quiet

R took this picture after I left this morning.  Z often waits for me at the window when I am out

 Our house is quiet.  Yesterday I cleaned the kids bedrooms and did some laundry.   When R got home from work we went to dinner.  We had no time constraints so we rejected a couple spots before actually eating.  First we went to the park for food truck day.  After checking them all we decided not to eat there and went to Red Robin, we sat down and then changed our minds.  Finally we went to Chili's which was yummy.  When we got home we watched a movie.

This morning I had my annual substitute training.  I actually did the online part yesterday and the in person part today.  I learned I get paid sick time! and it's accrued for the last two years while I didn't know I had it!  Sweet!!

This evening was our ward's turn to serve at the homeless shelter.  I was able to go and help out.  The shelter is closing next week, which is really sad.  Tonight we fed 90+ folks, where are they all going to go?   

It was super hot in the kitchen, as they had no AC, and it was 104 out.  When I got home I showered then R and I went out for Thai food. It's hard to see the huge disparity between what I get to enjoy and what those homeless folks have.  Cool house, private shower, dinner out with my employed husband for starters.  I am blessed.

I spent my afternoon reading, cleaning a few things, talking to different kids on the phone, and watching this crazy quail who was perched outside the window on our fence for a long time.

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.

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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!