We raced back from New York City at the beginning of June to get this girl back for summer school. 2015-06-11 iPhone 110480
She took her first high school semester with a bunch of friends and I think even she would claim that she loved it.
My nephew is going on a mission in July.  He’s the fourth to go on Dave’s side and I’m so grateful for these amazing examples that Max has to look up to.  Dave and I got to go with him and any other family members that could make it for his first visit to the temple.  I loved being able to share that with him.  He is going to be a fabulous missionary.2015-06-02 iPhone 110853
Not sure what these guys are laughing at, but I love this.2015-06-10 iPhone 110462
My sweet friend found an injured little baby bird she is taking care of.  These girls thought they had died and gone to Heaven when they got to go hold and feed it.
2015-06-10 iPhone 110471

2015-06-10 iPhone 1104762015-06-10 iPhone 1104782015-06-10 iPhone 110477

2015-06-12 iPhone 110498
Loved Lucy’s note to her Braille teacher up there…

And Claire’s darling cousins she adores and got to hang out with a bunch in June:2015-06-12 summer 110648
One of them is super good at doing hair…2015-06-12 iPhone 110499
Dave and some friends ran a half marathon.  Wish I could have been there to cheer them all on, but at least someone took a picture for me 🙂2015-06-13 iPhone 110504
So proud of all of them.

I am pretty sure Dave’s beard helped him speed along that course.

June was the “month of friends” for Lucy.  She played and played like nobody’s business. I took this picture after Dave judged their dance competition and they all won a piece of licorice.2015-06-08 summer 110641
She was also the one to work her tail off most on her summer goals.  (She’s trying to earn money for a new Lego set she’s dying for and has really caught the vision of those checkmarks.)2015-06-13 iPhone 110508
She read a whole slew of books:2015-06-13 iPhone 110505
Her nightstand always looks like this:2015-06-04 iPhone 110365

She loved Shiloh
and Mr. Popper’s Penguins
best so far.
2015-06-19 iPhone 111094
(We watched Mr. Popper’s Penguins together after the reading the book, NOT the same!)

Practiced tying her shoes every day:2015-06-26 iPhone 111309
Rode her bike every day:2015-06-17 iPhone 111005
So fun to ride along-side her.  She’s to the point where she can sing and carry on conversations as she leads the way.2015-06-17 iPhone 1110072015-06-26 iPhone 111274
Max had a birthday that I wrote about back here and here, but forgot to add the family celebration along with Nana, who’s birthday was close to Max’s:2015-06-07 iPhone 1104122015-06-07 iPhone 110414
This is how our family birthday celebrations look:2015-06-07 iPhone 110417
I need to post the recipe for our favorite birthday cake that is usually served some time soon.

Dave grew a beard, then cut part of it off.2015-06-15 iPhone 110919
…and then a little more:2015-06-15 iPhone 110921
Wish he would have kept that for more than five minutes.  Ha!

We all missed Elle a bunch:2015-06-15 iPhone 110926
Max works really hard at a machine shop and comes home looking like a chimney-sweep every day.2015-06-16 iPhone 110940
Had to get a close-up of those clothes:2015-06-16 iPhone 110939
His boss was laughing because he says other workers will come out of places looking totally fine and then Max will come out looking like that.  I guess he’s working hard!

Maybe part of it is that the air conditioning is broken in Jenna (our car) ever since Elle crashed the front of it, so he commutes 40 minutes in and out broiling in the 115 degree heat.

That kid is learning a bundle.2015-06-02 iPhone 110343
Someone sent us this picture from India to show us our names are still there at Rising Star.  Makes me want to go back! (our trip there is back HERE)2015-06-17 iPhone 110977

Dave and Max took off to a volleyball tournament in California (in preparation for Nationals).  They got to do a little serious preparation for the tournament here:2015-06-18 iPhone 111087
Ha!

Dave let me in on some of the action through Facetime:2015-06-20 iPhone 111141
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Meanwhile the girls and I had some pretty great quality time.  So weird to be down to these three kids at home:2015-06-12 iPhone 110492
Claire’s friend and her mom set up a Mom/Daughter lunch date:2015-06-05 iPhone 110863

We braved the isles of IKEA:2015-06-11 iPhone 110483
…and thought of Elle…2015-06-11 iPhone 110482

My friend Claudia and I took our little girls to the childrens’ museum:2015-06-18 iPhone 1110212015-06-18 iPhone 111016
Hadn’t been there forever and these two hadn’t seen each other forever either!

We also met up with our friends who used to live on our same street and moved to a different town a couple years ago.  We miss them!2015-06-19 iPhone 1110972015-06-19 iPhone 111102
Rachel and I went antique shopping and she found this bad boy:2015-06-19 iPhone 111115
Isn’t that the coolest? 

