It is August already! We have one week left of summer vacation. I can’t believe how quickly it has gone. We are getting ready for next week of school schedule pick-ups and meet the teacher night and back to school activities. It will be a busy week and then schools starts on August 13th. The summer break has been good but busy.
Ruth enjoyed her multi-stake youth conference. There were about 600 youth that attended. They kept the kids busy from 7:00am to 10:00pm for a couple of days. Since Ruth was local she came home for the night. It was a busy time with classes, activities, dances and a service project. She enjoyed it all. I am glad that she could participate.
The boys have had some fun play time with friends. Andrew likes to bike ride with his group. Caleb likes playing with Charlie. Spencer and Andrew played with their friend Nathan one afternoon too. Spencer had lots of fun going to a birthday party for the Duran twins. They went to a Lego store and Gravity Park to play. He loved it all. This last week Ruth had her friend Brianna come over for an afternoon. The girls had fun visiting together. They also rode their bikes together to the library to get some books. It is good to have friends.
We have enjoyed the Bear Canyon Academy classes. Spencer did a service class and went to the Road Runner Food Bank two different times in July. I went with his group one of the times, they needed another driver. I enjoyed being there helping. I hadn’t gone in before. When I went in we were sorting through a big delivery donation from a farmer of onions and green peppers. All three boys went to a swimming party class at the Johnson’s home. For four days they got to go swim in their pool for an hour and a half in the afternoon. They enjoyed the water play with other kids that week. I went with them one day and sat and talked to Sister Johnson and enjoyed that. I did a sewing class. I had the kids make a pillow case and a tote bag. They turned out good and the kids had fun making things. This last week I did a science class. We did some simple experiments and just had some fun together. I am glad I am done with classes though. It takes time to prepare and to teach them. This next week Caleb has a class to go to about math art. I guess we will see what that might be.
In July Neal and Ruth went on a back packing trip with some others from our ward. They went to Wheeler Peak and climbed to the summit on their second day. They enjoyed two nights out and had a great trip. Ruth enjoyed going with some friends from the ward.
While they were camping I tried to have fun with the boys. One afternoon we went to the Hinkle Family Fun center. I had a bunch of coupons from the last school year and we decided to use them. The boys did Laser Tag. Then all of us played a game of miniature golf. Then Andrew and Spencer did the Go Karts. They had fun driving some cars. Caleb played some games in the arcade while they were doing that. With all that the only thing I had to pay for was for me to play mini-golf. Pretty good deal. We had a fun afternoon.
This week Neal took the boys on a back packing trip to Las Cruses Basin. They were going to fish and camp for three nights. I expect them home any time now. I have missed them. It has been quiet at home with just me and Ruth here. I have been able to do things with Ruth though. We worked on her dress that we started making last May. We were able to get it done yesterday. She is excited to wear it to church. It turned out cute. We went shopping and got her some new clothes for school. She even let me cut her hair! It looks cute shorter. We also went out to eat and watched the movie “Pride and Prejudice” together, the long version. We had a good time together.
I got a new phone and took a selfie
I enjoyed going to a baby shower for three ladies in our ward who are expecting. It was fun to visit with the other women and just go do something without the kids.
Doug’s family went to Utah for a vacation and stopped over at our house on their way there and their way home. We enjoyed our visits with them. They got here in the late afternoon and we had dinner and an evening together and then they would leave the next morning to continue their journey. Last Monday they were here on their way home and we had a random hail storm. The boys had been outside playing in the water, I had turned the fountain on for them. They decided to eat their dinner outside but then it started to rain. It was interesting how quickly it came up and how long it lasted. It just kept coming down. We had hail piling up and the water was running down the street like a small river. It was sad really because the hail caused damage to our yard, especially our garden. I was looking over our apples and pears this morning and seeing so many with hail damage and actually thinking that it was good we didn’t have a good crop this year because I don’t know how it will be when they ripen in another month. The hail damaged and knocked out the peaches. We only had a dozen or so, since it was a small tree, and we ate them up the next day. They tasted good. The butternut squash plant that was taking over the garden got damaged really bad. I was looking at it this morning and amazingly enough there are little new leaves all over the vine, so maybe the squash isn’t going to be a total loss. This week on a few different days I have worked out in the yard getting all the leaves and pine needles swept up that were knocked out of trees. We have had a lot of rain this last week too. It is helping a lot to have us recover from the drought. I noticed that the open space looked green. The cucumbers weren’t too hard hit and I picked a lot this week. I made 11 quarts of dill pickles.
during the storm
there was a river going through the open space
the garden, taken the morning after the storm
these pictures were taken a couple of days later
the pickles I made
The green open space
Doug and Caleb being silly
Last week we had the missionaries come over for dinner. A couple of weeks ago the missionaries needed to borrow some bikes for a few days. Neal offered one of his because one of the missionaries is 6 foot 8 and needed a bigger bike. He was thankful Neal had one that worked for him. We enjoyed having them in our home.
I have enjoyed going to the temple. It had been a few weeks since I had gone, with vacation and the busy schedule we have had I hadn’t been for over a month. Neal and I went together last week for our ward temple night and I went again this last Wednesday while Ruth was at work. I am thankful for temples and the peace that it bring into my life.
Andrew has worked hard on scouts this summer. He had the leadership role of troop historian and worked hard on making a history book of the camp-outs they had gone on for the last six months. He did a nice job. He was able to finish some merit badges and this last week he had a board of review and has earned his Star rank. There will be a court of honor later this month. He is already starting to work on his Life rank requirements.
Last Saturday Neal and I took the boys around to some pawn shops looking for a saxophone. Spencer has wanted to learn how to play one for over a year. He will be in band this year at the middle school so we decided we should get a sax before school starts while there are plenty to choose from. We looked at a lot of them and picked out the best of them and bought it. He is so excited about it. He has worked hard at learning how to get some sounds out of it. I am glad that we found a good one at the pawn shop where we got it for less than a new one. Now we can look forward to more music being played in our home.
This summer Neal has worked with two interns on some projects. It took some time to help them with projects and mentor them but it was a good experience. This last week the interns finished up by giving a presentation on what they had done this summer. In the evening we went to dinner at a nice restaurant with the interns in this group (there were about 17 of them) and some of the employees that came to the dinner. It was to go out together and to meet and visit with some of the people Neal has worked with.
I am thankful for my busy family. It has been a good month.
The boys just got home right as I am finishing this. I am thankful they are home safe.
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