Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

Do you ever get so far behind that you're kind of embarrassed to try and catch up? (either that or it could be that I am too LAZY to catch up...) but the piper must be paid (is that a real cliche' or did I get it wrong?) This summer has been eventful, fun, exciting, happy and...BUSY! I had double graduates this year; Lincoln graduated from elementary school and Gage from Kindergarten. I guess that I should feel old to have a NON-ELEMENTARY school age child, or to have one of my babies graduating from kindergarten... but I'm mostly just excited for all of it. (now all those gray hairs that i went to war with this morning... those made me feel old.) It's fun to see them growing and changing.









Young Women's camp was also earlier this summer. I enjoy my girls so much. It's kinda crazy how you can enjoy somebody elses children so immensely. I blogged earlier about having the opportunity to fellowship some girls taking the discussions, and to update on that, one girl has been baptized, one will be tomorrow,and one has a date for later this month. The Gospel is True. (hallelujia!!!) We had an awesome set of leaders for camp, and I had so much fun spending time with the leaders there. (at this point, I will add to any of those leaders reading this post, a disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for any comments, questions, or opinions posted at any point past say... one in the morning. I mean it.) We had tons of spiritual experiences, laughter, and REALLY good food. Some highlights were The "iron rod"experience, testimony meeting, the Zipline (and I still say that was a pretty liberal use of the word trail... Somebody could get lost and hike for like an hour looking for the zipline.... Just like Br.ianna and me.) , Giggling like a girl with 7 leaders squished in a tent, and a testimony meeting that was touching and sweet despite of pouring rain.

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Summer fun includes water, and our little fam loves the river as relief from the heat. Brandi introduced us to a new spot that is completely shady, with sand for the little ones and a rope swing for everyone.

At our house, June means birthdays. Link turned 11 (yikes), and his dad took him and 6 other 11 year olds camping (give the man a medal) unfortunately, there were a lot of boys, but no camera there.
Shaunie turned nine, and had a flip-flop theme birthday party. She had hawiian haystacks, german cake, and decorated flip flops (the girls loved this activity and were actually pretty good at it!)

Lincoln and Shaunie share a birthday and they both share a birthday with another friend, which is really fun!
Gage celebrated his birthday a little later.
He had a dragon themed party, and I made him a (very cool, and I'm totally pleased with my cleverness) Dragon birthday cake. The older two did a treasure hunt (man. am I grateful for older kids!!!)
Golden built a super awesome box for his birthday gift.
I blindfolded Gage and hauled him all around the neighborhood looking for his birthday present. It was so fun!!
After Birthdays was another reason to celebrate: my little brother got Married :) (ps not the brother that just came home from his mission. Different brother.) And to someone that our whole family adores. Welcome to our family, Amber! Zach you are one lucky Duck! Their wedding reception was beautiful and had an Asian-inspired theme. I made the little girls' dresses and my sis made the little boys' ties (I love, love, love to sew!)













The biggest event of our big summer was our big family vacation to the biggest national park in the country. But that will be it's own BIG post!

THE END