Happy 13th Adz!

 Dear Adz,

Sorry that it's taken me a while to finally finish your birthday post! You're officially a teenager, although it feels like you've been a teenager for a long time now! You've always been very mature and you get along great with your older siblings. You can FINALLY sit in the front seat uncontested, which is the best part of being a teenager.

To celebrate your birthday, we had a few friends over the Friday before your birthday. You wanted to have dinner and a movie. You also wanted me to make you a cake that looked like a rat. You had a picture of a particular one that you found online. I think the cake worked out great, even with the crazy eyes:

Blowing out the candle:

Here are your friends that you invited. Ian, Lucas, Boden, Cam, and August. These guys are your besties, the ones that are always at Boden's house playing video games or watching football or running around outside. They are all good and kind boys and I'm really happy that they're your friends:

Also, a few weeks before your birthday you went out to dinner with Gramma and Grandpa. Here you are pretending to eat a salad:

You actually DO eat salads at home pretty well, but you were filling up on the good stuff at Chili's that night. Smart.

Your actual birthday was on a Sunday. We took some pictures outside, and the neighbor's cat decided to join us:

Look how handsome you are:

You got a drone for your birthday, which you were excited about but then returned within a few days because it was already broken. You chose to have porcupine meatballs for dinner and then we were treated to a cool lightning and thunderstorm:

Adz, at 13 your favorite pastimes are taking pictures of planes with the long lens on the camera, looking for flight deals, hanging out with your friends, looking for funny reels on my phone, and looking for deals at stores. The DI is your happy place. You ask me almost every day if we can go plane spotting or go thrifting.

Your favorite foods are burgers, pizza, pasta, meatballs, and of course dessert! If you had to pick an ice cream flavor you pick chocolate. You don't like shrimp but you've started eating salmon and fish tacos better! You don't like beans, celery, peas, or bananas. 

You kind of wanted to play football again this year, but decided against it since we know that most of the boys who play put in the hard work at practice and then don't play much in the games. It's just how it is. Plus, you haven't been practicing with the other boys for a few years now. You still like watching football, but never sit through a whole game unless you've gone with Dad up to USU. So now we're trying to figure out what kind of sport you want to do. Right now you're just running on our treadmill sometimes. A sport would be more fun! Maybe we should try swimming? 

You're very smart and good at school, although you claim that you don't like school. I think the main problem is that you don't like getting up early to go to school. One of my favorite things about you is that when you wake up, even when you're still tired, you're almost always already in a good mood. You are a happy kid. You're a little shy and short on conversation when you're talking to adults. Around your friends of course you are energetic and really funny. 

You are playing the clarinet in band still and doing really well with it. You are also slooooowly learning the piano. You say that you don't love the piano, but that's just because you don't really love practicing. Let's keep going until you can read music better and you can play the hymns, ok? You also have a great singing voice. Music is such a good skill to have and so good for your brain!

I love that you love to read. When you find a book that you like you can read it really quickly. I hope that you'll always read to learn but also just for fun. This year you read all of Jennifer Nielsen's Historical Fiction books. You really enjoyed those and you said that History is your favorite subject at school.

You are always good about doing your church calling and passing the sacrament each week. I love that you are a good example to the other boys your age. 

I love seeing your relationship with your brothers. I love hearing you hang out with TJ and laughing with Hammer. I know that your brothers will be your best friends forever. You also have a great relationship with Lulu. Even though you're the little brother, you tease her. Now that she's gone sometimes the teasing is done through texting on my phone. She can always tell when it's you that took over and are texting her. Lulu loves you and she will also be one of your greatest supporters and friends. 

We've tried to do Field Trips on Fridays this year, although some weeks we don't do anything because Saturday is busy or because you go to your friends. It has been so fun to hang out with you and I feel privileged that my teenage boys are excited still to hang out with me. I love that so much. It should be no surprise that your favorite field trips were plane spotting and thrifting, but you love to do anything! Well, that's not exactly true. You were not happy when I made you go hiking with me and John's dog Ander one Friday. It was a steep incline! Usually you don't mind our hikes though and didn't complain once about all the walking and hiking that we did in Iceland. You loved Iceland!!

Going on family vacations is like Peak Field Trip experience. It's your absolute favorite thing to see something new, try new candies, take pictures on my phone, and spend time with the whole family. We've done so many cool things in the past few years. You're a very lucky teenager.

And I'm a very lucky Mom to have you as my son. You're loving, adventurous, kind, sensitive, and humble. 

Love,

Mom

August 2026

 Hi!

August was the bomb. It started off strong with Lulu opening her mission call. We asked friends and family their guesses and put their guesses on the map:

Lulu invited a few people over and then we also did Facebook live. Here's her reaction when she read where she's going:

Lulu starts home MTC on January 13th learning Portuguese. She will serve in the Vitoria Brazil mission! Here are some friends that came that night:

and the fam:

It was the best night. We are all so excited for Lulu:

The other best day was August 5th. Dad and I celebrated our anniversary with DELISH and SPICY authentic Mexican food in Ogden:

Here's a fun Friday Fieldtrip we did to the copper mine:

Grammie took us out to lunch after our tour:

There were free concerts on Sundays this month. Lulu went with me to two. My friend Kris met me there for a bunch, and TJ went with me once too:

TJ and I did this very hard puzzle:

We did baptisms right before school started. I tried to take a selfie before we went in:

It was bad news. I asked a cute girl to take our picture when we came out, and she took about 20 for us, haha:

We celebrated with ice cream:

and then it was the first day of school:

That night we had a back to school feast. We had crab legs, which I happened to find on Smith's clearance that day (we pay our tithing!) and mashed potatoes and fancy drinks:

It was time to move Lulu back down to college:

Her new dorm and 2 of her roommies:

Hammer is proud of the melon that we grew:

Our blind doggie:

Great Grandma invited us on a field trip one Friday. We toured her friend's cool house:

Stained glass in the ceiling:

She lives up in the Avenues so she has a cool view of the city:

It was fun to be with Grandma and my cousin:

I made strawberry cupcakes and pina colada cupcakes for Ky's bridal shower:

And that's August! 

Love,

Mom