a "Lori's 100 Lifetime Dreams" (I've worked on this for over an hour and only have 37!! It's hard!)

Focus on you. What is YOUR dream life? In all areas, marriage, spiritual, family, fitness, community, financial, home, friendship, personal, fun, professional...
If you knew you could NOT fail, what would you try? Be brave and bold in deciding. 

Most importantly, ask Heavenly Father to guide you. Write down promptings that will come. Open your eyes, mind and heart. Fearlessly explore. 

Our Father in Heaven has blessed each of us with different attributes and talents. He has sent us here for a reason, what are some of those great reasons?

I am still struggling to figure out what's next for me. I am working on my 100 dream list and other ideas posted earlier. I want to start now, before I get to the point where it could be too late. Good luck on figuring out what's next for you!