I was out walking one morning and caught the most beautiful sunrise! Then I bumped into Craig and he'd gotten an even better picture of it!
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| Here's Craig's |
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| And mine |
It's always nice when the universe rewards you for doing the hard thing!
One of my former Young Women, Ella, went through the temple and invited me to come with her, which meant a great deal to me! I was kind of surprised when I sat down with her and her mom (Abby, who has become a dear friend as we've worked together in church!) and realized I was the only other person from the ward they'd invited! I felt really special to get to be there and be a part of her big day!
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| Temple selfie! |
Camille's class had their awards ceremony, so Bentley and I went to cheer her on. I just love the teachers she had this year, and I thought this was all very sweet:
(I also thought it was sweet that Bentley came along!) Here's Camille with her bff, Mara!
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| "Excellence with Integrity" and "Natural Connector"-- two awesome kids! |
There was a youth temple trip, but I had a choir thing and couldn't go, which was a bummer. It sounded like it was a great evening for everyone!
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| Marianne, Jadyn, Kendra, Violet, Lydia, and Ella. Love the rainbow behind them! |
Craig and I spent a Saturday morning sitting on our lawn chatting. Colton took that time to build himself a fake fire and roast fake s'mores. Kids are so fun!
And then as I was driving that night, I realized there was a very pretty sunset going on! I managed to snap a picture as I drove over the interstate where I could see it better. I'm such a safe driver... But considering I took this from a moving vehicle and without actually looking, they turned out pretty good!
The next Tuesday our YW/YM combined activity was the Cardboard Regatta! It's the most ridiculous thing-- the kids make boats out of huge cardboard boxes and then paddle around in them and it
actually works!!! Honestly, I couldn't believe it until I'd actually seen it. How nutty is this???
First we put everyone onto teams and they had to get building!
Then, once they'd posed for photos, they had to haul their boats down to the pond for the big competition!
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| Julia, Violet, Ember, Jadyn, Daniel, Jason, and Julia. I love that the three Woolstenhulmes all ended up on a team together! |
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| As did the four Smith kids! (Colton, Kendra, Steven, Ryder, Bentley, and Topher) |
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| Eli, Truman, Calvin, William, and Marianne |
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| Cedric, Gideon, Sawyer, Maisy, McKinley, and Luci |
Craig had two boats compete against each other at a time, everyone trying to race around the dock in the middle of the pond. And Scott was out paddling around in a canoe in case anyone needed rescuing. Camille was also out kayaking around just because it makes her happy!
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| This one was a cool idea, but it did not work. At all... Eli stayed in there as the boat kept sinking, making everyone nervous that he was going to go down with it (which was why Scott kept hovering nearby!) |
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| But this boat did pretty well! That's Colton and Ryder trying to row it together! The scripture reference on their boat is Matthew 14:30, "But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me"-- very apropos! |
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| Success! |
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| Eli finally emerges from his own personal shipwreck... (Also, you can see a bunch of the girls who opted to swim around and jump off the dock after they'd competed) |
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| All the remaining "boats" and floatation devices... |
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| Another success! |
Then round 2 was a demolition derby round between the two winners, where they were still racing to paddle around the dock, but this time they were allowed to try and sabotage each other. Imagine my surprise when Kendra went full-on Beast Mode, launching herself onto the other boat, and ripping it apart with her bare hands! The girl is
savage!!!
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| Love the random floating Croc...! |
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| Camille, meanwhile, in her happy place |
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| McKinley sinking the other boat |
The other team of course retaliated and everyone's boats were sunk! The kids dragged the cardboard out of the pond so at least we wouldn't be polluting, and then they headed back to the house where Tony was ready with apple cobbler and ice cream for everyone. It was such a fun night. I love stuff like this so much!
Just two days later was Ryder's 8th grade Walk Through, which they do instead of a graduation. Basically, the teachers all line up along the hallway and cheer as the rising 9th graders walk through the hall for their final time (except, not really, because they still had a half-day of school left). It's kind of silly, but I prefer it to all the boringness of trying to pretend that the kids are "graduating" in any meaningful way from middle school.
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| There he is with us following behind |
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| Shaking Mr. Walton's hand (have I said before how much I LOVE that the principal of Walton Middle School is named Mr. Walton???) |
We figured that was a good time to present him with the thing he's been wishing for for so many years now....
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| Yup, Ryder finally has a phone! Now he can be a screenager just like his older siblings! |
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| Yay, Ryder! |
And then the next day was the last day of school! Another year done! The kids all had half days and I managed to be home (or in the case of Kendra, pick her up) on time for that. Always a win, when I can make that work! And Craig picked up pizza on his way home which we were all excited to eat at the pool, but then of course it started raining and thundering. So we finished watching
Willow (which is a weird movie, quite frankly-- very much LOTR Lite) and ate our pizza at home, and by the time the movie was done, the weather had cleared up and we managed to get some pool time in after all.
Welcome, summer! We've been waiting for you!
