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...!  😬