Heading to Utah

And then, before I knew it, it was time to take Bentley to school!  Now it would have made sense for Craig to have flown out to Utah with him.  Craig is very calm and good at getting stuff done.  But unfortunately, it being the beginning of the school year, Craig couldn't really take time off of work.  So Bentley was stuck with me.  I was very worried that we'd both be emotional wrecks and take it out on each other by fighting the whole time.  So I was very relieved when my Mom announced that she would like to go to her *cousin's open house in Utah the same weekend, and would it be okay if she joined us for our trip?  That seemed like an excellent idea!

So!  We got up Friday morning and as everyone headed off to school, they had to give Bentley their final hugs goodbye!  It was awful and sweet all at the same time.  (I should note here that Bentley has sort of made himself infamous in our family (and ward!) for only giving very awkward side hugs.  The week before he was leaving, he told us that he would finally be giving us real hugs.  Unless we made a big deal of it, in which case, he'd go right back to the side hugs.  So we complied by trying very hard to pretend we weren't noticing the change.)

And then once everyone had left, I finally started packing!  And Bentley finished emptying and cleaning his room, stripping off sheets, dusting everything.  We taped up the boxes of stuff he was leaving behind.  He actually still had space (and weight!) left in his luggage, so I made him take a few things he wasn't going to bother with, like his tennis racket and winter coat.  We'd already bought a ton of stuff and shipped it all to my cousin who we'd be staying with-- bedding, towels, hangers, stuff like that-- and she had graciously washed everything that needed it.  I was also puttering around doing laundry and other things as we got ready.  We weren't leaving the house until 1:30, which felt like way too much time.  Bentley kept asking, "Can we just go already?"

Finally it was time.  We loaded his huge suitcases into the truck and headed for Richmond!

Here we are at the airport!

We had a long flight to Denver, and it wasn't too full so we got to have the middle seat between us empty!  That was awesome.  The next flight we had crying babies in front AND behind us, so we were happy that it was a pretty short flight!  Then when we made our way through the Salt Lake airport, my Mom was waiting and had already picked up the rental car!  The only thing we had to do was take a few minutes to add my name to the contract so I could drive it, too.  And then it was off to my cousin Jenna's house in Sandy!

It was late by now-- I think we landed around 10pm?-- so it was dark, and also cloudy, although there was a nice half moon trying to poke its way out of the clouds.  As we drove, Bentley suddenly asked, "What is that?  Are those the mountains???"  It was really hard to even tell, but as the moon sank lower, we figured out that yes, that darker shape in a dark sky looming above us were just the really huge, close-by Utah mountains.  They really can't compare to our Carter Mountain here!  (Which Bentley has assured me he will definitely be referring to as Carter Hill when he comes back at Christmas time!)

So that was fun!  We arrived at Jenna's house, she got us settled in the guest rooms in her basement, and we went to bed.  It had been a long day!

*My Mom's cousin who, at the age of 69, just got married for the first time!  I seriously could not be happier for a person to finally find true love!

First Day of School

And suddenly... it was the first day of school!  It felt... weird.  Like a soft start or something?  Because while most of the kids started school, Bentley was still here!  So rather than enjoying a quiet, empty house, I was bugging him to finish cleaning and packing up his room and figuring out what stuff he was taking to college and whether or not it would fit in the luggage we bought him...  It was a bit of a slow-but-still-slightly-stressful, painful process that was best done at the last minute.  But it meant that nothing felt like school has actually started!

But we still got pictures!  Camille-- who is in 4th grade now!-- was the first to head to the bus stop:

We had a bit of a cold snap, so she actually got to wear her sweatshirt without cooking!  Also-- her hair is getting so long!

Camille is very excited for the school year!  She got Ms. Simpson and Mrs. Wilson, who both Ryder and Colton have had and loved, so that was awesome.  And two of her good friends are in her class!  So she's been coming home very happy these days, which makes me happy, too.  It was weird taking her to meet her teachers and only having one kid at the elementary school.  The last time that happened, Bentley was in 1st grade...  {Sniff, sniff...}

Everyone else was up to see her off (and to do our Come Follow Me lesson!), but as you can see, some of the kids were still in their jammies!

