Johnson family update

I am not a very good blogger anymore. Mostly I post little moments on Facebook, but truly that lacks the journaling feel and recording that a blog can have. So I am going to try to post on here at least a bit and see what happens.

The Johnson family has been happily living the small town life in Aberdeen, WA (birthplace of Kurt Cobain) for almost 3 years now. We have loved it here. Lots of opportunities for us all. Here are a few highlights:
WES

Wes got his first "real job" out of fellowship here in Aberdeen. He works 2 weeks on (including the weekend in the middle), then gets a week off. Which is cool to have every third week off, but it's crazy how rarely that schedule matches up with the kids school breaks. We bought my dream house. Seriously, it is awesome! Wes was in Les Miz at the college here in 2014 with me and Ender. He has been the ward mission leader basically the whole time we've been here. And he helped Armour win his first Pinewood Derby last year. He moonlights a lot on his weeks off, but the weeks he is actually off are filled with activities and adventure.
BECKEE (ME) I jumped right in to the community here by joining the board of the 7th Street KIDS right away, as well as joining PTO. By year two here, I was PTO President, Young Women's President and was voted in as vice president of the 7th Street KIDS board. So, I have been pretty busy. I was also in Les Miz with Wes in 2014. I helped mentor the awesome directors of the "mini-camp" show of Jungle Book KIDS last summer (2015) and was co-musical director for the high school's production of "Oklahoma" also in 2015. 
SOLACE Solace has started a crazy adventure in her education by jumping ship and leaving the brick and mortar public school. She joined the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) talent search last year and tested with high honors. She will be getting an award for that soon. With that score, she was able to get into a Latin class at Stanford Online High School, which she LOVES. She has also been taking classes through CTY online as well as a few through BYU online high school, and we homeschool for the rest of her classes. She is a smart cookie. She was treasurer on the BLT (Bulldog Leadership team) at McDermoth last year ans is a part of student government at OHS this year. She has also played 2 years of club volleyball while we have lived in Aberdeen, and performed in 2 shows with 7th Street KIDS (Honk, and My Son Pinocchio), as well as performing in the high school musical "Oklahoma!" She takes voice lessons from Christine Hill (we love her), and is a really talented singer. She also has continued to play the double bass in orchestra at school and now with the Grays Harbor homeschool orchestra. She is 13 now and is the second counselor in her Beehive presidency at church. She also cut her long hair off (24") a couple weeks ago and looks so much older! Hey did I mention that the first picture up there is our family at Stefanie's wedding where Solace was the maid of honor! Solace thought it was awesome to be Stefanie's maid of honor!!!
ENDER Speaking of talented and smart kids, Ender is also a very talented singer. He loves to perform and can be quite a ham. He was in Les Miz in 2014 with me and Wes. This year when the college did Mary Poppins, we all thought he was a shoe in for Michael Banks, but he had a huge growth spurt and was as tall as Mary Poppins at auditions. (He is taller than me and Solace now) He has played 3 years of football and Basketball in Aberdeen and run track. When we first moved here in 2013, he joined an awesome children's choir, Poco Voce and the leader, Pat Wilhelm, noticed his talent right away, Before we knew it, he was asked to sing a solo with the Grays Harbor Symphony at their winter concert. He sang the Snowman and was awesome!! He was also in the 7th Street KIDS shows with Solace and also takes voice lessons from Christine. He has been playing the Viola this year at school in the Orchestra. He just turned 12 this week and will be getting the Priesthood Sunday at church. Ender is currently treasurer in the BLT at McDermoth!
ARMOUR

Armour is our jack of all trades. His goals are to be in the NFL, NBA or (as a back up plan) be a doctor. He has played AAU Basketball, little league football and whatever other activities he could do for the past 3 years here. But he is not just a jock. He just finished playing Michael Banks in Mary Poppins at the College and he was amazing! That is a huge role for a 9 year old. Just like his older sibling, he has also participated in the 7th Street KIDS productions of Honk! and My Son Pinocchio. He played a duckling in Honk! and one of the alternate Pinocchio's (with a solo) in My Son Pinocchio. He LOVES to watch the Patriots and Tom Brady (I call him #TomBradysBiggestFan on Facebook much to his chagrin) and is an equally huge fan of Stephen Curry and the Warriors. He knows more about sports stats then I know about drama. It is pretty impressive. Oh, and he is also a little genius! He is so far ahead in Math that we have a hard time finding anything challenging for him. 
KINDLE Kindle is a creative genius! She can make art out of anything and makes friends everywhere we go. We often say "You can't spell Kindle without Kind", and she lives up to that! She loves to dance and takes ballet and jazz at Gayle Russell Dance studio. Last summer she got to play Baloo in the 7th Street KIDS mini camp show of Jungle Book Kids! It was super cute to see out little girl play that huge bear! So much fun. Kindle loves to draw and write and read stories to her little brother. She loves to play basketball and to swim. She does both at the YMCA here in town. She also plays little league soccer and wants to try volleyball like her big sister! Like Armour, she would play outside all day everyday if she could. She loves the beach and has a special talent for finding all the best sand dollars and shells. She has quite an impressive collection of them! She is going to turn 8 in about a month and will be baptized this summer.
EVEREST Our baby boy turned 5 last week! FIVE! He is a funny guy! He loves to joke and have fun. He has been reading to us for about a year now so he's a little genius in his own right. He goes to preschool at the YMCA, where he also takes swimming lessons and plays basketball. Of you have never seen a preschool basketball game, you are really missing out! This season he got to be on the same team as his best friend, and it was delightful to watch their crazy antics. Celebrations after making shots are pretty amazing with 3-5 year olds. Everest loves our house and thinks Aberdeen is a pretty cool place to live, but also loves Disneyland and Hotel Del Coronado (we went there once last year for Wes to attend a CME conference and I swear that planning a trip to go back there is all the kids talk about).
AS MUCH AS WE LOVE OUR ABERDEEN...
We are moving! Wes was offered an incredible opportunity in the form of a job in Yakima, WA. After much prayer and consideration, we knew it was am opportunity we could not pass up! Wes will be heading to Yakima in about a week, and the kids and I will follow him there after school ends (end of June). We are getting our house ready to put up on the market to sell, and still looking for a place to rent or buy in Yakima. (Shhhh...don't tell, but I found a house I love, but I think they are asking too much for it. Fingers crossed that we can maybe, just maybe move forward on this one...)