Believe it or not my son was playing more basketball! This time his school team participated in a tournament through the CU camp. I love that campus and the venues he got to play in. 🏀
Guess who loves the dog park again after all this time? We have lots of different paths to go on walks near our home but Maisie has chosen to hang out at the local dog park a couple mornings recently. But I still don’t trust her around other dogs so we only go if no one else is there. 😆
When was the last time all 6 of us when to the movies together? Maybe before Covid? But How to Train Your Dragon got us all the theater and it was so good! Thank you, DreamWorks and Universal, for staying true to the story we adore and helping us make new memories. ♥️
Guess who went to her first ever sleep away camp! We signed Natalie up for the Avid 4 Adventure all girls multi sport camp in Steamboat Springs and she had such a great time. She received the “Most Likely to be Good at Cooking in Harsh Conditions” award for helping prepare a meal in strong winds — strong enough to blow the lid off the pot with corn on the cob in it and Natalie had to go chasing after the lid. Their “harsh conditions” also meant paddle boarding had to be postponed to another day (they went liking instead) and one of the tents even tore! Luckily it was only like that the first part of the week and they were able to do everything they planned, including going white water rafting where we went a couple years ago during our family reunion. When Natalie recognized the place some of the family went cliff jumping she was told they were no longer allowed to do that because someone got hurt. Made me feel a little better about not jumping when I had the chance and grateful our family was all ok. What was the first thing Natalie wanted to do when she got home? Take a shower and sleep in her own bed. ⛺️
Happy Father’s Day to my favorites! My parents came over to see Michelle’s pictures and hear stories from her trip and then have dinner and root beer floats with us. It was simple but great to be together and praise these wonderful dads. ☝️
The day after Father’s Day Michelle began her first job! She will be working for the county helping with their open spaces. Their first day was training, 2nd day was restoring frog habitat, 3rd day was removing barbed wire fences and her 4th day was Juneteenth so she had the day off work. The county hired 100 teenagers and divided them into work teams. Michelle was lucky enough to be in the same group with one of her friends from the Waldorf school. They were thrilled and have gotten to work together even even their team gets split into smaller groups. Their first full week they got to remove an artificial canal and plant over 1,000 plants in places she recognized like a campground we have camped at before and near the mall south of us. She is making friends and coming home with stories, a tan, and pride in doing new, difficult things that are contributing to her community. I think she is going to love this job. 🐸
About an hour after dropping Michelle off at her 1st day of work, Kate and I headed to Utah to go to her cousin’s wedding reception. Hubby and Michelle needed to stay in town for work and Danny opted to stay home and pick up Michelle from her job every afternoon. That drivers license is coming in handy already. Kate and I were so happy to see family. My in-laws are the best. And we got to meet cute little family members too. It was so cute to see little preschool cousins running around together as part of a new generation. Plus C & K are so cute together we are so happy for them. And I got to eat lunch with my friend, M! It was so great to hear about how well their move has turned out for them. 👰♀️ 🤵♂️
Believe it or not, the same day we got back from Utah, Kate headed off to Nebraska with her friend, EO, to go camping at Lake McConaughy. She has a goal to visit all 50 states so now she can scratch one more off her map. They camped for 3 nights with highs around 100 and I was very impressed they didn’t come home early with heat like that! She enjoyed her week off work and is back to her job on the farm. I’m so proud of how she is learning new things and being so good about getting herself to work on time. ☀️
Update on Maisie: her being in a kennel was going well but she has decided to start barking at 4:30 or 5am instead of the desired 6am. At first I thought it was the longer hours of sunlight near the summer solstice but then she started barking at 3am and I knew that wasn’t it. She doesn’t need to pee or need a drink. She just wants to be in my bed. Ugggg. Good thing she is cute and soft and sweet and gets me out walking. Here is a picture of her very happy that Natalie came with us and had us walk 2 miles instead of the usual one mile. 🐶
Speaking of Natalie, she decided to get her ears pierced and Michelle came with us to do so. I know you’re supposed to go to a tattoo parlor if you really want it done right but this Claire’s is where Michelle got hers done years ago so sentimentality won this round. They turned out great and we even found Natalie a great zip up hoodie for only $10 and Michelle a cute pair of short alls at Cotton On that she wore to do yard work at my parents house the next day. Yes, Saturday morning found Hubby and Danny using the power washer to clean out their gutters and Michelle, Natalie, and I pulling weeds and chopping suckers from the bottom of trees. With 5 of us there it didn’t take long! 🌳
Summer school is now over so some of us coworkers got together to celebrate whether we worked the program or not (I did not). It was fun to see them again and hear their stories from the first month of summer. When I ordered my frozen mocktail one of my coworkers even double checked to make sure the waitress heard the word virgin. She’s got my back. 🍹
P.S. Last year I had a goal to read/listen to 50 books and enjoyed doing that so this year I have a goal to read 75 books. Since we are about half way done with 2025 already, I got on Pinterest to see how I'm doing. I just finished book number 45 yesterday (thanks to a softball lesson and finally getting the snow tires off at Costco, putting together a puzzle, etc.)! So far this year I've really enjoyed The Women by Kristin Hannah (of course) and The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (and was so happy that a BYU friend of mine got to take his family to Jeju Island this summer). Funny how both have the word "women" in the title. I finally read books I've been meaning to read for years like Anne of Green Gables and A Court of Thorns and Roses. I can see why those books have fans but I didn't care for them enough to read the books that came after. I must admit that at this point in time I like my rom-coms to keep headline news balanced with joy. I've also been reading more fiction than usual lately. So if you have any nonfiction recommendations, please send them my way! 📚
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