Wednesday, September 5, 2012

What the?? Where did my summer go???

*sigh* That was the fastest, busiest, shortest summer yet. Girls camp took up June, and work started up full time for me on August 2nd... I just didn't get enough slow time. Oh well, here we are anyway!  Here are some pictures from everyone's first week of school.










So weird to move Kayden out.  That's about the best way for me to describe it.  Weird.  We moved him down to Prove on August 21st.  He paid an extra $15 to move down a day early, and it was worth every penny.  There were no crowds anywhere, and we sped right through the whole process.  People keep asking me how I'm doing, and as long as I don't think about it that hard, I'm ok.  The other day after moving Kayden down to Provo, I was mowing the lawn, and thinking through the last couple months.  So many big changes.  Working full time (and it's been SO busy), preparing to send the kids off to school, trying to outfit Kayden with everything he might need (that kept me awake most nights), being first time "college kid parents," painting and rearranging the house after Kayden left, and dealing with the emotions of moving him out, along with everything else made for an emotional, stressful couple of months for me.  As I was mowing the lawn and letting my mind wander, and friend from our last ward that I hadn't seen in years was driving by and flagged my down.  I turned off the lawn mower, she said "Hi, how are things going?"  and I burst into tears.  That's awesome.  I walked into the chapel on the first Sunday Kayden was gone, took one look at the Sacrament table and the nice high priest that had taken Kayden's place, and cried the rest of the meeting.  And I've been a little grumpy about this whole thing, especially with Rik, because obviously, it's his fault that everyone is growing up.... ya, it didn't make sense to him either.  Now that we're on week two, I'm doing a lot better, and when I talk to Kayden, he is in HEAVEN.  He loves the campus, loves the classes, loves the independence, and is loving the experience.  And I remember feeling the same way.  It doesn't even seem like it's been that long since I was doing the same thing.  My new goal is to try not to let my mind wander too far.  I'm not going to think about a mission (people keep telling me that all these changes are good.... I just don't know about that), and I'm not going to think about how I'm going to be doing this again in a quick two years with Malia.  Instead I'm going to drink more Sonic banana milk shakes.  I love them.  They make me happy.  They are my comfort food of choice right now.  I almost took a picture of the Sonic straw wrappers that are in my van.  There are lots.  It's been that kind of summer.

Some Other August Highlights

I went back to work August 2nd, which really put a damper on the lazy summer days, and the sleeping in, but we managed to slip a few fun things in!  Rik and I went to Kiriana and Ivan's wedding...  gorgeous bride!





(First cross country meet for Malia)  

Anaya was baptized last weekend.  It was Labor Day weekend, so we kind of partied all weekend... Lava, movies, yummy food, sleeping in, shopping, and swimming.  There were only 4 being baptized, and Anaya was the only girl, so she got to go first.  She and I sang "I am a Child of God" as part of the program.  I think singing with my kids is one of my favorite things to do.  Anaya and Taisha then sang the same arrangement for the nursing home, and Anaya and I are singing it for sacrament meeting this week.  This is my last baptism.  That's kind of weird....





Lots and Lots of Time Outside!

Here's some pictures from August's outside adventures!  Float trips, camping (including Malia's writing camp), feeding fish, and just wandering around.




















Happy 8th!

Anaya turned 8 this year! She was so excited! The ward camp out was the night of her birthday, so we had her birthday dinner (tacos... my two youngest think I am the best taco maker on the planet....) and birthday cheesecake with fruit, on Sunday.






Camping at Dawnata

The end of July the girls and I packed up for a shopping trip in Utah, and the boys went to Dawnata and camped and swam. This year the boys reserved a tee-pee to sleep in. Water, fire, and a tee-pee... it just doesn't get any better than that! I didn't get any pictures of us shopping, but just wait until you see the $15 and $20 prom dresses we came home with!!






Surprise High Adventure

This was the first summer in many years that Rik hadn't planned on going to boys camp or high adventure, and I think he was a little sad about that.  He has been to some amazing places joining the young men and leaders.  The night before the young men were leaving for this year's high adventure, Rik got a call that one of the leaders was sick, and they needed another leader to go.  At about 11:30pm, after making several calls, he decided to make the arrangements to go.  We threw everything together as fast as we could, Rik rearranged all his appointments at work, and headed up to the mountains near Redfish Lake.  He loved it!






One of the highlights for Rik was going white water kayaking.  The guides that were taking them and other groups said that they bring the "duckies" (the kayaks) purely for the entertainment value (the rest of the people were in boats.)  Here's Rik's first attempt over some rapids.  You can't tell from the pictures, but the boats are in the background enjoying the show!