June is Golden and Memorable

 

June was Girl's Camp - and since I was camp director - it was a ton of details and a ton of fun! Here we are just before we load cars and head to camp. This was a highlight of my year! We did slip n slide, zipline, aquapark, boating, skits, had a three plane fly by complete with smoke and so much more. So much fun!

Kate, Carmen, Emily all came boating with us and we had so much fun including them. 

Here are the girls doing a question and answer session around the campfire. 

We celebrated Kate's birthday - and Father's Day. We are so grateful for Kate and Chad.

I went on a hike with neighborhood women. This was so much fun. Hopefully it is the beginning of a hiking group!

Sunday, June 29th was Kate's Farewell. Here she is just before her talk, meeting her new mission leaders, the Clarkes!!! Can you believe it? a last minute mission leader change and Stephanie Mecham setting up a meeting between the two made it possible. We know she will have good people on her side in the Philippines. 

We had to say goodbye to Kate at the airport. She is such a good person and will be a wonderful missionary. We will also miss her so much!

Goodbye Graham!

Goodbye dogs . . . .

Chad's heart is breaking

Audrey was already back in Alaska, but here are the rest of us at the airport.

Goodbye Kate!

Mission miracle - Kate and Koko found each other in the San Francisco airport! Kate is on her way to Manila, Philippines and Koko is on her way to Melbourne Australia. What a tender mercy.

May - bring on the beauty!

 

Kate goes through the temple to take out her endowments! It was so neat to have so many of her friends able to go through the temple with her! Here we are celebrating at our house afterwards. Very fun night!

Here we are in Kauai for our family trip. Since Audrey was going to Alaska for the summer and Kate is leaving on her mission, our family trip needed to be a little early. We went in May. Here we are enjoying sunset on a hike.

Going through jungle to get to a waterfall.

Hanakapi Falls - So beautiful!

Going out to Awa'awapuhi point on the trail. This is where sensible people stop, however, Several kids went to the very edge....

Beach fun!

Relaxing beachside after a very fun day.

Memorial day we spent on Brett's land in Mt Pleasant. It was fun to hang out with everybody. Here we are on a side by side with Breanne and Chris.

Chad and Brett on an abandoned ski lift counter weight. This place was fascinating.

Hanging out and chatting. We enjoyed the weekend. We did a drive-in movie, Scandinavian Days in Ephraim, Side-by-Side/4 wheeler rides, Fishing, church in Mt Pleasant, a an eventful ride up Mt. Pleasant Canyon (where Chad took the Sequoia off roading on the way back).

April sneaks past

Graham and I went to Logan for spring break to see Kate! We showed up and she took us around, we had pizza and then "Cleaned the Sink" at Angies! Graham loved hanging with Kate and her college friends. Then we went to play pickle ball. Graham and I had a hotel and slept there. On Friday, we met Kate for breakfast and hung out. Then she had to go to class and we drove home. It was a fun spontaneous hanging out with Kate. Since all of Graham's friends seemed to be at a soccer tournament in St. George, it was a good thing for him, also.

 Bagel got porcupined! He treed a porcupine and we could hear him barking very excitedly. Then suddenly, a loud shrieking noise and then silence. We had to find him and carry him out. The vet we took him to got all the spines out, but there was one under the skin that they couldn't get. They told us to come back after Easter and get it out. Wow! A surgery later and we are spine free. Unfortunately, 10 days later, Bagel was feeling bad again. We watched him for a week and then on our way out of town had the vet check him out. Another surgery! They removed a foreign body from bagels stomach. He must have eaten something! So, Bagel was recuperating from surgery the whole time we were gone. By the time we got back, his staples were out and he was almost 100%.

We celebrated Easter all together. Here is Chad explaining the rules of the Easter egg hunt. It was a Hunger Games type pile and cutthroat on getting the most eggs at all costs....

Here we are celebrating Rachel's birthday. She is now 21. Wow, time flies! Sage came with her to celebrate. After the cake, we played board games with Rachel. Fun night.

March brings new beginnings

 

Here is Kate opening her mission call! She is so excited! She is going to the Philippians! Cebu, Cebuano language, leaves on July 4th. How exciting!

Here is a picture of some of the people gathered to hear. 

Look at all the new missionaries! They all leave this summer for places all over the world!

Kate and her Philippians flag

Here is our family dinner, super fun to get everyone together!

Cute picture of Rachel and Sage. Sage has been part of several adventures recently and we have loved having her!

February is cozy and sweet

 

Here we are at an Airbnb at Bear Lake. This is our President's Day Weekend getaway this year. All the kids brought friends and it was super fun. The weekend was skiing at Beaver Mountain, tons of snow, hot tub, board games and general hang out fun.

Here is a skiing crew of us on Saturday. Carrie and Mason (ski patrol at Beaver), Chad, Ivy, Audrey, Sherry, Georgia and Kate. We went together as much as Carrie and Mason could, but it was a pretty busy day on the mountain for them.

Here are Kate and Audrey among the amazing deep snow at Beaver that weekend.

Getting ready to ski down. Graham joined us for a bit at the top on this run, but we seldom saw him and Payne. They were loving the snow.

Here is a group of us at lunch in the little nook above the ski patrol building. Perfect for us all to catch some lunch!

The next weekend was Maria Murillo's wedding! It was fun to be there with her. She married her friend Fernando is a very romantic and quick engagement. How very sweet. Nancy Castaldo is in this picture with us.

It is Graham's birthday month, and here we are at a family dinner celebrating him. He is 15 years old!

Happy Birthday, Graham!

January we are hibernating

The girls and I did a hike up to Heughs Canyon. Since the weather has been so great, it was pretty easy going, no snow on the trail. It was fun to get out and move. Mostly, we have just been skiing. It got really cold in January, now we are ready to start the warm-up.

We repainted Graham's bed and dresser and closet doors. He got this new bedspread for Christmas, and his "Ski Chalet" is on its way.

Audrey made these skis and poles as a present for Graham.

Graham and Jr Jazz team went to the Jr Jazz game in January.

 Einstein with his hair long, the day before his grooming.

The transformed Einstein.

December makes the house full again

 

Our house is bursting with our kids again! After being so empty the last few months, we are celebrating Christmas with everyone home! is has been a marvelous 2 weeks and we still have a couple days to go. What a blessing to be with such great people. Kathy and Gary came to visit us for a bit on Christmas day.

Audrey and Kate give each other matching hats - they had a really fun time giving the SAME thing to each other.

Opening stockings together.

Making gingerbread houses together.