Back at home

 When we got home from TX, we had some GIANT zucchinis in our garden.  Our neighbor had been watering for us.

It was depressing to come back from being able to swim and hang out with family in TX to our "boring" home and not hanging out with anyone.  Savannah did start hanging out a little bit with our neighbor, who has a small pool.   

We had some fun family lesson nights.  The one pictured above is when we were talking about Samuel the Lamanite, who preached from a wall, and was protected from the stones and arrows thrown at him.  Some of us took turns "preaching" while getting pegged by Cheerios.  There were Cheerios all over the floor by the end of it! 

Texas Vacation

We got in the car and headed to TX the end of June to spend a few weeks with family.  We stayed with my parents, but also got to spend time with my sisters Audrey and Ashley.  I never like the long drive, but we did have an extra driver this time.  Nathan has his driver's permit! And despite the drive, it was worth it to be able to get out of the house and see family.  We had a great time! 

We took Kai with us - she was a bit of a problem.  She quickly figured out how to push the door open to the room she was in and come in the main part of the house (she wasn't allowed in the house).  It took a few tries to contain her to her cage, which had to be attached to something else.  She also figured out how to push the cage over.  She stayed in the weight room at night and the air conditioned shop during the day (since the cat sleeps in there at night).  We did run into one bit of drama one morning when the cat was still in the shop (even though the door was open).  I didn't realize the cat was in there and put the dog in there.  She started barking and I quickly found out I shut the dog in with the cat!  Oops.  We threw Kai in the pool a couple of times, but she didn't like it.  She was pretty bored the whole time, but she did go on some runs in the morning, wishing she could chase the wildlife.    

We spent a lot of time in the pool.  Weston and Savannah learned how to swim while we were there.  We also played games, watched movies, put together a puzzle, did a coloring night and cornhole, puppet show (by Savannah), pool table, video games, Legos, and the kids rode wiggle cars down the long driveway.  We still went running most mornings and enjoyed watching the deer come right up to the house.  

We went to Sam and Audrey's for 4th of July - lots of yummy food.  (I made french toast for breakfast, frog eyed salad for dinner, and Alex made apple pie.)  Audrey and Sam did the colorful spread and the BBQ chicken.  I took some pictures of the food, but not much of the people, so I didn't even get a picture of Sam and Audrey or Ashley and Daniel.  At least Ashley took one of Alex and me and some of the kids.  Daniel's sister and her family were there too.  Their girls did the face painting.  The little kids had fun on the trampoline with the dinosaur sprinkler.    

We also got to go boating on Sam and Audrey's boat - it was a blast, especially watching Nathan, Jaden, and Jared hang on as we tried to make them fall off the tube!  Weston, Owen, and Eli also had a pretty good ride too - Weston is the one with his legs all the way up in the air.  He was holding on tight, but his legs popped up in the air. Audrey and some of the kids jumped off a cliff at the lake.  It was so hot out, so the water felt really good.     

One of my favorite things was doing church with all of us a couple of Sundays.  I really felt the spirit as we gathered together for the sacrament and shared talks and songs.  Nathan and Jaden blessed the sacrament and Owen passed it.  Ashley, Alex, Sam, and my mom gave talks.  Audrey and Sam sang a beautiful musical number "Jesus Lover of my Soul", and Eli, Noah and Mason sang "I Will Be What I Believe".  Savannah and Owen sang "I Will Walk with Jesus", and I sang "It is Well with my Soul" and shared the background to the song - about a family that lost their business in the Chicago fire and then lost their daughters in a shipwreck.  They were still able to find peace and go on to find greater purpose in their life.     

I prepared the dough and ingredients for homemade pizza one Sunday.  I think we made 10 pizzas!  It's quite a production for 20 people.  We did some other dinners too - taco salad, roast and potatoes, chicken salad sandwiches, and some other yummy food.  

We celebrated Weston's 10th birthday.  He opened some presents, went swimming, watched a movie, and got his requested meals on his actual birthday.  He wanted apple pie for dessert.  He loved his new Lego set, kindle, and stuffed piggy.  

