July

My mom scheduled family pictures for our big family at Snowbasin.  We have added 6 kids to the family since the last time she had us do this, so it was time.  It was such a pretty setting!  This is how our family will stay, barring any surprise babies.  10 adults, 16 kids, and I love everyone of them!

Broadbent's, Goodrich's, Mom and Dad, Walker's, Moyes's

Chloe, Stockton, Grace, Seth, Tessa, Brynn, Abby, Ivy, Grandpa, Lucy, Grandma, Josie, Harper, Ben, Molly, Gavin, Grant, Spencer

Seth, Stockton, Molly, Ivy, Grace, Brynn, Abby, Chloe, Josie, Ben, Tessa, Harper, Lucy, Gavin, Spencer, Grant

Justin, Megan, Jeff, Ali, Mom, Dad, Bryce, Erin, Erin, Christopher

Megan, Ali, Bryce, Erin

just an extra the photographer captured...Brynn and Grace are cousin BFFs!

 After family pictures, Justin drove home to go to work the next day and I went to my parent's house for the week.  That week was the 4th of July and then Grandkid Camp so the kids and I just stayed for the duration.  It worked out perfectly that Molly was there when the cousins set up a stand on the side of the road...Chloe sold the bows that she had been sewing, Abby made rainbow loom bracelets, Molly made cookies (peanut butter and snickerdoodle), and Ben and Gavin had free magic tricks for customers.  Chloe also made snow cones from her snow cone machine.  They stayed out there all day long.  I think they were successful too-Molly pocketed nearly $30 from her cookies!

Brynn, Grace, Gavin, Ben, Abby, Chloe, Molly

Brynn loves the babies.  She is almost big enough to carry them...not quite!

Brynn and Josie

The kids also enjoyed the laid-back evenings at Grandma and Grandpa's.  They spent most of them in the Broadbent's driveway riding bikes and scooters and ride-on cars.  They made up a game where they would take a pit stop to get their tires pumped, "oil" in their car, or whatever else they could think of.

Grace and Brynn

Grace and Stockton

Stockton wanted to have a family baseball game so I told him that we definitely could find time to do that.  We did one night at the church.  This is the plan that Stockton made up-teams, rules, the whole works.  He didn't leave out one detail (try to zoom and read the whole thing).

Ivy is never one to be left out!

For family night one Monday we tried a family team-building activity.  The idea was to make a tower out of plastic utensils that could support a box of Twinkies.  The tower had to be at least 3 inches tall (I think, I'm hazy on the details now) and you had to put the Twinkies on one at a time.  I think it was actually Stockton who ended up coming up with the design for the tower after a couple of fails.

Of course, the Twinkies were for dessert although we all agreed that the homemade variety is much, much better!

Stockton wasn't even bothered when I woke him up in time to be at the church at 6:00 am one morning.  Far and away the earliest I've ever had to wake him up.  The occasion?  Cubscout day camp at Camp Jeremiah Johnson-his first scouting activity!  He was so excited!  (I had to borrow a shirt for him since I was slow getting him his own, hence all the badges that he hadn't earned yet.)  It was a great day for him, filled with bb guns, bow and arrows, canoeing, and other scouting things.  He took some money and came home with a whittled flute.

Later that day, it was Molly's turn to go to Activity Days camp...at Camp Jeremiah Johnson.  They went on the same day and, although they weren't there at the same time, they overlapped times so that Molly left before Stockton got home.  I was able to be a mom helper for Molly and I had lots of fun doing that.  I drove a rowdy bunch of girls down to Springville where the camp is and I got to walk around with them and see all the things they were able to do.  Slack-lining, rock wall climbing, bow and arrows, some team building games, bb guns, canoeing, crafting.  We packed our dinners and ate them there and stopped at the shop before heading home.  Molly bought a slingshot.

At the bow and arrow rotation, the girls were taught how to hold a bow, how to release an arrow, and other safety tips.  They were given two rounds of three bows each round.  Molly was getting frustrated that she wasn't hitting the target or, if she did hit the target, the arrow would bounce right off.  Finally on her last try, she hit the target...actually, she hit dead center bulls-eye.  Everything stopped around her as all the leaders and girls admired her shot.  The leaders wouldn't let her pull the arrow out until everyone else had seen it (they don't remember that ever happening before), our group's leader did push-ups, and one leader shouted out, "Someone tell this girl's mother to put her in archery lessons!"  Molly hates being the center of attention, but this was very cool.

Sloane Ellingford, Molly, Samantha Steiner, Elayna Knowles

We took a group photo before we headed home and it made me feel so grateful to be where we are.  Look at all these amazing girls who all come from amazing homes.  I just kept thinking that I was so happy to know that Molly will be growing up with these girls, and I saw girls camps and young women's activities that they can go to together and, hopefully, be a support to each other as they get older.  I was feeling very much that Heavenly Father has led us to a good place to be for our family.  (Now having said that, our ward was just split and that group of girls will shrink considerably.  Molly will still have some great girls in her group, just not as many.)

Back row: Lydia Fredericks, Sophie Riddle, Kianna Tuttle, Camree Wood, Holland Springer, Samantha Steiner, Elayna Knowles, Mahala Speredon, Lily Chappell, Avery North. Front row: Pallas Andersen, Sydney Cottrell, Mia Grant, Gwen Weekes, Brooke Turman, Sloane Ellingford, Berkley Dahlin, Molly

An old friend from Spanish Fork, Shirley Boynton, arranged for another get together with the two of us, Amera Jarvis, and Ali Thomas.  They all lived right in a row in SF and I lived further up the street but we were close enough friends anyway.  Molly, Jade Boynton, and Emma Thomas were the besties.  We met at Amera's house in American Fork and let the kids play for a while while the moms caught up on life.  I haven't seen any of them for a couple of years and it's crazy how much kids can grow up so fast!

