BYUI Bound

Once she started weighing all the pros and cons of all her options for college, Kya landed pretty quickly on BYUI.  She didn't even apply anywhere else!  So here we are, a few months later in Rexburg, Idaho...and I can't say I'm complaining!  I spent two wonderfully fun and exciting years here:)  I hope she loves it as much as I did!  

Her apartment was so great!  So spacious, clean and new.  They lucked out with a great corner apartment on the top floor.

The living room wall art was a little large haha!

Setting up her side of the room!

It was so nice for Mike and I to both be there to drop her off...and enjoy some yummy pizza.

All set up!  We didn't realize she'd have such a huge wall

So great that she is living with her childhood friend, Lynelle.  They haven't lived in the same town for 6 years, so it'll be so much fun to catch up and get to know each other all over again!

It was great fun for us to see our old friends, The Boyntons (Lynelle's parents) and share the experience with our other friends from Washington who were dropping off their daughter too.  We also got to stay with some good friends that moved to Rexburg just last year.  It feels good leaving her with people close by who we know and love.  Her boyfriend is also there, which helps;)

When we said goodbye to Kya, I felt like she was ready!  I have no doubt she will find her way, find good friends, and have a great year.  We, of course, will miss her...but are grateful that college kids still come home for a good chunk of time every year!  

SSSSSSummer

 When you have children, somewhere in the back of your mind, you think they will be similar to you...or at least you'll share some common interests...or at the very least, you'll be able to tolerate the things that they love.  

Through the years my kids have had a lot of different interests.  Jordan and I shared a love of dance, High School Musical, and shopping.  Kya loves Friends just as much as I do...maybe even more!  She also loved gymnastics and softball, which I thoroughly enjoyed watching.  Tyson entertained me with tennis matches and magic tricks and let me watch Lost with him (one of my very favorites).  Summer shared my love of cats and hamsters.  While the kids interests and hobbies have changed, I've always been able to somewhat enjoy what they enjoyed (Minecraft was a stretch, but I could still see the appeal), but Summer has managed to change all that.

Summer is absolutely, positively, unapologetically, obsessed with reptiles...specifically snakes and lizards.  I HATE lizards and I truly LOATH snakes.  I secretly avoid the reptile house at the zoo, I jump and scream if I see one in the wild...and you should have seen my reaction when Mike and Summer came home from the reptile zoo with a toy bearded dragon and tricked me into thinking it was real.  Seriously, I am not a fan.  And, while I can turn away from the YouTube channel where she watches snakes hatch...I can't seem to break the promise that she could have a pet lizard for Christmas.  How/why did I make that promise??  I think I was putting my foot down about getting a snake, and the next words out of my mouth were "I'd be open to a gecko".  What have I got myself into?!  Any chance she'll fall out of love with lizards before December?  Gosh, I sure hope so.

At the zoo...taking a picture of her favorite animal :/

"Mom, look how cute!"

Thank goodness this one's not real!

I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but here she is holding a tiny snake.  

I watched her catch it with her own bare hands--yuck!

Jetty Island

The Sun

The Sand

The Water

The Friends

The perfect way to say goodbye to summer.  

I love Labor Day at Jetty Island.

6 hours a day, 5 days a week School

 I never thought this day would come, but after 18months, the kids are finally back to full time school!

Summer--2nd Grade

Tyson--Junior Year 

{Jordan is starting her 3rd year of college (at Cascadia) and Kya will be a freshman (at BYUI)} 

A Trip to Canada {FINALLY}

It had been an ETIRE YEAR since we had been up to Canada because of the border closure!  And even when we went a year ago, it was just for a couple days...and it was my Dad's funeral...and we were supposed to quarantine the entire time we were there.  Needless to say, we were eager to get up there!

So, after negative covid tests, filling out our travel plans on our Arrive Canada app, and ANOTHER covid test at the border (and another to take on day 8 for Summer-geez), we finally made it!

I spent some time looking at old photos...some I had never seen before.  We also unboxed the movie projector but couldn't get it to work.  I took all the home movies home with me so I can digitize them, so hopefully we can watch them next time.

I have wanted to visit Dad's grave for a year.  I thought it might be therapeutic to be there.  It was sad.  But, I do take solace in the realization that this year was easier than it was last year.  I really just still miss my dad so much.

Still waiting for the headstone.  Covid has slowed everything down.

Its always good to see Peeta!  He had a wound that had formed an abscess, so I helped my mom take him to the vet.  Unfortunately, he had to wear a cone the rest of the time we were there.  Poor guy.

Finally, Birchwood Dairy!!!

