It's been a month full of fun adventures! In fact, we've only been home ONE week out of the entire month if you can believe it! It always surprises me- how quickly time flies by each summer. It's the most fast pace time of year but I love it. Highlights from the past month included our trip to Seattle to visit family, trip to Lake Mead with BYU friends, boys soccer tournaments in between trips! High Adventure trip for Dane up the California coast. And of course soccer camp at BYU for the boys up in Provo. Lots of good memories and fun adventures to look back on.
Seattle was incredible as usual! Grammy and Papa along with my siblings- always make our time up in the Pacific Northwest so enjoyable filled with all sorts of traditions we've picked up over the years. Taking the ferry to Anderson Island to swim at the Ol' Swimming hole is a favorite tradition that the kids adore! We always pick up salami, pretzel rolls and cheese from the German bakery and donuts from the Donut Shop and head over for a day of sun and swimming. Second favorite tradition is our "camp-out" and Ft. Nisqually where the kids have the best time ever at the lake rope swing and obstacle courses... we usually play a game of volleyball and roast hot dogs and s'mores. It's always a fun day. This year we celebrated Evelyn's upcoming graduation with a party at the Dave and Jen Stevens' home. So fun that Jessica decorated every inch of the house with darling pics of Evelyn. Jenny made a $$ cake, Grammy was in charge of food and it was delicious. We went around the table and each of us gave Ev a piece of advice for college life. We told her to be brave, be wise with her money, join in, be prepared for hard things, but don't turn back or expect to come home- press ahead! Rely on God, enjoy this time of life when you are only focused on yourself, study hard, pray, date a lot and keep in touch with your family. Jess made Evelyn a remembrance book where we each took pictures and wrote a nice note to Evelyn.... she loved it!!! At the end of the evening, we all started chanting "speech, speech, speech," and of course Evelyn would rather die than make a speech so instead she sang a song and we loved it so much. FUN night!
Other highlights included a fun filled Forth of July at Dupont and Steilacoom's parades and street fairs. We barbecued at Dave's house and played volleyball, slip n slid down the hill and had gourmet root beer floats. We then filed off to Mike and Jess's for backyard fireworks which were quite the thrill for my kids who have never had much of a chance to set off their own smoke bombs or snakes. I have SO many memories of this as a child and it made me happy to see them experience it all. Then we headed back over to Grammy and Papa's for the fireworks show off the Sound. BEAUTIFUL.
We enjoyed strawberry picking, the zoo, the farmer's market for dinner, hikes, Rainiers game, cousin sleepovers, Wild Waves with Jamie, Dave/ Jen and Michelle's families, played Pickleball and visited Defy (grant's favorite trampoline park). I put on a seminar for Mom and Dad's missionaries and it was so fun to finally meet all of the elders and sisters that my parents talk about constantly. Jamie took Evelyn's senior pictures right before a rain storm and they turned out beautiful! SOOOOO thrilled with them! All in all, an incredible trip and we felt so grateful for the special times we shared with our Washington family!
I have to admit, I was nervous... not excited and a little overwhelmed at the idea of spending an entire week on Lake Mead with 6 other families! Yes, these are great friends and yes, the houseboat idea sounded fun... but it was going to be 114 degrees all week!!!!! And it's a lot to be with people non-stop for an entire week! We shared a boat with the Calls and split up all the food. That was another stresser--figuring out food for a big group for the week! So... a lot of hesitation on my part, but I must say, we definitely had a great time and were so glad we had decided to go on this fun adventure. There were good times, there were hard times. Our trailer tire exploded on the freeway and we had to wait a few hours in the dessert for help because the boat was too heavy to lift on our own. Dane, Grant and Anna were all actually quite sick- especially Dane! And yet, we couldn't cancel so we pressed ahead. Their colds made it difficult for them to sleep well and they just didn't have their usual energy level or happy smiles so that was a little frustrating. We also experienced a huge storm one evening in which our boats all came unmoored and it was frightening because the kids were all in one boat that came unhitched first and so we had to get them off the boat quickly and pull the boat to safety! The sand and wind hurt everyone's eyes and the lightening and thunder was intense. We prayed, sang church songs and huddled up together. It was a scary night but also full of faith promoting feelings once all was said and done. Ben Brewster gave an awesome devotional that night after the winds had settled down about the power of the anchor and how it is tied to Jesus Christ. One of the highlights of our trip was the nightly devotional and desserts that we shared. We gathered every evening to hear a small devotional, play games and eat treats and that was so special. I spoke about fears and how to overcome them, Andy talked about missions and the importance of a mission for your life- each of the dads gave a report on the most important thing they learned on their mission. Kelly taught about spiritual experiences and having an anchor in life, Ben helped us process the storm and how that applies to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and George taught about the straight and narrow path. It was a very special part of the trip. We also loved out excursions to the marina for ice cream, learning new tricks on the ski boats, card games, early morning boat adventures and floating in the lake with friends. It really was an awesome trip! Sadly, Evelyn was unable to attend this trip because of her two college classes she is in the process of taking in order to graduate early-- they require internet access and we had little of that on the lake. Grandma was SO gracious to take care of Evelyn for the week! They had the best time ever shopping, eating out, doing pilates and getting nails done. It was a special week for Evelyn to be with her grandparents and I don't think she missed us too much. She worked a little, stayed with Emma at her beach house and caught up on work she was behind on from our Seattle trip. THANK YOU to Grandma and Grandpa for taking care of her!
