August little things

I went and met Lucy at the bus stop with the air conditioning blasting since it was so hot…fun to meet up with these girls sparkling with so many stories to tell:

Meanwhile Grace was off building a school:

…and making friends with people who {warning, dramatic here, but true} changed her life in so many ways as well as her perspective.  She had an amazing time and I can’t wait for her to write a post about it here when I can sweet-talk her into it.

I didn’t get to talk to her or communicate in any way for a full two and a half weeks and I missed that girl so much!  It was so fun to finally get to FaceTime her on one of her layovers en route home:

Meanwhile over in the Holy Land Elle was living up her last week back at the Center after having spent a couple weeks at the Sea of Galilee:

(more about that experience HERE)

Meanwhile up in Provo Max was in the midst of a coaching opportunity at a few of the BYU volleyball camps.  It was so fun to hear from so many friends that their kids had run into Max at those camps…I wish I could have been a fly on the wall watching him!  One of the afternoons he ran into some of his friends from TAIWAN:

Then…Grace arrived home:

…with so many stories and adventures to spill out, and a non-stop smile that in all actuality is still going strong.  Love it.

This is a funny “out take” picture from a video when she was reunited with her best friends right when we got back to the house:

There was some pretty good excitement going on…

(More about her arrival home back HERE.)

That same weekend we had Lego house-building competitions with Lucy’s friends:

…and Claire’s second and last summer volleyball game:

(She had played the first game and then got word that they could fit her in for her little hernia surgery, and then we were at Bear Lake…so she missed a lot, but it was fun to get her in there when we could!)

Claire happened to be watching some photo challenge show online and got all excited because there, right where the guy was running to take pictures, was her little cousin Dean hanging in Central Park.

I guess he’s famous now 🙂

We had Father’s Blessings on Sunday:

Followed by some Sunday games…

Lucy’s vision teacher, her assistant, Lucy and I went and did a 6th grade Braille and vision loss (as well as BBS) informational stations in each of the 6th grade classes:

(It was a good, and tiring day!  All the details about that back HERE.)

Claire and what seemed like the majority of her friends all attended the Student Council election meeting:

(along with Grace who was there for moral support for student council)

High school parent night under monsoon skies:

I have the best assignment in church right now in my opinion.  I get to work with the Activity Day girls (10 and 11-year-olds) twice a month.  I wrote a little about this back HERE, and have lots more to say, but here’s one activity we did in August:

Such great little artists…they made “prayer rocks” or “kindness rocks”…you can put one under your pillow to help you remember to pray at night, or you can do a kind service and leave it as a little gift.  One of our girls offered to teach and be in charge, and she did such a great job!

Claire came home triumphant after making the volleyball team:

It was a pretty joyous accomplishment, but tinged with some sorrow woven in because one of her good friends who is a great volleyball player didn’t make it.  Man, that was a sad one. (more on volleyball back HERE)

Grace got asked to homecoming:

And we are all pretty hyped up about that (it’s coming up this weekend…more HERE).

We got the privilege of going out to dinner one night with Dave’s sister and her husband.

They gave us a “night out on them” for Christmas and literally it has taken us this long to get to it with our different schedules.  Love them so much and it was so fun to get to catch up after all the summer hoopla…especially since they had just sent one of their twin boys off on his mission.  And the other twin was heading up to college for a semester before he heads out on his own mission.  And there’s a LOT to talk about when it comes to that kind of crazy bitter/sweet stuff!

Speaking of missions, a bunch of Elle’s friends were coming home from their missions right and left.

Fun to be in on all the celebrations for so many of those kids…airports and open houses and homecoming talks at church.  Here’s one of the open houses where we got to see our other good friends who were in town:

(She is a good friend and Grace is really good friends with her daughter who wasn’t there so of course we had to take a picture for her 🙂

This is my shadow:

24-7.

Love this high school duo:

On to the freshman vice president campaign:

…that ended in a sad loss but some great learning experiences (more about that back HERE).

There was something very funny going on when we were settling in for prayers one night:

I cannot remember what, but these girls were laughing their guts out and there’s something beautiful about a good belly laugh right before bed.

Grace and her friends went to a concert and had “the best night ever”:

Yeah, she likes it. 

Here she is at the first football game:

Oh man, high school is fun.

And a lot of work too.  Here she is doing homework with her little “moral support” partner one night:

Elle arrived home from Jerusalem.  The whole group landed in Utah where she stayed for a couple days to see friends up there…and most importantly: her big brother:

My parents took them out to lunch to get the scoop on that Jerusalem and college life adventure.

I wish I had pictures of other ones…there were some wing-dingers.

One day when I was picking up the volleyball girls I noticed this beautiful shadow and had to get out of the car to take a picture. 

Of course, i couldn’t capture it in all it’s full glory with my phone, but it made my heart stop with thinking about how beautiful this world we get to live in is!

We did swim/extra jobs one Saturday:

Claire had to make that grill shine like the top of the Chrysler Building.  And she did.

Good girl, Claire.

I don’t know why I have this picture, but I guess it symbolizes how many times we make Ocean Pancakes:

Oh, I think that morning we made them because look who finally arrived home:

Pretty fun to have her home for a few days…and to gather with cousins too:

And another friend’s son got married.  Here we are at the night-before celebration:

Then we met up with Max in California…ALL SEVEN OF US TOGETHER for a few days and it was a little piece of Heaven I tell you!

We all felt like this:

(Lucy wanted to try to capture it on her iPod.)

Gathered with cousins one more time with Max there this time around:

Snuck off with those two (and a couple cousins) one day for some boating too.

…and a little movie date with our boy:

Elle got to be there for the first game of the season:

We held our first inaugural book club for this school year and discussed The Shell Seekers:

(more thoughts on that book HERE)

Elle left little gifts for everyone for Jerusalem on each bed when she left us to get back to her Hawaiian island:

Got rejuvenated thinking about technology and how we’re managing it at this little conference:

Took Lu on a little date for for the school fundraiser:

Organized Legos like nobody’s business:

More games…

…this time with big sister Grace cheering her on:

That’s a wrap for August. 

And now there are Christmas ornaments at Target. 

Life is moving way too quickly.