To tie a tie

I decided it was time for Jake to learn to tie a tie, and bought him some. But the first Sunday with the new ties, Jason had morning meetings, so I wondered who would help him. Usually, people are getting ready right up to (and past) the time we need to leave, and I hadn't thought to ask either of his brothers to plan some extra time to help. But this morning, in a sweet tender mercy, Logan was ready early and was happy to teach Jake! I'm so thankful for these small reminders that God is in the details of our lives.

A bit of Me and Jason

Jason and I have had a busy summer too! We have the missionaries and a new member over about once a week. We love our sister missionaries. The one on the right is headed back to BYU in the Winter, and she is a Chemistry major like Ali will be. We hope they'll get to hang out once they're there together!

Jason got to fly out to Utah to see his nephew Jeremy get married. Of course, there are restaurants which must be patronized when one is in Utah.

He had fun spending time with grown nieces and nephews (and their spouses) while he was there. We're excited for Ali and Logan to be out in Utah with these fun, successful, faithful cousins they don't really know well. Ethan has been put in charge of a Utah cousins group chat, and we hope they get together every once in a while.

I got a paddleboard, and on the few not-too-hot days we've had, I've loved going out on a little lake near us.

This is Issac, the new member we meet with often. I got to tag along on a different day than this one, and was honored to be baptized and confirmed on behalf of his mom and Grandma.

Grace

We've all gotten to know Grace better this summer and are always happy to have her around. On this night, we'd planned to all see Toy Story 5 together, but it was sold out, so we ended up eating ice cream instead- and then the kids went and saw the movie without Jason and me the next day!

Eli's Summer

Eli has had a good summer too! He works at 3 Chefs (an Iranian restaurant) 2-4 times a week, goes to the gym 4-5 times a week (usually with friends, sometimes with Ali), had friends over for a burn-your-school-stuff fire, plays volleyball at the church, watches movies at friends' houses and at the theater, goes fishing with friends, and went to the mall with his siblings. He is very independent and hardly ever asks me for rides, even when it means biking through the pouring rain and coming home soaked, as pictured below!

Logan's Summer

Logan's summer has been spent with Grace! Unfortunately and annoyingly, Crumbl cut his hours this summer, contrary to expectations, from 3-4 days during the school year to at most one, and often no shifts at all each week! This has left him plenty of time to spend with his girlfriend (and really best friend) Grace. They eat out, get pedicures, watch movies, went to Six Flags (pictured below), go downtown Chicago, visit Ali and Eli at work, take Jake on outings, do crafts, go shopping, cook meals together, go to movies, and hang out at her house. He also picks her up for church each Sunday, takes her to her weekly meetings with the missionaries, and they read the Book of Mormon together each day. 

Ali's Summer

Ali has had a great, well-balanced summer. She works 2-4 shifts at Bruster's Ice Cream each week, goes to the gym 5-6 times a week (often with friends, sometimes with Eli, sometimes alone), and spends a lot of time with several different friend groups. With friends, she has celebrated birthdays and graduations (including one overnight at a hotel), gotten lots of ice cream, gone places to watch the sunset, gone shopping at the mall or other places, seen movies, gone hiking (pictured below), played pickleball, gone swimming, hung out and watched movies or done crafts, played at Top Golf, gone bowling, eaten out, and probably more!

Happy Forth of July!

We had a happy 4th of July! It might not be a perfect country, but I am so thankful for all the freedoms my family and I take for granted. 

Cute sparkles on an even cuter girl for her holiday work shift.

Logan and Grace joined us for fireworks! It poured all afternoon, but the town of Oswego did their show anyway. We just had to walk through a lake-I mean field- to see them!

Happy 7th Max!

Our puppy is 7! It's true I'm not really a dog lover, but Max honestly is the best dog ever. We dog-sat this summer, and this other perfectly fine dog reminded me of this fact! He is so chill, so patient, so obedient, and so trusting. I am so thankful for him. He got to go get a pup-cup to celebrate his birthday, 

Jake Outings

Summers sure look different around here than they did a few years ago. The teens are often gone doing their own things, so Jake and I adventure together, just the two of us. Hey, it's cheaper that way, I guess!

Blackberry Farm was still a hit this year. I wonder how many more times he'll want to go? Jason and I keep saying this summer how sweet it is that we still have one little one (though he doesn't like being called little!). We're enjoying his sillyness, innocence, and remnants of his little-kid-ness for as long as we have it, knowing the days are numbered.

Phillips Park pool and our friend's pool have been frequented.

We met a friend of Jake's at a huge indoor slide park.

And Six Flags, which is always a favorite outing for Jake, right behind summer vacation in fun for him.

I sure love this kid!

Youth Camp

I went to Youth Camp again this year (for the third year in a row, but who's counting). I do love being there with my teenagers, and I do really love the camp we go to, which is on Lake Geneva. Each day that I'm there, I find a half hour or so to sneak away and walk along the lake (there is a public path that goes around the entire lake). It was quite rainy one day, and we had a tornado warning, which was very scary for some of the girls, but overall I think it was a success. 

I'm always thankful for the other leaders there!

The best days are the ones that overlap with the boys!

I sure love these teens!

Graduation Party

After Costa Rica, we had one more thing to do to wrap up graduation- a party! I was planning to keep it really simple, but then Ali had a few ideas, and so it became a bit grander. The biggest add was a balloon arch- how hard could it be?- I thought. Well, it was time-consuming, but easy enough to blow up the balloons  (thanks to help from the teens) and string them together...but connecting it to the wall was another matter. Lots of time, help from Jason, tape, and prayers later, it was up and beautiful!

I loved how the memories table turned out too.

They had tons of people come, and I wasn't expecting that to make ME feel so loved, but it did. We sure have a great group of friends.
 

San Jose

On our last full day, we drove back to San Jose and went on a little walking tour of downtown. It was the only time to rain was kind of a bummer, but the kids were good sports. We saw a couple of markets, parks, and theaters, as well as two truly beautiful churches. Honestly, overall, it was kind of an underwhelming city (it's not what people come to Costa Rica to see), but I think it was good for the kids to see what other cities look like so they can appreciate ours!

We decided to stop at McDonald's for lunch to compare...menu items were familiar, and it tasted exactly the same as at home!

We left for home the next morning, tired and happy- it was a great trip!

Tamarindo

For the last part of our trip, we drove several hours to Tamarindo, a town on the Pacific Ocean. Everyone loved the beach- it was one of our favorite parts of the trip. Our hotel was up on a hill about 5 minutes from the beach, but there was a shuttle that ran hourly into town and to the beach. They also partner with a Beach Club that we had access to, which was so nice: we had a bar so we could get ice water, bathrooms, lounge chairs, and a private beach area. The trees went so close to the water that we could easily be in the shade while still fully at the beach, and the water was so warm. The beach had pretty impressive waves, lots of seashells, and we just really enjoyed ourselves. 

We typically spent the morning at the hotel pool, went into town for lunch, and then went to the beach until dinner, and then went back to the hotel pool. Rough life.