girls babysitting

I don't have any real or great pictures of this (sort of a theme for our summer for the teens).  But Megan and Madison babysat 2 kids (Sammie and Lincoln) every Tuesday for 8 hours.  They are the same age as Dane and Eve so it made sense for them to do it at our house so they could all play together.  One afternoon Maddie set up the swimming pool.  

 

Softball

Megan had another season with her softball team.  Megan did phenomenal this year.  She has made amazing progress.  Her coach said she was by far the most improved.  She hit more than she didn't, and since the girls are getting older and hitting further she had a lot of opportunities to field balls in the outfield and she did great.  We learned this year that Megan has not depth perception.  That knowledge explained a lot of things - and one was how hard it was for her to hit the ball for the first few years of softball, but she learned how to count instead of relying on perception - she is pretty clever!

 

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

When we got home from Flaming Gorge Grandma and Grandpa Herbert were at the house waiting for us.  In truth they had stopped and stayed at our house for 1 night before we went to Utah on their way to Arkansas for a month.  Now they were on their way home and stopped to stay with us for a couple of days.

Their trips are short and sweet.  With Grandpa's medical issues we can't go out and do "fun things" and they cant go to performances and stuff, so we hang around the house.  Debby usually finds a project and fixes something.  The babies have learned that grandma keeps treats in her car and she gets them all out and lets them make bags of all her stuff.  For a few weeks after her trip they will say "I want a grandma treat" and we pick something out of their bags.  It is pretty cute.

Debby took these of us.

Theses are some pictures that Randy posted on Facebook of the "Arkansas" Herbert's (although Randy does not live in Arkansas, he lives in West Virginia and was just visiting with Jameson)

Grandma came with me to take Dane and Eve to the park one day.  She played football with Dane and taught him how to be a center and "hike" the ball to someone and then run out to catch the ball.

Pictures!

 

Flaming Gorge

Just a few days after getting home from Utah (2 days to be exact) we had a chance to go to Flaming Gorge with the Hanna family.  We went to Utah right after camps,  so it had been almost 3 weeks of vacations (not to mention FSY before that) - so FG became an optional trip.  It ended up being the same crew as last year (me, Dane, Noah, and Madison), which was wonderful!!  Noah and Mads aren't naturally friends and neither are Megan and Brock, so it is nice to mix things up a bit. 

We had the best time.  I almost cancelled it out of trip fatigue but am so glad we "did the thing" - it is always worth it.  The drive was great.  We had such wonderful conversations (this time about feminism in the church!)  When we got there Noah sent to help grandma and grandpa and Maddie and I set out to set  up the tent.  Well... about an hour later (in 100 degree heat) it was done.  Mads kept wanting to give up, but I told her we were strong, smart women and we would figure it out!  And we did.   

We had cute Ben!  Although he figured out how to crawl out of this thing pretty quick.

I was so so grateful to have Noah.  He was "a real man" this year.  Not that he wasn't helpful before, but he has reached the point where he is better than me in all areas.  Stronger, smarter, more capable, hard working, etc.  He built us fires every morning and every night.  He gathered fire wood for the whole extended family and spent a lot of time chopping wood.  He knows what to do and how to do it and did it all with out being asked.  

Dane decided he wanted to be just like Noah.  He did end up knocking it down, he also ended up hitting himself in the foot. So... you know.  

We were only there for a flash.  We drove out Monday morning and left Friday afternoon.  So Thursday was our only full day.  However, we did get out on the lake every single day.  We had different family members come and go.  It was heaven.  

Dane spent a lot of his time fishing. 

Dane also REALLY wanted to ski.  It was weird because he never wanted to get in the water or tube.  He had that experience getting dunked on that tube in Utah just the week before.  I was sure he didn't understand what skiing was.  So we had Caroline go first, just so he could see and decide.  Luckily, she fell a few times and he watched it, and he still wanted to go.  I was in the boat and Brooke and Mads were on the beach with him.  Madison was in charge of making sure he TOTALLY understood what was going to happen and help him feel prepared and also confident.  She did a fantastic job.  I was so proud of him for sticking with it and saying he really wanted to.  He got up on his first try (he also skied last year).  I LOVE everyone's cheers behind  him.

He skied for a while and then let go.  He said he loved it and can't wait to tell everyone at home he is a "skier man".  When we got home he showed everyone his video.

That gave him the confidence to do the tube.  It didn't last as long.  He got off pretty quick.

Madison and Noah were the perfect older siblings to Dane.  I am so grateful for our family dynamic.  They love him, help him, teach him.  No one ever teases or tries to make things difficult.  (well... Maddie does a little bit but it could be worse.  I think there is a bit of natural deep down jealousy that he took her place as the 'youngest' and gets a little of enjoyment out of teasing him a bit.)

Dane and Alex could not have been more adorable together!  They played around camp so so well.  They were creative and also very serious.  They both have similar "autistic" type personalities so they compliment each other very well.  

They built a whole house map out of rocks.  Here they are discussing it. 

One morning my dad took me and my brothers out skiing at 6:00 am to get glass.  It was nice to spend time with them in a capacity that I never do.  My brothers are great!  My dad is so giving.  

Here are some of Daniel.  I thought I had some of me, but I guess I don't.  hmmm...

Madison double skied a few times.

Cliff jumping with Daniel

We only overlapped with Millie for a few hours - but it was nice to have another teen.

And then we had to leave.

I am now a bit sentimental about this (as you will find out in about 20 posts - my grandpa died about 2 weeks ago), but my grandparents gave us many things.  Truly valuable things, some things we don't really understand.  But I honestly believe FG was at the crux of it all.  IT you took this trip out of our lives - I think the whole family would be drastically different.  Now, I know MANY other families that do annual trips and things don't' turn out the way they wanted. So, I am not sure what the secret sauce is.  But off the top of my head here are my thoughts: 

• They didn't set out to do it for any grand purpose, they just did it because they wanted to.
• It was 100% consistent and constant.  The same thing every time.  It was reliable and sure.
• It was easy and simple.  No frills.  We didn't have particularly nice boats, water toys, campers, or fun things to do.  We weren't trying to be bigger and better every time.  My grandfather was a simple man and that came across in his "vacationing" and I think it helped keep us grounded.  I have cousins who have or are now traveling more and live better lives (or even traveled growing up), they all agree FG is their favorite vacation, and if  they could only go on one vacation, they would pick FG.  I am not sure how eternity works, but if I could live an eternity on that lake with my extended family I wouldn't need anything more.  Almost everyone feels the same way.  
• We sit and enjoy the simple things.  This has changed a bit over the years as life has gotten "bigger".  But we would spend hours just sitting on the beach, or camp ground.  There was peace, calm, presence.