Boys trip/girls weekend

Our ward cancelled the father and sons campout this year and there was some major disappointment in the Ricks household. Sean vowed to do his own trip in its stead, and he made good on his promise. He took the boys camping in Moab with our friend Preston and his son Kru. The had a great camp site and had a blast off-roading. They were really excited about the deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich they tried at a restaurant and even brought me some home to try. Surprisingly it was still tasty! While the boys were gone, Molly and I had a fun girls weekend. We did some shopping at Fashion Place and went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory with the other half of the Gray family: Krista and Presley. Glad to have good friends and glad to have a husband who will do things like this with his kids!

Alpine poppies

There is a field in Alpine where wild poppies bloom each year and I have always wanted to find them (well, at least since finding out about them several years ago). This was the year we finally did it. We went on a Sunday afternoon after church and after hiking around and getting lost for a bit, we found them! They were so pretty and we were lucky to have some time there by ourselves. I left Molly in her church dress hoping she would let me take a few pictures. I managed to sneak in a few pictures with a couple of the boys at the end, too!

Baseball 2019

Life has been sort of unreal busy this year. I have major catch up to do! I'll start with a post about this year's baseball season. Both Jackson and Bode played again this year. Jackson played in the minors on the Cubs and Bode in the rookies on the Angels. Jackson had another successful year pitching and had a lot of fun playing ball with so many of his friends on the team, even though in all honesty we didn't love the coaching this year. Bode had a lot of fun with his dad as his coach again. This is Bode's last year in rookies and he'll move up to minors next year. Bode had a great season and primarily played pitcher, and sometimes first base. Both Jackson and Bode went on to play on all-starts teams and in the all-stars tournament after the regular season. Bo's team ended up taking second place! Next year, Davis will be a new rookie and get to finally be on Sean's team! Sean started coaching the rookie Angels back when Jackson was in minors and it has been a lot of fun. 

I don't think there is anything cuter than boys in their baseball uniforms!

Jackson in play

Jackson's all-star team

Bode in play

Angel rookies 2019

Bode's all-star team

Charlie became the official mascot of the Angels this year :)

Cake!

I've become excited about cake baking/decorating again after a long hiatus. A long time ago I took some Wilton classes with a friend, and they were fun, but I found myself only making cakes for my kids birthdays and not especially loving it. And I've honestly never had great success with making homemade cakes. Mine usually turned out dense and I just honestly preferred the ones from a box! Anyway, my sister took a Cake by Courtney class (a local girl who started a cake DIY business) and I have started following her on social media and found myself wanting to try it. I was hosting my neighborhood bunco group in April, so I decided to go for it!

I made her dulce de leche cake (except I just frosted it with her regular chocolate buttercream) and OH MY WORD. It was SOOOOO good. I am so excited that it turned out! The cake itself was super easy to make and tasted so good. There weren't any finicky ingredients and it wasn't dense! It was fun/nerve wracking trying to get the super smooth sides. It wasn't perfect, but I thought it turned out pretty well. The cake was a huge hit at bunco and I am already looking for an opportunity to make it again. I got her acrylic frosting discs for Mother's Day and am signed up to take her cake class with my sister this summer. I am so excited!

Bode's baptism

Bode has been looking forward to getting baptized for a very long time. He'd been talking about it for months and genuinely was so excited. The day finally arrived and it was such a great day! All of his grandparents were able to attend and some of his cousins and aunts and uncles as well. He also had friends and primary teachers come to support him. It was a perfect spring day and I think he felt a lot of love. 

Bode was the only one to be baptized from our ward that day, and he was the first one to be baptized in the stake. Before they split our stake, our ward always went last because we are the 12th ward! It was sort of a fun surprise for him to get to go first. 

After his baptism we had lunch at our house with family. We kept it low key with sandwiches from Jimmy Johns (Bode's favorite) and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. Bode played in a soccer game later that afternoon and scored a pretty impressive goal with his grandparents watching. It was such a nice, relaxed, happy day. I am so proud of Bode and his choice to follow the Savior!