June

Our summer was shaping up to look a little different.  Molly was gearing up to try out for high school soccer and was attending conditioning workouts three time a week in the morning.  She had also reached out to her boss at the train and was hired to work year round.  Stockton's baseball went through the 4th of July so he was tied up with that-weekly games + twice a week practices.  Brynn started her grueling scheduling of cheer-every Tuesday and Thursday with additional flyer practices on Fridays.  Ivy wasn't very busy other than T-ball twice a week during June.  And then there was my Tuesday piano days.  I usually prefer a more flexible schedule but this wasn't the summer for that with all the kids doing their different things.  I was bothered by it for a day and then I got passed it and realized that I was going to have to make the best of it and fill in where I could.  So, that's what we did!

Justin put the garden signs in the greenhouse.  Ivy helped. 

We wasted no time in getting started on our bucket list.  We went to the skate park one afternoon and all the kids chose different things to do.  Molly had friends meet us there and Stockton brought Kelton Webb along with us.  Kick ball, scooters, tennis, pickleball, soccer tennis, playing at the park, and running through the sprinklers all happened before we had to leave.

Ivy played her first T-ball game that night.  She was so excited!  She was put on the Colorado Rockies team.  She got some "lessons" from Justin the night before so she knew what to do when she got up to bat.  She hit a great first hit but her second hit went over all the other players!  She loved her month of T-ball and looked forward to every game.

I put a lot of things on the bucket list but occasionally one of the kids makes up their own activity.  Ivy did this when she decided she wanted to have a movie marathon.  She worked so hard on it.  She asked everyone their favorite movie, wrote down the titles on pieces of paper, put the papers in a jar, and when it came time to pick a movie, she would draw one.  She polled everyone for their favorite candy as well and I took her to the store to get supplies.  She spent all morning getting it set up and then I let her play the movies. She made movie passes, dressed up, and punched everyone's ticket when they "came in."  I told her that I would just have the movies going and anyone could watch but that they didn't have to stay the entire time and she was okay with that.  We got through a couple of Harry Potter's before people started wandering away.  Then the Anderson's came over to play and that was the end of that.  But Ivy was happy with the day so I'll call it a success!

 

We made it to Lagoon that first Friday in June.  I didn't realize but it was the opening day for summer (they had been open Saturdays and Sundays all spring).  Most of the cousins met us there.  Summer got hot fast this year and it was pushing 100 degrees but the heat didn't bother us.  We did water rides and everything else we could fit in.  So fun to have the passes again this year-we certainly don't tire of Lagoon!

Ivy and Lucy

Brynn, Stockton, Grant, Seth, Gavin, Molly

my mom and I riding a kid ride since Lucy and Ivy wanted to ride with each other

Chloe, Harper, Brynn, Seth, Stockton, Tessa, Grant, Gavin, Molly

Josie, Brynn, Lucy, Ivy, Harper

Ivy, Seth, Ali

Stockton, Grant, Chloe, Harper, Molly, Ivy, Brynn, Gavin, Grandpa, Seth

Stockton, Grant, Jeff, Gavin, Molly

Going to Home Depot with Dad is always a treat.  My three girls love it the most.  It always includes getting a slushie on the way home.  

Our grass came back nicely.  Good thing it's so resilient!  Stockton got a lesson on how to fertilize one day. 

Brynn found our second set of kittens.  These came from Slippers.  She had three and they all look just like her.  They were hidden in the wood pile so we didn't see them until they were quite a bit older-when they are at their cute stage.

 

Since Justin got the chickens, we needed a place to house them.  That meant building a chicken coop.  We actually have this really weird "house on wheels" that we got for free that we are going to turn into the coop but Justin made them a yard that will be attached to it...so they will have inside and outside space.  We had been keeping them in the greenhouse and then in a makeshift cage in the barn so it felt good to get them a legit chicken space.  We will go back and finish the coop in the fall so it's ready for winter.

I actually don't have a picture of the progress of the coop, just this one of Brynn doing cheer moves on top of the ladder.

The kids wanted to have a campfire and roast hot dogs and s'mores so we did that while we finished doing some yard work and building the coop.  Our yard is hours and hours of work with so much we still want to do but it's all worth it when we get to spend a summer night outside.  The kids played a game of trampoline baseball and then had a sleepover on the tramp that night.  That was actually the first of many tramp sleepovers-pretty sure they slept out there 5 out of the next 7 nights.  My instinct was to tell them no but why would I do that when they were so excited to spend time together?  Brynn and Ivy even slept in-past 8 and almost to 9 on two different mornings.   

