Sabbath morning

We googled the building closest to us and it was randomly the one that shares property with the Sacramento Temple. We drove up and exclaimed when joy! And kids were so excited, which made me and father so happy!

Fast and Testimony meeting was great and walking around the temple after was great too.

some more trek memories

 a quiet moment to rest

 Rob the photographer

 hair washing!!

stick pull

(Baylee vs Abby)

and how the young men did it!

 loved this bridge Jethro and Monty built

cute Chris Ray, Hannah Hitlton , JT and Madison

Great grandpa Kaurin

We got up at 2am and started out journey west. Our flights were long but otherwise uneventful. We napped, ate peanuts, played Uno and took pictures out the window. 

We flew first to San Jose where we got a rental car and drove to the home of great grandpa Kaurin and his daughter Janell. We had a very nice visit. He was sweet and glad we came. You could tell he was something in his youth, a go getter and handsome. Janell was also so nice as was Dave her ex who lives there to help out.

After a pleasant afternoon we headed to the cemetery and found Rob's biological fathers grave. We visited there, enjoyed a stroll amongst the dearly departed, and had fun looking at the crookedy west coast trees.

The night before vacation

Day spent cleaning
Children made messes
Packing Done
Haircuts done
Dog food bought
Ziva to Shannon
Keys to neighbors
Children in bed
Children out of bed
2am alarm set
Preflight irritability and anxiety
Car loaded
Trash out
Children back in bed
Dog out
Dog in
Prayers said

....check, check, check, check, check
Ready to go!

10pm, four hours until we leave and I am finally turning off lights (which is admittedly early for a summer night but not our goal of 9pm) when what do I see? A small boy building an electric circuit. (Read: making a mess and not sleeping) No wonder the getting ready is so irritating.

Four

Today I read "Four", the fourth book in the "Divergent" series.  Enjoyed it.  In honor of that I am doing a series of "4"s.  Random.

Four things I ate today:
mango, orange pork chops
home made mashed potatoes
peanut butter oreos
peaches

Four chores I did today:
4 loads of laundry
1 cleaning of the kitchen
one dinner made
1 bathroom cleaned

Four things I did to get ready for our trip:
went to Michaels
packed one suitcase
the above mentioned laundry
talked to Val about food

Four things I watched:
NCIS
BYU devotional
swimming kids (for four hours at the pool)
Divergent

Four things I talked to the kids about:
Hannah's history assignment
Ethan's hair cut
Grace's gerbils and fish needing a cage cleaning
Grace's swim progress

Four things I regretted:
not exercising
eating the above mentioned oreos
getting mad at Lu and giving her a spanking
that I have so much clutter

Four things I enjoyed:
swimming with the kids
making a surprise for the babies
talking on the phone to R as he drove to work
thinking about the new grand coming

Four things people said to me today:
Val: " Tanner has a soccer tournament on the 15th"
Mom: " Chinese buffet sounds like a good idea"
Laura: "Just dive in quick it's less cold that way"
PV: "excellent counsel Sister ____"

Four things I hope to accomplish before the end of this year:
Sub at least 20 days...for airfare
get back to exercising, I was doing well right before school ended but
finally crochet something
declutter the kitchen

Four jobs I need to do tomorrow
vacuum
drop off keys for the pet sitters
pack
take boy for a hair cut

Four things I am looking forward to on our upcoming vacation:
hiking to the viking castle
going to Zupas
eating some fish that R and Greg catch
meeting Scarlett and playing with the babies

Four animals I like:
dolphins (and on the Baynet today there was video of a pod swimming right by Solomons Island)
horses
elephants
owls

Four things I am putting off:
paying some bills
dieting
mammogram
recovering the chairs in the bedroom with the fabric I bought a year ago

Four summer sounds I like:
the conversation of owls and frogs in the night
the splash of kids playing in the pool
the crunch that shoes make on a  hike in the woods
the crack of a crab claw breaking

pioneer day continues

Tonight our ward had a social.  It was pretty fun.  We had treats and told the stories of our people.  There weren't a ton of people there, as one would expect at the end of July, however all who came had a nice time.  We took Arden and Ashby with us and all the kids enjoyed running around and playing.

In other news we are getting ready for our two week trip to the west coast.  We're really looking forward to it.  Of course there is the getting ready work which is not so fun and to make it even better we discovered that Lu has lice. (insert huge heaving sigh).  After camp we were warned and I checked her head and actually bought shampoo and treated her despite not seeing anything.  Then she got itchy.  I checked and rechecked her head and never saw anything.  Today I checked again and there it was ...a gross little bugger. So we spent two hours on her very thick hair and the rest of the day washing bedding and stuffies and pillows and vacuuming.  I think we are good.  I know from sad experience that they are sneaky little critters so I will treat everyone and everything...then we will repeat on Saturday and then in the middle of next week.  It's over kill but better safe than sorry.  

shots and swimming and Scarlett

Ethan got two shots today.  A booster and a meningitis.  He was very brave.  After he picked a treat. At CVS there are a lot of choices so he got a cool remote control car and some orange crush.  A far cry from the sucker or ice cream cone of yesteryear.

Hannah and Joseph

The kids spent some time at the pool.  A favorite summer pastime. Tonight Hannah went to youth district, Grace went home teaching and fishing with her dad and Ethan set up his fantasy football team.

Scarlett

We get to meet this little pumpkin next week! Counting down the days!