Foreshadowing

Saturday morning we took the kids to LAX and they hopped on a plane and flew to Ohio to spend a week with Nana and Abba.  They have both been looking forward to this week all summer.  Abba likes to golf and watch movies and swim and play video games, so does E & G (except Lu not the golf & video games).  Nana spoils the kids with fun shopping trips and Grace finally likes to shop and cares about what she wears.  They love to visit with Uncle Brian and spend time together.  It's a perfect end to a nice summer.  

While we were there I texted Tori, I knew she was in CA, and she said come visit so we drove to her sister in laws beautiful beach home and spent several hours catching up.  It was really nice.  It's been a while since we lived near each other but the time doesn't matter when we are together again and the conversation flows and the friendship is strong. We missed seeing Rob, which was the only bummer.  

Today we got up and went to ward council and then to church.  Our pew was a little lonely and strange.  Then we came home and napped and cleaned up, cooked dinner together.  After dinner we went returning.  We went to Shannon's first and returned the coolers we borrowed, we stayed for a fun visit.  Then we returned a jack to Pat (left it on the door).  On our way home we saw the Dunn's walking and they said they had just been to our house to say hi and bring us some jam so we invited them back to make donuts.  They said yes and we had a nice visit and frying time together.  I was Spud's teacher when he was a boy and now he's my neighbor so that's pretty fun!

the end of the week

 Wednesday night Val and I went to Zupas, my favorite.  While I was waiting for her to get off work I visited with Spencer and also looked at Kenzie's room where I saw this darling picture of Hannah and Kenz! So excited for fall and these two girls being roommates!

During the day I was at Dani's.  I got to do bath time and read stories and Dani and I took the kids, and the 3 she was babysitting, to the park.  We had a fun afternoon on the boardwalk and playing on the playground.  The kids spent a lot of time looking for bugs and were very successful!

Me and Tatum!

After dinner I went to mom's and spent the night.  Sierra is staying there while she is between apartments so I got to visit with her some more too.  The next day we stayed at mom's until it was time to get Ethan.  We talked and played Phase 10.  Sierra won! She's a good game player.

Sierra and I went to BYU and picked up Ethan.  We got to watch him play a game.  

He had a really fun time!

Besides soccer all day they had evening activities with the other sports camps.  They had a dance, devotionals, a field day and a trip to 7 peaks.  

After camp we made him shower then the 3 of us went to Tacano's for dinner.  E was starving so we got our $'s worth.  He wore his fitbit and they ran over 50 miles at camp.  When I went to wash his clothes I about got knocked out by the smell.  He said every day he and his room mate would just throw their dirty clothes in a bag and into the closet and then they slammed the door as if they were trapping a wild animal...even they noticed the smell!

After dinner E and I went back to Dani's.  Tatum had earned the privilege of having a betta fish so soon after we arrived we all went to the pet store and watched her pick one.  She named him Bubbles.

After all the kids were asleep we decided to put together a puzzle.  It was a summer bucket list item for Dani.  It took us until almost 1am! yikes.  I usually don't like doing puzzles and am pretty bad at them, but I had a really fun time and did my fair share.  I LOVE being close enough to visit often and to have these nice moments together. 

This morning we woke up early and drove home.  It doesn't feel close while you are on the drive and we got stuck sitting on the 15 behind a huge accident for close to an hour.  Everyone was out of their cars and walking around and looky looing.  We stayed in our car with the windows down and played a game together.  Most of the trip E slept.  

It's good to be home.  Now we are doing laundry and packing the kids stuff because they are going on an Ohio trip tomorrow.  Summer is busy! I was a little frustrated to come home to a messy house, not surprised but a little annoyed.  I need to be a better trainer I guess.

Bear World

 First day of school, Hannah had her first college class and it was awesome!  The first two days have been great.  I am super excited to hear about each day and all she learns about and all the friends she meets!

 While we were at the BYU bookstore guess who we saw!?!  My beautiful friend Tara!! and also Hannah (Reed) Sant.  It was super fun to see them.

 After we got Hannah settled, heard about her day, took her out to lunch, and said several goodbyes, we left her to her adventure and found one of our own.  Bear World! The most amazing place.  We saw so many cute bears!

 We saw elk, moose, bison (thank you Jenna for the important clarification that all "buffalo" in the US are actually bison), grizzly bears and black bears.

 There were tons of bears.  Just walking around.  Brushing against your cars, eating chicken and steak, swimming, scratching their backs.

 This is Stella the mamma moose, she had such a long nose.

There was also a little pettying zoo.  They had lots of cute little animals.  These pants wearing chickens were my favorites.

 You could feed these cubs but we weren't there at feeding time.  We watched them wrestle and frolic.

baby elk!

It was very very fun!

Rexburg Temple

 We got up early this morning while Hannah was in her first class and went to the temple.  It was beautiful and also so nice to be there with Dani!

I'm always really good at doing my hair:)

soccer camp

Ethan, Ethan and Noah

 Soccer camp drop off.  We met Lisa and Noah this morning and she actually took the boys.  I hope Ethan has an awesome time!  He'll be playing soccer all day so how bad can it be?!

BYU-I

 Today was the big day.  We drove to Idaho after Dani ran her race and we got Ethan dropped off at soccer camp.  It was about 4 hours but it felt long because we were all excited to see the school and meet her roommates!

