Eli and Zeke

Eli dog sat for a friend's dog in the neighborhood for several weeks. Zeke is a happy, albeit hyper, dog, and Eli had fun playing with him. It was good for Eli to have something to do three times a day.

Max is the most jealous dog you ever saw. He cannot stand it if any of us give attention to another dog while he's around!

Patriarchal Blessing

Ali received her patriarchal blessing! It was a really lovely blessing for our truly amazing girl. It is a very sweet, very real reminder that she isn't just ours. So proud of her.

Six Flags

Logan and Eli bought season passes to Six Flags and Jake and I joined them one day. It was a lot of fun!

Most of the day Jake and I went on rides on our own, but they did convince him to go on this one "family coaster". Jake was really, really nervous but he went on it and he was glad he did. We talked about how it's not brave if you're not scared- and he was definitely brave!

On our way out, Jake and I convinced the boys to go on a couple of our favorite rides; it was fun to have them with us for so much of the time!

Field Museum

This summer Ali and Logan thought they had jobs lined up, but they (mostly) fell through. Because of that, they have been around a lot more this summer than they have been for the last couple of years. We've had a lot of fun adventures all together. On this day we went downtown and went to the Field Museum.

Running from the famous Sue:

Altitude

My young women's activity was to go to Altitude, which happens to be one of Jake's favorite places, so I brought him along! 

Youth Camp

In the Spring I got called as Camp Director and I heard Ali chuckle as she sustained me, because she knows camping isn't my thing. But my thing IS going to beautiful places and having fun outside with people I love, so Young Women's camp wasn't all bad. For instance, I got to enjoy these lovely views for four days!

And I got to enjoy being with these sweet girls (especially the cute blond one in the middle).

Ali asked me to take a picture of her and her friends jumping off the pier.

We had such a fun glow dance party one night.

The Stake tried something different this year that was a bit logistically complicated but made it so families only had to set aside one week for Youth Camps and Youth Conference: All the girls went up to camp on Monday, and on Wednesday the younger girls went home and the older boys arrived, on Thursday the older girls went home and the younger boys arrived, and on Saturday all the boys went home. Whew! It also meant that I got to spend some time with Logan at camp and see Eli before I went home. Jason also went up Friday-Saturday to help out with the boys, so it was a busy week for our family.

I loved having some of my friends with me at camp too (one even told me I was the reason she volunteered to come!).

We had a pontoon boat for the evening that just the older kids were there and I got to go out with Logan and some of his friends. 

I was glad my first year as camp director was a stake-run camp! I just got to go and enjoy myself and my kids.

TV night

Jake and his friend Grace realized one day that they both love the TV show Carem Sandiego and plotted a late-night (instead of sleep-over) to binge-watch! They had snacks, candy, and a great time!

Amy's 50!

For Amy's 50th birthday, Steve plotted with their three kids and Todd, Janell, and Amanda to all fly out and surprise her. We all showed up at her birthday dinner that she thought was just going to be her and Steve. She was completely shocked, and so grateful to all those who had traveled so far just for her. 

We also enjoyed lunch and pedicures with our out-of-town family.

Mulch

So grateful to have big, strong teenage boys to help us with big projects! Spreading mulch in the yard at the beginning of summer went much quicker with these two helping us!

Sedona Wedding

I got to go to Sedona, Arizona for my cousin Michelle's wedding. To make it even better, my parents came from Colorado for the event so I got to spend a long weekend with them and other Aunts, Uncles, and cousins in Arizona too!

I'd never been to Sedona, and loved all the stunning red rocks. The wedding was lovely, and I was happy to have been there to support Michelle and Lindsay.

Kayak

Last year we saw some people kayaking down the river running through downtown Naperville. Jason thought that looked like tons of fun and invited Ali to join him. The trip they took didn't actually go through Naperville like they thought it would, but the views were really pretty and they had a great time.

Fundraiser

We had a dinner and silent auction to raise money for the kids' youths' summer camps. On the way there Jason joked that he should auction off a photo of himself. We all laughed and said he really should do it, so he did! A couple people bid on it and he brought in $10! 

A few weeks later, he gifted the winner with a signed 8x10 copy of the picture below (taken for the occasion!).

Our friend who won the picture took it a couple steps further: he replaced one of the framed family photos in his home with the one of Jason and enjoyed seeing how long it took his wife to notice it (several days, apparently!) and made it into a tee shirt that his son wore to the ward 4th of July breakfast! So funny!