Miles turned 16 four months ago. 

We threw 'Happy Birthday' wishes over our shoulders all day long and a brand new set of air pods his way, but the truth was that his 16th birthday was never really about him.

With a house full of family and neighbors and friends, he turned his spotlight willingly to Carson whose farewell was the exact same day.

I get that for many people it wouldn't be that big of a deal to stand in the shadows on their birthday, but we do birthdays big around here, so the fall is long when traditional celebrations don't happen. Even so, Miles did not utter one complaint, did not let his smile falter, and unless he improved his acting skills remarkably on that day, did not even feel a measure of disappointment. He was happy to be with his cousins and to celebrate Carson.

He behaved so graciously, so maturely, that Brian and I knew we wanted to celebrate him big when the dust settled, and three months later we planned a big experience for him around the theme: RUN.

We could read the skepticism on our kids faces the moment we unveiled the theme. Brian and I literally 'ran' into the room shouting, "the party is starting! The party is starting! Right NOW! The party is starting right now and the theme is RUN! So 'run!' Go grab your tennis shoes and 'run' to the car!!!" Miles raised a judgy eyebrow, but after I assured him that there would be no actual running, he got cheerier.

The kids had known that the party would start right after school on the chosen day and had assumed that it would continue all through the evening and finish long after the sun went down. But the actual plan was to pick the kids up from school, 'run' straight to the airport to (surprise!) pick up McKenzie, and (double surprise!) make a two night 'run' to San Diego.

But while Brian and I 'ran' around the kids to stir their excitement, our original plan was being derailed in real time because a thunderstorm had rolled in thick enough to ground every plane in and out of the Las Vegas airport, so McKenzie was delayed and would not be landing at her scheduled time of 3:30.

The inertia of the party was strong when the kids came home from school. They were ready to learn the theme and begin whatever adventures were awaiting, and we knew that quietly waiting around on our own couches for McKenzie's flight to depart would be to kill that inertia, so we decided we would 'run' to the Green Valley Ranch casino to hit the arcade.

• A Funny Little Window Into Eliza's Mind •

Through the gathering lightning storm on the way to the arcade, I told two personal stories about close encounters with lightning which enthralled Eliza due to the danger of it all and, as she does, she began to manufacture and absorb the emotions of what it must have been like to be so close to an ear-splitting bolt of electricity. Several minutes after the stories had ended, we stopped at a red light, and looking out the window at an extraordinarily tall streetlight a few feet away from us, Eliza said in a half-joking/half-serious voice, "Wow... that sure is a long metal pole we're parked right next to."

She was right, and we've all been laughing about it ever since. It illustrates the anxiousness she feels in life, but this is the first time I've heard her tease her own self about it. It felt healthy to me and I was proud of her.

Anyway, we made it to the parking lot of the arcade, and after finding out that McKenzie's flight was pushed back another hour, decided to tell the kids what was going on. The excitement exploded like lightning.  

We passed a couple of hours before getting the final word that McKenzie's flight from Salt Lake was no longer delayed but cancelled, and we broke the news to the kids that unfortunately, McKenzie would not be making the road trip with us. 

But! Fortunately there was a flight leaving the Salt Lake airport later that night going straight to San Diego! So we got the refund from the cancelled flight and used it to (partially) pay for the new flight to San Diego.

Here is Miles blaming the clouds.

McKenzie's new flight would arrive in San Diego at 11:30pm, which mean we had just enough time to finish all the tokens on our arcade cards, cash the tickets in for prizes, and eat a burger at Shake Shack

before beginning the long drive. We arrived just in time for Brian to drop me and the kids off at the airbnb and get to the airport to pick her up. McKenzie even got back to the airbnb in time to say goodnight to Eliza before Eliza fell asleep.

It's one of my favorite things: seeing my kids love each other.

The surprise of the trip was fun. The kids were amazed that we had packed all of their suitcases and that we were leaving for two nights, and we all fell asleep at the airbnb feeling very happy.

The next day we revealed the shirts:

It's an inside joke. I read somewhere that one of the best things you can do as a mom to help cultivate an atmosphere of unity and love is to keep inside jokes alive.

So, I made shirts.

• The Inside Joke Explained •

Years ago, I was running late to pick McKenzie up one afternoon, so I sent her a quick text to let her know I was on my way.

"I'm coming" I said, and then to further explain that I was leaving right away, I sent "rn" which auto corrected to "run" so, to correct the auto correct I spelled the whole thing out "right now." Which all together looked on her phone like this:

Anyway, it's been funny to us ever since, and when we opened the shirts, McKenzie almost peed her pants laughing so hard. 

We ate breakfast at a fancy smoothie/acai bowl/avocado toast place

and headed straight to Sea World.

The stars of the day were the jellyfish,

the Dippin-Dots,

and the orcas.

Eliza might say the orcas were here favorite. The whole day was technically for Miles, but Eliza probably had the most fun. She had never seen penguins ("in real life!") before, was absolutely amazed by the size of the orcas, and could name a moon-jelly every time she saw one. Her one true desire by the end of the day was to have a stuffed orca all of her own. 

Meet Orcle (a name born from the marriage of Orca and Sea World).

There really is something fun about a gift shop. I almost never buy anything, but it's fun to browse.

One of my favorite parts was sticking my hand in this pool with the sucker fish.

