Summertime!!

Okay, so I'm finally blogging again. I always wait too long and then my posts are huge, so bear with me. I need to get better at keeping up.

The summer has been great. We started it by going up north the weekend after school got out. We spent some time with Tim's side of the family as we celebrated our nephew's high school graduation. We also had a family reunion with my side of the family to say goodbye to my mom. She entered the MTC on May 31st. She's serving as an employment specialist in Vancouver, Canada. Then on my Birthday we went to Lagoon with my sister Kristine and her family and my sister Camille. It was a blast. What a great day!

The following weekend Tim, Ashlee, Taylor and I had a great time at our ward's Youth Conference. We went to a cabin in Pine Valley and enjoyed great food and fun activities. Tim and I don't currently work with the youth, but we went so that Taylor could go. Tim worked really hard helping will all of the amazing dutch oven food. I was a leader of one of the groups. We were "Moroni's Army". We had challenges against the three other groups, and we all wrote and performed skits about our Book of Mormon hero. It was a great couple of days. Lindsey and Breanna had fun playing with their cousins while we were gone.

We've gone to Zion National Park several times this summer. We hiked the River Walk, Weeping Rock, and Emerald Pools. No matter how many times we go, I'm always completely blown away by the amazing beauty of the red canyon walls. We've enjoyed cookouts up Cedar Canyon as well. We feel very blessed to live with so much beauty around us.

Tim was able to hike The Narrows in Zion Canyon. He went with my brother-in-law Brad and two of his boys and a few others from their ward (it was a scout hike). It was a two-day hike through a river. He had fun and took some amazingly beautiful pictures.

Ashlee attended her first Girl's Camp this summer. She had a blast. It was hard to have her gone for four days. She's growing up way too fast!

At the end of June my new little great-niece was born. (Wow. That makes me sound really, really OLD!) My niece Shaelynn and her husband Jason had their first baby. They named her Kyrie Noel. She is absolutely adorable and we can't get enough of her! Good thing she lives down the street and is in our ward!

Ashlee attended summer band for about a month after school got out. She plays the clarinet. Their concert at the end was amazing. Hard to believe they are Middle School students! She got to march in the 4th and 24th of July parades with the band. Breanna and Lindsey were in the 24th of July parade as well. They were dressed as pioneers and rode on our ward's "handcart" float. They had a lot of fun.

We've had a few visitors this summer as well. Tim's parents came from Nebraska in May. They stayed for several days. We had a great time visiting with them, and of course we took them to Zion National Park and then had dinner at the In and Out in St. George. Last month Tim's brother stopped by for an hour or so on his way home from business in St. George. It was fun get to visit with him for a little bit. Then one morning we got a surprise phone call from Ashlee's kindergarten teacher who was in our ward in Blythe. She was in town and wanted to stop by and say hi. It was so fun to see her for the first time in 4 years and to catch up on how our friends are doing in Blythe. This weekend we also had my friend Michal and her sister Sarajan here. They came down to see plays at the Shakespeare festival. It was fun to visit with them here and there in between their plays. Michal will be coming back next weekend as well. We're going to see the play "Pride and Prejudice" as well as a performance of Broadway songs by some of the Shakespeare Festival actors. She's generously taking me as a belated birthday gift. I can hardly wait!

The rest of the summer was spent mostly here at home, enjoying our time together as a family. We went to some of the PTA-sponsored movies, enjoyed free movies in the park, went to the Green Show for the Shakespeare festival, played at the new little lake here in town, went to Discovery park, and had barbeques with the neighbors and my sister's family. The kids also played with friends and had a few sleepovers with their cousins. They saved up their money and the pooled it together to buy the new Harry Potter Lego game for the WII. They've had a great time playing it the last few weeks.

Last night the kids convinced Tim and I to play "sardines". We turned off the lights in the house and wore glow-in-the-dark bracelets Michal had given the kids. One person would hide and then the rest of us would try to find him or her. Once we found the hidden person we would hide with them until everyone was all hiding together. The last one to find everyone would be "it" for the next round. There was a major lightening storm going on outside, which made it more interesting and maybe a little more scary. We searched in teams of 2 for the most part so the younger ones wouldn't be scared. (I have to admit I preferred the team method as well!) It was a lot of fun. Then we sat out on the front porch and watched Mother Nature's light show. It was pretty amazing. Even Taylor sat there with us and watched it, which is a miracle because thunder and lightning usually scare him.

So, there is the summer in a nutshell. I can't believe how fast it flew by! Now with very mixed feelings we are getting ready for school to start in just a week and a half.