Better late than never to record some of our summer memories from this year! Here’s a taste of our June.

In spite of the fact that I am still working towards truly loving summertime again, I felt like school ended WAY too late this year! The kids’ last day was June 6, and it felt like all the cousins had been in summer vacation mode for a month by the time our kids finally arrived at their deliverance.

But, once school was finally over, we were able to begin to profit therefrom right away with a quick camping trip to Yellowstone!

We saw lots of cool geysers and animals and made lots of memories.

Some of the memories we made reminded me a lot of my own childhood memories of camping: like the fact that tinfoil dinners take ~3 hours to cook (no matter how hungry you are when you start) and that camping is utterly miserable when its so cold at night that you can’t sleep. 😂 So, we ended up dispensing with our planned second night of camping.

But we still made the fun camping memories, too. We had a fire, made s’mores, and explored the woods around our campsite. And the kids even worked hard to become junior rangers in the park!

The kids were genuinely bummed to have cut our trip short, so we tried to make it up to them by going to Blackridge Reservoir the next day for beach time.

It appeared to cheer them up sufficiently. 🙂

The night before we left for Yellowstone, we got an exciting surprise which we waited until after our trip to address: our AC broke. We found out that we needed to replace it, which we did. And then we found out that due to old ducting and a bunch of other factors beyond my comprehension we needed around-the-clock service on it for the next several days. It was a very exciting and memorable process, but ultimately we have been able to remain cool throughout the rest of the summer.

There was a decent discount on the AC work if you paid in cash–actual paper money, not just “in full”–and so I withdrew an absurd amount of money from the bank. I had never seen so many 100 dollar bills in my life so, naturally, we had to document it!

Some other fun happenings from June include Josh’s birthday! He wanted mud with dirt and worms for his “cake” 😊. Also Carter and Fay went to O.W.L. camp through the library. It is a super cool free Harry Potter themed half-day camp for kids 11-17. I’m sorry for not getting a picture of Fay.😔

Also, Josh decided to install a horseshoe game in the backyard. It quickly became a sandbox that the kids have had a ball with! (We’ve played horseshoes a handful of times as well). Also Valencia came! (More on her in July’s post) For now, just know that she’s Christina’s daughter and she is perfect and adorable and we love her a million!

The library summer reading program is a big part of our summers each year. The kids read their little hearts out to earn their free books! (Josh and I did too!)

And one BIG highlight from June was Josh’s youngest brother’s wedding! We loved being able to celebrate with Jayden and Ali, and the kids love having a new aunt! This is all the kids outside the temple after the sealing.🤍

Stay tuned for July!