six girls and their favorite guy: July 2022

July was FABULOUS and busy!

There was Aruba...

and also Birthdays...

Tayler's was on the 1st.

She decided to have us meet at Aggie Ice Cream that night.

Mia is so cool.

I love that Tay picks quilts for me to make for her gifts!

The next day was the 3rd annual "Outside Day".

Such a fun, random day in the sun... yummy food and good company. haha

That night we had family over for a BBQ to celebrate Tayler and Kenna's Birthdays.

Jadyn made them both beautiful + delicious cakes!

Shelly was heading home to Minnesota the next day.

Kenna's friends threw her a surprise Birthday Party!

Our 4th of July traditions changed because they canceled the scout breakfast...

+ no fireworks at the stadium????

WHAT?????

People can't cancel our traditions!! :(

We went to the Allen's big breakfast, that we never go to because of the scout breakfast...

It was fun to chat with old friends and eat a "just as yummy breakfast".

I opted out of the Logan city parade that day.

But pictures show Mia was happy with her haul of candy.

Another BBQ/Smores that night.

Papa reciting his Australian poetry never gets old!!

There were baptisms + cute friends!

Our family Lagoon Day was HOT...

but the crowd level was low...

so that made it totally worth going on a 100 degree day!

We got there at opening, fit everything we wanted to in, and left by about 4.

That's my idea of a good day at Lagoon!

(We missed Jaden who had to work that day)

We were leaving for Aruba so I opted Lydia OUT of the Cache Cup Soccer Tournament.

I wasn't sad about that at all, cuz soccer games in the first week of July... in the middle of the day... no thanks!

But somehow they didn't get the message that we opted OUT???

So there I was with her at a game @ 5:30 with highs in the high 90's.

She had spent the day @ the Aquatic Center with Kate, Trey & family... we got her home just in time to make it to the game.

They lost, but won the next couple games that we missed.

Lydia is excited to be on this new team for next year.

Retreat for Girls...

What a jumble of emotions for Lydia... and me.

She was SO excited to go... her friend Emma she was going with was NOT excited.

She was having some serious anxiety... but went fine the first day.

I picked them up that night @ 8:30.

The whole time since we'd signed up back in February, Lydia had REALLY wanted to stay on campus. (You can do stay at home or stay on campus). Her friend was not willing to stay on campus so she agreed to do stay at home. I could tell when I picked them up that Lydia was regretting that.

She was sure she was missing out on a lot of the experience. So... I went back in and talked to the director about if she could still stay on campus. She did some checking and said that she could... but she wouldn't be in the same group in the night as she was in the day. Lydia didn't think that would be a big deal... so we dropped off her friend... went home and packed her up and took her up to the LLC on campus.

She was pumped!

But... by the time we got up there she was in a room all to herself in this dorm where everyone else was sharing rooms and already besties.

The next day... (probably because they weren't going up together) Emma didn't show up.

ALL DAY LONG.

So Lydia was feeling very lonely and confused, because everyone had partners for things and she didn't + she was sad about not being close to her group during the day because they were together at night. And not close to her night group because they were together all day.

She called me sobbing when she got back to the dorms.

Then I was sobbing, and sure I'd made the wrong choice letting her add the staying part...

UGH, we were both messes.

(Jadyn and I went with Saige and Keaton that night to Where the Crawdads Sing and people probably thought something catastrophic had happened. Since I was bawling before even getting into the movie.)

I was just super sad for my sad girl.

I texted and let the director know the situation and then texted and asked her friends mom if Emma would be coming the next day because it was making the experience not as great for Lydia as I had hoped without her there with her.

The director and counselors were super good to her and her friend came half-way through the day for a while. And most of the next day.

Girls are hard, making friends is hard, but I'm grateful for the lessons that Lydia told me she learned.

She said that, "she thought about how she needs to feel more empathy for girls who don't have friends at all... because she DOES have friends. But that feeling lonely like she did for those couple days was really hard and that she can't imagine that everyday."

I'm grateful she learned that, even though this mama bear didn't want her to have to hurt!

Saige and Keaton ran up some treats to her dorm one night.

She loved her counselor!

By the end she was grateful she had gone.

