I’m having trouble trying to figure out how to post about the rest of our trip, way too many pictures and too much to say. So until I figure that out, let’s talk about Labor Day weekend. Because so much is happening around here I’ll never catch up.
We are currently trying to hang on to every minute we get with Claire as she prepares to start the MTC (Missionary Training Center) a week from yesterday. So it was fun to have her here for Labor day when Lucy is home (that girl loves her big sister like nobody’s business I tell you!).
We kicked off the weekend with a retinal specialist appointment for Lucy in the big city, but we’re not going to dwell on that here. That girl has had so many eye appointments lately. The good thing is that we got to have Claire join us for that, AND this new doctor knew a lot about BBS which is really hopeful.
But let’s start at when Dave met us in the city for a special dinner:
And then a hike to one of our favorite spots to watch the sunset:
On Saturday Dave and I had the opportunity to go to a baseball game with friends.
It was kind of exciting that this guy and his cute family happened to be sitting right next to us:
I don’t know why that picture is such bad quality, but that’s Michael Phelps. And he is so nice.
Meanwhile these girls had a pretty grand evening just the two of them, fitting in all kinds of things including, of course, cards:
Loved church on Sunday, (I am loving “Come Follow Me” studying 1 Corinthians right now), and then we had Dave’s brother and his family for dinner:
I don’t think we’ve ever just had our two families together with so much family around so we adored this evening to be together.
Sure love those guys.
On Monday, as luck would have it, we happened to have tickets to another baseball game.
We hadn’t been to a game in years and here we are, twice in a weekend.
Ice cream…
…and home for dog walking, willing the weather to please cool down…
And a night swim to wrap up the weekend.
In “away kid” news (big news for Elle and Carson!), these two moved to NYC for their FIFTH externship:
Hopefully more about that soon, so excited for those two to spend a couple months in the big apple.
This girl is getting all her cousins going (or maybe they’re getting her going?) with tennis up in Provo:
And Murphy continues to be the apple of all our eyes:
Oh how we love her!
And there we have it: a wrap of the highlights of Labor Day weekend. Oh there were some “lowlights” too, but just highlighting for now.
Sending love out from the desert on this Tuesday morning!
Sounds like a wonderful long weekend! Please share where your denim skirt and cute navy puff sleeve blouse are from, which you are wearing during your second baseball game outing!!
Please share where you got your skirt and blouse from your second baseball game outing. So cute!!
Thank you Megan! The skirt is from madewell and the shirt is from Target☺️
Shawni, oh how I love your insights and wisdom from this blog. I appreciate how open you are about religion and the gospel and your beliefs. I know a lot of people look up to you and learn from what you share about our religion. I have a genuine question I’ve been pondering, and I wonder if you’d be willing to address and help me make sense of. From your posts it appears your older two girls have been through the temple. How come in so many photos of the trips it is evident from their skin showing they aren’t wearing their garments? I totally get this is a personal decision with the Lord but I’m sincerely asking because multiple women in my ward have started to wear cropped tops and sleeveless shirts but are still very active in the church. I feel like at least for the women in my town the gospel has become more of a ‘pick and choose’ thing with covenants and commandments. I am trying to understand if this is a generational thing or a new trend or the reasons behind why you think this is a thing in our world today . Any thoughts on this you can share?
I’d like to discuss all this too.
I really don’t understand how some members get a new temple recommend when they don’t wear church standard clothes & therefore don’t wear their garments.
The clothes standards have definitely dropping just lately.
I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m showing off etc, but I don’t own any clothes that aren’t church standard & I’m proud to wear my garments every day.
Mary, I understand your desire to have a conversation about this, but I am thinking that it might be a little too personal for a blog forum. I know it comes from a place of really good intentions, but I think it might be something that’s more comfortable to talk about in a conversation one-on-one with someone, instead of a more public place, like a blog. A lot of people are trying to figure a lot of things out in our day and time! And we’re all gonna probably need a lot of conversations with loved ones to understand things
I doubt you will get a direct answer unfortunately. The family dues whatever they want, and if it goes against church standards then they play the “agency” card. Clothes , garments, jewelry… doesn’t matter. Rules do not apply to this family.
Hey Mary! So sorry this has taken me so long to get back to. I’ve been trying to find some time to sit down and really answer well. But the bottom line is that I don’t know! I have pondered the same thing. Over and over.
I think garments are such a tricky thing because they are so easy to spot. Testimonies and true feelings about Jesus are much more difficult to spot. As I have pondered this with my girls, and thinking about the larger world in general, I’m trying to figure it all out as well. I have lots more to say on the topic, but for now I’ll just say that my biggest epiphany is that there is such a personal journey in all this. And everyone is on their own. I have realized that more important than wringing my hands in worry or concern for other people, I need to work on myself and loving others as Jesus would. It’s hard because I want to make sense of it all, just like you do. But in the end, I’ve realized I just have to trust that everyone has their own journeys to figuring out faith.
Again, when I get my thoughts all straight, I hope to write a post about this.
Sending love to you!
Does Claire get to do home MTC or will she need to attend away from home? Thinking of you all during this transition.
She’s doing Home MTC for a week, then on to the “big” MTC! More on that soon!