Craig was the next to leave, so I made him sit for a picture, too, and he was very sweet about obliging me!

He's so good about always eating an apple and a salad.  Also, I never expected him to still have such fantastic hair in his forties.  That's my man!

Next it was Ryder and Colton's turn to head to middle school!  They're also pretty happy this year: Ryder is excited to be an 8th grader, and Colton's BFF is in all his classes with him, so he's happy, too.  What a great year for my kids!

And finally, Bentley dropped Kendra off at the high school because he wanted the car (I think she was pretty nervous about driving herself that first day, too).

I kind of love that she stole my sweatshirt for the first day of school.  I'm fine with not being cool.  But maybe I'm not embarrassing?

So everyone came back happy and Bentley and I had gotten some good work done on his room while they were gone!  And then, that evening, we went out to Citizen Burger Bar with Tom and Donna as a last hurrah before Bentley left for school!

Kind of proud of myself for getting all nine of us into one selfie!

The weather was PERFECT for sitting outside, we didn't have to wait long, and it was just an overall lovely evening!

Bentley loves his grandparents!

Summer Portraits

Adam has continued to make sure we get family portraits for each season, so we had to rush to get our summer pictures done before Bentley left!  I have to admit, I had no idea how to look summery without just being drenched in sweat.  (Have I mentioned already what a hot summer we've been enjoying?)  We finally just went with Hawaii shirts and tried to get a shot of us jumping into the pool.  It was harder than it sounded...

We do pretty well when we're all wearing sunglasses and you can't tell if we're blinking!

But it's a lot harder without the sunglasses!!!  These two turned out pretty good, though...

When we tried to all jump into the pool, somehow everyone jumped in but... me!  I don't know what happened.  Everyone was mad at me and I felt so embarrassed for chickening out that I couldn't stop laughing.  So we got this picture which I actually kind of love...

I love how Bentley and Craig are both holding their hands up like, "What the heck happened???"

We did finally get the shot-- I like Bentley and Kendra's awesome jumps!

And then we let the kids actually swim and have fun!

Thanks, Adam, for making us do this!  Sorry we're so bad at it!  😂

Last Weekend of Summer 😭

The school year was rapidly approaching as we absolutely packed our final weekend with activities...

Once again, we managed to join the Manassas II ward as they camped at Matthew's Arm in Shenandoah!  It was a little different this time because Bentley and Kendra didn't come-- Kendra had band camp until 9pm, and Bentley had to work the next morning.  Normally I might have fought harder for him to somehow join us, but I didn't really want Kendra home all alone anyway.  Since we only had three kids, I almost took the truck, but after loading it, decided I was worried it might rain and moved everything over to the van.  I hate making decisions like this!  (But it did, indeed, rain for a few minutes in the night, so I was glad our stuff stayed dry!)  Also, the kids would have been awfully crowded in the back of the truck for the two hour drive...

Speaking of Kendra doing marching band-- someone took this picture of her, and I totally love it.  Also, this year she switched from doing color guard to playing the bass drum!  So that's fun!

And here's her section all dressed like frat boys

The campout was really great.  Our food turned out awesome (just foil dinners, but with teriyaki sauce, and cooked to perfection!) and I loved sitting around the campfire chatting with Emma and Betsy.  And Craig loved being somewhere with church friends where he didn't have to be The Bishop.  And it was nice just letting the kids run around with their friends.  Also, after such a hot summer, the weather was so nice and cool.  Perfect sweatshirt weather, it felt delightful.

We had a slight miscommunication where I thought we were in charge of our own breakfast, but actually Emma made breakfast for everyone.  I wish I would have realized that before I made Craig cook for our family!  But I'll know better next time!

We'd meant to go hiking or something in the morning before we headed home, but somehow it just didn't happen.  Too much hanging around talking, I guess?  What a problem to have!

