What the kids have been up to..

sticker plastered by Tessa

Getting her magazine subscription from Grandma is happiness.

Tessa earned a special haircut from Krista!

Inez came to visit!

Jordan loved his soccer team!!  He had great coaches and the team learned to play together really well.

He enjoyed being goalie for the 2nd half of each game.

Rolling and tummy time are favorite moments.

Leisel watched her aunts Susie and Hailey really closely and picked up some pretty good color guard skills!

To be a Pioneer

I loved Pioneer Day this year.  Jared did a wonderful community presentation with a coworker about religious freedom and being pioneers in our day.  Their website is www.offaithfamilyandfreedom.com.
Earlier in the spring, we got to hear some great stories about our ancestors from my dad after his visit to Nauvoo.  Then Stan and Teresa also visited the Church History sites around Nauvoo.  We loved seeing their photos and hearing their reports and testimonies!

If this is large enough you may be able to see Stan's recipe for caramels!!

Nothing beats homemade ice cream with homemade caramels!

Cousins :)

Souvenirs from Grandma and Grandpa.  The kids favorite was the Jacob's ladder.  I loved the rock from the bank of the Mississippi river along the Trail of Tears/Hope and the Rock from the Crazy Horse monument.   

Cute girls in our neighborhood bike parade and breakfast

The kids look forward to this every year around pioneer day!

the 4th

I had to swipe photos from another talented sister (in-law) from our 4th of July get together with the Clarks.  I haven't been getting my camera out enough this summer!

I missed taking photos of Teresa's other festive craft.  I loved the painted stars and stripes baseballs too.  

Being a dad

Playing marbles  -- can't remember if this was on Father's Day

I loved Jared's latest home improvement project.  We planted grass and put some seats on the center of wall.  

My dad led the girls in performing their song.  It's now a versatile chant we hear on many occasions.
The adapted version is "1, 2, 3, 4, Dad's are the best.

Jared is in the center plastering the cub scouts in our dodge ball tournament.

Our dad's latest thing is learning new knots.
He's used them to create handcuffs, restraints and other such fun with the kids. :)

Goodbyes

In May Grandma and Grandpa were very busy finishing up their preparations to leave to the Missionary Training Center in Mexico City where they will serve for 18 months.  We got to spend a little time at their house helping with some of the last projects.  

Then (almost) the whole family came into town to be together and see them off.  They did very well in the fun and chaos to maintain their focus on the next chapter of life ahead of them.  

(Now that I'm posting this two months later.... I can say that I still have a hard time that my mom isn't on my cell phone's log of frequent callers.  But we love hearing about their experiences!)  

A fun family trip downtown during the week before departure,

We're (almost) all together for Sophie's baptism!

Giving hugs after the setting apart and singing our rendition of Called to Serve to G and G.
See you in December 2016. 

Harstons

We love the few weeks every year when we get to see cousins from out of state.  We seem to cram in every minute of fun and togetherness.  So June before Grandma and Grandpa left, the Harston festivities hit.  Here are photos from some of our activities.

(Really I just need to put the links to my sisters' blogs who are much better photographers than I am.)

an afternoon of water play with Ely!

visiting Wheeler Farm

the starting line at a bike race outside of Park City
Amy's family races at this venue regularly, so she brought all of us along during our Harston week.  She found extra bikes and helmets for the out of towners so all the cousins could do it together!  The organizers make this a super family friendly and fun event so the kids can have a non-competitive good experience.

I was so impressed with all our first timer kids riding around this real mountain!!
Here is Tessa finishing her loop. 

Then a few of our grown ups and not so grown ups raced in the real course!

Amy is a great ring leader.

We also got out to the park to see Ella's and Tyler's last soccer games.

We nearly took over the hands-on exhibits at the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life.

down time at Grandma's house to feed the masses and let cousins play 

We got to celebrate birthdays of Ely, Sophie, and Jeana.  

Here's the line-up of cousins minus the napping little ones and the biggest (maybe napping too).

Sophie is our biggest girl.  She starts the wave of baptisms for our next group.  What a sweet example.

studs!

The Allens hosted some fun lake days.

Look closely at the butterfly on Leisel's ponytail.

We learned you can fit a lot of cousins on the tube.