Welcome home! And see ya in 2!

This weekend, we made a quick trip to Idaho Falls to welcome Carson home from his mission and to wish Travis good luck as he leaves on his. Crazy! Stan & Kristi haven't had all their family together for more than a couple weeks at a time in 4+ years. Yet, these boys are doing good things and are growing in ways that will help them for the rest of their lives. When I say it was a quick trip, I wasn't lying. We got up Saturday (August 26th) morning and were home by dinner time on Sunday (August 27th)...and everything in between was a blur of chaos, loud volumes, and lots of food. We loved hanging out at Stan's house with variety of active amenities his home has to offer. If we weren't eating or attending the events we went for (e.g., Travis going through the temple for the first time and their joint homecoming/farewell talks in church), everyone was usually downstairs in the racquetball room or jumping on the indoor trampoline. We did take time to eat and (of course) grab some ice cream at Reed's Dairy. I love family! To me, there is nothing better than getting together with siblings and watching our kids interact. I love nurturing those relationships...and I'm so lucky to have married into such an awesome family. Life is simply better lived when lived together!

Back to School: 3rd grade

I can't tell you how many times over the past summer that Jeff and I have been so grateful for Jonas! If it wasn't for him, we would be empty nesters and completely unsure of what to do with ourselves. Thankfully, we have another 10 years before that happens! Today Jonas started the 3rd grade. He has vacillated between being excited and utterly dreading it. Haha! I guess that's normal. In those random spare moments over the summer, we did a little back-to-school shopping for a new backpack, a new outfit, and some new shoes. Yesterday, we went to the school to meet his teacher. He has at least two of his good friends in his class (although he's sad that Madden and Winston aren't in his class) and actually gets to sit by one of them. I love that he still wanted me to sign up for all the ways to help out in the class. I know those days will come to an end someday. After meeting his teacher, we grabbed Jeff and went out to dinner. Jonas loves the Magelby's in Springville. That evening, he laid out his clothes for the next day with a little more excitement than dread. This morning, more excitement ebbed from him as he took the obligatory first-day pics. I am excited for him. I hope this is another fun year of school. He is such a good kid and a good student. I can't wait to witness what 3rd grade will bring!

Flaming Gorge 2023

Is summer over yet? It has been the busiest and craziest summer yet! We had things going on every weekend since the end of April - minus 3 weekends!! That's all! We loved all the events, activities, vacations, etc., but it did hit a point at the end of July where I literally had to scream because I was feeling a little stressed (ok...maybe more than just a little). I think what added to the stress was that many of those events or vacations I was hosting (or played a big role in making happen). This weekend was no different...but it was one I was looking forward to. (Plus, this isn't my first Flaming Gorge rodeo so the prep work was easier.) I love my little (yet ever growing) family, and I love making memories with them. I loved that the weather (afternoon showers) forced us to slow things down a bit. I loved the random quiet moments where I could just soak in the gorgeous scenery around me. I loved hearing the laughter and witnessing the little milestones (e.g., Jonas caught his first fish and saw his first shooting stars). I loved the experience of new adventures (e.g., paddle boarding down the river, Carter surfing with Casey). And, yes, a part of me loved that I knew this was the last weekend of summer. We made our way to Flaming Gorge on Thursday, August 10th. We had a couple hours to take the boat out before grabbing dinner and settling in for the night. Friday was our first full day on the water... the river! I always love our river days. I love that it's a slower pace. There's no engine noises. No loud music. No throttling the boat, etc. Just a simple float down the river with a few fun rapids. This year, as mentioned before, some of the kids decided to use paddle boards. We still had one large raft and one kayak, but I think next year we'll bag the kayak altogether. We found a few places to jump off the rocks, Jonas and I took our traditional picture by the waterfall, did a little fishing, and floated down the river twice. 

Saturday (August 12th) was spent on the other body of water - the lake. Like I mentioned before, this year we had some active thunderstorms move in around mid-afternoon both days. Still, we made the best with the time we had. The boys cliff jumped (and yes, Dallin even jumped from the bridge! The water level was so high this year that it was possible.), Jacob helped Jonas learn to fish which resulted in Jonas catching one!, Jacob and Dallin tried to roll a few rocks, we saw some twin owls, and of course, we surfed and tubed. It was a full day of fun! (Just as a side note: I forgot to mention that Casey's sister, Syera, joined us for the weekend too.) 

Naturally, we didn't just have fun on the water. We enjoyed evenings of playing games, tossing a frisbee around, cooking up delicious meals (plus the fish Jacob and Jonas caught), and simply hanging out.  (The first pic is of us cramming into the bed of the truck to avoid getting doused by the rain as we headed back to camp after being on the lake). The last evening we were there, Jonas, Jeff, and I stayed up a little later to witness the Perseid Meteor Shower. It was so awesome! In the half hour we were lounged in the back of the boat (by our camp trailer since we'd pulled the boat out of the water), we saw at least a dozen shooting stars between the 3 of us. It was the perfect way to cap off the end of summer...or so I thought...

Our real ending was a story of miracles! On the way home, one of the tires on the boat trailer sheered off two of the bolts, jiggled loose the lug nuts, and flew off the trailer! Dallin was driving the dump truck pulling the trailer and Carter was inside (he wanted to drive in the dump truck so Laurin consented for Dallin to drive him down the hill to Vernal). Miracle one: Dallin said he didn't even feel the trailer struggling. It didn't fish tail or cause them to lose control of the truck. Miracle two: no one else on the road was hurt. There were motorcyclists that had passed before the tire flew off. Another driver saw the tire bounce off the road and actually stopped to retrieve it! Miracle three: Dallin and Jeff were able to clean up the remaining bolts and rob lug nuts off the other tires to put the tire back on and safely drive the rest of the way home. Miracle four: we didn't even know another miracle was in play until we got home to fix the tire and realized the springs were literally falling off too! Jeff said that the axle should have broken. I couldn't help but tear up with each acknowledged miracle. I'm sure there were others that went unacknowledged. I am so incredibly grateful for a Father in Heaven who is so concerned about me to intricately weave this little miracles into place. This was our true perfect ending!