We had an absolutely jam-packed July! But it was all good things!

We enjoyed the 4th of July parade in Riverton! The kids love getting lots of candy. We also had a 4th of July dinner with the Muhlestein family, enjoying the company of those who had arrived early for our Brent and Elaine Muhlestein family reunion!

This reunion was particularly noteworthy because I was the one in charge of planning everything. There were lots of things to think about and navigate with 50 people coming from all over; but I am super blessed to have a very easy-going family who want to get along and cooperate. So it turned out to be a very joyful experience!

Our first official event of the reunion was a family picture that (miraculously) included ALL of my parents’ posterity! Every child. Every in-law. Every grandchild. Now that my oldest nephew is off on his mission and more and more of the grandkids will be moving on and moving out, we may never all be in the same place for a picture ever again. I’m so grateful we got this one.

That was Sunday morning (very early). After joining my parents’ ward for church, we had a Low-Country boil! The highlight of the boil for me was that Mother and Daddy sprung for King Crab! Crab is truly just so yummy. And its very infrequent that I get to eat it. So I loved eating it this time. sigh… 🦀

But another cool thing to feature at the boil was craw fish from the canal in Riverton. Apparently craw fish are an invasive species and you can have all you want from the canal. My brother, George, took us to the canal and we caught TONS of craw fish using tiny bits of chicken liver tied to a string. We caught way more than people could eat; but it was fine because we were just helping out the local Riverton, Utah ecosystem by ridding them of the surplus population of craw fish. So we just threw out the extra. (Unlike extra crab. We would never throw that out.)

Sorry for no pictures of the actual boil. You’ll find there are many things I neglected to photograph.

During the family reunion, we stayed at a big house in Riverton, Utah of all places. I hunted all over the Wasatch Front for a house that would fit all 50 of us comfortably, but still be reasonably priced. I was open to just about anything from Ogden to Springville, or up to Heber and Park City. But the place that ultimately worked best was this house in Riverton about a 5 minute drive from our house.

It would take approximately forever to tell you all the wonderful details of the reunion. But we truly had a wonderful time as a family doing fun summertime things together. Here are some main points.

• Splash pad + ice-cream + frisbee + pickleball park night
• Museum trip
• Beach day at Black Ridge Reservoir
• Karaoke night (Josh style!)
• So much yummy food

Pickleball action shot. Yummy food action shot.

Toddler Time. Crochet Master Class.

Lunch break on beach day.

Karaoke Josh style

There truly is so much I could say: so many stories of memories made. But what I will say is this: I am SO grateful for the family I belong to. My parents and siblings are all wonderful and extraordinary people! My siblings’ spouses and children are just as much so. I am genuinely honored to be associated and affiliated with them all. And most of all, I’m grateful for Jesus Christ who makes it possible for us to have such a joyful family experience here on earth and for it to be infinitely perpetuated and glorified for all eternity!

But there’s more July to discuss.

Something (or rather, someone) that really characterized July for our family was my sweet niece, Valencia. My sister was working in Utah for the summer and we got the grand privilege of watching Little McValPal during the days. She is a super happy little girl and happens to have been at my very favorite age of baby/toddler-ness. The best things about hanging with Valencia were feeding her blueberries, putting her in the baby swing, and jumping on the tramp with her. (We’re sad it wasn’t until her second to last day that we found out how much she loved the trampoline, because she was SO CUTE!)

We genuinely loved having her (and are excited to have her again next month)! But, if I’m being 100% honest, I also loved that she went home with Christina every night. 😂

Also in July was my birthday! I told Josh that I wanted it to be fancy. (I sometimes–maybe even frequently–just long for fanciness in my life …). I wanted to have a date with Josh to a fancyish restaurant for dinner. But I wanted to do something great as a whole family too. So, I gave Josh some instructions for the fancy tea-party brunch we would have with the kids. And let me tell you, Josh didn’t just meet my expectations, he FAR surpassed all my imaginations!

Tragically, this is one of the things that was severely under-photographed. So I’ll try to describe it. Josh made multiple kinds of herbal tea, including blueberry which is my favorite. He made homemade scones, multiple kinds of finger sandwiches, deviled eggs, and mini cherry pies. Then he also got brioche bread, fruit tart, and eclairs from the store. It was all SO delicious! 😋

PLUS, he decorated!

Can you even?! It was so perfect! And he did all the decorating completely independently! I had no idea he was going to have such an elegant color scheme with a matching custom floral arrangement and super fancy and beautiful embroidered cloth napkins, all of which complemented my tea-set so elegantly. He’s just the best ever.

And all the kids were so sweet and dressed up in their nicest clothes for our fancy tea-party. My family loves me so well!

And previous to these festivities, our neighbors invited us to participate in their family’s candy cannon to celebrate Pioneer Day. The kids loved running after the candy as it launched through air!

It was a very good birthday.

Then, the very next day, we went to Bear Lake with the Monson family! We had a super fun time playing with cousins at the beach and at the rental house. There were kayaks and paddle boards, hot tubbing and dance parties, delicious food homemade and from restaurants, story time with Aunt Katie and an original stage production from the girl cousins. I’m also so grateful to be part of this family! 🤍

Hot tubbing with as many cousins as possible! Not cursed story time with Katie!

Some last additions I wanted to mention include realizing some dreams. One dream that was realized this July was that the kids had a lemonade stand. They love having lemonade stands in the summer; but the catalyst for this one was that Portia’s friend Evie invited her over to participate in her and her siblings’ lemonade stand. As soon as that was made known, Fay and Carter were devising plans to make their own. (Don’t worry; we’re in a different neighborhood from Evie.) But they were ultimately kind enough to wait for Portia to return from the first one before they started theirs. They added some summer melting bead projects to their sale, and they turned out to be relatively profitable.

They are summer perfection.

The other dream we realized was mine. I’ve been wanting to embrace the Mommy and Me trend with all four of my girls (Mommy and Me and Me and Me and Me), so finally I just did it.