Lucia and Carmen Birch come to play!!

None of us can believe the Birches moved to Georgia 5 years ago.  That means the Birches have been gone longer than we were friends with them here - which is unbelievable.  The nice thing (and perhaps the reason it doesn't feel this way) is that Veronica and I are still great friends and talk often.  Well Lucia's birthday was coming up and there wasn't much she "wanted" so they decided to fly her here to hang out with Maddie for a week.  Carmon came with her.  It was so great to have them back and we tried to pack the week with fun things.

Both girls have much younger brothers and sisters immediately under them, so they both actually still like playing with little kids and going on little kid type outings.  So they came to the children's museum with us.

And Belleview Park.

Eve fell asleep.  Turns out she was sick.

Carmon and Brock went on double dates with Thomas Clark and Emily Rosenbaum (I didn't get a picture of Brock and Emily or all 4 of them... even though I specifically asked for it!).  They went miniature golfing. 

They went to the temple with our youth, they also went to church with us.

They went swimming every day at all the different pools.

 They also went to Bahama Bucks, café Rio, a movie (I think Spiderman), baked, and watched way too many chick flicks.  Despite not seeing each other in 5 years they picked up where they left off and it didn't seem like 5 years.  Maddie was excited for her to come and was pretty specific about their plans. 

Girls learning new things

The girls learned to mow the lawn this summer.  Neither were thrilled.  haha

Megan is learning to braid her hair by herself

Madison is learning to do watercolors. 

I already blogged about this, but i guess it belongs here as well, the girls learned to make panikakers.

I am sure the boys have learned stuff - but most of it happens with out me around to take a picture.   

 

FSY!!!!!

As soon as we got home from Utah the boys went off to FSY.  They went down to Colorado Springs (in the pouring rain).  They were VERY excited to go to FSY.  Brock roomed with Cameron and Noah wanted to room with a stranger.  They all had a wonderful time and felt like it was the most spiritual experience of their lives.  Perfect!  Maybe I can get them to write their experience at some point. 

I only have pictures from Brock because Noah didn't send me any.

 

Family Hike

One summer day we were all available and took a quick hike up to the "Colorado Castle".  In my mind I feel like we should be able to do a family hike once or twice a month.  In reality we take 2 a year.  I wish we could do more!

One thing we "lost in covid" was maps!  Toddlers love having maps and so I have been so happy that they are starting to come back.  All my kids enjoy a good map.

We had to stop and let Dane climb mountains a lot.

I love the different relationships and conversations that happen on hikes.  This time Brock and Maddie went off up ahead and did the whole hike pretty much together/on their own.

Jason and I had the best conversation with Noah and Megan about life, finances, financial choices, work, etc.

Made it to the castle ruins.  The joy was really in the journey ;)

Dane was thrilled to have some sort of bug land on him.

Then more talking on the hike back down.

 It was pretty great.