Spring Break St. George, 2019

Getty's favorite pizza place has become 
our St. George tradition, Bella Marie's

I made Cy and Cam wear their new Pioneer Trek shoes on the hike to break them in 😂

McKenzie, Getty, and Getty's girlfriend Lexi only came down for the weekend so they could get back to work on Monday.

Meanwhile, I was in bed for 2 days with a migraine, which was fun for vacation😅 But the kids all bonded, so it's all good.  

And the day before Rob had to leave to go back to work, I was out of bed and felt pretty good with my good buddy Excedrin.

Cy's dream 4Runner was parked by our car when we got back... 

Early Wednesday morning, Rob took a shuttle back to work, so it was just these two kiddos and me until Saturday...

We went to the pool every day and took e-scooters around town and to the mall.  

At night, Cy would get together with all the teenagers vacationing with their families in St. George. He had "the best time of my life! It was about 20 of us, pretty girls watching me and my friends play Spike ball in the sand by a bonfire with the best music playing through a speaker."

While Cy had his night life, Cam and I watched "Princess Bride" and "Inception" and got bored one night and decided to go to Walmart at midnight.

Friday night, we had so much fun with Hackings at their St. George home for a barbeque and s'mores. The three adults got hooked watching the CrossFit games and "The Dawn Wall" while all the kids went night swimming and played pool games and hot tubbed.

"Before" pics: whiteys on Day 1 of our vacation...

😂

And "After"...

And—shoot—you can't see them in these pics, but Cy has huge stretch marks across the lower half of his back from his growth spurt.

Here's a better look...

(Probably Snapchatting Bria 😉)

Such a fun vacation! But Rob and I basically took separate ones 😜 My migraine actually didn't quit for 14 solid days. That's never happened to me before. Luckily I was only totally out of commission for about 5 of those days.  

Next up... Rim to Rim to Rim in June!

Stu Co and Random Cams

Made it past the preliminaries for Student Council, 
18 candidates down to 10

Next up was the interview with an English teacher and (3) 9th grade Student Body Officers and a 2-minute video for the viewing pleasure of all the soon-to-be 8th graders. Cam recruited Getty, our resident fun expert, for the video and that was that:

https://youtu.be/9tZ7vp2y-gw 

He won! 10 candidates down to 3 final officers. 

Random notes about Cam: He's a heat-seeker. Favorite spot in the house is on the heater in the pantry. He takes about 3 showers a day to "get warm." He has always been fond of the blanket burrito and makes sure his electric heater blanket is on high before he gets in bed. 

He also has a pretty involved bedtime ritual. After his electric blanket is on, he switches on his desktop indoor fountain, his lamp, the stair lights by his room, lays out his clothes for the next day, scrutinizes his white board list making sure it is all correct and up to date, gets a drink of water, and asks me for a melatonin gummy. 

Not done yet. Then he lays down. After a few minutes of not feeling tired, he gets up because he feels like he should do something but realizes he was comfy and lays back down. He also likes to remind himself how comfortable he is by propping himself up on his arms and then falling face down on the pillow.

He's crazy😜 but we like him like that. 

LP Basketball Banquet, 2019

Cy with Coach Schwarz

Plaque has Pleasant Grove game stats: 

24 points, 4 assists, 2 steals

Always a bro

Mia's hair is not fair, and she's 10 kinds of responsible

Why did I give all my good hair genes to Mia??? I mean, share the wealth! Let's consecrate your hair and my hair to the common good and then split it FAIRLY and evenly, k? Let's do it tonight....

I'm not bitter

After working for doTerra for coming up on 4 years now, Mia decided it was about time her mom and dad took a tour of her home away from home.

She's worked in the following capacities:

Call center

Skill 1

Skill 3 Agent 

Skill 3 Advanced

Email trained

Chat trained

Senior Agent 

Senior Agent Escalation specialist 

and currently in *Corporate*(🙌🙌) Member Protection: fraud, audits, online sales

She took us on a complete tour of campus—the CaféTERRA (ha, get it?), conference rooms, gym, presentation auditorium, store, and grounds. 
"Mom, why are you taking a picture of this? It's so random."👇

(...I was taking a picture of Rob's bum)

Thanks, Mia! I love that you're such a hard worker and so responsible!

