August Photo Dump

Sam started a Fire Science program at a community college in Flagstaff.  The first step in them becoming a firefighter.  

Ollie was a punk and got into my shells and sand from Portugal while we were gone one night.  I actually cried b/c I thought he broke my whole shell I found.  Cam and I were scraping sand and little rocks/shells out of the carpet trying to save it.  

But then I saw that he left this one alone and decided he didn't need to die afterall.  

A chilly day at the lake with friends.  We didn't get in the water and I stayed wrapped up in Tami's sheet the whole time.  

Pretty sure there are 16 2-liters in the trunk....

We tried some Blue Apron meals and really enjoyed all of them.  Some I'll probably make again!

We got Alli to go bowling with us!

On the way home from Europe Camryn's blanket got caught on her airplane wings pin on her backpack and ripped a large hole.  I stitched it up, horribly of course b/c I don't know how to do that, so that hopefully it won't rip anymore.  fingers crossed.  

Sam and Vic at my parents house in Arizona

The Stake YW's presidency was able to take a group of YW to clean the baptistry.  We had a good time and even got to get DQ afterwards :)

This is how Cam put her room back together after we got back from our trip.  (I'm blogging this in September and it still looks the same!) She loves her animals!

Our Aussie-Doodle laid right where I was working to make Snickerdoodles :)

A Beautiful and Busy Summer Day

 I took Ollie on a little paddle board ride to see how he would do.  He didn't jump off, but wouldn't sit down.  He seemed to like it though!

It was Back to School night.  Cam got to meet her teacher, choose her seat, and play with some friends for a bit!

The Stake 16+ youth did a progressive dinner on Lake Tapps.  They started at Fairweather Cove (Keyes hosting) for appetizers (chips and dip and otter pops) and then headed to our house for dinner.  It was fun to see all the boats heading our way.  

There were 47 youth and 10+ adults, we had a great turn out!

Konrad took some of us in Joel's boat to the dessert location (Lears).  It was a pretty night on the water!

All the boats waiting to head into the Lears to drop off the kids for smores and hot chocolate.  

Wild Waves with Cam and Klara

 We took Klara with us to wild waves.  It was her first time. Unfortunately it was SO CRAZY busy, but they still had a good time.  Cam tried a slide with Klara and actually said it was fun.  We floated in the river, they swam in the wave pool, and then they rode rides.  We stopped for Slurpee's (Klara's first Slurpee too :) on the way home b/c it was cheaper than in the park :)

Lake Days

 Joel brought his boat over in mid August.  One Sunday we took a little stroll around the lake.  

Elizabeth came over to swim one day and showed up in a swim suit that Cam has (that I believe she got as a hand me down from her cousin Nati) so of course they had to twin!

Mel and Sawyer came over one afternoon and we all had to try out this paddle board and all the floaties tip over into the lake fun!

We love watching the hot air balloons.  This one, and another, flew right over our house this night.  Ollie was so scared!

Another fun swim day with school friends:

Our first walk after getting back from Europe.  Ollie and I were both glad to be back!

High Adventure

Tami, Michelle, SueZan and I took the Junior and Senior aged YW on High Adventure again.  I feel like it was the best year yet.  So many fun things, so many fun youth, and of course the best leaders around :)

First stop was Murhut Falls.  I had hiked this trail with the Molen's over Memorial day about 9 years ago.  I hadn't been there since, so I was really hopeful the water would be falling and the girls would enjoy them.  They loved it.  It is a super short hike (.8 miles to the falls) and then they spent time swimming in the two different pools and standing directly under the falls.  

Our base camp was Zions where the girls slept in a long house, the leaders in a tent next to them, and then we had use of the awesome amphitheater, the ropes course, the field, and a camp fire spot.  It was super hot and humid the first night but we still had the girls put on their long sleeve t-shirts so we could take a picture.  We were melting!

We were supposed to have a movie night so I planned popcorn and candy for the treats, but the movie wouldn't play so we ended up doing karaoke instead, and the girls had a blast.  

Took some team work to fix SueZan's sleeping bag :)

My view from the tent:

Friday we took them to Staircase near Lake Cushman, our favorite hike we do with the Molen's every memorial day.  At this time of year though we decided there was a great rock jumping spot and the girls and other leaders had a blast jumping into the frigid cold water.  

We then stopped at the rock and the jumped into Lake Cushman.  

We were pleased to see that we were standing in a scenic spot that looked just like the shirts Tami designed for High Adventure this year! 

Ann was our model and stood just like the girl on our shirt :)

That night we listened to a general conference message by Sister Craven titled Do What Mattereth Most and then had the girls share thoughts about the message or share their testimonies.  It was so nice hearing from everyone.  These ladies filled my bucket!

Our last activity was rail-riding in Shelton.  It was super fun until the end when I made a bad leader decision to take off on my own to find a lost phone, which we never found (although it was eventually found and returned) and it cost us over an hour and made us miss a meeting we were all hoping to attend.  Lesson learned!

We stopped at a cute ice cream parlor in Olympia (these umbrellas reminded me of Lisbon!) before heading back to the stake center to drop off the girls.