Back to School for the Majority

(Assorted days in August)

August is almost over and most people are back at school. I was the first one back, considering my job, but Daisy was the day after me since she did 10th grade day. Pearl and Ivory followed closely behind. June is not scheduled to start at BYU until the 5th of September. (Lucky duck) And Beau...well, she is taking a year off, but not really intentionally. The program she is looking into opens registration in October...for the following Fall. So Beau has a bit of free time to work and save money. Huzzah!

But everyone likes to take a picture and fill out the favorites. So here you get the group. Nice to have them all back. We'll go youngest to oldest again. 

Pearl is loving Junior High. She does lots of sports and has made tons of friends. She is outgoing and bubbly and a joy to be around.

Daisy is in High School. That one blows my mind. She tells me it is loads better than Junior High. I'll take her word for it. The question is...will the braces come off this school year?

Ivory is ruling the school as a Senior. She has a great schedule, loves her classes, has extra time for her friends (since she didn't overload her schedule) and I think it will be a great year for her.

Beau is living in an apartment with lots of roommates. She barely moved, so who knows if they are keepers? She might go to school and take some night classes this year, but employment is top of the list right now. Know anyone who is hiring?

June starts BYU in just a few short days. She too will live away from home. We'll miss her, but we are used to seeing her less. She is super excited for her classes and working at the MTC. You can see her official tag is on. From one tag to the next. 

Crazy how time flies and we wrap around to the next year so quickly. I love each of these kiddos so much. They are all great people and I'm so proud of each one of them.

Pearl's 13 Year Old Gallery

(July 27th, 2023)

One of my favorite posts coming at cha. The photo shoots are so fun. I believe I am caught up again since I did Daisy's on her birthday. So yes...Pearl's was out of order, but she is still just as cute a few months after her birthday as she was back in March. (I must say, it is super helpful that the girls are getting older and I don't have to do birthday shoots for everyone.) Oh, Pearl's 13 now. Did I mention that? Only teenagers left. And one lonely adult. Sorry June, you've moved on.

Pearl is a delight to have in our family. She is funny, smart, kind, and the best caboose a mom could ask for. She is my bud and I hope she still likes me in a couple years when it's just her and the padres in the house. Meanwhile, we had a blast taking her pictures. Take a gander.

We were out at a park in the canyon. There were literally hundreds of grasshoppers around. Pearl kept stopping to catch them and I kept having to tell her to put them down and hold still for a photo. She caught several while we were there. And at one point, she walked down a path and dozens of hoppers were jumping out of her path. It was sort of magical...if you like grasshoppers.

On our way back home, we stopped to get a treat. Stephanie introduced me to the Lemon Berry Cream Slush at Sonic. It isn't on the menu, but they'll make it for you and it's super delicious. Try it sometime.

Bear Lake 2023

(July 29th, 2023)

You should know by now that Bear Lake is a given. It is going to happen sometime during the summer. It might be only one day (and usually is) but it wouldn't be summer without it. This year we had to wait for June to come home, since she missed last year. Then, to make it more exciting, we invited the Hulse's to come with us. It was such a blast.

Since we do it all in one day, we get up early to make the most of our time. Some people are more awake than others. Can you see Daisy snoozing in the back?

The drive was pretty good. We listened to music the whole way up since June was missing her jams. We made good time and got to North Beach pretty early. This is where we learned that the beach was already full for the day. I guess you can make reservations online. This was news to me. So they had enough reservations to fill the beach throughout the day and that didn't include us. Oops. Luckily, East Beach is not far away and they were still taking patrons who were unfortunate enough not to know about the reservations. 

East beach was fantastic though. There is a grassy area and we set up base camp right away. We get better each year at knowing what to bring. The pop up tent is essential and chairs and a table are great for snacks and seating.

  

The Hulse's brought jet skis which I assume were really fun but I never rode one since I played Spikeball almost the entire time. It was so fun. We went out to about mid-calf depth, brought our floating set, and had a blast.

Everyone did their own thing and had a great time. People sunbathed, played in the sand, jet-skied, played on paddleboards, ran across the VERY HOT sand, ate snacks, played games, and sunburned. The Hulse's are quite fair and they got the worst of it. (Please note that Ivory found what I think are Mentos on the ground and decorated her sand art with them. Um..yuck.)

I started taking photos trying to catch everyone, but only made it through the people that were nearby. So...here is half the group. 

We played all day. It was stupendous. As we were packing up around 7, we noticed a large group of people in a queue headed out into the water. 

It only took us a few minutes to figure out it was a baptism. That is pretty cool. I've never seen a baptism in a lake before. That is commitment from the guests. 

Last stop on the way out was Zips. It's tradition. Shakes and dinner. And the Blue Clothing Company is quickly becoming a hit too. Last year it was hats. This year we got shorts. (Also, I'm pretty sure I tried to take a picture of our group at dinner and probably missed pushing the button. Classic Maleen.)

Bear Lake has some of my favorite memories. I hope we continue to go every year for a long while. 

p.s. Apologies to Maggie, who didn't make ANY of the pictures, and Beth, who barely made one. Technically Beau too, but it's hard to take pictures of someone who wasn't there. Beau sadly had to work. :(

Mission Report

(July 23rd, 2023)

Name that song:

Creature report, creature report, creature report. 
She's done with her mission. Family at ease until the next adventure.

It is tradition for missionaries to speak in church after they return from their mission. Usually people are invited to come hear and maybe share a snack or two at their house afterward. We did a version of that, having family over before church for lunch and friends over after for treats.

We actually had a loaves and fishes moment. Tyler and I didn't communicate very well. I had all the treats ready for after church and he asked what we were making for lunch for the family. Oops. I didn't realize they were coming over to eat before. Tyler pulled me aside and said that we needed to go to the store to get stuff. I tutted and said, "We can't shop on Sunday. We'll make do with what we have." Then we delved into the fridge and found enough fixins to make quesadillas. It worked out great and it was nice to have that time with family. 

It's a pretty good looking group.

Also something missionaries do that I wasn't aware of, is to report in front of the High Council at 6:30 in the morning. June was joined by the the twins who just got back as well. I may have been absent from this meeting. Parents are invited but I need my beauty sleep. These kiddos look great though.

After church it was so fun to see lots of familiar faces as friends came by to say hi to June. Weirdly, we only took pictures of our dog. Can you believe how big Bastion is?

The same evening, we went to see the Moving Old Testament Tabernacle. The younger girls were volunteering to help out. They stood in certain sections and read information off cards about what happened in the tabernacle. It was very informative and pretty cool. (Well, it was actually really hot outside, but you know what I mean.) We took some selfies at the tabernacle backdrop. 

It was a great day, seeing family and listening to June's report. Her talk was really great and it was fun to hear about some of her mission. Lucky for us, we'll get to hear many stories for years to come.