Summer happenings

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.

 08.26.14

       Gary & Lindsay

 The next day was Gary's wedding at 11. Carly again watched our kids, notice a theme. We took pictures and headed home for lunch. That night we took our kids to the reception early for pictures. They had made a cute flower wreath for Caroline to wear. She got some pictures in it and then took it off. The reception had lots of delicious food including a super good salad with candied pecans and apples, flourless chocolate cake, croques monsieurs(fancy toasted cheese plus meat sandwiches), fruit, strawberries and creme, mini quiches, cake, creme puffs and maybe a few more things. As a party favor there were glass filled candy jars with pink and gold candies. My kids and all the kids there were into those candies all night. Caroline kept getting gum, yuck. At the end of the evening after the couples first dance and the daddy daughter dance there was a flash and the lights went out. They never came back on and that was the end of the reception. We took our kids home exhausted.

     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.