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Hannah, Lizzy, Khloe, Belle, Grace and Anna in the front

Grace had band camp this morning.  

Rob had fishing.

lucky disney duck

After camp I took her to disney to meet up with Khloe for her birthday party.  They had a scavenger hunt at the Magic Kingdom then went to Old Key West to spend the night!

scavenger hunt

Fun party!

parade

After I got home R and I went swimming, then we got Bub and went to dinner and to the dollar tree where I did more camp prep.  Lots and lots of camp prep going on!

more parade

Schools out

We finally finished our school year! The last month really seemed to drag out!

Hannah and Sawyer got a baby kitten! His name is Galileo and he’s very cute!  In our family we take an unusual interest in each other’s pets. 

The girls are enjoying a fun beach vacay! I

love to get cute little peeks at their life!

Fishcation keeps going great! He’s been out every every day. Grace has been his partner on the water for many years. She likes fishing!

We gave blood yesterday. Today we went to the temple and then to the movies. We saw the new Aladdin which I loved and R thought was just “okay”.


Grace has her first of many summer days of band camp. She did great, thought it was fun, and took an afternoon nap when she got home! Marching for 5 hrs will do that to you and it is hot as hades outside so there is that!

Also I love this picture of Nana. She looks so pretty, even though she said she could live without a monkey on her head!

Fishcation

Continues to go well.

Rob’s been out on the water every day, pretty much all day. 

Clayton’s sister and her family came to our home last night and everyone was here until around 2pm when they left to the beach house. We grilled, swam, watched the babies toddle around with their cousins. It was lots of fun to have everyone! I’m glad the babies are coming back for another half day visit this next weekend. 

My friend Jimena is moving back home to Peru tomorrow. There was a goodbye dinner and I was the only American girl invited. There was one sister from Hong Kong and everyone else was from South America . We went to their favorite Peruvian restaurant and it was really delicious! It was a fun evening for me. Even though a lot of the conversation was in Spanish I didn’t feel left out or awkward. The food was seriously delicious. I learned many things tonight 

1. I am not very fancy. The other sisters were dressed up and decked out.

2. Dinner lasts a long time (4hr)

3. Sharing dishes and taking bites is common place.

4. American food is not as full of flavor.

After the meal the chef came in the room where we were and everyone broke out in applause. He talked about the food (I guess) and everyone had things to say. There were hugs and kisses and he told us that next Saturday there will be salsa dancing for a special night. Starting at 10pm (which is when white people parties end:) )

Anyway it was a super fun night. I would love to go back. I would totally love to spend an evening with these sweet hermanas again, and I should learn to speak Spanish!

One day vacay!!

The Johnsons are in town! They actually came for Clayton’s family beach house reunion but as a bonus the weekend on either end we get to have a visit!!

This morning E and C went to play tennis. They loved it.

Then we went to lunch followed by a trip to the sea life aquarium.





Next we went to the Thompson’s for dinner and playing on the lake! 

And we ended with a night swim in our own refreshing little pool:)

It was a very good day!

Grace, Hannah and Paige Zent

Me and Cora sweating in the shade!


Water fun!

Fishing vacay

Rob is on a staycation. He took 3 days off and got 9 between Memorial Day and an off Friday. His plan is to fish every day. 

This morning he and Grace went out. 

Then he went out again in the evening. 

Tonight Grace went to Sage’s birthday party. 

Ft Lauderdale

Bub and I got up early and drove 3.5 hrs one way and 4.5 the other to visit with our family before they leave on their cruise tomorrow!  I wish I was going. I am glad we could spend the day together. 

It was a super fun day. I wish we all lived  next door to each other!

Cousins❤️





This boy leaves for the DR in 40 ish days for his mission! So proud of him!

No fancy title

Sunday Grace, Hannah Z, and Madison sang in sacrament meeting. It was very pretty! They did a great job. Grace is very talented in so many ways. (Lucky girl)

Sunday evening we had four elders over for dinner. It’s always fun to have them over. They shared a message after half in Portuguese and half in English. It was very touching and we all felt the spirit and were grateful that we got to spend the evening together talking about things that are important. 

This cat. He loves water. 

Today I went to lunch with Michelle, Laurie, Kayleen and Suzanne. We tried a new place and all liked it a lot! Suzanne had been to the one near Cocoa Beach before but it was new to the rest of us. Our once a month lunches have been great. It’s been nice to get to know them all and to become friends.

The place is called Chicken Salad Chick and it’s very southern, which was perfect timing for me because I just read Whiskey in a Teacup, Reese Whitherspoons very southern book:)

For mutual this week we moved the activity to Tuesday because high school graduation is tomorrow. We had a swim party at Shannen’s neighborhood pool. The kids had a fun time and a lot of them came. 

Grace, Talisheechca, Berenice, Madison, Faith, Sage, Hannah, Lilly, Paige, and Isabella. Gracie and Danika were not in the pool. 

The boys were crazy. They spent time racing and playing on the kiddie play thing and making human pyramids.


Bub came in second this race. Ty is fast. 

The kids are all counting down to the end of school and in good moods!

The principle of sharing...or how I found myself in the middle of the lake

A love letter life has been on my mind. Those two kids who wrote it are wise beyond their years and I am actively applying some of the principles they outlined in my life.

One is the principle of sharing; which is if one spouse enjoys something there must be something of value in that activity and the other should find out what that value is so they can share in the activity together.

This is something that I have not been good at. Rob is much more willing to go along with me and what I want to do than I am for him. For much of our last 21 years I have been very busy raising a family and caring for our home and running everyone’s social calendar and doing my various callings. He has had more “free” time for hobbies and he loves to try new things and gets very into them. Typically I don’t really participate with him. Right now he loves fishing and taking out his kayak. When he goes I usually have chores or the kids need to go somewhere or Grace and I want to go to Disney or whatever.  But since reading the book last week I thought I should try harder to do things with him. After all I go to the pet store with Grace because she loves to look, even though I don’t like to go. And I watch sports with Bub, which I do like now but I had to learn how to like it.  Anyway, last night when I was chaperoning the 8th grade field trip, he texted should I take the kayak off my truck or will we want to use it tomorrow?

I said to leave it, that I would go. And I did. And it was a lot of fun. Very peaceful and pretty. Also very very sweaty. We pedaled 3.6 nautical miles around the perimeter. He fished. I looked at houses and saw one little gator and lots of birds. 

Then we came home and cleaned up and went to Lowe’s and Target together.

Also I really need a pedi. Scrappy Fred Flintstone feet.

Gradventure

3pm- 3am is a long time to have fun. But that’s what we signed up for. It’s back to Universal Studios for me. Tonight is 8 th grade gradventure. There are tons of kids here, tons! Our school had 12 charter buses alone.

Grace and Ashton

Then Sam joined us.

Grace and a different Sam at midway check in.

The castle at night. So pretty!

I thought this was funny since Rob worked at skunk works, twice!

They have designated chaperones lounges. And chaperone refreshment stations. It’s all you can drink Diet Coke all night!

So it’s fun but a little long. 

Earlier I checked on Rob with my favorite app, find friends. He was in the middle of a lake. His favorite spot!