July

Full, fun month. Here we go...

Amy invited everyone to Riverton, Utah for the 4th of July. She offered activities and food and the Laws came out in droves. The festivities started with a parade.

This was the beginning - Kassie is getting a high five from a motorcycle cop - before Krista got beaned in the forehead with a taffy. I think most of us ended up getting hit in the face during the parade.

This is pretty Rheanna, my oldest niece. Not sure when it happened, but she grew up and just graduated from high school. In the background you can see Lee's Kubb game that he made that day.

Playing Citadels.

Sweet Cari took the Under-5 crowd upon herself. She helped them down the slide and refereed several spats. They wore her out.

Somewhere in there was kiddie pools, bingo at the park, lots of food, and a random trip to RC Willey. We ended the trip with the city fireworks, which were impressive and loud. Good times.

The party then moved up to Idaho (at least for a few families), and we spent a day at Black Canyon again. Ed and the girls got in some early ski runs.

You can't tell from this picture, but this may have been the trip when Krista got up for the first time (for a few seconds anyway). I can't be sure - the summer is all blurring together.

Waiting for the boat to come back and take them for a ride.

We have a 2nd teenager in the house! Keira turned 13 and celebrated for a whole week. She started by having friends over for a trip to the mall and night games. On her actual birthday she flew (first class) to Minneapolis with Grandma Anderson and Kimberlee and hung out at the Mall of America all day. So spoiled!

We finally celebrated as a family the next day. Keira picked out her own presents too - the girl knows what she wants and didn't want me to mess it up.

She's a good girl. She's sassy and materialistic and a little spastic, but she's also always cheerful and a hard worker and caring and fun. She has a good heart. Welcome to the teen years Keira! They look good on you!

Ed took the little girls to the mall to check out the traveling Lego exhibit.

Then to Drew's for "motorcycle" rides

The last week of July we stayed at a cabin on Cascade Lake. Heaven on earth.

One morning we went on a forever-long "hike" thanks to an inaccurate map. The mosquitos had a feast.

Mostly, though, we relaxed and enjoyed the lake-front property.

After a couple nights by ourselves the rest of the family joined us for the Anderson reunion.

Even more fun to be had:

Spencer took some really nice pictures for everyone. He let Kimberlee use his super nice camera for a little while and look what she did:

It was wonderful. Just what we needed to refresh and rejuvenate - we knew August would be busy. We came home to lots of paperwork to sign to close on our house. It was officially sold on July 31st. Goodbye Arkansas. Kimberlee also started work in the corn fields again. Long hours in the hot, hot sun, but she sure likes the piles of money in her bank account. Keira came home to babysitting and neighborhood dogs to feed. And we all came home to a cat anxious for attention and spoiling.

Even from the alpha.

June

Ed spent the first week of June getting our house in Arkansas ready to sell. He mulched flower beds, powerwashed the house, restained the front door, had carpets cleaned, repainted nearly every wall inside (and trim), fixed the air conditioner, fixed some bathroom light fixtures, etc. etc. etc. He worked so hard he had to retire his Bob Ross shirt when he was done:

In the end it looked pretty dang good. We really loved this house. Ed's final walk-through video made me cry.

The girls began June with the last day of school! My elementary girls had the best teachers this year.

The end-of-year picnic was hot and full of good friends. I'm grateful for good schools.

Obviously my older girls finished school too, but their last day included finals and then hanging out with friends. I guess middle school and high school are too mature for a last-day-of-school family picnic. Everyone finished strong with good grades. What good girls I have. Goodbye 9th, 7th, 4th, and 1st grades!

We got to be with Grandma and Bonka as they opened their 2nd mission call. Idaho Boise Mission! They are the office couple over finance, housing and referrals.

We opened up our boating season with a lovely ride and picnic at Spring Shores (Lucky Peak). Ed showed us where he wanted to go camping. Spoiler alert - it never happened. Stinkin busy summer.

The girls got bored and went swimming in my bathtub.

Against all odds (including a father who is allergic and hates cats) our oldest somehow became the owner of one male kitten.

His name is Oliver and his sole purpose is to kill the voles that have destroyed our yard. But first he had to survive the summer with the 2 little girls. He certainly held his own - Krista and Kassie's arms were completely covered in scratches. They love him anyway.

Ed had another sim in Miami. He must like me because he keeps inviting me to go with him. Those are "for real" beachy waves in my hair!

While Ed worked I ran on the boardwalk, walked the beach, read my book and watched a lot of HGTV. One afternoon I got to hang out with Ed's cousin Kortney and her sweet boy. When Ed would get back we'd eat and hang out on the beach some more. I got sunburned. We had dinner in the Art Deco district one night - so loud and all sorts of interesting smells, really nice cars, and hardly any clothes on anyone. Not my scene. Just put me back on the beach. With more sunscreen.

Getting to Miami on standby was super easy and uneventful. Getting home was a different story. I lucked out with first class from Miami to Salt Lake - so nice. There were 6 flights from Salt Lake to Boise. So many chances...so little luck. I wasn't even close to getting on the first 3. Standby lists were ridiculously long, which didn't even matter because those 3 flights were completely oversold. The 4th flight was on Alaska Airlines. All standbys before me got on...I was next in line when they closed the doors. The 5th flight was also oversold. At this point I had been in the Salt Lake airport for nearly 12 hours, and to top it off I was sick with a stomach bug. I just wanted to get home to my babies. I was so grateful to get on the final flight of the day. I don't need to go back to SLC for a while.

Kassie took swim lessons from Natalie again. She is a speedy little fish.

My littlest baby had a birthday. Karoline turned 3!

I came home from Miami the day before her birthday, so I didn't really have anything ready for her. She was more than happy to go shopping with me and pick out all her own presents. And then she acted surprised when she opened them. Good girl. Sorry your mom is so lame.

3 is not a favorite age in this house. My kids like to kick their terrible 2s up a notch when they hit 3. KK is no exception. But I think I've finally figured out "this too shall pass" and we're going to enjoy the last year of toddlerhood. Look at that spunky smile. It shouldn't be too hard.

The night of KK's birthday something super special happened. My Stokeses came to visit! They were moving from Alaska to Texas, with family stops in Washington and Utah. Guess who is conveniently located between Washington and Utah - me! 6 years was way too long  - let's not go that long again Angie!

We ended June with an offer on our AR house, which we took. It was a good month.