Paul came to Arizona and called me up to see if I could hang out with him and Emily and we decided to turn it into a party! We had all the local cousins come over and we ate dinner, caught up, played games and laughed till it hurt! It was short, but it certainly filled my cup!
This year we headed over to the Varvels house for BBQ, swim, games and fireworks! Katy came with us and Eli and his friend were supposed to come with us and then Eli found out he had to work 30 minutes before we left so sadly, we missed him. Still a great time celebrating America's birthday! (Emma and Hunter spent it up in Island Park, ID with his family!)
I've been thinking in my mind I wanted to do a bathroom slat wall, but just kept the thoughts in my head....but now that the wedding is over and I have a small break before some big young women things come up....I am thinking it's time for a little mental break and for me....that's creating something. So I shared my thoughts outloud with Jared and of course I got the eye roll and sigh that bug me so bad...but I also know he loves me so much he is going to support me in my crazy ideas....I told him about it Monday night, Tuesday we were calling wood places, Tuesday afternoon we were buy wood, Wednesday I painted, but Thursday we stained and hung it all up! I tried to help Jared put the slats on the wall....but he wouldn't let me....I only got to hold the air gun for him - ha ha!
Eli and his friends were so dedicated this school year to get up at 5:45am one day a week and go do baptisms at the temple. The Nielsons would always buy them McDonalds breakfast afterwards and then it became Eric's amazing breakfast burritos! Loved that these kids always went! Emma and her brothers were able to sneak in one last baptism trip together before she got married! Then we took our boys and Clate to do baptisms...we called it Buzz, Bleach and Baptims! Jared and I have been able to go a couple of times this summer as well after we took Emma through, we've been able to go while some other youth we love are going through for the first time! No better place we can all be than serving in the House of the Lord!
June has been filled with Summer Basketball! They had practice Monday - Thursday night! They were either with their club team or the school team! Then every weekend in June was basketball tournaments for 2 days! The boys are loving it! We are so glad it's an indoor sport so we don't have to sit outside and sweat! And it's been great watching them do so good and grow so much!
Eli finally got to join the "cool" club and become one of those people who goes to Lake Powell for the week! He had the BEST time! He spent 7 days wake surfing, wake boarding, throwing boudlers off of mountains, paddleboard yoga, survived a HUGE hail storm, etc. He thought the boat dock reminded him of the movie "Quiet Place". We threatened him if he came back sunburned he would be in big trouble and it wasn't the other moms job to remind him - he was a good boy about it! So grateful he got to go with Jackson and Tanner to do this!
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