MightyJohnsons

Megan turns 14!

And just like that, Megan is one year older. She turned 14 today. Her cute friends kidnapped her out of bed in the morning and took her to breakfast at Kneaders. I think she secretly loved it!

Then she and I got ready and went to get pedicures and do a little shopping. Want a good shopping partner? Take Meg. She is picky but has good taste. We had so much fun being silly and laughing together. Not to mention she got some really cute outfits.

Meg is a such vital part of our family. She is so responsible and loves to take charge. She makes sure things are running smoothly and if not, she will fix it and redirect. She is focused, hard working and very determined in everything she does. She is my soccer star, student council leader, straight A student, #1 survivor fan, California real estate expert, home makeover watcher, and best big sister and daughter around. We love her!

Kid Kamp

This was our 2nd annual Kid Kamp. We weren’t sure if we wanted to spend two weeks this summer running another camp, but after several requests from neighborhood kids, we figured we better get it organized. We filled both the sports camp and the craft camp. We had 15 kids in each. Claire even did a little kid class for 3 and 4 year olds and filled up her class too!

Jake and Megan ran the sports camp. They made cute “Game On” t-shirts for each kid and took a day each week playing a different sport. Each day they would give a couple kids a gatorade for exceptional effort (all kids got one by the end of the week). At the end everyone received a certificate and a treat. It was so fun!

For craft camp, they split into an older group which Megan taught and a younger group which Katelyn taught and a toddler group Claire taught. They made aprons, baked treats, made picture frames, folders, and fourth of July crafts and treats as well.

They probably earned about $800 before cost (which we kept to a minimum) so it was a successful summer fundraiser. I am so proud of all their hard work!

Jake’s summer business: Lawn Rangers

In the summer of 2014, Jake started his own business. He started edging lawns and got several neighbors interested. So, Jake plunged in.

We had an old edger that Manina bought from a yard sale. But Jake knew from edging our own lawn that that machine just wasn’t an option for a commercial lawn care business. So in April 2014, he secured a $400 loan from his grandpa Mike with the promise to pay it back in August with $5 interest. He researched a few models and ended up purchasing a McLane 801 edger and Hitachi leaf blower from Amazon. He also invested in a hand edger for curves and tricky-to-reach spots. He worked hard that summer and had no trouble paying back the loan.

Jacob has worked hard the last couple summers, slowly adding more clients. He takes pride in his work and loves to drive by his customer’s lawns and point out how good they look.

For this 2016 lawn season, Jake purchased a new weed whacker and a new self-propelled lawn mower to add to his equipment. He’s offering full-service lawn care and has even talked a friend into working with Jake on some of his bigger jobs — his first “employee”.

He has a bunch of clients around the neighborhood and seems to add new ones all the time. This keeps him plenty busy during the summer.

lawn_rangers_logo

For Jake’s birthday, we made him a couple T-shirts with a logo we had designed by his Uncle Matt Thurman (thanks, Matt!).

I’ve had more than one of his customers come up and tell me what a great job Jake is doing. Even the owner of Bunker Lawn Care (Jake’s biggest competition) came up to me and told me how proud I should be of how hard Jake works. People are taking notice and it’s starting to pay off.

Keep up the good work, Jake!

Annual Johnson Family Campout 2016

It is that time of year again for another Johnson Family campout. It is seriously one of my kids’ favorite things we do. It ranks up there with Christmas. They love it!

This year we played hard. We made homemade ice-cream, played games (lots of four square), had a fun talent show, hiked up Bell Canyon, had a dutch oven cook-off, and more. Rach and Spencer lost little Graham a couple times. One time we actually had the whole camp looking for about 20 minutes before we met up with someone who found him up at another camp 1/4 mile up the street.

Jake had his high adventure camp during our campout this year. We missed him and he missed us. He loves hanging out with his cousins and uncles. A great time was had by all…well except maybe Graham, but then again I don’t even think he knew he was lost! 🙂 A big thanks to G’ma Jan and G’pa Mike for hosting this fun event every year. All your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.

campoutscooters — The kids love cruising around on their scooters!

ClaireLucy — Lucy and Claire at Bell Canyon Reservoir

hike — Lovin’ Uncle Eli – more cousin time

All the kids doing Grandma Jan’s treasure hunt.

Four square – I think this is where Seth was trying to impersonate Dad. Ha!

American Fork Canyon 1/2 Marathon

This was my third time running the American Fork Canyon Half Marathon. It is such a beautiful, well-organized race with a great cause (fight cancer). I rarely turn down the chance to sign up each year.

This year I had been working with a friend to get in better shape by lifting weights and eating more regular meals. In turn, this helped increase my speed. I ended up beating my last time by nearly four minutes, and my first time by about 11 minutes. I ended up finishing at 1:42 (average 7:48/miles).