Summer claimed Sheri as her new BFF

DRAGON FORT--MY FAVORITE

Sheri's new kitty

Walks around Mill Lake always remind me of my Grandma Winters

It was wonderful to be home.  Hopefully we won't have to wait a year before we get up there again!

Girls Camp in McCall, Idaho

Back in April, our Stake consolidated from 8 wards down to 6.  With that change came a lot of new people, and a lot of rearranging of callings.  I went from teaching youth Sunday School twice a month to...a week long trip to Idaho?!  That's right, I was called as a councilor to the new Young Women's president, which includes; weekly Tuesday night activities, lessons twice a month, BYD's, and ward girls camp every other year.  This year girls camp was at Paige Deru's (our yw president) family cabin in McCall, Idaho.

What a great group of girls

We made it to the lake after a long, hard hike

This hike was a tough one for me.  Part of it was I had no idea how long or steep it was (I like to mentally prepare myself), part was I was out of shape (although Mike and I do hike quite often), part was the elevation (sea level is what I'm used to) and part was it was STEEP...right off the bat.  But mostly it was the air.  I would take just a few steps and couldn't catch my breath.  It was crazy, nothing like I had ever felt before.  I even had a thought that maybe I wouldn't be able to make it and would have to turn back.  It was not a great feeling.  Lucky for me though, there were a bunch of other girls experiencing the same thing I was.  So we stuck together and made it through.  I am also so grateful for a husband who constantly reassured me that I wasn't a loser, and I would make it just fine (which is ironic, because I am usually harassing him for going too slow when we hike--never again)

Ice Cream Alley after hiking was wonderful

Night swimming and star gazing.  We saw so many shooting stars!

Mike's attempt at wake boarding was just a little embarrassing:)

Kya on the other hand showed off her skills (wake surfing and wake boarding)

Nightly devotionals

We have some brave girls in young women, Kya being one of the bravest.  They hiked up some crazy rocks a did some cliff jumping (10, 20, and 30 feet jumps).  Kya came home saying she wanted to try something higher next time.  Crazy.  

The girls had a blast...and I guess I can't complain about hanging out with some great girls (yw and leaders) and my hubby (yes, Bishop came along too) at the lake for 4 days!  Although, I could have done without the steep hike and long drive:)

The Borensteins

I've written about this before...our quest to find answers about my dad's biological father.  What a roller coaster it has been...and continues to be, as we find ourselves without a definite answer.

Rita and Ariel (Salomon Borenstein's children) received their DNA results and shocked us all when they showed up to NOT have enough DNA in common to be my dad's half siblings.  We were sure Salomon was my dad's father.  Here's what "evidence" we had: Salomon looked so much like Dad (there are some pictures that have such unbelievable resemblance, even after the DNA test, it's still hard to believe), we knew Salomon had had a Finnish girl who he had been in love with but his father forbade him to marry because she wasn't Jewish, we knew our Grandma had worked at his suit shop (Ariel even found evidence of this with a signature of Grandma's on a work document), we had seen a picture of Salomon with a girl who looked like it could have been our Grandma, and we thought Salomon had been home from the war just a couple months before my Grandpa (the window where Grandma must have got pregnant).  We also had met Rita and Ariel online and loved them!  We couldn't have asked for more kind, helpful and loving people to be related to.  We were (I'd say 99%) convinced this was the answer we had been seeking. 

This is one of the pictures of Salomon that looks the most like Dad to me.  His mouth, chin, nose, forehead...seriously this could be my dad!

Another one that looks like my dad...outside working in the yard.  My dad would wear that too, well minus the hat and boots haha.

Ariel and Rita.  They are relatives...just probably cousins of my dad rather than siblings.

This revelation left me feeling disappointed, sad, empty and discouraged.  I lost interest in searching any further.  If Salomon wasn't the father, we were at a DNA dead end.  Salomon's other brothers (Ben Zion and Samuel {Ezra was already married and moved away when Dad was conceived}) didn't marry or have any children so there was no DNA to test...no new relatives to unearth.

Here are the 4 Borenstein brothers

L-R Salmon, Ezra, Ben Zion, Samuel  

We abandoned the search for a few months.  Then we hesitantly arranged a zoom call with Rita, Ariel and Peter (Ezra's son).  We had a wonderful chat.  We were able to tell them more about Dad and learn more about Ben (who we deemed most likely to be Dad's father).  They are wonderful people.  I look forward to getting to know them better and maybe even meeting them in person one day.

I still find myself longing for a concrete answer about my dad's paternity.  I just want to know for sure.  I know it doesn't really matter, and that the answer won't change anything.  But I just want to know...for my dad.  So the search will continue...

Here is the entire Borenstein Family...one of those boys should be Dad's biological father

And here's my dad's family.  Who does he look most like?