Sergeant Liddiard

 Kyle passed the Sergeant's exams back in September and was 3rd on the list so ever since then he's been waiting for a spot to open up for him to promote. Well, today was the day!

He is the new Salt Lake County Sheriff's Drug Court Sergeant and will be supervising 7 officers, as well as being a liaison between the judges and everyone involved, which he will be great at because he is very "peopley." And I'm pretty happy about him not having to go back to graves.

He's worked so hard and I am so proud of him!

Thanks for asking me to pin your badge on <3

After his ceremony, we all went out to lunch at Tucanos and since we were already at Gateway, we walked over to the Clark Planetarium afterwards too.

As we were leaving, Tai asked if we could get ice cream saying we had to celebrate! So she convinced us and we stopped at Snelgrove Ice Cream.

What a great day!

In June he also received the Sheriff's Star award for all his work on a big case at the end of last year. A father ended up being charged with 6 counts of first degree felony child abuse and torture. 

Good job Kyle!

We are all so proud of you!

20 YEARS

This year was my 20 YEAR High School Reunion!

Pleasant Grove Vikings class of '06

Kelsey Valgardson Cutler, Ashley Davis Boud, Carrie Jensen Schippers, Bethany Brown Hoyt, & Megan Mecham Anderson

Six of us went out to dinner at Pizza Factory before the reunion and it was the best idea to be able to catch up before seeing everyone else.

I was actually kinda disappointed that more people weren't there that I would have loved to have seen. I messaged so many friends to come, but HS reunions just aren't a priority anymore. Maybe cause of social media? People already see updates from those that they want to.

That or they "already see everyone they would want to see."

Or they hated High School and would never want to see any of those people again. Which I think is really sad. How do you grow up with people for 12 years and not have any good memories with anyone you'd ever want to see again?

I hate the cliche that everyone hates high school and I really hope that my kids don't go into Jr. High or High School just expecting to hate it, because it can be a really great experience if you choose to make it one. It's a chance to try new things and find what you're interested in and make lots of friends.

You don't have to be in the "popular group" to like High School. I was asked to one boys choice dance the whole time I was there and still loved it. I was friends with some dancers, some student council members, some swimmers, and some orchestra people. I had both LDS and non-LDS friends. I joined choir and loved going on choir tour to Disneyland and San Francisco and enjoyed seminary and was part of the Fashion Frenzy. There is something and someone for everyone to be a part of. Go to the football or basketball game, ask someone to the dance and let it be okay that people are different and include everyone.

So I hope my kids take time to enjoy it instead of just wishing it would be over as soon as possible.

Make it the kind of experience that someday you will want to go to your High School Reunion!

I don't know if anyone would have missed me if I wasn't there (I obviously wanted to see friends more than some of them wanted to see me), but at least I let them know that I missed them.

Some favorite memories from Jr. High and High School:

7th and 8th grade cheer (did not make it in 9th and being on Yearbook instead),

walking to Taco Amigo after the rec dances,

Kidnapping each other to go out to breakfast on our birthdays and staying at a hotel for my 14th birthday,

Staying in a hotel together again over Spring Break and getting donuts at Krispy Kreme,

more sleepovers,

9th grade Lagoon day,

Making a hot tub in the back of Megan's truck a couple times and me following in my convertible then being the one to get pulled over,

Participating in the Fashion Frenzy for a couple years (only time I got to wear a prom dress at my High School),

Halloween Dances,

Football games,

Practically living at Ashley's house after her accident and Shayley Willis finding weevils when we tried to make waffles at her house,

Celebrating everyone's 16th birthdays, getting pulled over on my 16th and 17th birthdays and being excited for everyone's first kisses, some with starbursts, (except me and Carrie- only VL club members until the end of high school).

Choir Tours,

Missing Jayde, one of the 10 of our classmates who have already passed away :(

Senior Day at Boondocks, sleeping on the football field the night before graduation (until the sprinklers came on) and the Senior all nighter after graduation.

-American/Church history tour with Megan right after Graduation

-Camping in the back of Megan's and Krista's trucks backed up together then getting breakfast at Dennys when it started raining

-Sleeping on Kelsey's tramp and the boys coming in the middle of the night to throw water balloons at us

-Making a love loft at Cali's house

-Spice Girls music videos and doing our hair in Megan's Mom's salon

-Sleeping over at the Provo parade and Krista getting a motorcycle ride

-Visiting Megan at Baskin Robbins

-Toilet papering Ben Packer's house

-When Chris ended up in handcuffs after toilet papering Ashley's house, when we were sleeping over

-Cruising in Jessica's Astro van and when she drove backwards through the Wendy's drive thru, got stuck on the curb, ran away and I had to drive her car out of the drive thru even though I wasn't 16.

-Megan and I going 4-wheeling down in Delta with Ty Davis
-The time Megan King let someone pierce her tongue

-Megan rear ending me on the freeway in my Mercury Capri Convertible

-Graduating with a 4.0 and going to UVU with an academic scholarship

-Finding out you can still have so much fun without getting in to trouble!

Thanks friends for making High School worth remembering!

SIX

Happy Birthday Kohen!

For breakfast he got to have his favorite, breakfast burritos!

Then we celebrated his 6th birthday at the pump track again this year! And it was better than last year because we had shade and everyone was able to come. We decorated the bikes with spoke beads, ate popsicles, saw antelope run by and rode all around the track.

 

Grandpa is his birthday buddy because his birthday is the day after Kohen's!

This might be one of my favorite pictures right now. It makes me so happy to see so many people show up for my kids and let them know how much they are loved.

Kasen and Tai are both so sweet and wanted to pick out special presents for Kohen and were SO excited for him to open their gifts. He loves koalas right now so Tai picked out a koala bracelet that hugs Kohen's arm, with a kinder egg, and Kasen picked out a cute koala picture for him to hang in his room and made him a fortune teller to tell him 'happy birthday I love you" AND a coupon to do 6 things with Kasen of his choice! So thoughtful.

Great Grandma Forsyth and Avery both gave him a card with $10 so he's excited to have $20 of birthday money.

Dakota and Parker gave him electric water guns and a slime kit.

Grammy Tammy gave him a prank kit and knee and elbow pads and Carter and Chloe gave him Spiderman legos with a bag of tootsie pops.

Oakley gave him a Spiderman Squishmallow and pajamas and Bryson gave him a glow in the dark 3D printed dragon and some Pokemon cards.

Kyley's family gave him a transforming police car and Kyle and I gave him a towel with his name on it and a dinosaur transformer set that he's wanted since he played with it at Carter's house.

Harvey gave him a nerf football, Grandma and Grandpa Forsyth got him a cupholder for his bike and Grandpa Kelly met us later to give him a horn for his bike and Spiderman walkie talkies.

Indie gave him a paint sprayer art set and he has been loving to play with all of his toys ever since he opened them! So many fun things.

Thank you so much everyone that helped make his day so special!

We still had the kids Splash Summit passes they earned for reading 500 minutes, to use before summer ends, so after his party I took them to Splash Summit! Kasen and Tai both tried the rope swing and we swam there for 4 hours.

We also had some free kids meals at Texas Roadhouse, so since Kohen wanted steak for dinner we met Kyle and Kolt there and Kohen got to sit on the saddle for a big birthday "Yee-haw!" What a great birthday.

We love you so much Kohen! And the big "hump" you are getting on your arm, so strong!