Conversations in My Head: Summer Time!

We'd barely gotten through the last day of school (a half day on Friday) when we turned around and sent half the kids off to FSY (For the Strength of Youth) at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, VA. They did this two years ago at William & Mary, and it was nice that SVU is a bit closer! I had offered to take kids there, hoping to avoid the 7am pick up at the end of the week and it totally worked! So that was more than worth it!

Here are all the kids from our ward attending this session. There was one or two going the next week, too. So many youth!

Drop off was easy-- the only hitch was that I hadn't bothered to check the address, so I just drove to the university and then had to ask someone where I actually needed to go. But it's a small town and we weren't too far from the right place. And then they were all ready for us and the kids had their t-shirts, dorm keys, lanyards, FSY book in a snap! It was all so easy, and such a far cry from the hours of waiting around we experienced last time!

So that was awesome.

It was weird having three of my kids gone. In some ways it was so much easier-- less shouting to get everyone's attention any time we left the house. Actually, less shouting all around because that's the only way I can get the attention of my noise-cancelling-headphone-wearing teenagers! I had no idea how much I would come to hate those headphones! But it's also kind of quiet and boring? Who would have thought I'd come to enjoy the chaos of my life so much?

Anyway, Bentley, Kendra and Ryder all had fun at FSY, and that made me happy. Bentley was nice and called me one time when he was near Ryder so I could chat with him (since Ryder doesn't have a phone). It was funny to see that early in the week I heard from Bentley and Kendra quite a bit, but as they got more used to their situation, the texts and phone calls quickly dropped off. I missed them, of course, but I was glad they were having fun!

Bonnie H. Cordon, who was the General Young Women's President of the church from 2018-2023 is now the president of SVU, and she made the rounds greeting everyone, which was very exciting!

Also, Kendra managed to be the only one in the light, so she looks quite celestial! l-r: Luci, Sister Cordon, Ella, Sabrina, Kendra, and someone I don't know!

Bentley also got to meet her! Naturally, he was wearing that same inappropriate Costco hotdog shirt...

Meanwhile, back home we still had young women's with the younger girls! We were doing cooking science, so we made ice cream and butter. When I stop to think about it, the stuff you can do with some milk is absolutely mind-blowing!!! Whipped cream, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, butter, browned butter... Who had the patience to figure all this out???

Making ice cream in a bag of ice

Enjoying their freshly made butter

These girls are literally the cutest!

We also had some fun pool time with just two kids:

Camille learns the fine art of tying her hair up in a towel

Craig and I also got to go to the temple again, this time to accompany Aaron Morgan as he went through the temple for the first time. Unfortunately, we'd lost our easiest babysitters, so we ended up enlisting Adam to watch Colton and Camille again. He was so nice about helping us out! And, of course, they had the best time with him! Starting with... Camille taking a nap on the paddle board!

They also tried canoeing

And meditated on their kayaks! 😂

And practiced getting back on the kayaks when they "fell" off (really it was just a ruse to swim in the reservoir!)

"My dear! A little frog!"

And then he took them to his pool and got them lunch there:

AND they got Coldstone before going to see Inside Out 2:

And finished off the night with Christian's pizza!

And Craig and I had a great time at the temple! We rode with our friends the Gaskins, which was very entertaining! And on the way home we stopped at Cafe Rio and the Moo Thru, so that pretty much made my life.

I love the Richmond temple, but the DC temple sure is impressive!

And here are Edwin and Amy Gaskin!

We've also been spending lots of time at the pool. It's such a great summer activity (especially now that I can read my book and just let the kids play-- everyone wins!)!