Max Turns 18!!!

     Well, it happened AGAIN.  We have another legal adult in the house.  Max's 18th Birthday celebrations took up two weekends.  What he wanted to do more than anything was to stay a night in the haunted hotel in Jerome, AZ with his best friend, Ricky.  Because we are in the middle of the basketball season, we quickly planned this in about a day.  The ONLY weekend this would work was the weekend before his actual birthday.  So on Friday, January 13th, I booked a room at the Jerome Hotel for Max & Ricky--we were only allowed to do this because Ricky was already 18--and I also booked a two-hour ghost tour for them from 9-11 pm that night.  (I got the last available room AND the last two spots in the ghost tour so it was definitely meant to be).  Here is the video they made about their night/ghost tour:  (side note--the MOST haunted room in the hotel is Room 32, that one was already taken but I was able to get them in Room 30 right next to the most haunted room--room 30 was the old "nursery" area of the building when it was a hospital).

Max & Ricky-Trip to Jerome!

    Then the next weekend--his actual birthday--Papa Frank came up to watch a couple basketball games to celebrate Max's birthday with us.  We ate lunch at Texas Roadhouse and then had to get home to get ready for JACE'S BAPTISM!!!  Jace is a Senior in high school at Heritage Academy with Max.  They have known each other since the 7th grade (but didn't like each other in Jr High😂).  Max & Jace became great friends this year and Max has been working with him as Jace has been learning the gospel.  He took all the discussions in our home and attends our ward each week.  It has been a tremendous experience for all of us.  We have LOVED having him in our home.  The baptism was AMAZING!  SOOO many people from Heritage Academy (all the way in Mesa) came to support him.  Max was honored to be asked to do the actual baptism and he did perfectly.  Super proud of this boy of mine:

Jace & Max

Jace & his parents--Adam & Valerie

Elders Yonkman, Alstrom, & Moessling

Jackson, Jace, & Max

Pickett Twins--Landon & Braden

Hyrum S.

Coach Ruiz

Reagan T.

Mr. Blau (Band Teacher)

Phelps Family

Heritage Academy Students

Maren M.

Sarai W.

Bro. Young

    After a BUSY Saturday, it was really great to have a nice, quite family dinner at home on Sunday.  Here is Max with his official cake.  Happy 18th Birthday Max.  We LOVE YOU TONS:)

Haunted Tour Final Day-Boston

     We spent our last day squeezing in what we could in Boston!  We headed to Boston Square prepared to walk all over the area.  It was an overcast day with rain sprinkling on and off throughout the day--perfect for these AZ folk because we LOVE this weather!

    We first hit the Boston Public Library--the largest public library in the United States.  Beautiful building with the most amazing architecture--I felt like I was back in Europe.

Max trying to appear studious

We then walked through Boston Commons.  

    There was a brown Falcon Hawk sitting on top of this tree drawing quite a crowd.  At first we thought it was just the bird we were watching but then, we saw, it had a squirrel trapped inside the tangle of branches.  This bird was on the hunt!  And that squirrel was fully aware of it.  Everyone was just in awe as we were watching this Animal Planet event take place right in front of our eyes.  But then that squirrel found the opportunity to escape and it ran as fast as it could.  It was really funny because everyone in the crowd clapped and cheered for the little guy.  The hawk then flew over to a nearby street lamp to look for it's next prey.  We left before anything else could happen--plus there were lots of cute little dogs being walked by their owners and I did NOT want to see anything happen!

Max's favorite dog breed.

My ivy obsession continues...

Not sure what this brass donkey is for
but we had to take a pic for Papa Frank:)

The Granary Burying Ground:

Sam Adams Grave

Paul Revere tombstone

Paul Revere Monument

We of course had to hit one more haunted location--The Omni Parker Hotel!  It is a really old/creepy hotel that is still in business.  All rooms are still rented out EXCEPT room 303!  Ethan of course had to go see this famously haunted room:

    We then grabbed some snacks and headed for the airport for our flight home.  We have loved every single day of this vacation but were ready to get back home too:). It's impossible to pick just one favorite thing we did but we all agreed that the Conjuring House was everyone's most favorite place we visited.

    

    Now we're back home ready to head back into "real life" and everything 2023 will bring.  Words cannot express how much I LOVED this holiday season with all my kids home.  It was just perfect and I know it will be sometime that we will be together like this again with Max graduating and going on a mission this next year so I made sure to soak in every minute with my most favorite humans on the planet!  LOVE LOVE LOVE THESE CRAZIES!