The beginning of July found us in Utah for the BBS Conference.

We were so excited that it was in the West this time around, and that although most of the time it was just the three of us:

…Claire and my parents and Utah siblings joined us for different parts and we loved sharing it all with them.  It was Lucy’s first time accompanying us and I think she really enjoyed being there, among so many kids who are so much like her.

Lots more about that conference back HERE.

En route to get up to the lake after that, I stopped by my friend’s house, were, out of the blue, Dave’s cousin was pulling up at the exact same time, also visiting from out of town:

How’s that for good timing? 

(Dave’s cousin is married to Maureen’s cousin, because you know, it’s a small, small world!)

We stayed downtown for a couple days, and got a good close-up view of this beauty:

We were doing our walk to try to get in Lucy’s last miles before NYC. 

(She was trying to get ten miles in ten days before we left.)
Got exactly a mile in:

Go us! 🙂

I got to see some of my college girls:

(Wrote about that and my brunch with my high school friends, and Maureen who came up to Bear Lake with us back HERE.)

We tried to infiltrate art love into the girls bones with these beauties:

Lots about that exhibit and our visit there over HERE.

We carried on our Lagoon tradition too.

…with our Utah cousins we love.

 (more on that back HERE.)

We ate at my favorite restaurant in Provo:

 (Itto sushi…soooo good, the “romeo and juliet” is my favorite!)

We switched up our traditional 4th of July ritual in Coronado (because of the proximity to the BBS conference) to go here:

…to see this:

(Stadium of Fire…back HERE.)

Dave and Grace had to get back to work, but the little girls and I slept over with Aunt Carol Lynn after that…love that good woman!

Bo Jangles came to Utah with us. 

We got her a dog-sitter (rover.com is pretty great) while we were at the conference and for the 4th of July, and we were all pretty excited to pick her up that morning.  We stopped at the capital and ran with her and basked in her cute-ness.

Then Claire and Bo headed up to Bear Lake with cousins, and Lu and I met up with Max for our big adventure in New York City.

I loved that this was Lucy’s book of choice on the airplane:

For real.  She had her nose in that book for at least half of the flight.  It is a GOOD book btw.  So many ideas for motherhood let alone grandmotherhood.  Get it HERE if you want to check it out.

I had a grand time following these two around that city I love:

(ALL about that trip back HERE for part 1, and HERE for part 2.)

Lucy’s book of choice en route home?

Yep, you guessed it.

 She’s going to be a great grandmother one day.  Or she’ll whip me in shape to be one 🙂

We got home to scatter to different spots…Max back to the lake, me to meet up with high school friends and load up on food for the reunion at Costco and then up to the lake, but after a few days we were all reunited once again.

(all about pre-reunion Bear Lake back HERE.)

And then it was time for the reunion to begin.  This is how Claire felt about that:

 All kinds of reunion stuff in this giant-long post back HERE.

My nephews manned some awesome “sunset sails” for romance for whichever couples took them up on it.  Since my “romance partner” had to go back to the desert, I watched from the shore…it was gorgeous!

After the reunion was MFME on the other side of the lake.  Here’s our stop after our hike for shakes:

(Much more about that and those women I love back HERE.)

THEN, Grace headed off to the Dominican Republic…all on her lonesome (until she met up with all those “strangers” in her group who quickly became dear friends).  She was scared to death at the airport, but when I got this picture on the Instagram thing they do, I knew she’d be A-OK:

She came back GLOWING after having the most amazing time of her whole life.

Meanwhile back at the lake the little girls and I worked hard on summer goals:

…went to Bloomington Lake:

 …and soaked up all that beauty with all our might:

(All post-reunion stuff is back HERE.)
…and a trip to visit this beauty-place is back in that post as well:

We drove through Provo en route home and got to see these guys:

And then drove and drove and drove endless miles to get HOME! 

Lucy worked on organizing her closet:

 (HERE)

Claire made it back for her much anticipated freshman orientation:

 Lucy wrote some pretty sweet thank you notes:

I love her!
Dave and I left those two little girls with Lucy’s beloved gymnastics teacher and snuck off real quick to California to wrap up our summer freedom:

 We happened to run into our good friend from our China days on our same flight…

So we went to visit them at “their beach” (three arch bay) one afternoon.

 Love these guys so much.  They really were our heroes in China…helped us with SO MUCH!

Dave had always wanted to show me this place so we headed out to a special dinner one night.

And talk, talk, talk, talked for three days straight.  Loved it so much.

Got back in time to see the teacher lists with these darling girls:

…and have our house start to get filled with the newest high school FRESHMAN…

…taking advantage of the last couple nights of summer freedom.

And that’s how we wrapped up July.  Waiting with great anticipation for Grace to get back, Elle loving live in Jerusalem, Max coaching volleyball camps up at BYU, and being so grateful for HOME.

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6 Comments

  1. Beautiful post! I enjoy hearing about all your fun excursions and family gatherings. We just returned from Bear Lake where we had a glorious time! I’m curious do your parents still rent out their home? VRBO?

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