May-June Happenings

Right after New Zealand trip we had just a few days with Katya still around. One of the things we did was open our sealed envelope with the letters we wrote in Mar of 2020 when the whole world shut down. We were waiting till things are back to normal and that we were all together... It was pretty fascinating to read them again. 

For the Memorial Day, Robert and Mark flew to Denver, Colorado! Mark played an Indoor L4 tournament. 

The Alleys came over to watch Mark and it was super fun! 

The Alleys always wait for us to come visit CO and see them. 

On the way back, Mark and Robert stopped by the amazing Capital One lounge at the Denver Airport. It's always nice when you get amazing freebies with the credit cards. 

Mark finished 9th grade! All A's, speaking a whole lot more Spanish than he did the summer before. 

Mark also got his Driver's Permit! Now he has 9 months to complete his 60 hours of driving. We had to drive to Sanford super early in the morning to get in line to get the permit without an appointment. Mark passed the writing test...barely-hahaha.

Every year Mark plays in the Southern Closed, a tournament for just our Southern section. And every year he has to get a special permission to reschedule his finals as the tournament is held when our schools are still in session. For B16s, it is held in Little Rock, AR (thankful to have our Southwest Companion Certificate).

Mark didn't play as well as he hoped, so unfortunately, he did not go far in the tournament.

We tried to explore a bit of Little Rock, drove around downtown and walked along the river bank (that was nothing to write home about). We also went to the visitor's center that told the story of the Little Rock 9--a group of African American students who enrolled in the Little Rock Central High School and were initially not allowed to enter the classrooms. It was actually very interesting to learn about that. 

In the meantime, Alex and Robert decided to do an adventurous hike to Mount Mitchell. 

I am so grateful they like challenges and outdoor activities like this! Such good bonding time before Alex's mission. 

Robert is the one who has always encouraged our boys to do outdoorsy stuff like camping and hiking. I hope our boys do that with their kids someday! 

The beauty and peace of Western North Carolina...

And an update on Katya is that she left for BYU at the end of May, moved to Glenwood apartments, got a job at the MTC and started school during the summer term. She had to fly back home right as the term ended because we were all traveling to Romania in August! But that's another post.