We don't know

    We don't know what we're doing this week. We had a sick 'princess', which is rare, she never stays home all day for days on end but that's what she had to do this week. We had a fun visit from the grandkids and I caught one being naughty, or so I thought. (I found out later Beau was the real culprit for the toilet paper mess.) And Brock and McClane are currently at young men's camp in Cokeville, Wyoming and so far we've received one photo that will definitely rival Carter's campout back in June. (Not really!)

Sick but still smiling and wearing a crown.

She looked guilty but she was actually innocent.

The boys and their fellow deacon and teacher campers.

Brock will definitely win a prize for this 'monster' fish he caught. 

This is probably the perfect example of what a 'little' money can do for a priest campout versus the
'ward- budget' money for the teachers & deacons. I'm pretty sure both boys had fun fishing either way.

    So there you have it! A weird week but worth mentioning. Now on to August!

A rainbow to finish it up.

    We've had a nice week. Another great ice cream gathering, cute visits from the grandkids, and a drive up the canyon in the rain.

Harley Rose

Beau Rae

Charlie had the best time.

Our neighbor, Gina, knows how to get a snuggle from Harley

Such a pretty drive up the canyon.

    It's another holiday weekend (Utah's birthday/Days of '47) and I'm sure we'll see a few great firework displays in the neighborhood. Mostly we're just realizing how close to the end we're getting with summer break! I'm not looking forward to the chaos of getting back to the school schedule but I know the kids are a little excited to start a new school year. We still have Alpine days to look forward to though so we won't start the school count down quite yet.

Mostly girls camp

    It's been an interesting week. We had a great crowd for ice cream. I spent the majority of the week at girl's camp and Greg and the kids managed to keep the house standing while I was gone. They may not have done much else, like laundry or basic chores, but they at least didn't have it a complete wreck when I got home. We also got our Armada back from the shop and although it cost a grand total of $6,000 we're happy to have a working vehicle back in the garage.

Another successful ice cream gathering.

What a pretty place to be with these beautiful girls.

Memories were made.

The spirit was strong.

The girls were a pleasure. (Mostly)

And there was definitely hard work involved.

    I had a great time at girl's camp mixed in with some major stress and anxiety. Above are just a few random photos that were shared with me. I literally only took the one photo of the girls by the lake and let everyone else be the photographers. We had several nice cameras available for the girls and leaders to use throughout the week and I'm sure I'll be getting a large file of photos shared with me in the near future from our hiking leader and resident photographer so I don't feel guilty at all for keeping my phone/camera in my pocket all week. 

    I love working with the young women and girls camp is always a favorite part of the summer. I'm glad I went even if it wasn't all fun and games, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. We have some special girls in our ward and I feel lucky to know them!

July 4th and more with the cousins

    We had such a fun week, with a fun 4th of July celebration to start it off. We were especially thrilled to have the cute Atkinson's here to help us celebrate living in American. We also enjoyed having them the remainder of the week, Charlie especially. No one loves her cousins more then Charlie!

July 4th breakfast of pancakes.

Device time

How cute are all these girls!?

Beau was a big fan of the chalk art activity.

These two grand girls are so fun.

We had a great group of friends & family join our celebration.

Pool time.

And it's not an official visit from the cousins unless there's a choreographed dance performed.

    And as I was searching for photos of Jackie's first car, (which I never found) I found this gem of a photo of Kayli with Jackie at almost the same age Charlie is now. There's no doubt now, they may look alike but Charlie is definitely taller!

Charlie and Kayli are literally only about 6 months apart in these photos with Jackie.

    Greg was in the mood for a trip up the canyon Wednesday and thankfully the girls were on the same page. It was a perfect day, lovely weather and not too crowded up the canyon.

We live in such a pretty place.

Charlie with four of her most favorite people.

    Greg and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary this week and we did a little more reminiscing. I'm still annoyed that I had my veil on wrong the day we were sealed but thankfully we went back and got professional photos. 

We were just kids!

And this lovely art work is courtesy of Jovi. She's got some skills!

    So after a fun week the Atkinson's had to head back to Idaho, much to the disappointment of Charlie. We also were sad to see them go and even more sad that their trip home was far from ideal or what we had planned but they're now back safe and sound in Idaho. We are currently waiting to hear back about our car and what might be wrong with it but thankfully we had great rescuers who saved the day and maybe our car breaking down, shortly after we got started on our trip, was a blessing in disguise. We may never know but we're just glad Ben could drop everything and make the long drive back to pick up his girls. We're also grateful to Kristin for saving us from a hot & long day in the park.

Fun!

    I don't know if anyone knows how obsessed I am with podcasts, maybe everyone knows, but I lucked out and actually got to meet two co-hosts from my most favorite podcast, "Nateland", Brian 'breakfast' Bates and Aaron Weber. They put on an amazing comedy show and graciously took a photo with me after the show. I just need to meet the other two hosts, Nate Bargatze and Dusty Slay and I'll be all set! What I really want is to have them show up for home made ice cream one Sunday night but I won't hold my breath. I will be going to more comedy shows at Wise Guys in the future though, it was such a great place and a fun night.

My guys!

    And now we have Jackie and her family here to join us in our July 4th celebrations, which should be a fun time!