Ireland goes to Bangkok

My niece Ireland is the very first official missionary on the Briner side since Grand-pere!

Proud parents

Scott spent 3 months in Thailand getting to know the language and culture just prior to serving his mission years ago in San Diego, Lao speaking. Lao is closely related to Central Thai, the language Ireland will be learning in Bangkok 👍

Dr. Phil Knows

Rob and I are both spontaneous by nature. We've kept it at bay while the kids were young, but now that they are older and pretty independent, all signs point to it becoming our way of life. 

Exhibit A: Rob's friend Brian mentioned he was going to tape for a Dr. Phil show that weekend. (Remember how I love Dr. Phil?) We got tickets within an hour and spent the weekend in L.A. with Brian and a couple of his friends.

But first, Rob wanted to show me Venice beach. It was disturbing and smelled like pot. (What did I expect? 😂) No pics, and that's why.

We texted Uncle Nate for restaurant suggestions 😋

Paramount studios was so fun! The huge gate, the immaculate parking lot and eating places, the studio...

And Dr. Phil's stage (30) was right next to our family's favorite, "This Is Us" stage!

Backstage was a different story. Narrow dark hallways; props and crap just piled up behind large screens; small, very basic guest rooms...

Brian was so nervous. His adult daughter (one of their five kids) had contacted the show asking Dr. Phil to please help her parents reconcile. She was the only reason Brian agreed to do the show. 

And the taping almost didn't happen. Dr. Phil was pretty much convinced that Brian and Libby (his ex-wife) were only concerned about who was right rather than listening and learning how to become part of the solution. 

Meanwhile, a few people in the audience were invited to entertain everyone in order to get a coveted Dr. Phil mug, which is only available to people who dance on stage. Brian's friend danced (badly, ha!) and gave me the mug! Just like Christmas!

The show that almost wasn't, turned out to be complicated enough to make two full shows. They called the first show, "My Ex-wife Is Trying to Erase Me from My Children's Lives" and the second show, "An Estranged Father Finally Confronts His Children."

One of Brian's friends who came to the taping and who works as a professional counselor had told me he didn't like Dr. Phil, that it was all just Hollywood and fake. Ten minutes into the taping, he leaned over to me and said, "I've changed my mind about Dr. Phil. He knows what he's doing."

He seriously has a gift. It was amazing to watch him cut through all the details and discern the family dynamics and individual agendas and hone in on the truths of a situation 10+ years in the making. 

His advice was brilliant, and I learned so much. He talked about how Libby is passive aggressive (making it difficult for Brian to see his own children), and how Brian is aggressive (sending angry texts, calling the police). He said that Brian's anger and aggressiveness have been overshadowing the problems that Libby has caused in the first place, which has given Libby a free pass and made Brian out to be the bad guy. 

He showed how Brian is stuck in victim mode, and that he needs to give himself more credit as his children's father and a powerful influence in their lives. He also needs to trust his children, that they will figure things out for themselves, regardless of Libby's influence. And, he needs to stop taking Libby's bait. Dr. Phil said, "You're like Charlie Brown and the football! She sets you up, and you fall for it every time!"

As a recovering right-fighter myself 😆 I was so impressed that Dr. Phil wasn't interested in the details or in who was more right than the other. He was only concerned with moving forward and in asking yourself, "What can I do today to make the situation better?" He told Brian, "Do you want to know how you can fix this? Drop the anger and don't be critical. It's about the kids. Focus on their agenda, not on yours." I mean, if anyone had a right to be angry, it's someone who is being kept from seeing their children, right?!? But Dr. Phil wants to get on with the solution, rather than wallow in what's not fair or not right, but what is. 

As a side note, and one the producers opted not to air on tv, Dr. Phil talked to the audience about divorce. He said that most often people get divorced too early when they still have emotional business to work through and resolve. He said you should only leave a marriage when you can honestly wish your spouse well, and you are satisfied you've tried everything.

It was a tough experience for Brian. And I'm not sure he would call it positive... yet. But it's one of those experiences that if you let it work on your mind and heart (and watch the show ten times over) can be life changing. I hope that for him. He deserves it.