We got the double decker hammocks hung. This is the best place to read.

 

Justin went to priest quorum camp for a few days.  They went down to Goblin Valley in the 100+ degree heat.  He was excited to spend a few days with his boys but not excited about the heat but one of the other leaders knew some lesser known hikes with water features so it was manageable.  Justin had a great time-he will be so sad when his time with the young men comes to an end.

The kids wanted to go to the lake and we had a free Wednesday afternoon. Justin showed me how to load up the paddleboards on the top of the car and strap them down and I was pleased with myself for being able to do that on my own.  Stockton didn't want to go so it was just the girls and Molly's friend Sadie.  We stayed only for a few hours since I was in charge of the Young Women's activity that night.  Having Ivy paddle me around on the board was extremely entertaining!

 

Molly was disappointed in January when she didn't get hired on the train year round until one of her friends told her to text the boss lady to see if she had any openings.  Molly did and, after she went and observed what a host does, she was hired. So she had that on top of everything else we had going on this summer.  But it's a perfect job for her-she just turns in the days she is available each month and isn't required to work a certain amount of days/shifts.  And she loves the extra spending money (saving money if it was up to me).  They run trains all year and have all different themed trains.  She sent me pictures this day when she was dressed as a paleontologist.

Molly and Sloane Ellingford

 

After her shift that night we picked her up and drove down to Plain City.  For years I have always gone the first or second week of summer to let the kids play with their cousins and swim in Grandma and Grandpa's pool.  This year proved tricky to find a day so I made Brynn miss her first flyers class to go overnight Thursday and spend Friday there.  Brynn and Ivy got to have a sleepover at the Walkers.  Molly and Stockton slept at the Broadbent's so I was on my own at my parent's house.  We had planned nothing but swimming for Friday and that's pretty much what we did!  We stayed for dinner before driving home since we had things going on Saturday.

Brynn, Harper, Ivy, Lucy, Josie

Ivy, Lucy, Molly, Josie

Ivy, Brynn, Josie, Harper, Lucy

Harper, Ivy, Tessa, Molly, Lucy, Brynn

Lucy and Ivy

Ivy was intent on doing a lemonade stand.  I have always tried to discourage them from doing this because we get almost no traffic on our street.  She was not going to be deterred so I helped her get all set up and made lemonade for her.  Ivy and Brynn made signs and sat out on the street for a couple of hours...with no luck.  The only customers they had were me and Stockton (Justin and Molly were both at work).  Ivy was getting very discouraged until she got the idea to set it up on the back deck and include snacks as well.  They were happy doing this and providing their "services" to the family for free.  They had leftover Jolly Ranchers from priest quorum camp and I kept them supplied with lemonade.  They really did make lemonade from lemons that afternoon.

 

Stockton loved whiffle ball this summer.  Any chance he could get anyone to play whiffle ball with him, he did.  We had a family game one night.  He had all the teams planned out and everything.  Pretty sure the winning team was Dad, Molly, and Ivy.   Stockton was bummed with that outcome but he kept playing whiffle ball everyday he could.  Brynn and Ivy were usually willing participants and the Anderson's played a lot of evening games in our yard as well.

My mom and dad came up to watch one of Ivy's T-ball games.  I tried to treat them to shakes at Granny's after but they treated me and the little girls instead.  They bought me dinner as well since I had managed to feed the girls before the game but not myself.  They have the best rocky road shakes so it's easy to talk my mom into a Granny's trip.

 

Brynn wanted to make goal posters so I got a posterboard for everyone and had them do this on a free afternoon.  Molly already had a soccer one that she had spent time on and Stockton didn't want to do one.  But Brynn and Ivy had fun doing it.  If I'm being completely honest, working on the goals with the kids has been overwhelming with everything else we are doing.  I put on their chore list each day to work on one category (if it's a school day) or all categories (if we are home all day and they have more time) and that's what's working for us for now.  At least it keeps it in their mind.

 

The first few weeks of summer were fairly normal, other than the business of the kids different sports and stuff, but I knew that once the middle/end of June came, things would ramp up even more.  I wanted to get in another trip to Lagoon even though no one else in my family was available on the day that worked for us.  So I took Stockton, Brynn, and Ivy for a few hours one day.  (Molly was at soccer camp, more later.)  Brynn and Stockton would go ride a big ride while Ivy and I found something nearby that we could do.  We all rode Rattlesnake Rapids together.  It worked out really well and we had a a lot of fun!  And my prediction proved correct: we didn't have another chance to go to Lagoon for more than a month after that day.

the girls and I on Tilt-a-Whirl while Stockton did Rocket

 

Ivy tells everyone that she loves cleaning.  I guess she has to be in the mood-but it's not too far from the truth.  It's just finding something for her to do that is actually helpful, haha.  Vacuuming the stairs is always a good option.

