summer

Rabbit. (Just have to say that at the beginning of every month. It brings good luck after all…Dave’s family tradition:) Let’s celebrate that good luck coming in September (HOW IN THE WORLD IS IT SEPTEMBER!?) and wrap up Bear Lake. After the annual reunion (back HERE), we always like to…

Hi! This is Claire and I had the opportunity to live in the Netherlands for a month this last summer. My Month in The Netherlands I had really mixed emotions going into this opportunity. I knew it was coming, (all my older siblings have lived abroad for part of their…

…and Amsterdam… Let’s go back to when Max, Lu and I left Nationals in Las Vegas (all about that HERE), to join the crew in Coronado (Dave stayed with Claire to finish up and they joined us a couple days later). We drove through some pretty hefty holiday traffic but…

I am feeling my dear mother’s pain with summer schedule coordination this summer. Phew! She is always coordinating and situating and trying to figure out the details when we meet up together in the summers, and it takes a lot of work with a family of nine kids! So each…

Summer Ideas for Kids I, for one, am SO EXCITED that summer is here. (As long as I try not to think about the fact that it means my kids are one year older.). I just love that the summer is OURS. No one bossing around our schedule. But I…

I’m still trying to post about Bear Lake before Fall hits in full force. (Not sure what “Fall hitting” really means here in the desert because it’s so dang hot until the end of October I swear, but actually this week it kinda feels like fall because it got cloudy…

Warning:  There are a lot of pictures in this post.  And a large percentage of them are jellyfish.  And part of the story is a little serendipitous (and crazy) which is just what we were looking for on this road trip 😉  Despite the large number of pictures though, included…

For years I’ve been dreaming of driving the coast of California.  So much beauty there!  It’s been beckoning me to come explore.  I’ve always thought it would be such a great way to spend an anniversary or drive with my sisters or girlfriends “some day.”   Well, this year I…

This summer we spent a big chunk of time in California. When you live in the desert you’ll do anything to try to beat the heat, and California is the perfect spot to do that. It is not, however, a great spot to beat the traffic.  This was our map…

School went ahead and wrapped up in the desert nice and early (May 19th).  I’m mad about how early it gets out because that means we start way too early (August 3rd…ouch!) but that’s a post for another day.   Today I’m just talking about those last few days because…