We got here and got her set up.  Her apartment is super cute.  She is rooming with 5 other girls.  Then we went to Walmart to get her stocked for living.  We bought all kinds of things, shampoo, soap, wipes, toilet paper, milk, pens, a trash can, toothpaste, hangers, Tylenol, etc.  Luckily Walmart has everything under the sun.  They have a free shuttle bus that goes from her apartment to Walmart.  I guess she won't starve.

\

Here are some of her roommates.  Minha is from So Korea, Emma is from Las Vegas and Nicole is from Utah.  There are two other girls that we didn't meet. 

Hannah's room.  

 After we dropped her off we drove a block to the Rexburg temple.  It's very pretty.  Tomorrow morning Dani and I are going to go while she's in class, then we'll meet up again for some Idaho fun!

Cove Fort

 We had a very nice, smooth, quick, drive today.  We even felt so good about it that we stopped at Cove Fort Historic Site, which we have driven by many times and wanted to stop and see but never did, and had a little visit.

 First of all I love historic sites.  They are interesting and charm me.  I love church history sites especially and love seeing the courage and obedience that came before us.  This was no different.

Brigham Young asked Ira Hinckley (Gordon B Hinckley's grandfather) to go and build a fort half way between Salt Lake City and St George.  It served several purposes, one as protection because Utah was in the middle of the Blackfoot wars, 2 as a relay station for the telegraph and 3 as a place for weary travelers to rest and get food.  At the time he was called he and his wife were happily living in Coalville and were the parents of 7 daughters.  They all moved and lived at the fort and ran it for the next 10 years.

 It was a very interesting visit and a nice break in our drive.  I really felt the spirit testify of the strong testimonies of those early settlers, stronger than the foundation of the fort itself.  I hope I am leaving such a legacy for my posterity.

last day

Today is Hannah's last day home.  She'll come back from time to time and hopefully for an extended time at some point but if she follows suit with her sisters this is it, she won't live at home again.  We'll see I guess.

The day was unremarkable.  We cleaned up and did a ton of laundry from camping.  We went to Target and Ulta.  Hannah made us dinner.  We read scriptures together and packed her stuff into the car.

She will be 18 in less than a month and she's ready to take on the world! I'm excited for her and hope she has many adventures!

Solvang

 One day we ventured away from the camp ground to Solvang, a cute little Danish town.  We had some trouble meeting up..which caused some hurt feelings...which we got over, and then we had fun.

We rented a couple of surreys and rode around. Thanks Greg!

 Did a little shopping!

 ate aebleskivers

 went to the farmers market

 my 3 sons 

Clayton, Ethan, me, and Greg

El Capitan

 Every year growing up we went to El Capitan State beach the first week of June for our family camping vacation.  We LOVED it

I took the big girls there a couple of times when they were small and we LOVED it.

This year we went again and we mostly LOVED it.  Turns out the older you get the more the work side of camping manifests itself :), also the showers weren't working which was a huge (-).

Mostly it was awesome.  Like 85%.

All my kids and spouses and grands were there!! So that was way awesome.  Also 3 of my sisters and their families and mom and dad.

Marshall loved digging in the sand.  He could dig all day!

Penny thought it was cold and was happy go come home :)

Tatum is so grown up.  She played with Grace a lot.

Shitzu hair ;0

cute Kenz! I am so glad she and Hannah are going to be roommates this fall.

What we spent hours and hours doing each day!

Papa and Grams came down to the beach each day, they hotel hopped with Val and Ryan.  This was a challenge for everyone.  They had some very bad luck with their first two nights and their accommodations were subpar. The last two nights they stayed in Solvang at a hotel they thought was nice.  It was kind of a pain to have them far away, I was sad they missed out on stuff and we sometimes had trouble meeting up.

This little dino...what can I say?

The boys played a variety of games involving throwing things and riding waves and jumping as far as they could.

Jenna and Penny

Campfire conversations

3 little grandkids

reading and eating were favorite activities.

Several nights we went grunion hunting.  We never did see any but it was fun to explore the beach at night.  One night Clayton and Ethan went skinny dipping in the dark.  (We got to know each other much better this trip)

beach cave

Noah and Grace

"Jack and Jill" fetching a pail of water

quiet evenings around the camp fire are the best

There was lots of driftwood.

We saw lots of cool sea life.  Lots of star fish, dolphins, urchins, snails, pelicans, seagulls.  Also lots of land animals; skunks, raccoons, squirrels, birds, dogs, and a couple of cats that belonged to the loop host and had their own cat tent.

Tide pool exploration

We did some camp crafts and played games.  The kids enjoyed painting rocks.

The best parts:

family all together

beautiful ocean

awesome weather

lots of time

sunny skies

watching the stars at night

night hike

campfires

cousins playing

campfire donuts

dolphin spotting

game playing

chat chat chatting

Worst parts:

no showers

menu issues ( my fault)

a few disagreements and hurt feelings

damp mornings

Marshall and Noah

Sierra, Grace, Kenz, Hannah, Dani and Jordyn

 Spencer, Joneaux, Reggie, Noah and Marshall heads

 beach naps

Papa playing frisbee.

We also played butt charades and Quelf

lots of boogie boarding

 Love this girl!

The End