I will admit that I wasn’t feeling super great the morning of the race. I had a good run down the canyon, but my foot was hurting due to a large blister forming on my bunion. By the end I was ready to be done. I am hoping if I can get a better pair of socks for my blisters (which I usually do before a race) that I can beat that time by another minute or two. We’ll see next year!

Big 16 for Jacob!

Can you believe it?! I have a 16 year old! I have a third driver in my household! This is a long time coming. I had many grandiose ideas about a big party for Jake, but he made me promise that I would not do a surprise party and that I wouldn’t do anything elaborate. At first I was disappointed but I appreciate how he just wants to keep it simple and be with our family. All he wanted to do was go to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, get his driver’s license, and have an ice-cream cake. We did just that!

He woke up to a bedroom filled with lots of balloons and we served him waffles and strawberries in bed. After getting ready for the day we met up with Seth for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. Yum!

After lunch we headed to the DMV. Of course something had to go wrong. We waiting in line for 30+ minutes and when we got to the counter the guy told us they recently added a new online test you have to do before you can get the license. It was basically four videos you have to watch and then answer 10 questions. Ugghhh! So he started his videos while I ran and picked up the cake.

Once completed we had to stand back in line. Of course this time it was about and hour long. So by nearly 4 pm he became officially licensed. He was so excited and luckily his ice-cream cake hadn’t melted in the hot car.

After dinner, the Rowberrys came over to help us celebrate. They brought Jake a shoebox full of his favorite things. It was super sweet.

It was a simple day and exactly what he wanted. Although Jake can test my patience at times, I love him more than imaginable. He fills our family with lots of “firsts” (first kid, first to ride a bike, first to go to school, first to drive…). We are grateful for the sweet young man he is becoming and excited to see what the next couple years bring. Happy Birthday Jake…now go find yourself a first date! 🙂

G’ma Ria’s Visit to Utah

We were so grateful to have Grandma Ria come and visit us again this year. We love her visits and wish we could see her more often.

We did our usual things. It is kind of a tradition to go to Krispy Kreme, have a cookout in the canyon, get shaved ice, and several other kid-friendly activities. It is like a whole summer of fun packed into her short visit. The kids love it!

Claire loved that G’ma made it to her softball game.

Spending an afternoon at Trafalga with G’ma…mini golf, rides, and goodies!

G’ma came and cheered Ellie on at her first swim meet.

Spring Soccer Season

Soccer season kept us very busy this spring to say the least. We usually had 3 games every day! Drew was quite a superstar and generally scored a goal or two every game. His team finished the season undefeated.

Ellie likewise finished her season undefeated and although she played up a level to be with her friend, she dominated and came away being one of the strongest players on the team. Way to go yellow laser sharks!

Megan keep excelling and can pretty much outplay anyone that comes against her on the field. She has amazing footwork and can dribble like nobody’s business.

Although we kept very busy going from soccer game to soccer game, we loved watching our kiddos work hard and grow more confidence with each game.

G’ma Kathy & G’pa Gary made a special trip to visit us and go to all the soccer games. They toughed it out even though it was cold and rainy most of the day!

Midsummer Night’s Dream

Mrs. Yingling, Katelyn’s sixth grade teacher, has her class perform a Shakespeare play every year. She assigns a student as the director and the director assigns all other parts and roles. They also tweak the play so it has its own little twist. It is ALL done by the kids…no adult help on anything. The kids even make the costumes, choreography, do lights and sound. It is a pretty awesome experience.

Sweet Katelyn was chosen as Helena in the play, Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was one of the main roles and even gave her a solo at the beginning. Don’t be confused, the song is from the Beauty and the Beast, but that was part of the Disney twist they used throughout the play. Katelyn has a beautiful voice but she is also quiet and a little bit shy so I was super excited to see her accept this role and go full-speed ahead memorizing all of her lines and practicing her parts.

When the performance day rolled around she was ready. They had four performances. I love watching her so much that I attended three of the four of them! It was so fun to see her having fun and showing off her talents. I was extra proud of her for trying something new and killing it!

This is the best video I got of her singing. Unfortunately the microphones were sub-par so you will have to crank up your volume to be able to hear her. I think she should make a habit of this acting/singing thing!

Ellie’s Kindergarten Graduation

Little Miss Ellie had her kindergarten graduation this week. It was bitter-sweet for me as it was my last kiddo to go through kindergarten and I may have shed a tear or two. Ellie has loved being in school. She has a real love of learning and working hard. She loved being a mother hen and always made sure the kids were on task and following the rules.

Her teacher was Mrs. Beck. We love her! She taught Katelyn, Claire, and Drew as well so she is one of our favorites. I have had the opportunity to volunteer in the class every other week and help with centers. I have loved getting to know the kids and see them learn and grow throughout the year.

We are so happy that G’ma Jan came to support Ellie!