Camille and Ryder wanted to try sleeping in hammocks.  Imagine my surprise when we got Camille's all set up and she immediately flipped herself upside down and grinned out at me like a crazy caterpillar!  I never would have guessed that that would work!  Anyway, she slept great until the rain, at which point she and Ryder both quickly dove into the tent they shared with Colton.  (I was also super impressed with how quickly Craig popped out of bed and closed our rain fly when those first few drops hit our tent!)

Most of the gang.  You can see Craig cooking in the back while I (sleepily) keep him company...

Colton, with Oscar and Henry in the background

Me and Emma

Gotta love a good photobomb

Me, Emma, and Betsy

Sleepy Colton on the way home...

Usually after camping I just want to take a shower and a nap, but there was no time for that this day!  I had about an hour to unpack, and then I dropped Camille off at a birthday party and took Colton to Lake Monticello for an end-of-summer Activity Days activity.  Craig, meanwhile, got the tents all dried and put away, vacuumed out the van.  He picked up Kendra and some friends from the downtown mall, fed them all pizza, and then drove all the older youth in the ward to Harrisonburg for a Stake activity/dance.  It was a very late night for us, so it was good that we'd actually slept pretty well at the campout!  

How cute are these girls having their spa day?  L-R we've got Camille, Olive, Noelle, and a friend I don't know...

This girl!

In the middle of our time at the lake it thundered and poured, so Colton and Gideon took that time to build themselves mermaid tail (merman tails?).  When I took this picture, they were singing sea chanties for me.  Also-- it took me FOREVER to clean the sand out of everything!  Blech!

But I did appreciate the name of this boat!

And finally, after a couple weeks of having only one counselor , Craig finally got a new 2nd counselor called, Scott Huff!  As if Megan and I needed another excuse to hang out!

And they managed to keep the yellow tie tradition going!  Good job, Scott!

The Purple Bowl Saga

Last September they had a Stake Relief Society activity (which got a mention on the old blog at the time because I was singing for it and managed to take a picture of me and Sarah together) and each woman got a cute little ice cream bowl to keep from it.  They had the bowls on the tables as we were sitting down and explained that at the end of the activity we could each choose one to take home.  I was sitting with Megan, and she said, "Oh, I'm going to grab that purple one!" to which I immediately told her that she'd need to fight me for it.  (Purple has been my favorite color for forEVer!)

It was one of those times where you both know that you're half joking?  I mean-- obviously, I wasn't ACTUALLY going to fight her for it.  But I did want it.  And I wanted it enough to say so.  But honestly, now I'd just made it awkward because how do you resolve such a dumb issue without someone not getting what they want?

As the evening wore on, we just kept joking about who would manage to snatch the purple bowl first.  It was fun and no big deal.

And then, as things were wrapping up, the leaders running everything called on an elderly woman sitting at our table to say the closing prayer.  She stood up, grabbed the purple bowl and put it in her spot, and then made her way to the front of the room to pray.

Megan and I just stared at each other, mouths open in shock!  How dare she???  And then we just about died laughing because it really was too funny.  But that was it for our purple bowl.  I got a teal one, Megan chose blue.  And from then on, it became a joke that that rude lady probably saved our friendship because who knows how nasty that fight might have gotten?

So we still laugh about it, even to the point that we told our other friend Megan the whole ridiculous saga.  This Megan told us she actually had two sets of those bowls because they'd been on sale at Costco and she'd thought they were so cute.  In fact, her mother-in-law had gotten them for the Relief Society activity BECAUSE Megan had told her what a great sale it was.

Alas, Megan is now moving to Alabama.  And in order to get ready, she asked for people to come help her pack, which of course I did.  I show up, ready to get to work, and look what she's got out on her dresser!!!

I snapped a picture and texted it to other Megan saying, "It's like she's taunting us!"

But this time the joke was on me, because Megan had left them out so she could give us both a set!  Isn't she an awesome friend???  So we both have our own purple bowls (along with the other colors) and our friendship lives on!

And I really do love my bowls.

August-- Summer Edition

You know how if you watch water draining out of a bathtub, it looks like it's just stuck there and not going anywhere at all, and then suddenly it's gone and you're not sure how it slipped through the drain so fast?  That's been this summer.  We're already halfway through August and school starts next week.  Where has the summer gone???