We had a pool party later in the week for Weston and Hailey (who turned 11).  Audrey and Sam decorated the pool with weighted balloons and set up an outdoor movie.  It was so fun watching a poolside movie (most of the kids were actually in the water).  Sam also brought a steak just for Weston (which Weston wanted, but I didn't want to do steak for everyone).  The rest of us had hamburgers and hotdogs.  I made the cakes - a bulldog for Weston and flowers for Hailey (paper flowers, since I'm not good at frosting flowers).   Weston was really excited to open the present from Sam and Audrey - a pizza box with lots of "dough" in it.  His expression was priceless.       

It was hard to leave and come back home after all our fun times - loved being with family!

Father's Day and such

We had a nice Father's Day - lots of yummy food and home church.  

Alex found a new summer hobby - making apple pie (and drying fruit).  He made several pies to give away and tried to make the dried fruit faster than Savannah ate it.  We also started getting A LOT of green beans from the garden.  Nathan, Jared, Alex, and our neighbor replaced a portion of our fence.  Nathan and Jared got some practice mixing concrete.  They all did a good job on the fence. 
 

A couple of beach days

Last day of school

We survived the rest of the school year and the zoom meetings.  They each had a small ceremony on-line to celebrate the last day of school.  Weston's teacher gave everyone a couple of awards for his class.  He got Mr. Cooperative and Mathlete.  It's unfortunate the kids missed the last part of the year, but we all adapted and made it through.  I'm not sure how much learning took place, but we were consistent about the meetings and work.  

  

14 years old

We obviously had a very low key birthday for Jared this year.  We didn't do any drive by celebrating, although it was tempting to have the first "drive-by shooting" with water guns birthday celebration.  I decided somebody might be offended by the idea, and it might just be embarrassing for Jared.  We just did our little family celebration.  Jared's main present was a nicer phone (although not that nice, just better than what he had before).  It was a little interesting shopping for the phone, since we couldn't actually go in the store and browse.  We had to find what we wanted online and then sit outside the store while they got our order.  We basically just got him the same phone we got Nathan a couple years ago (Jared has the newer version).  But we knew Nathan's phone worked decently, so we just went with the same one.  Now Jared can receive text messages with photos or emoji's.  Those wouldn't go through on his other phone. He also has a little bit of data now.   

I made his requested meals - German pancakes, bacon, and eggs for breakfast, scalloped potatoes, ham, and green beans for dinner, and chocolate cake and Dr. Pepper floats for dessert.  He chose to watch Return of the Jedi.    

I was in the middle of going through the last 10 years of photos for an anniversary book, so I was seeing all these old photos of the kids.  I decided to put together some then and now collages of Jared.  They're pretty cool.  

Family backpacking trip

The weather was hot one week in April - it got up to 90° - and we don't have A/C in our home, so we decided to take a quick family backpacking trip to escape the heat.  It was cooler in the mountains, so we packed up some stuff and headed off.  Campgrounds were closed, but the wilderness area was open.  The trail we went on really only had a couple of spots to put up tents.  One of them was taken, so we came back a little ways and got the 2nd spot.  It was only about 3.5 miles round trip, which was about right for Weston, Savannah, and me.  It was our first ever family backpacking trip, and everyone did well.  I didn't sleep very well between Owen and Savannah and with no pillow.  My air pillow wouldn't hold air.  We still had a good time though.  The kids played in the creek in the morning.  We saw 2 rattlesnakes as we were packing up our things.  We saw a mouse the night before.  I wonder if the mice come for the food scraps and the snakes come to eat the mice?  At least the snake rattled at us, so we knew it was there.  We were only about 6 feet away (socially distanced!), so it was pretty close and it was hard to see in the grass.  I think I could do some more of these short backpacking trips.  It wasn't too strenuous. 

This was Alex's favorite thing we did during quarantine.  And it's the only time we've left the house as a whole family during this time (aside from playing kickball at the school).