I have adult children.

Two of my five children are now “adults.”

How is that even possible?

Sammi and Dan are out living their lives away from home, making their own choices, and finding their way in this big, big, world.

They have been doing that for many years now.

It is both fun and exciting to have adult children, and also hard to not have them under my same roof anymore. I miss having all of my children home… but, well, life must go on into the future… I suppose.

When Sammi and Dan left home… so did the constant music, groups of people gathering at our home, and many performances. They are still both out there doing all those things; but at home, with the younger three boys, it is very different. It is much more calm and quiet without all the singing and dancing and high-energy that the oldest two create together.

I miss it.

I miss the music in the home.

I miss my older kiddos and the duo of magic that they are.

I asked them both to send me some pictures from their phones… of what they have been up to in this last year or so.

So, here we go… a TON of pictures… hooray! (You are welcome grandma.) 😉

SAMMI

Sammi has been going to school at BSU, studying art, performing as different princesses, performing on different stages, and she spent her entire summer up at Starlight Theater. She has also been quite the world traveler… as you can see from her pictures from different countries. She still sparkles and shines wherever she goes, as she shares her heart and her love with everyone around her. She is traveling life with her love, Nico, who you will see in many of her pictures. They got together back when Sammi was Cinderella and he was the Prince… during her senior year of high school. Time sure does fly!

It was so fun to see everything she has been up to! She also loves taking pictures… so she has lots of them to share. I am barely scratching the surface of the details of her life, but that’s about all the blog can handle with a surface level life report… written by me, and not her.

Here are the pictures she sent me…

*Some images were taken by other photographers, she mentioned Dragonfly photography for the Starlight theater pictures.

DAN

Dan is a student, studying at BYU. He is in musical theater, he works as a voice teacher, and he is performing in everything he can. Dan is sharing his life and love with everyone he meets. He spends a lot of his time going to auditions and also working out to stay fit and ready to perform. He ran a marathon this year, just for fun. He has been traveling… and he went on a trip to New York with Sammi. He spent his summer performing at Sundance Theater, doing Newsies. He also loves to go to the temple that is right next door to his apartment. He is learning how to golf… apparently, it is fun?

Again… just scratching the surface… he has SO much happening and stuff going on all the time.

Pictures might be worth a thousand words, but pictures don’t explain all the thousands of moments of non-captured life.

My older kids both feel like they need to live their lives to the fullest, because of their dad dying at such a young age. Charles was 37 when he died. Sammi was just age 12, and Dan was almost 11 at the time. It has had a huge impact on their desire for travel, performing, and making fun things happen… before it is too late.

I will let the pictures Dan sent me do the talking for his adventures…

I love these older kiddos of mine.

They are so fun, and I miss them so much while they are so far away…

But we all stay connected through group chats and frequent FaceTime calls, and I am grateful for that!

Love you Sammi and Dan!!!!

Keep shining your LIGHTS!!!

And take a nap from time to time.

Life is short, but long too. 😉

*I will write about the younger three boys… but there were too many pictures for one post! 🙂