So proud of Dane for biking 180 miles down the coast of California from Santa Cruz to San Luis Obispo... camping in between and in general just hauling it every day for hours and hours. It was no small feat- in fact, he said it was the hardest thing he's ever done! Seriously so proud of that kid.
Our trip to St. George, Provo and Salt Lake was SUCH A BLAST. I'm super excited to have a reason to go visit Provo more now that Evelyn will be moving away in a couple weeks to live there. We dropped the boys off first thing on Monday morning to the BYU Cougar stadium for soccer camp. Of course they were nervous and not too happy about the fact that we had not signed them up with friends! But they were courageous and great sports to jump all in and give it their best shot. And of course, they absolutely loved the week and had the best time ever exploring BYU, learning from the coaches, meeting new friends and spending the night in the dorms. So happy they loved it. Grant's team even won his level of league games! Dane's got out on penalty kicks but they also played well. Anna, Ev and I had a blast exploring Provo, stopping in for a swig drink and cookie EVERY DAY, going to the movies, hiking Provo Canyon, driving up to Sundance, making Valore home-made rings! Visiting with Beth and Kate, and cousin Noah! Driving up to Salt Lake City to see Christy (my old BYU roommate) and then shopping at the City Creek Mall and the BEST night ever seeing Lizzie McAlpine perform at Soundwell- a dream come true for Evelyn and Anna! We loved walking around BYU and figuring out where Ev's classes would be, eating at the CougarEat and visiting Kate at Alpine Village- where Evelyn will live! So exciting. Once the boys finished up camp, we headed to Salt Lake again to pick up Blake from the airport and then spent the day at Lagoon before heading to St. George to relax for a few days. LOVED Arcadia for a day lounging around the pool and then yummy Culver's right by our house for dinner and Ed Tracy's comedy club for an evening of laughs. It was a super duper fun trip to Utah and we loved every minute of it!
So this is what we did in July. For those few days we spent at home, we enjoyed watching Dane play in and WIN his Attack Tournament at Del Norte High. We loved watching Hannah star as Matilda and pull of the greatest English accent on earth! We celebrated Nora and Ruby's birthdays and then I celebrated Mel and Michelle's birthdays. Grandma came down to spend the day with us for lunch and Minions movie and had such a fun time catching up with her! We served a little- helped Rach move in and Grant and I organized wall galleries in her new home. I helped my friends put on a wedding for their little sis! Learned how to cut wedding cake for 400 people! Grant had his first ever babysitting job for Teddy! He did an incredible job and earned $25! Dane spent the day allergy testing only to find out he is not a candidate for the allergy shots we so hoped he would be a candidate for! It is so hard to see him in pain with these chronic sore throats and all the doctors thought this would be the answer but apparently no! Back to the drawing board. I'm not going to lie, I shed a few tears that night when I was alone. I think I was just so hopeful we could fix this problem and he'd have energy and good sleep and no more pain. It's been an ordeal this year. A setback but when I look at all we've been blessed with, I know God is watching over us and really feel we will eventually get to the bottom of it all. So grateful for my family and the awesome experiences we've had this month to travel around and enjoy life. Grateful to Blake for working hard to allow us the opportunity to do so many fun things!