We met up for lunch with Claudia in her neck of the woods:2015-06-19 iPhone 111120
And somehow I got duped into a sleepover with these darling fake-sleepers.2015-06-19 iPhone 111131

Grace and I had a pre-birthday pedicure:2015-06-20 iPhone 111147
Another little mother/daughter lunch date:2015-06-26 iPhone 1112812015-06-26 iPhone 111284
Yes, it was some good girl time I tell you!

For Father’s Day in church we did “Mystery Dad” for the third year in a row.  The kids loved it.  I called a few dads ahead and hid them behind here:2015-06-21 iPhone 111152
The kids took turns coming up to ask them questions which they answered in disguised voices.  2015-06-21 iPhone 111153
The kids were enthralled.  When they guessed a particular dad right, we brought him out and sung him his favorite Primary song.

If the kids sung it well enough, we cut his tie right off (the secretly wore old ties and pretended they didn’t want them cut).

This was the most tame cut one.2015-06-21 iPhone 111154
Our Father’s Day post is back HERE, but I didn’t include our little gift to Dave.  He has always been so diligent to keep track of the kids’ heights as they have grown.  He wrote them on a door at our old house which we had to paint when we left.  We wrote down all the heights but never transferred them to anything at our new house.

So we finally got busy making Dave a height ruler.2015-06-21 iPhone 111159
Luckily my brother was around to help me out after the sanding and painting.2015-06-21 iPhone 111160
Now to get numbers and names transferred over to that thing…2015-06-21 iPhone 111166
Claire took a little cheer camp class and had the time of her life.2015-06-23 iPhone 111179
2015-06-26 summer 1112532015-06-26 summer 111255

Here she is with her sweet teachers who set this up this whole camp:2015-06-26 summer 111256
We did a little after-school bag/locker/folder clean-out.2015-06-26 summer 111352
Claire was obviously enthralled…see her curled up sleeping on the tile floor up there?2015-06-26 summer 111353
After getting exasperated by so many dishes throughout the day I “gave” Claire and Lu each their own sink.

They got to make sure there were no dishes in it and shine it up a few times a day in exchange for hearts on their goal charts.  Lucy fell in love with her own sink and took such great care of that thing day after day!2015-06-27 iPhone 111316
She took that ownership very seriously.

Cousins and pizza-making:2015-06-05 iPhone 110864
Love this dear friend of Lu’s:2015-06-26 iPhone 111272
She supported her so sweetly through her whole dive team dealio.2015-06-03 iPhone 1108562015-06-10 summer 110644
She had the cutest teachers too.2015-06-10 summer 110645
That girl tried so hard but could never quite get it.  So proud of her for trying and having that experience.

She also took swim lessons that she was pretty proud of 🙂
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Claire did dive team too (the super early class) and fell in love with it.

She especially loved the synchronized diving at the end.

Dave and I went out to sushi for our 20th anniversary the day before the big day which we used to celebrate Grace’s birthday (back HERE).2015-06-22 iPhone 111178
I know, complicated, but oh boy I sure love that man I married twenty years ago.

Here’s what we did on the big day:2015-06-23 iPhone 111187
We were laughing so hard at that picture because Grace got a new waterproof case for her phone (here
) which aided her and Claire to be pretty true-to-form in this pic…her the teenager into the phone and Claire just having the time of her life.

My aunt and uncle surprised us being in town one day and we were so excited to have them for dinner.
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My kids are really getting into the beauty of the sky.  Grace swiped my camera to capture this darkening beauty one night:
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And Claire called me back in a hustle one night to witness this beauty with her in the back yard:
2015-06-24 summer 111244

Ok I know there’s stuff I’m forgetting but boy, June was a great month for the books.

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8 Comments

  1. I read your blog and think it is great how many family stories you have documented and that you have so many full family pictures which I think a lot of people struggle to get. Do you use your camera phone a lot or do you pull out your DSLR? Do you end up printing a lot?

  2. Hi, I've always wondered why your older kids go to Summer School. Is it common in Arizona? Is it because of Seminary? Always looking for tips to help my High School kids.

  3. I really look forward to each of your posts. Even ones like these that are just snapshots of what you're up to – they are full of good ideas and remind me to enjoy my family. I had to smile at the height ruler you guys made for Dave. My husband is 5'6" and I'm 5'4" – pretty sure we wouldn't ever need the 7' on ours. 🙂

  4. It was a delightful coincidence to see two of my beautiful granddaughters in your photos of diving and cheer camp. I knew they knew your girls, but that was a surprise! I love your blog and your sweet family, even though I've not met you personally.

  5. Please show some more pictures of the inside of your new home and how you've decorated it. I hate to say it but the few shots I've seen look very white and sterile. Is that how you intended it? The shot of Grace standing in your kitchen – first thing I thought was that it looks just like my office break room. Not bad, but not warm and inviting….

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