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!