Right after Hallie got home from her mission, she was working through the adjustment to normal life again. One evening, she decided she was going to meet me at the high school volleyball playoff game, so she and Cannon ventured out in the car she hadn’t driven in a year and a half.

I was waiting for her in the high school parking lot when, less than a mile from the school, she was stopped at a red light and got rear-ended. And not just a little bump. The other car hit her hard enough that all of its airbags deployed.

Since I was so close, I arrived at the scene within minutes. I found Hallie and Cannon standing on the side of the road, completely calm and thankfully uninjured. The driver of the other car, however, was understandably frantic. Her hand was pretty mangled, and I suspect the combination of the crash and the airbags left her in shock.

She told us her brakes weren’t working properly, which I suppose is possible, but it didn’t seem plausible. Hallie and Cannon had noticed something else: there had been two additional people in the car, and immediately after the crash they took off running. The driver later admitted she wasn’t supposed to be with them, so they fled to avoid getting into trouble.

Also not a great look – Hallie is confident the girl wasn’t the one driving. It was her car and she was the only one who stuck around at the scene and took ownership for the accident…but she wasn’t behind the wheel.

The police didn’t seem particularly interested in sorting that out. After keeping us there for nearly two hours, they handed us our paperwork, and told us insurance would figure it out. (Their insurance has been great and the very first phone call we got from them was, “Obviously, this was our insured driver’s fault so we’ll take care of your car.”)

We missed the volleyball game. Apparently, it was the best match of the entire season. We were so close to the gym that we could practically hear the crowd cheering while we stood on the side of the road waiting for police reports.

Thankfully, cars can be repaired and Hallie and Cannon walked away completely unharmed, especially after being hit at a decent speed. It just wasn’t the welcome home Hallie was hoping for.

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We were traveling back from a trip today so we actually celebrated Steve last Sunday and all the decorations were still up when we got home today.

Steve is easy to celebrate. He’s everyone’s biggest cheerleader, so it’s only fitting that Father’s Day gives us a chance to cheer for him.

But how do you celebrate a role as important as father? How do you put into words what that really means?

He’s on the sidelines and he’s driving the boat. He’s on his knees in prayer and he’s making breakfast.

Father doesn’t even begin to describe all that he is. Teacher, coach, example, provider, and friend. But most of all, he’s at the core of who we are as a family and the culture we’ve created – dad jokes and all.

Hallie has jumped in as the family photographer, but that means I didn’t capture her reading her annual interview to Steve so I found this picture of what their interaction looked like. She adores him…as she should.

I had all the kids fill out the annual interview about Steve and their responses are some of my favorite insights into their relationship with their dad.

What is one tradition you hope to continue with your own family?
Lake Powell, the weird Christmas Eve traditions like Bass Pro hide and seek, morning scripture study, Christmas Eve/Day, Lake Powell and Christmas morning festivities

What is something you still want to do with dad someday?
A mixed doubles father/daughter tennis tournament, go to a professional football game, go to conference as a family, watch Survivor with the family, start a business or go to wimbledon/US Open

What is something dad taught you that you’ll never forget?
Budgeting and investing in the stock market, everything takes work so don’t quit, keep your eyes on the ball, the value of a dollar, the power of tithing

What do you love to do with dad?
Throw the football, play sports with him, tennis and gospel chats, play games/smack talk, talk about money and business.

What is one quality you hope to inherit from him?
Humility, trust in the Lord, his sincerity and desire to get to know the one, the ability to see a stock’s value in the future, athletic

He is loved and admired and I’m grateful for how much focus he’s put on his role as a father. We are all better off with Steve’s influence.

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Our backyard has turned into a playground.

Not the kind with swings and monkey bars, but the kind filled with swimsuits, bikes and a never-ending stream of kids.

Every afternoon/evening seems to bring a new group of kids. And once the neighborhood kids see a bike or two, the floodgates open. I’ll see a text pop up in the neighborhood chat asking if anyone has seen a particular child and I’ll look outside and see a whole group of kids I didn’t even know were at my house.

And I love it.

There is always movement.

Always noise.

Always a pile of wet towels.

We spent so much time talking about the backyard over the years and it’s turning out just like we had hoped. Do I still have things I need to finish up? Of course! But the kids/teenagers think it’s great and they have no idea my list is incomplete.

Complete or not – it’s a non-stop party back there and we’re embracing the chaos that comes with it.

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For years, Bennett had a goal: he wanted to play high school soccer. It was something he worked toward through practices, games, summer camps and years of dedication to the sport he loved.

The year before high school, Bennett started experiencing serious knee pain which was attributed to normal growing pains. It slowed him down. Took him out of games. But he continued to work hard in the gym, strengthening his body.

High school season came around and he was excited to make the team. He accomplished the goal he had set for himself.

But sometimes we spend years chasing a goal only to discover that reaching it isn’t exactly what we imagined. Bennett enjoyed playing. But the experience didn’t quite live up to the hype for him. Having spent years with a strong club program and coaches who pushed and developed him, the high school experience wasn’t quite the caliber he had grown accustomed to.

At the same time, something else was happening.

He competed on the tennis court for the first time during the fall of his freshman year and he was surprised by how much he enjoyed it. (We had tried for years to get him to try tennis but Bennett cannot be convinced, until it’s his idea!) He wanted to dedicate more time to tennis clinics but he was constricted by his soccer schedule. What started as a challenge balancing soccer and tennis slowly became a process of discovery.

He had dedicated more time to soccer but he reazlied he was more passionate about tennis. When he honestly evaluated where he wanted to spend his time – the answer was tennis. And we saw it. He was finding friends to play tennis with every weekend – even when he had a soccer game, he was arranging tennis with friends after.

There is a maturity in recognizing when a chapter has run its course and I was proud of how he handled the decision. It wasn’t impulsive – in fact, the conversation started a year and a half ago but he didn’t know what he wanted to jump to…until freshman tennis when his decision became clear.

I’m glad he stuck with soccer as long as he did. He needed to learn what a team sport offers (something we wish Hallie would have had – tennis just doesn’t offer that). It taught him teamwork, resilience, preserverance and hard work and helped him develop relationships with coaches and friendships with teammates. It was a great chapter. I also love that he learned when to turn the page and start a new chapter.

Sidenote: He returned to club soccer after the high school season, simultaneously with the JV tennis season. Unfortunately, his last club soccer was during the President’s Cup tournament – his last big hurrah. We won three games in group play by a landslide and we were set to advance in the tournament. Sadly, the state scheduled our bracket on Sunday and we had to forfeit the semi-finals – what a way to end a career!

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Trying to get caught up on all the end of school year celebrations and parties. Cannon and Briggs both had GT showcases One day a week, they both take a bus to another school where they spend the day and they’ve both been doing it since 3rd grade.

Every year focuses on some aspect of constructing with Legos and by the time they’re in 6th grade they’re building robots to compete against each other. I’m really happy Cannon finished out the program. At the beginning of the year, he was asking to stop attending his GT class. He had added added an advanced math class (which is at another school as well) and I think he was worried about the day he would spend at his GT class and how that would affect Math. It was a conversation we had more than once but I knew he would enjoy the lego robotics if he could get past being worried about math. We used the “wait and see” approach. Try it out. If it’s too much, we can reevaluate. And guess what – it was never brough up again. He passed the math class with flying colors and enjoyed a year of GT with his friends.

Briggs’ instruction was to create a game using Lego simple machines. He partnered with one of his best buddies and we played the soccer/football inspired game they created. They are well on their way to building robots in two years!

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