Overall, I think Miles had a good time at Sea World. 

When the roller coasters started closing for the night, we decided we were done with our Sea World segment of the day and headed to an escape room to save the world in record time. We 'ran' through several different time dimensions and solved everything so fast to finish with over 18 minutes left on our one hour timer!

Just call us talented. 

Then on to a pizza dinner and back to the airbnb to put an exhausted Eliza to bed and stay up late playing In the Bag and Scattegories. Halfway through our In the Bag game, mid-laughter, McKenzie received the news that President Nelson had just passed away, and it changed our mood appropriately. I can only imagine the cheering in heaven when he returned home. 

• A Small Break to Share a Spiritual Thought •

When we sustained President Nelson as prophet all those years ago, I knew. I knew he was a prophet... it's one of those inexplainable things. All I can say is that my body felt one way before I raised my hand to sustain him, and my body felt a different way afterwards. Tingly and warm, full and expansive-- so full and expansive, in fact, that the feeling could not be contained in my body and flooded me with tears. It was the Spirit testifying of truth. And it changed me a little.

I didn't ask for it, and I don't know why I received that gift when others didn't, but it turned out to be one of the most important gifts of my life so far (I don't say that lightly). While friends have wrestled with deep and valid concerns over these past few years, I have been able to stay outside of those murky waters with this simple truth: I believe that President Nelson is a prophet, a Prophet!, and if he is a prophet then I will follow him. I trust him more than I trust myself, and certainly more than I trust anyone else, no matter how influential they may be. 

The Lord knows what we need before we do. He knew that I would need that truth to be clear, and in His mercy and wisdom, He gave it to me.

He will give you gifts, too.

The game momentarily forgotten, we talked about President Nelson around that table and shared some of the most important lessons we had learned from him over the years. Brian pointed out later that night that he was so grateful we had all been gathered together like that when we received the news. It really did create a beautiful moment. 

But before long, we had picked up our cards again and were laughing and moving and acting out stacks of words, and in that, too, was a tender beauty. We will miss President Nelson. We love him and are deeply grateful for his guidance in our lives. And we also know that his death was a wonderful thing. We know where he is, who he's with, and we can imagine the celebrations.

 1) You are Staring into the Face of a Detainee

Not long ago, this boy ended up in DOUBLE detention. 

The double part was not (all the way) intentional, and Timothy had a rough few days over it all. He got in trouble for behaving disruptively while a substitute teacher was in charge of his math class (apparently he and some other boys were jump-scooting their desks and chairs forward (while still sitting in them)). It's a long story that took us a few days to get to the bottom of, but the end result was that there was a little misbehavior on his part and a little misunderstanding on the administrators part that led to apologies coming from both sides. 

Getting in trouble like this feels big for him because he's just generally such a good kid. But we all know that good kids get in trouble, too. Carson got detention in High School one day for climbing a forbidden ladder on the theater stage, and Miles for getting in a small food fight in the cafeteria that ended with a ketchup packet hitting the principal in the face.

It happens.

2) Banana Bread

Somehow we ended up with 40 bananas in the house at one point this month. Which was a whole lotta bananas. But we put them to good use. Also, apparently banana bread is a 'thing' right now? Or maybe it was a thing? I can't keep up, but a reel went viral somewhere and banana bread became more than just banana bread in the eyes of the Possessed-by-Social-Media adolescent humans.

This? It's just banana bread.

Ah, one of my favorite phrases coming from the kids. Eliza wanted to know what she looked like in this particular situation, and since all she could see was the bottom of the cups, she needed assistance. 

It's interesting for me to think about how, when I was her age, the thought of me being able to see what I looked like with two cups in front of my eyes wouldn't have even crossed my mind. There was no possible instantaneous way to receive that information, so I would have just asked a friend to do it so I could see what they looked like.

Different world.

6) The Newest Obsession

A finger koala.

She lost it for a little while at school the other day, and in her distress a little boy named Nolan offered to buy her another one at the Shack with his Cobra Cash. Later, and unrelated, he gave her a tiny turtle, and Eliza has shyly (but excitedly) concluded that he must have a crush on her.

6) I Just Don't Understand...

This morning, I parked the car, grabbed my phone, exited the car, shut my door, walked around the car, opened her door, walked around her door, opened the front passenger door, climbed back into the car to grab my water bottle, exited the car a second time, shut my door, and was half way to the corner before Eliza had scooted her little body to the edge of her seat. 

WHAT TAKES HER SO LONG?!?!?!

Pretty sure Brian says the same thing about me.

Looking in his album you might be tempted to think that he is on vacation, traveling the country of Hungary with a group of happy companions that laugh and play away their days in a comfortable sort of ease.

But you wouldn't be seeing the whole story. The hours of teaching others about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, the rejection, the stacked days and weeks and months of walking the same street inviting everyone they see to listen to something extraordinary, the rejection, the early alarm clock with no sleep-in days, the hours of studying, the phone calls, the rejection, and all of it in a language he is barely beginning to grasp. Those are the things that cannot be pictured in the album, but those are the things that can build him. 

That's the work.

That's why he's there. 

He gets to travel and play and laugh, and

he also gets to be at the crossroads of people's greatest decision.

Will you enter into a covenant relationship with Christ?

Most of them are saying no, but some are saying yes...

And that is enough.

Work hard, my love! And play hard, too.