Tyrell's 16th Birthday

I ordained Tyrell as a priest today on his 16th birthday during priesthood. We invited the family to come and to stay for dinner and his birthday cake afterwards. Shaun's family were able to make it and Jody's kids. Jody and Monica and Scott's family were on vacations. Jared is in Brazil. His daughter Alessandra was born just this past week. Since Scott and them were out we used his home for the dinner because their home is cooler than ours. It has been really hot lately, above 100 degrees and our swamp cooler doesn't cool our home enough.

Manti Pageant

I worked half the day on the 26th and took the 27th off so we could go see the Manti pageant. We got there around 4pm or so Wednesday afternoon and booked into the Manti Motel that was almost across the street from the temple hill. We relaxed in the room since it was so hot. At 6pm we went and saved our chairs by putting blankets on them then went back to the room. The motel has an ice cream parlor and movie rentals so we rented 2 movies (Oz the great and powerful and TMNT-ninja turtles) and got ice cream. Candi also went and got pizza for dinner. The pageant started at 9:30pm so we went to our seats a little after 9pm. The show was good. The last time I saw it was with Brent Hillam way back in 1993 I think when we slept in the back of his pickup on the side of the road after. It was still hard for the kids to see over the heads in front of us. The next day we left around 11am. It's about a 2 hour drive.

I had rugby practice in the evening still. I've been coaching Jaxon's team again. Jaxon has been getting better at rugby. He scored a try the other week. It's fun to see him develop and get better. His running and moves are getting better. He can hit the gaps and make people miss. Also we bought a new trampoline on the 25th. Basically was paid for by the money I got from returning my shotgun. The kids were begging for one. It's a rectangle one and can fit under our deck when not being used. I had to show them my moves I learned from the tramp we had when I was young.

June Fun

Today Tyrell and I went to 'Get Some Guns & Ammo' to shoot on their range. We shot my hand gun and tried to shoot my shotgun but it wouldn't fire off the shells as if the hammer was too weak to trigger it. Only 3 managed to fire. I was bummed. I'm going to return it and get my money back. We had fun though, Tyrell and I are not too bad with the hand gun. Last night Candi, Tyrell and I saw the World War Z movie about a zombie apocalypse. It was alright. Last week we took the kids to see Man of Steel a new Superman movie. It was pretty good as well. Julia stayed with us for few nights and was well behaved.

Father's Day was the 16th and I got breakfast in bed and some chocolates for gifts. Tyrell went to a Stake youth conference from the 13th to the 15th. It was at the Utah State University campus. I think he had a good time. He doesn't talk a whole lot to Candi and I. We wish he would. Jaxon scored his first try on the 15th. He cut through a hole and out ran everyone. He almost got a second one the exact same way but placed the ball down before the try line. There were 2 lines of cones that confused him. I pay him $5 per try.

Erana is cute as ever. One time a few weeks ago I took her to the store with me. I was carrying her but was getting tired. I said something like "I'm going to put you down now because my arms are sore and you're heavy." She said, "But you're strong Daddy". I felt encouraged to carry on.

Erana's 3rd birthday

June 6th:
Erana's 3rd birthday. She is getting older too fast. She is such a joy. It was also the last day of school. Tyrell struggled getting homework done that was overdue during the last couple weeks but he did enough to pass each class with a c being the lowest grade. It's a relief school is over for him. Mina on the other hand gets A's without us having to get on her case at all. That's so nice. All the kids did well. After rugby practice we went to eat at Arctic Circle for Erana's B-day then had dessert and she opened presents at home. Mum, Scott & Heather & kids came over too. She loved her presents and had me read her books to her that night and held onto her Ty-beanie sea horse all night. I wasn't paying attention at one point with her book and she grabs my chin and pulls my face to her and says. "Dad, talk to me, talk to me." So cute and funny.

June 8th:
Jaxon played his first 2 games of rugby. Lost the first and won the second. We have some work to do winning rucks. Later in the day we went fishing at the Willow pond. The kids like to fish especially Mina.

June 7th:
Forgot to mention on the 7th Candi and I went to the Draper Temple with Joshua while he did his endowments. They ate at Cafe Rio after while I went and got the rugby uniforms and met them there.

May Highlights

May 23rd:
First practice coaching Jaxon's rugby team, West Jordan U10s. Coaching again kinda helps me get out of my comfort zone, but thinking about it made me a little nervous but I'm over that now. There are 9 kids, Jaxon, Jackson Zander, Isaiah Caver, Nuu & Iti Tuia, Braxton Bosch, Abinadi(Binny) Bigelow (a half-maori kid) and Benjamin Barrows.

May 25th:
Had a BBQ at Fisi's house and watched UFC. A kiwi samoan fought named Mark Hunt, but he lost, too old (39).

May 26th:
In the evening we took the family to the  cemetery  where Grandpa Hono and Nanny Jean are buried. We met Mum and Scott's family. We sat a little and sang some songs with the ukulele.

May 27th:
Memorial Day off. We went to the ward scout breakfast at the duck pond park. Had a fire-pit in the evening with hot dogs and marshmallows.

Driving Us Crazy

Today is Thursday today. Erana wanted to come with me to get Jaxon from Scouts - actually every time I try to leave the house she wants to come. Well she said "I come get Jason - I need to drive" and I said "No you can't drive." She struggled a little getting in her car seat - trying to get to the drivers seat.

Every time I pick up Tyrell from school & I move over to let him drive baby cracks a fit & cries & says "Get back in your chair - you drive." All the time, it's funny.

We are on double prayer mode with Erana. She always wants to say the prayer so to not have her cry we have her say a very small one sentence prayer & when she's done she points to the person who is supposed to say it & says "Your turn".

(Added by Jason)
Mina got a couple award certificate for academic excellence during her school's end of year award presentation ceremony Wed, 15th. Very proud of her.

May Catch Up

Today is Monday & I see we are behind in the journal because of Jay. It was his turn. So I left off after General Conf. So we have been back to school, rugby, tahitian & piano, etc.

Tyrell still not behaving about 10:30pm bed curfew so we got more strict with that. And still has missing homework, grr. So stressful with that. Mina on the other hand is doing great at school. We don't have to check on her - she likes getting straight A's. She also wants to do online school next year so we've been investigating it & probably she'll do K12. She's still messy & has a bad habit at picking at her pimples.

Jaxon & Leila still the same, no big change. Jaxon still cries alot & Leila argues & thinks she's correct all the time. Erana is still cute as can be & funny. We treat her a little different cause she's the baby & the last. I let her fall asleep in bed sometimes when she cries. And I call her sweetheart.

We had Camila's baby shower, a get together at Olga's to visit with Strantz, Vicki, Jojo Hemi & family from NZ. We had a surprise quincanera for Serina at her Stake chapel with friends & family. It was small one, we had spaghetti, garlic bread & salad, fruit & cake. We had a fun time dancing.

Tyrell got injured in his game on Saturday with Herriman, they won & now play in the playoffs.