I'm hoping she'll do it again next year and it will be a better experience for her!

That Sunday it was Lydia's turn to go down to SLC to the Fill the Pot Ministry to serve breakfast to the homeless. What an amazing and memorable opportunity. I'm so grateful our Bishop organized this for the youth!

Shane spent a week working on the Spokane Temple + a week on the Newport Beach CA Temple.

Other than carpet pictures, torn up floor pictures + food... this is all he has to show for those 2 weeks. haha

The 25th was Jadyn's 16th Birthday.

She has been counting down the days til' this birthday... since AT LEAST her 15th birthday. haha

We started out the morning @ 7 am for the North Logan Breakfast at Elk Ridge.

Then headed up to Bear Lake to have Lydia to "Pickleville Camp" by 9 am.

Jadyn had arranged to have her birthday party at Bear Lake.

She had 5 friends coming with her. They were going to spend the day/night & I would take them home the next morning.

But... all of her friends started backing out for various reasons.

She ended up with ONE friend... Tessa... who came up with us. :(

That was sad for her, but they had a fun day!

I texted her bestie Carly and asked her if she could help plan a surprise party for her that night at our house.

Kenna ended up needing to be to the surgical center by 7:30 am the next morning, so we had planned to come home that night and she was going to have a few other friends sleep at our house anyway.

Saige and Lydia were going to stay at the condo that night because Lydia had Pickleville Camp the next AM and Saige was tending the Davis' kids who were running the Camp.

Then Tara and Rendell decided to come up for the night too.

(They were here for a few weeks and fit in several activities with us and or Saige. But this is the only picture we got with them.)

We all went to dinner (with the other 10,000 people in Bear Lake that day) and ended up @ LaBeau's (which was not the greatest) because the Zipz line was so long!

I was trying to get Jadyn home for this party that she WASN'T supposed to know about... but she DID because she saw I was texting Carly... and instead of me saying she was "asking about a present" or something intelligent and sneaky... I just told her to "get off my phone!". So... oops, I kind of gave it away.

While at LaBeau's we saw one of my girls' (mainly Tayler and Kenna's) "idols".

An Instagram "influencer" Hailey Devine.

We made it home to the "surprise party" that wasn't such a surprise... but that she was very happy about!

Happy 16th Birthday Jady!!

They chatted and watched an outside movie

The North Logan Fireworks were a perfect addition from our backyard.

Bright and early the next morning Kenna and I headed to the Logan Surgical Center to have her nasty tonsils removed.

She was not excited.

But was excited at the prospects of not having sore throats every 2 weeks like she has for the last 4 months!

Dr. Wilson said he was glad we had done it, because... "the left one was falling apart when I was taking it out". I don't actually know what that means??? But I guess they needed to be removed. haha

She did FABULOUS for the first 36 hours.

Even went to El Sol with Grandma and Papa on that second day.

But then it hit her! And I wasn't even there to help her because I had to be back @ Bear Lake since Lydia had Pickleville Camp and Jadyn was covering for Saige on the tending park for the next 3 days.

It made me sad to see her on face time while we were up there.. feeling so yucky and me not there to help at all!!

Day 5-6 were the worst for her... so glad we got her medicine figured out!

After I got her situated at home that first day after the tonsillectomy...

(and after a big fall for me where I was pretty sure I had broken my kneecap and was laying out by the shed going to die, whilst my daughter who just had her tonsils out needed me inside)

We went to get Jadyn's much anticipated LICENSE!

She could not have been happier!!

And I'm quite happy having another driver!

(Even though it's terrifying at the same time...)

After avoiding a super close accident (my fault) pulling out from the DMV... and demonstrating to Jadyn how she should NOT drive... UGH

I headed to see my dentist brother Jeff to get my tooth fixed that had broken while... eating the sacrament bread the previous Sunday. hahaha

One big filling later, and a drive to pick up Jadyn from tending Mia and Lydia from the Tueller's swim party (that her and Haisley Pond had come home from Bear Lake with Saige to go to after Pickleville Camp) I made it home to my Kenna.

Good thing her friends came over since they told me I shouldn't leave her alone the first day... haha

WOW, that was a crazy day.