More summer randomness

 Since I had phone troubles this summer my photos are pretty unorganized.  So I just discovered some photos from summer I never blogged about.  At least I think so.  Some of these might be duplicates - so bear with me!

This is from a hiking activity from Madison's primary activity days.  She has a great group of girls.  They aren't really "friends" but they are friendly and I hope as they all go into young women's together in January they will really develop a great friendship.

Megan spent most of her free time this summer working on making a summer book camp for her and her friends favorite book.  It was pretty cute and amazing how much work they all put into it.  They made matching shirts, crafts, decorations, games, food and everything.  They set up and took it down each day.  I was blown away!

One cool summer day we went to climb the incline.  It was one of those mothering fails for sure.  Because i have so many kids and most people around me don't I hate to be a bad example of large families or even young children to people around me, for that reason I try hard not to put myself in situations that i can't handle by myself or look "crazy".  But on this day I did.  I really thought Dane and Eve would walk up a few stairs and turn around and go backdown a few times - I figured we would play around at the bottom while the rest climbed.  I was wrong.  They were determined to climb up, and fast, with out being held and with out turning around or stopping.  Dane got fat ahead of me and Eve and even while she slowed down she wouldn't even let me hold her hand.  The further up we climbed the more I realized I was in big trouble, I knew I was going to have to get both of them down, on my own.  It didn't turn out quite as bad as I had imagined. By the time I finally caught up to Dane and convinced them to turn around they were tired and done.  They wanted to be carried down.  I did my best.  We would go a few steps at a time and then sit down.  Luckily about half way down we found the girls again and they assisted. 

One day the girls came with me to Hudsen Garden with the babies.  We didn't stay together, the babies and I went and played and the girls took their books and off they went.  I found it hilarious that I would find them over the next few hours in different places reading.  I took pictures, they never even saw me.  It was pretty cute.

Although Megan spotted me here and I missed the moment, they were both walking and reading - it was funny.

This was the babies on that trip

Here is another hike.  In the first part of summer I thought the babies were old enough to take on hikes but after this one and the incline one i learned that they really weren't.  They are at a hard age, wanting to do every thing, but not being able to.  This was another rough hike.  Again... I took the older kids so they could hike and I picked a hike that had a lot of rocks and I figured the babies would be content to stay at the trial head and climb on the rocks while the bigger kids hiked the mountain.  Again... I was wrong.  They wanted to hike the mountain.  IT was hot and miserable.  I ended up carrying Eve almost the whole way and fighting with Dane because I really wanted to turn around and go back down and he didn't  - but I knew I couldn't drag both of them down the mountain so I felt like a hostage to his good graces.  It was awful.  But again... we eventually made it back to the car.  

The mountain behind us is what we were climbing.

We did make it to the top - which wasn't the hard part.  The hard part was getting back down!

There girls came with me wearing their summer camp shirts. 

Maddie went to a friend's birthday party.

Softball

Megan played softball again this summer.  In fact she was our only sport this summer - which was kind of awesome!  She has become a great little softball player and her team is awesome!  They won first place!!  It was fun to go watch her and cheer her on.

 

Heritage

This summer my great-aunt Karen died.  She was my Grandma's sister.  My grandmother was born into a wonderful family.  There were 8 kids born to my great grandmother - 4 boys and 4 girls (plus one still birth).  I grew up knowing all of them (except 1 who died when he was 17).  They were like my aunts and uncles.  I feel an incredible bond, strength, and connection to my maternal line.  I know that my linage was established before this life and I know I stand on the shoulders of giants.  None of them were famous, or incredible, or even very "successful" to the worlds standards.  None of them were even very "important" within the church.  But all of them were wonderful, faithful, constant, they all tried their best and never gave up.  I would not be the woman I am today if it wasn't for the faithfulness and goodness of my maternal family line.  From them I have learned that family is the most important thing.  More important than money, businesses, or hurt feelings.  More important then being right or fair.  I have learned that the gospel is the center of life.  I have watched and heard stores about ways they (including my great grandparents) put the gospel above so many things and despite hard trials, unfairness, or despair you keep showing up, keep going, and you do it with joy.  

 

Summer temple trips

I have always looked forward to the day when I had teenagers that I could take to the temple. I imagined taking them and their friends often and going to get them treats afterwards.  Because of Covid we have not been able to go to the temple as often as I had hoped. However we have been able to go every single month as a family ever since the temple has opened. Our young men and young women also go once a month, so my kids have gone twice a month ever since mid 2021. This summer, however, I hatched a plan to find a way for us to go weekly. I presented it to my teenagers to see if that was even something they were interested in and they all seemed very enthusiastic. I was able to find a time that always seem to be opened, Wednesdays at 1 o’clock. I booked them up and we started inviting their friends. It was so wonderful to be in the temple every week. While they did baptisms I went and did invitatories. 

Funny thing... I did not take one picture the entire summer (of our Wednesday 1pm group).  I intentionally did not.  I wanted it to feel youth driven and casual.  I also thought we would on the last week, but then we had a really small, anti-climactic first week.  So no picture was ever taken.  But below are a few more from random summer temple trips.

Jason and I took the babies one evening.

The countdown is on for January when Maddie will be able to join us.  I could not be MORE excited!  We have our appointments and everything.  AND Brock will be a priest and able to baptize us.  These next 2 1/2 years are going to be amazing and I can not wait!