Shirley has 6 kids, Ali has 5, I have 4, and Amera has 3.  That equaled 18 kids!

Brynn, Avery Boynton, Molly, Ivy, Jade Boynton, Lia Boynton, McCoy Jarvis, Emma Thomas, Wells Thomas, Clark Thomas, Porter Boynton, Claire Thomas, Phoebe Thomas, Palavi Jarvis, Bailey Boynton, Ember Boynton, Liam Jarvis, Stockton

Jade, Emma, Molly

Megan, Shirley, Amera, Ali

 We talked Brett into coming and staying for a couple of days and helping Justin build a fireplace around the firepit.  Justin had to go to work on Friday so the kids got Brett all to themselves.  He was a nice uncle and did whatever they wanted him to.

playing chess

getting a head start on the firepit

 Ivy showing off her freshly painted fingernails.

Molly wanted to make galaxy jars so we found a tutorial and got the supplies.  She had her friend from soccer over and they helped all the kids on the street make one.  They made a giant mess but look at those happy faces!

Easton Anderson, Stockton, Corbin Anderson, Kennedy Bethers, Brynn, Kylie Bishop, Molly

 We set up a day to go back to the lake with the Steiner's from our ward.  We had heard that Jordanelle had brought in a load of sand over the winter to make a nice beach area so we decided to try it.  It was nice, at least as nice as a lake beach can be.

 

 

 Justin injured himself golfing.  He tore/strained a muscle in his pecs and had some inflammed cartilage in between some of his ribs up there too.  He had to wear a sling and most things hurt for a while.  It's about six weeks after the injury and he is back to normal and sneezing (which was the worst for him) isn't even too bad.

Jeff and Ali had tickets for a concert at Deer Valley for them and their two oldest boys.  They asked it I would watch Seth and Lucy for them and then they stayed over night, went to church with us, and stayed for Sunday dinner.  We loved having them!  The kids get along great.  Gavin and Molly actually have a lot in common and play together so well and Stockton, Grant, and Brynn spent the afternoon making up magic tricks with whatever we had around the house.

this was one of the magic tricks

Gavin and Molly-the two Harry Potter fans

Grant, Stockton, Brynn

 Molly wanted to go visit the BYU Museum of Art so we took an afternoon to go and do that.  I think Molly liked it the most.  My favorite part was the basement of the museum where there were photos of a small town at the turn of the century.  I am fascinated by what life would have been like way back then.

Molly's favorite piece of art was called "Descent from the Cross."  I didn't get a photo of the painting but I loved the description from the artist.

We didn't spend a ton of time at the art museum and still had time to kill before we needed to get home so we were also able to visit the Bean Museum.  The art museum was neat to visit for a change, but the Bean Museum is more popular with my kids.

 

 We finally got around to putting the sprinklers under the tramp.  Ivy and Brynn were the only two who wanted to get wet.

Molly and Stockton both decided that they wanted to use some of the money they had been saving to buy magic kits.  Thanks to Amazon two-day shipping, they had them quickly and many hours were spent polishing their tricks and giving magic shows to family and friends.  It actually ended up being great timing because they were starting to get a little bored in the afternoon and this was something to fill their time.

Molly and Lydia Fredericks

 

my mom and dad were up to watch Molly play soccer and came over after for a short visit

Brynn wanted to buy something too but I didn't think a magic kit would be right for her yet, she probably needs to get a little older and a little bit better at reading.  So we settled on a make-up kit, something she has been wanting for a long time.  I maybe regretted letting her buy that after I saw her do her makeup every single day.  I found out quickly that the best way to get it off was with baby oil.

Molly was able to see her good friend (another one from SF), Rebecca Greer, for just a couple of hours one day as they were driving through Heber to visit family.  Molly had a soccer game so our visit wasn't quite as long as either of them would have liked.  They live in Texas now and only visit every other year or so.  You can see that Rebecca has had a growth spurt...she is way taller than Molly!

Molly's team played in the Park City Cup.  All of her games were here in Heber.  They played three games-they lost by a lot the first game, lost the second game but it was close, and won the third game-thanks to Molly's goal.  Molly's best game was the second one.  She played with so much confidence and aggression.  She is a smart player and good player but she sometimes lacks in both of those areas and I love when she's on like that.  She said she just pretended that she was playing in the backyard with a bunch of other kids and boys.  We said she needed to play like that every time and not allow herself to become intimidated.

she is in the white, #10

hard to tell who's who, but Molly is the white jersey in the middle taking a shot on goal

 One of our ward members had their sewer and water pipes break so Justin was over helping them out.  The city gave them a whole bunch of sand to fix it and they were left with so much left over.  So they gave it to us and we were able to make a sandbox for the kids out by the swings.  We weren't sure we wanted a sandbox but when you're given a whole bunch of sand for free, what else can you do with it?  It took Justin about half a day to build the box and fill it with sand and it has been so fun, especially for Ivy.

Brynn and Stockton enjoyed the sand even before it was put in the box!

Stockton and Brynn rigged up this sled-behind-the-bike contraption.  Stockton could pull Ivy but not Brynn so Justin took a break from working to give Brynn a ride. 

Some family fun around the campfire.  We were supposed to do a family bike ride this night but Justin got home a little late so we roasted marshmallows and relaxed in the yard and it was just as fun.