Crumbl Visit

We realized we'd never been to visit Logan at work, so one night we dropped by. His coworkers had been especially excited to meet Ali, his twin. If you zoom in on the workers in the back, you can see one we know from church chuckling at the scene we were causing, and two who'd just met us peeking around the corner! The coworkers got a kick out of our visit, hopefully Logan felt loved, and we got free cookies-win, win, win!

Youth Camp

I went to camp as the Young Women's camp director again this year. We had the same stake camp as last year, where the girls came to the camp first, then the boys joined for a day, and then the girls left. Our Ward Youth Council decided they really wanted a full week camp, though, so the Bishopric found a (tent) campground near the stake camp. The boys went there at the beginning of the week, and the girls ended the week there. I admit to being skeptical that this would all work out well, but it turned out great! It was actually really nice to arrive at a campground that was already all set up for us and was quite well stocked. The girls were easy to please as far as activities and food went, and we had a great time.

I enjoyed being with some of my friends at camp, too!

I wanted to take a picture with my boys, and their friend Nic was feeling left out, so I invited him to join us.

A few days later Eli sent me this picture: he had cropped it and made me his wallpaper-haha! (This kid is from the family that had so much fun bidding on the picture of Jason at the auction last year, the one who wore the picture, then printed it onto a t-shirt at a later ward party!)

The highlight for all the youth at the ward camp portion was that one of our Bishopric members brought his boat for us to use! It was so much fun.

While we were gone, Jake and Jason had a quiet week without us. Jason worked from home, so Jake entertained himself during the day, and then they would go do something fun in the evenings. They went to the movies, rode bikes to get ice cream, went to our little zoo, visited a friend in the hospital, watched movies at home, and had a great time!

Brusters

Ali got a job at a local ice cream store called Brusters. She has wanted a job here for a long time (it's close to home and one of her good friends works there). She applied back in the early Spring and went into the store to introduce herself to the managers a few times to follow up. Eventually, her persistence paid off, and she got hired!

 

Family Fun Day

Eli decided he wanted to bring back Family Fun Days, so this time he wanted to visit a pretty Japanese garden, but it wasn't open the day we were hoping to go. Maybe next time, though! So we decided to visit our standby, Cantigny. 

We walked to the mansion on the far side of the park. (Can you see my boys?)

We had to go to the tank park, of course. To our surprise, this helicopter (among other things!) was new; we were sure we had never seen it before. Everyone else humored me to stop for a picture.

 We had a great time!

(Author credit by Jake)

Jesse and Valerie's Wedding

Jesse and Valerie were getting married a week after we got back from Greece. Originally, I decided since I'd been to Idaho in April and seen Jesse and Valerie in Greece that I wasn't going to go. I was also headed to Stake and Ward Youth Camps a couple of days after the wedding, so I was worried about my stamina and about being away from Jake for 3 out of 4 weeks! But...then I realized I really wanted to be at my brother's wedding. So, I decided to go... and to take Jake! 

He was THRILLED at the idea of a plane trip with me to see his good friend Scotty (and to go to the wedding...sort of). It was fun to watch him enjoy the magic of flight.

We had lots of time to explore the Salt Lake City Airport.

These two fell back into friendship easily and really enjoyed their time together.

It was a lovely wedding for these two!

I knew I would look out of place on the end of three of my tall brothers, so I joked that I deserved to be front and center anyway, and we went with it!

Another reason I wanted to bring Jake was so that he would be able to meet his new cousin, Westin. We also got to go to Westin's baptism the following day.

We had a fun weekend together!

Not too Far from the Truth

Logan had to dress like a college student for a mock trial at the end of the semester. Luckily, he fits easily into his dad's business casual clothes, and could easily pass for a college student (I'm not crying over here about that at all...)

Signing

Why sign yearbooks at the end of the school year when you can sign each other? (They sign yearbooks too.)

Prom

We're a bit out of order here, but Ali went to her Junior Prom in May. A boy from her history class asked her...his name is Logan:) A few weeks after they went to prom, he officially asked her to be his girlfriend. A lot of new experiences for us all!

 

She looked stunning.

The original plan had been for Ali to go with a group of her friends to prom. We were grateful that Logan was ok adjusting his plans to mostly join Ali's group (meeting up with his friends to have dinner once they got to the dance), and that the girls were cool with it too.

I was quite pleased with how her hair and makeup turned out...a few desperate mom prayers were sent heavenward during the process since I am far from an expert at those things!

This is her happy smile:) 

Aunt Amy and Grandma

Our kids were WELL taken care of by their Aunt Amy and Grandma Eldredge while we were gone. They certainly had way more fun than they would have if we'd been home, going to movies, mini-golfing, getting ice cream, and eating at Portillo's.

I was worried Jake would get lost in the shuffle while we were gone, so I got the three older kids gift cards (Logan for Chick Fil A, Eli for McDonald's since they could bike there, and Ali for Barnes and Noble) to use with Jake while we were gone. Everyone wins!

We were so grateful they made it possible for us to go! And we were thankful for the great reports we got about how well the kids did while we were gone. They followed the rules, did what they were asked, and were pleasant to be around. Well done, kids!

Mykonos

One of my favorite stops was Mykonos. It felt very similar to Santorini, which I had been looking forward to the most, but it seemed less busy. We'd find whole stretches of streets where we were the only ones around! I just loved all the white buildings with pops of color, all the winding roads, cobblestone paths, and flowers.

In the morning, we had a family group tour of Mykonos town. It was just lovely.

I loved seeing the famous Windmills! Apparently, they're B&Bs now! 

There are hundreds of little churches on the islands. I don't know if this is true or not, but our guide told us that the reason why is that when the islands were being settled, the government didn't want to build the infrastructure required to have electricity in each new little village, but they were required by law to send electricity to churches. So, the citizens would build a church, and voila! Their area would have electricity!

In the afternoon, everyone did their own thing. Jason and I made our way back through town (I could have wandered all day) and took a bus to a beach. Funny story: JD and Lianna wanted to meet us after they got lunch, so we gave them directions and pinned our location for them. They eventually found us...but not until they had walked through a nude beach first!! Whoopse! That wasn't the route we took!

What an amazing trip! Jason and I are so grateful to have experienced this beautiful part of the world with my family.