Anyway, we didn't stop doing stuff just because camp was done!  Sydney and Beth took Colton and Camille up to Carter Mountain to pick peaches:

It was a blazingly hot day.  I was hoping for their sakes that it was a little cooler on the mountain?  But I kind of doubt it...

Funny, I always assumed peach trees were taller than this!  I clearly know nothing about this stuff at all...

Enjoying some peach ice cream after their endeavors!

We realized that if we were going to take our three eldest children to the temple together, we didn't have a lot of time to do that, so we took advantage of a free Friday, driving in the gross rain to Richmond, and got rewarded when we came out of the temple with a lovely sunset!  (Also, Adam watched Colton and Camille for us, and when we got home, they'd made a chocolate cheesecake for us!  More blessings for attending the temple!) (But, also, I am putting on so much weight.  I have GOT to stop.)

The temple was gorgeous, too!

Weirdly enough, we also ran into our friends from Manassas, Bonnie and Levi Jones (and their kids Clark and Rae-something... Rae-Ann?  Rae-Lynn? I can't remember now.  And Clark might have an "e" on the end of his name?  I don't know...)  We hadn't seen them in YEARS and had that weird moment where you're looking at someone saying, "Wait a second, do I know you...?"  Anyway, Clark(e) is off to Virginia Tech in the fall, which is surprising since he's younger than Bentley; apparently he skipped 4th grade.  Anyway, we definitely had the same idea!  That's three families I've run into from Manassas this summer: the Joneses, the Crowthers (at FSY drop off), and the Levines (at Universal Studios).  Crazy!!!

I've been trying to exercise and then go walking in the mornings.  This summer has been so hot that even just moving at all means getting drenched in sweat, so I've felt like running would actually be detrimental to my health.  But on the plus side, I've started to really enjoy cold showers.  Count that as a win?  I guess?  Anyway, the other morning was slightly cloudy (ie, even MORE humid) and the sun looked really cool:

The YM organized a combined shooting activity with the YW (and I was actually very impressed with how safe they kept it!) and we got another gorgeous sunset!  So I was happy!  Kendra had band camp so she had to miss it, which disappointed her terribly.  And I left Colton and Camille home since I figured the less chaos around guns, the better.  But Ryder and Bentley and Craig all enjoyed themselves!

I actually really like this shot

Colton continues to enjoy building wild and crazy stuff with his Legos:

This is a motorhome that features a trampoline, tennis courts, an infinity pool, putting green, and ninja training/suiting up stations.  Of course!

And I worked another wedding!  It was sort of a weird one due to the bride being pretty unhappy, which led to everyone else being unhappy and on the edge.  But it did feature some of the most expensive floral arrangements on the tables that I have EVER seen, so that was fun!

The orchids had been flown in from Hawaii!  And the lilies were just gorgeous.

Anyway.  Thanks to Tropical Storm Debbie, we were supposed to have torrential downpours that day, but it actually was sunny and beautiful (albeit hot and humid)!  But because of the 9 inches of rain we'd already gotten, Pippin insisted that the ceremony take place on their gravel area, and not on the grass.  And the bride was TICKED about that.  But all the guests walking all over grass that wet would have just turned it into a mud pit!  And this meant she got to walk down the hydrangea path, which was at peak bloom, so it was still absolutely gorgeous!  And she was so lucky that it wasn't just pouring rain on her big day!  But oh, well.  There's no pleasing some people.

This!  Instead of a tropical storm!

And this!!!

Here's another shot of Colton and Camille playing with Sydney and Beth and Lexi, who gets the reward for being The Most Patient Dog Ever:

Hilarious

The other day Colton and Camille announced that they wanted to have a slumber party on the floor with their big bears.  I figured they'd toss and turn for a bit and then finally sleep back in their beds, but when we went and checked on them, they were totally conked out on the floor just as they'd planned!  Those crazy kids!

Camille's bear looks like it's stifling a laugh about the whole thing

Next week is all the big school stuff...!  😬