 

Soap clouds made a come-back, now that I know how to make it not such a mess.  Always a favorite with the little girls, especially if it means they get to put their swimsuits on and play in the water.  We had been planning all day to do it after lunch and then Brynn got invited to a friends house so Ivy decided to do it on her own.

 

Molly went to Snow College soccer camp for one full week in the middle of June.  She was really excited.  I think it mostly fulfilled her {very excited} expectations but there were a couple of bumps in her week.  First, when they first got there and made teams for the week, she got put on the D team, which was the lowest team and not the team she is used to playing with.  That was stressful for her for the first day but she did end up getting moved to her team after that first day.  So it seemed that all was going to be okay.  But, girls being girls and sometimes girls are mean, the consequence of her being moved up meant that another girl got bumped down; unfortunately, it was one of Molly's friends.  Also unfortunately, that girl blamed it on Molly and started to be pretty nasty towards Molly.  Spreading rumors and talking behind her back and such.  Molly was able to find some other friends and the week ending up going well for her but it did put a damper on her summer as far as friends go.  This was a girl she had spent a lot of time with over the last school year so Molly felt like she had no one to hang out with and felt very lonely for the bulk of the summer.  A small thing in the scheme of life, but big to a 14 year old.

Molly's on the left, in the orange jersey

on the left, in the front, making a pose

Brynn really wanted to visit some temples.  I don't leave the Heber Valley for shopping much but I had been wanting to hit up a few stores in Utah County so we combined that trip with visits to the two Provo Temples.  Molly was at work and Stockton wanted to stay home.  I don't blame him.  We hit up Hobby Lobby, got some lunch, then went to Provo City Center first.  They grow beautiful hydrangeas and coleus, along with lots of other flowers.  Very pretty.  Ivy didn't want to leave.

 

I was tired so we cut the day short instead of going to some other places I had wanted to go.  We went to the Provo Temple on the way home.  We walked all the way around it.  We don't usually go around back so that was something special on this trip.  I had a couple bars of soap left so they each were able to make another soap cloud when we got home.

 

Molly got her date with Justin that night.  They went to Global Grill.  Justin had been wanting to try it for a while.  Molly ordered a Thai peanut bowl and loved every bite.  Justin got an Indian dish, I believe.  They both were very pleased with their meal and I love that Molly is willing to try a variety of foods.

 

For Father's Day, I was able to fill in for the Primary pianist.  That also meant that I played for the kids while they sang in sacrament meeting.  I guess I needed to practice the song before I got up to play it!  The girls were willing to sit next to me and sing along that morning.

 

Father's Day-

We had a big family breakfast.  Probably eggs of some sort, bacon, and creamy chocolate milk.  We went to church.  Justin got a back scratch from the girls for a while.  Gene and April came to our house for dinner.  I gave Justin a Criminal T-shirt from his favorite podcast, a Father's Day sign, and a framed picture of him and the kids from last year's Father's Day.  He also got some favorite treats.  He is the best at silly pictures.  I have to beg him to get a normal one but secretly I love the silly ones best.

I went with Brynn to her Activity Day camp at This is the Place.  I was excited because I had never been there before.  We had a fun day walking around learning about pioneers and how they lived.  My favorites were the school house where we learned how to write our names in the Deseret Alphabet (a real thing Brigham Young invented to help immigrants learn English) and getting some Brigham's Donuts.  But it was a good day all around.

Brynn, Chloe Mitchell, Avery Coleman, Carli Steiner

Brielle Loertscher, Brynn, Elise Pulley, Amy Pulley, Capri Perotti, Chloe

Avery and Brynn

Chloe and Brynn

Brynn, Addy Starks, Capri, Carli, Avery

 

More whiffle ball in the yard that night. 

Justin set the trailer up in the driveway so the kids could enjoy it.  Our schedule didn't look like we were actually going to be able to go camping so this was the alternative.  The kids slept out there a few times and played games in there during the day (when it wasn't too hot).

 

Nightly check on the animals.

