July 2016

July was a great month.  So busy and so great!  Darren got in some nice bike rides with his buddies, Mike and Corey.  They climb high so they can go down a lot.  

Aunt Jenny took us all jet skiing.  The Harston cousins were there along with Renee’s family. I have always loved jet skiing.  The speed and turning.  And now my kids get to try it often.  They love it too!  Rockport!  

Parents were still out on the mission so we got together once in a while and did some yard work.  Managing lots of fun cousins… trying to get them to work and not just talk and play the whole time = workout for moms

We got Great Grandpa Balls’ riding lawn mower.  Tyler is pretty fast at it.  Its amazing how much less times it takes!  I still haven’t learned to drive it… maybe for a good reason…. I dont need to learn with a husband and three kids!  Darren also had a birthday.  His parents came down from Logan to celebrate.  Ice-cream cake was delicious.  We had to choose a paint color for the basement.  Who knew there were so many shades of gray and how different they would all look. 

On the 24th of July we enjoyed a fun neighborhood breakfast.  They had a super fun bike parade with a horse leading the way!  Then we headed up into the mountains.  Tyler went to his buddy Parkers bday party so the four of us walked around Silver Lake at Brighton.  Darren and Ella hiked really fast up the steep steep trail to Twin Lakes.  She’s a good little athlete!

Our dear friends/relatives the Minnicks came back to Utah for a visit.  We stole them away for a day and had a fun sleep over.  The Snowder got to come too!  Two families I love very much!

One of my favorite people, Neti Call, stopped in for an hour.  Great surprise!  She was here in Utah for just a few days and I got to spend an hour with her!

Tyler is playing a beautiful song called Einaudi- I giorni at Ranell’s wedding.  It is a beautiful song.   Ella started achievement days because she is 8.  So neat to have the time to form good relationships with the girls in the neighborhood.  We did say goodbye to fun cousins who had to head back to Kentucky.  We love every summer with them!

Our good friends the Shields who we carpool with every day to school have been our climbing buddies.  We went to Dogwood this day.  Abby climbed up high! I was so proud of her.  Ella and Mia are close in age and get along great.  Zoe is older then Abby but they still do great together!

We love to have the Allen cousin close by!  Popping over to say hello is great!  I love my garden.  I am grateful Darren took good care of it all summer while I was gone a lot.  We had a fun sparkler night.  Tyler and I were in Mexico for the 4th of July so we had some celebrations when we got home.

Prineville, Oregon-- PAMELA!!!

After staying in Bend for a few days we drove an hour away to Prineville to stay with my dear friend Pamela!  She gave me a place to live in college and I have been in love with her since!  She is so kind and amazing.

She’s from California… Silicon Valley and has evolved…. she now lives on a farm with cows, goats, chickens, a huge garden and lots of land surrounding her.  She made bread for us every day.  We helped feed a few animals.  played with new kittens.  went to see her girls in the play Aladdin.  They were the carpet and the Genie.  They were amazing.

Darren decided he wanted to ride the High Cascade 100 while we were there.  So one of the days I drove him into Bend and let him bike 100 miles.  (because thats something most people can do… decide to ride 100 miles on a whim!). We hiked up to a cool spiral back in Prineville.   Abby may have cried and screamed for half the hike but we made it.  Albert showed Tyler how to hold a game. Then I cruised back to Bend and picked up Darren.  He seemed tired but happy.  The kids were excited to hear about his adventure and tell him about ours.