Laurie, Natalie and Emma Come to Town; Hiking Adam's Canyon; Mark and Michelle's Family Come to Town

Natalie has a big goal in life. She wants to be a cheerleader. Not just any cheerleader. She wants to be a BYU cheerleader.

With that goal in mind, she was ecstatic when her parents signed her up for a 3-day BYU cheer camp this summer. Since she is only 12-years-old, they decided not to have her stay on campus. That meant more time with her here with us!! Laurie and Emma came with her to keep her company.

Before camp began, we planned some fun family activities. First up--hiking!

The three girls from Texas were not quite sure they wanted to go hiking. But then we all decided if Eli and Carson could do it, surely it would not be too difficult for the rest of us.

Sarah felt like Ben blended right in with the woodsy scenery with his Grizzly Adams beard. How appropriate since we were hiking in Adams Canyon right off Highway 89 in Layton.

Beautiful view of the valley as we climbed higher up the trail.

Eli sure had a lot of energy on this stretch of the trail. 

Carson and Eli are always the happiest when they are throwing rocks in water. The decision was made for Jeff and the boys to stay playing at the river while the rest of us walked on to see what else we could see on the trail.

Look at that little Emma take off leading the pack! She had bounds of energy and amazed us with her spunk and determination to hike all the way to the waterfall at the end of the trail.

Sarah was also amazing at her stamina carrying baby Lincoln as she trekked along. Some parts of the trail were pretty scary with not very sure footing.

This was a landmark we happened to miss on our way back down the trail. Somehow we didn't notice the bridge and walked right past it and after a while realized we were seeing things we hadn't seen on the way up. Then we had to find a place to cross the river to get back on the right trail. Sheesh!!

Well here we are at the first waterfall. If someone hadn't told us there were two waterfalls, we would never have known there was more to hike. Sarah stopped here to nurse the baby. Laurie, Natalie and I decided we had hiked far enough. We stayed to keep Sarah company.

Emma, on the other hand, was eager to hike on to the top with Glen and Ben. I told them to take a picture to show us what we missed. This is the big waterfall.

Congrats to the brave souls who made it all the way to the top.

 After all that hiking, everyone was starved and ready for an In-N-Out lunch.

Mark and Michelle's family came to town and joined us that evening for dinner and a sleepover. 

There were so many birthdays we needed to acknowledge that we just decided to put a candle in every child's dessert and some of the adults who needed recognition and have a gigantic happy birthday celebration.

Kate, Emma, Natalie and Nina had so much fun playing and having a sleepover party together in the basement. Too bad they were only here for one night before moving on to Michelle's family reunion the rest of the time. We missed Hailey who had stayed back in Yakima to work.

Natalie is holding Robin--Kaelyn's baby girl.

Emma was having fun holding Lincoln.

Laurie had to get in some baby holding time as well.

It had been a full, fun-filled Saturday!!!

Summery Summary

Just couldn't resist using the title to this post because it is a complete copy from Sarah who copied it from Rebecca. A great title should be shared--right?!?

I went through a big spring cleaning phase a few weeks ago. Who cares that it's summer? When the urge to spring clean hits, you gotta go with it--no matter what the season. I moved all the furniture out of the living room and family room and let the carpet cleaners do their thing in the whole entire house.

Since there were ripples in the carpet upstairs, I called in a carpet stretcher to take care of that problem a few days later. Too bad I didn't get him there sooner before I got everything back in place only to have to move it all out once again.

With the carpets clean, I was propelled to clean the blinds and wash the windows. Some sick bird somehow managed to bomb our front window with bird droppings. Ewww!! Disgusting!!

The cleaning has extended to the basement storage room when I noticed what looked like fresh drippings on the CD player. Upon closer inspection I discovered an expired can of mandarin oranges was the culprit--sporting some disgusting black moldy stuff where the can had been leaking.

Another ewww!! Disgusting!! Just a few days earlier Amanda had been telling us about what she found in her parents' food storage while they were serving a 2-year mission. She ended up cleaning up the mess of expired cans of beans and cans of evaporated milk exploding and leaking all over.

So glad I caught this in the early stages of leakage before all the cans exploded...!!!

I got a new calling--Sunbeam teacher. Here are the little "future missionary" darlings.

Well look at this motley crew in the prairie dog stand at the Bountiful Handcart Days celebration on the 24th of July. 

Working right along side us was Winnie Rohde, a true pioneer descendant who is related to Glen through a mutual polygamous great-great grandfather. Abraham Hunsaker was the first bishop of Honeyville and served in that calling for 25 years. A marker sits outside the Honeyville church building listing all his wives and his many children.

I accompanied my neighbor in sacrament meeting when she sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives." It is such a beautiful hymn anyway, but this particular arrangement is absolutely stunning. People not only comment to the soloist whenever this is sung, but I also get lots of comments as the accompanist.

After watching this 8-page shrunken-down, taped-together ribbon of music blow right off the piano a few minutes before we were to perform, I was in a mini panic wondering if it would blow away during the performance. The AC tickled the edges of the paper several times while I was playing, but fortunately it did not get blown completely away.

Sheesh!! It's nerve-racking enough playing the challenging music in front of a congregation without having to worry about losing the music.

Our dentist is located about a mile from Sarah's house, so whenever I have an appointment, we schedule to hook up for lunch. I got the biggest kick out of her response when I checked to see if she was still planning to get together.

I am happy to report I was cavity free!!

We usually plan for me to stop by somewhere to pick up some food for us and then take it to Sarah's house to eat it.

Today she suggested we take the food to a fun park they had just discovered. Sounded great to me and we enjoyed our meal outside in the delightfully comfortable weather.

For all the hype about how great the park is--and it was a fantastic, kid-friendly place with lots of fun things for the kids to do and climb upon--we looked over and saw Carson sprawled out on a picnic bench enjoying a little rest and relaxation.

What a beautiful day to play at the park!!

Quotes of the Week

"Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will be many fruits, here in this world and the life to come." 

 -- Henri Nouwen 

"Mistakes are the best teachers. One does not learn from success. It is desirable to learn vicariously from other people's failures, but it gets much more firmly seared in when they are your own." 

-- Mohnish Pabrai 

"The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher." 

 -- Elbert Hubbard 

"The brain gives the heart its sight. The heart gives the brain its vision." 

 -- Rob Kall 

Quotes of the Week

"Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow." 

 -- Swedish Proverb 

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud." 

 -- Maya Angelou 

"Either do it or don't do it. No more wishy-washy, half-hearted attempts. Either say 'no' to achievement or dig in and get to the bottom of the persistent incongruence between what you say and what you do." 

 -- Dan Kennedy

 "If life is no fun, it is because you are no fun. Your life is always a reflection of who you are... Try this: Stop taking things, including yourself, so seriously. Life is not as complicated as you have made it out to be." 

-- Larry Winget