 

I was called as a Young Women's advisor in January and then also asked to be the assistant camp director.  That meant that I was at Camp for the entire four days with Molly.  I was happy for the opportunity, happy to be there with the girls, and happy when it was over and I was home.  It was a very successful camp-the site was amazing (we ended up having it all to ourselves which wasn't what we had originally planned and ended up being awesome), the girls were great and there was no drama, there were fun activities and plenty of free time, and the other leaders are some of my best friends and examples.  I hadn't been to a Girl's Camp since Molly was a baby in Logan so it was good to be back.  Here are some of my pictures with some explanations. (You can also see that there are way more photos taken at Girl's Camp than priest quorum camp!)

The theme was superheroes and how to be a superhero.  We had some fleece "capes" for each girl and had them stitch around the edges the first afternoon.  They carried them around camp the rest of the week. 

Skit night was the first night.  We had three classes of girls so they each did a skit and the leaders did one as well.  Only at Girl's Camp would I act so silly.  Molly's group did "Moana in 3 minutes" and had us laughing so hard.

Kim Andersen, Michelle Hansen, Rendi Holm, me, Rachel Larsen

Molly, Samantha Steiner, Emma Steinbaugh, Lauren Whimpey, Pallas Andersen

The start of the night hike.  The sun was just setting so we were able to do most of the hike in the dark.

Rachel, Kelsey Larsen, Pallas, Kim Cunningham, Marissa Larsen, Michelle, Lauren, West Ellingford, Emma, Hallie Whimpey, Lily Chappell, Dylan Haggerty, Mahala Speredon, Sam, Elayna Knowles, Paisley Post, Eden Phelps, Sage Bateman, Brooke Turman, Sloane Ellingford, Afton Coleman, Sydney Andersen, Molly, me, Rendi

We were camping in a spot up Lake Creek Canyon in Heber.  About 20-30 minutes away from home.  The view looking back down the valley was gorgeous and we were treated to spectacular sunsets each night. 

Lots of lots of time at the pavilion.  Card games-Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza was a fav, braiding hair, and making bracelets was what most of the girls gravitated towards during the free time.  We had several options for crafts and did those as well but the girls really enjoyed their free time.

Sam, Lauren, Molly, Elayna

Rendi, Elayna, Kim C., me, Shawn Marsing, Kim A., Michelle

Molly, Sloane, Oaklyn Holm

We had the archery course for an hour on Tuesday and I was the leader assigned to be there with the girls.  Other leaders were doing first aid and a rain gutter regata.  Boats were made out of capri sun wrappers.

Molly, Eden, Pallas, Sloane

I loved seeing the friendships formed between the different ages.  The girls were so happy to be together and there was no drama and only kindness.

West (not even 12 yet!) and Molly

Rendi (and Oaklyn) and I snuck down to "our girls'" tent on Wednesday afternoon to play games with them.  These 7 girls are 7 of the best.  We had so much fun playing mafia, talking, and giggling.

Oaklyn, Rendi, me, Lauren, Sloane, Emma, Pallas, Molly

we were missing Sam and Kelsey

Wednesday we had the ropes course/zip line all morning.  Most of the girls stayed close to the zip line.  To get to the zip line, you had to climb up a pole, walk across a tight rope, and then you could zip down.  It was super fun.  We got drenched in the last 15 minutes when the skies opened up and poured down rain.  I spent my time assisting the be-layer so I didn't get many photos.

Molly, Sage, Afton

Eden, Dylan, Afton, Sage, Alivia Andersen, Sydney, Molly, Hallie, Paisley, West, Brooke, Elayna, Lily, Sloane, Oaklyn, Mahala, Emma, Sam, Kelsey, Pallas, Lauren

Michael McLean heard about our theme and decided to write a song centered around superheroes.  He came up for testimony meeting and played it and gave all the girls a copy.  He is very theatrical but at Camp it worked wonderfully.

 

Singing "we can be together forever, someday" in a hug/huddle.  If you've ever been to The Forgotten Carols you know exactly what I'm talking about.  It was sweet.

 

Farewell pictures before heading home.  Looking forward to next year.  I love each of these girls and spending three days in the mountains with them was a blessing.

Kim C., me, Brooke, Sloane, Lauren, Molly, Dylan, Emma, Rendi, Sage, Elayna, Pallas, Afton, Lily, Hallie, Mahala, Paisley, West, Eden, Sam, Kelsey, Marissa, Alivia, Kim A., Sydney

Kelsey, Pallas, Sloane, Molly, Lauren, Emma, Sam

Also love these leaders.  Every calling I've had has put new people in my path and I've been grateful for friendships gained through callings.  I have learned something from each one of these women.

Rachel, me, Kim C., Michelle, Rendi

Kim C., me, Michelle, Rendi, Rachel, Kim A.