Youth
Conference was the weekend before girls camp. I helped serve the
Saturday night dinner meal of pasta to the kids. While there someone
from my ward asked if we got the email announcing a special meeting the
next day aka ward split, after church. I was surprised that it happened
so quickly but apparently the stake president and other parties wouldn't
all be in town again until Sept. and decided they better just get it
split so the wards could be ready for school. Girls camp was the first
week of July. It was Monday-Thurs as friday was the 4th of July. I went
up for Testimony meeting and the afternoon with my beehive advisors. I
love the atmosphere and fun of girls camp but didn't miss burning up.
Caleb just chilled with me and was a good baby like usual. The ward testimony meeting after the stake meeting was a little more emotional than usual because of the ward split.
July 15th my three kids and took an airplane to SLC for a month-long
trip. We weren't planning on a big vacation this year, but then Gary
got engaged and I wasn't going to fly everyone to Utah for a week trip.
We drove up to Bear Lake the day after we arrived in Salt Lake. I rode
with Grandpa Darger and Caleb. Luke and Caroline rode with Grandma
Debbie, Emilee and Miles. There was a big wreck, two semis carrying
chemicals, that caused lots of delay. But when we were almost in
Evanston we saw that the other side of i-80 was totally shut down, so we
were glad that at least we were moving, however slowly. We stopped at a
park in Evanston and the kids played while Mark and Debbie picked up a
few essentials at wal-mart and grabbed lunch. Then we drove to the
cabin.
Thursday Caroline was walking around without shoes so she got some
slivers. But she seemed to be still bugged by her feet and she had some
red dots on her feet. We thought she was just being a baby and carried
her around Friday and Saturday.
Sunday
we went to church and Elder Quentin L. Cook spoke a few minutes at the
end of the meeting, as he was visiting also.Miles wasn't feeling super
well that day and seemed to have sores in his mouth. Monday night Luke
woke up with sores on his feet but seemed to carry on. Tuesday he got
sores on his hands and we finally realized that the kids probably had
hand foot mouth disease. Then we packed up and left the cabin. The rest
of the extended family was due to arrive the next day. They were
informed of the situation and the house was sterilized. Most of the
family ended up staying away to be safe. The next week we stayed in the
house for most of the week.
We went to the Hogle zoo and got in half price because of our Houston
zoo membership(Thanks Mom and Dad). We checked out a splash pad in Sandy
a few times, went to the fireman park, saw my mission companion Desi
and her son and other assorted adventures. Luke loved going to the dam
every day if possible. We also played bunches in the sand pile and took
walks around Wasatch Resort. We were able to go down to Pleasant Grove
and see Grant and Carly. We played outside, upstairs and a great toy
room and ate dinner at Culvers. We had a misunderstanding that amounted
to us getting more ice cream than we could ever eat and brought some
home.My kids enjoyed that so much. While there I also saw one of Greg's
many cousins, Mirinda.
We
missed our Daddy and were excited for him to come up on the 9th. His
plane was delayed but finally he got in and I drove him back up the
Canyon. Saturday we went to the new aquarium and enjoyed that exhibit
greatly. It is much bigger than the old one and is way better than the
Houston aquarium, that's for sure. Later that day there was a
professional bike race going up the canyon. Mark, Chad and Mark's twin
Clark and his family had passes to go sit in a special area at Snowbird.
That evening Grant and Carly came and watched our kids while the adults
when and had a special dinner at the Roof. Chad had recently graduated
and it's a family tradition that they go eat there for that special
occasion. That Sunday we went to Greg's home ward.
Monday Greg, Chad BJ and I went up to Snowbird. We rode the alpine
slide and coaster a few times because we got their event pass. We also
rode the gondola up to the top and hiked down to a sky lift to go the
rest of the way down. That was super fun. That Monday night Grant and
Carly came back over to watch our kids during the wedding dinner at the
Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was fun.
Gary & Lindsay
Wednesday we spent hanging out with Greg's cousins Stefani and Alison
who had driven up to the wedding with their parents and Natalie, but
flew home afterwards to get back to their families. We were so glad to
be able to see them. Thursday we went to the splash pad again. That
night Greg and I went to play games with Grant, Carly and Canute, but we
ended up talking the whole time instead of playing games.
Friday we went to park city and hung out with Donnie, Grant, Natalie
and Grandpa Darger. Donnie and Grant were using a time share there and
it was at a super nice hotel right next to the Alpine slide. We swam in
the hot tub, ate lunch at burger king, panned for precious stones and
returned home tired. Saturday we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity
with the Gessels and met Canute there too. Then we had lunch at the
Costa Vida because it was right there and closer than a Cafe Rio. It was
good.
The next day we made our way home by plane. I was glad to have Greg
with me. He generously traded seats with me so I sat by two grandmas and
he sat by the kids. Caroline fell asleep for about an hour and Caleb
slept a little while too.
While gone I got a phone call from the bishop inviting me to be an
activity days leader and Greg got called to be a nursery leader. I am
excited for this new calling and the fun and growth which is to be had
by all.
How about that for an update.
