June - birthday month. First comes Neta. She's wanted to go swimming again, and take friends, so we scheduled a birthday swim party for June 8. On Friday the 7th, we had a cookout birthday with Dunahees, Aults, Patience and grandparents. Thankfully the soggy weather that has become part of June held off for both events. I put out the slip-n-slide (got an additional one as the old one ripped)
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| A sign the YW leaders put in the front yard |
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| Neta & Myya Dunahee (Logan Ault in the background) |
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| OOHHH! New Socks |
June 8 - Pool Party. Party was supposed to start at one, but we didn't leave the house until 1:30 as we waited for two people. Finally, Neta's best friend from Little Flower showed up and we headed to Brookside Park Pool, which I had read on their website, would be open by now. NOPE! There was some staff meeting in the attached pavilion but they didn't open until the 15th.
Thankfully Ellenberger was open and thankfully, again, it was cooler outside so the pool wasn't very crowded and the girls could have fun.
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| Neta with her friends for church & school |
They didn't want to swim the whole two hours we had planned so we went home and they played games, had ice cream cake and opened presents.
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| UNO Attack & girl talk |
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| Time for ice cream cake |
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Ice cream sandwich cake
has become a favorite |
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| Neta with her friend from LF, Halyn |
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| Life long friend, Natalie Robinson |
I think Neta enjoyed herself and I hope her friends did. I'm a fairly low-key party planner, letting the kids kind of make their own fun with minimal planning.
JUNE 20 - Aurora turns 18! Can't believe I have two adults!
Aurora does such a good job of celebrating other people's birthdays that I wanted to do something special for her. I coordinated with some of her friends and some family members to drop things off at work for her. I was first with a small bag with a balloon tied to it. I dropped it off before going into work and I think I was Danielle I met and she seemed excited to hear about the birthday visits. Not everything was a visit, I had something in her car when she got there in the morning and dad put something in her car after dropping something off to her. Everything should have been 18 items total.
Sadly, the only picture I have is from the end of the day when she got to sit down and we lit some candles and a video before the cake got turned around. 81 never looked so good. :)
We love you Aurora!!
JUNE 21 - 23, which almost became the 24th. Xela scheduled her endowment at the Denver Colorado Temple for Saturday June 22, so I started looking for flights in late May. Finally selected a flight in early June; Eric and I headed out Friday June 21. Trevor's mom Lisa picked us up at the airport because Trevor, Xela and Brandrea (brother & sister-in-law) were driving together and arriving later. It was good to visit with and get to know her a little better as we drove home and then helped prep dinner for when the crew arrived.
After dinner Lisa, Eric, Xela, Trevor and I visited some potential reception sites near Castle Rock. The kids finally decided on the stake center because 1 - it was free, 2 - has an outdoor pavillion where they could bring a fire pit to do smores and 3 - has an included backup plan. Box checked.
Saturday morning, Xela's endowment was scheduled for 10 am. She had to be there 90 minutes early, so the Ellis and Scott crew arrived 90 minutes early. Eric was Trevor's guide as his dad couldn't be there (previously scheduled scout bike trip) and I was Xela's escort. Xela's guide was a sweetheart. It was good for me to hear the instruction the matron gives the about to be endowed person about different things regarding the ordinance. Served as a reminder of how sacred and important the temple and its covenants are.
The ordinance room was quite small, compared to what I thought it would be, which was a good thing. Made everything more intimate. As I sat, listened and watched, I felt an overwhelming love of God and a confirmation of the absolute love Trevor has for Xela. Tears flowed from my eyes and happiness poured from my heart. It was a good session.
Afterwards we took a LOAD of pictures of Xela and Trevor that could be used as decor for the reception and part of the invitations. Here are just a select few:
After the temple, we headed home for sandwiches and more wedding planning. They've decided on cheesecake for a wedding cake, which is simple and we talked bouquet, boutineers, dress color and invitations. Now that we have a reception location,we just need those two to decide on registry and then we hope to have the invites out in two weeks.
Time's ticking down!
JUNE 28 - The youth from our ward spent three days in Nauvoo, Illinois. Eric and I decided that our kids should stay home and the intent was to have some service activities. My vision of our family's little "youth conference" didn't turn out as hoped, but we did spend a day on Sugar Creek kayaking.
My goal was to spend time together as a family where we could have fun and try to enjoy each other's company. Kayaking was fun, but as with all things that involves my children and spouse, there was also some fighting. We can't seem to go one day without someone being rude or barking back at someone else.
I enjoyed being out of the office and kayaking and I think the kids had some fun and hopefully created some memories. Here are some pictures from our day trip.
PREPPING KAYAKS
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| READY WHEN YOU ARE! |
The sun was bright, the water refreshing and the scenery beautiful!
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We played a game with the ball that Nate brought;
you had to make it into another person's kayak
or be the first person to grab it when that shot missed
(which it usually did) |
We met a shallow part of the creek and for those that didn't kayak around it, they had to walk their kayaks to the slightly deeper section. If you look at the color of the water, you'll notice the kayakable water is a lighter brown than the shallow rocky section.
We stopped under one of the bridges at Turkey Run State Park. Eric went to find cell service to call his parents to come get us (it would take them an hour to get to us and we would finish the creek in the mean time). While waiting for him, we ate some sandwiches and played with the minos. If you held still, they would come up and nibble on your skin, which was very ticklish.
Once we had some empty sandwich bags, the kids used them in attempts to catch some little fishies. Nate and Graigry were both successful. Before using a baggie, Graigry used his swim trunks to catch a couple of fish that swam up them.
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Graigry trying not to move while getting
tickled by little fish |
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| "No, we are not keeping it as a pet." |
We finally got to the pull out and waited for the tour groups to pull their kayaks up the ramp to the load and pick up zone. We eventually got our stuff up and then watched as everyone left. Eric again had to walk about 1/2 mile to find cell service to find out where his parents were so they could pick him up to take him to where the jeep and trailer were so he could drive back to pick us and the kayaks up. Long story short, we pulled out around five something and didn't leave the loading zone until almost seven.
When we were finally loaded and headed up the hill, we discovered that the campground where we were going to spend the night, was just up the hill. Had we known that, we would have just walked the kayaks up the hill instead of hanging out with nothing to do. Oh the memories.
We put up the tent, made a fire, cooked dinner and smores and then headed to bed. Poor Nate had been in a lot of pain after we pulled out, but was being brave. He didn't want to go home with the grandparents, but his arms and chest hurt so bad that it brought him to tears when no one was looking (except Mom). He headed to bed earlier than others in hopes that the pain would go away.
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| DINNER TIME! |
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Graigry brought his hammock
& slept outside |
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| Neta keeping the ill feeling Nate company |
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| Bite.....NOW! |
We slept, had breakfast, showered and then packed up for home.
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| Pancakes for breakfast |
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| Nate left his own fingerprints on his forearm |
Of course, we weren't in the car long before there was complaining. Hopefully there were some long lasting happy memories created, and not memories of complaints. Guess only time will tell.
Overall, it was a great June!
