Family Pictures in my Favorite Place

A few weeks into July I realaized that Natali would be gone bu the time our annual fall pictures came around.  The thought made me more than a little sad.  Then I had a genius plan - my friend Heather agreed to come up to McCall with us to take family pictures at the condo.  We played all day with her family and then rushed to get ready for pictures.  I love how they turned out.  This one of Bob and Mack is one of my favorites.  Makes me smile everytime.

 She managed to hide Emmy's sunburned cheeks but if you look close you can see the red on Greg's feet from the long day outside.  I will treasure these pictures as the last in this phase of life - so glad we could make them extra special being in McCall.

Hiawatha Trail

Grandpa wanted to take Natali, Kate, Abby, and I to the Oregon coast in the airplane. As the day approched the weather didn't cooperate so we had to make a different plan.  We decided to let Natali go to work and Grandpa would take Emily and Rachel in her place and head up to Coeur d'Alene to take our turn on the Hiawatha Trail.  We had a early flight then rented a car and headed to rent our bikes.  There was a bit of waiting and fixing problems but eventually we hit the trail.  The trail starts right at this tunnel (picture showing Rachel from the back riding toward the tunnel - Emily shown on the other side).  The tunnel is 1 1/2 miles long.  It has little gutters on the side for the water to run down and it is cold and totally dark.  As we entered Emily realized her light didn't work.  I rode close to her and she did have a head lamp but without the bike lamp she was a bit scared - understandably so.  She was nervous about riding into the gutter so she stayed right in the middle and we slowly made our way through the tunnel.  I loved it; Emmy not so much, but she survived and we made it out the other side.

The view was incredible as we costed down the path in the middle of the forest.  I loved the dark cool tunnels and the view from all the bridges.  

Kate flew down the hill - we hardly ever saw her.  She loved her rented bike and wanted to keep it.  Emily was a bit more nervous and kept her pace slow and steady but she still loved it.  What a cool experience.

When we got to the end of the trail there was a long line for the shuttle back up to the top.  This was probably the worst part of the whole trip.  It was sunny and hot -so hot.  We made the most of it eatting the remnants of our lunch or letting Grandpa feed them to the friendly chipmunks, Phantastic Gus, Chip and Dale.

We did have one mishap on the ride.  Near the beginning, when Emmy was still getting used to her bike, she hit the only slightly steep part of the whole trail and her bike slid on the gravel.  Her hands and one knee had a few battle wounds but she was a trouper; she hopped back on and rode the rest of the trail even though it hurt her hands quite a bit.

After over an hour wait we finally got shuttled to the top, jumped in our car and hurried to the airport.  We grabbed some takeout on the way and arrived about 20 mins before the airpot closed for the day.  Our timing was pretty tight - we landed in Ontario just as things were getting dark.  It was a long day but such fun.  So grateful Grandpa took us on that adventure.

Cousins and More Cousins

One of the best parts of the summer is all the cousin time.  Andrew and Emily went to McCall with the Wilford's and Andrew learned to water ski!

Bernard's came for a week and the kids loved the time with them.  Grandpa and Aaron took the big kids water skiing.  Their late night arrival led to a lot of pizza and ice cream.  Well, let's be honest, every trip to Grandma's ends with ice cream.

Lily and Phoebe really hit it off this time.  They had a blast together swimming, playing with toys and doing crafts.

There were lots of sleep overs and the girls loved the time at Grandma's becuase she always makes it a party.  My girls all tackled multiple sewing projects with Grandma over the summer and did a lot of baking.  With Phoebe they made bread dough and created shapes out of it before they baked it.  

A pizza

Lily loved her cat, and 'L' and Phoebe made a toilet - they may have been singing a lot of "Parry Gripp" songs (think "There's a cat, flushing a toliet...).

Then the Castleton's came and Kate and Sophie couldn't get enough of each other.  Reed spent most of his time at grandma's house catching tadpoles and when he realized what specimen where available at our place he had to come spend the night.  We spend a lot of time fishing all of the neighborhood lakes.  Like a lot of time.  I was going for best aunt ever and fished in the heat for hours but it finally payed off and we caught a blue gill.  

Andrew worked for a man in our ward who runs a fireworks stand.  He used his employee discount to hook Mark up with a ton of fireworks.  Let's just say the 4th was memorable and no people or buildings caught fire.

The twins celebrated their birthday with all of us at Grandma's. We had a blast playing silly games and eating two delicious birthday cakes.

Castleton time also included a lot of make overs, yoga with Sharee and Holly, baking, crafts, and lots of swiming. We love summer time with cousins.

Graduation

Natali will always remember the drama of graduating in 2020.  When Covid cancled all graduation plans the school scheduled a Graduation for the begining of July.  Lots of Natali's friends were going to be gone by then and I worried that even then we wouldn't be able to have the traditional graduation they were planning.  I emailed and suggested a "drive through" graduation.  They decided to do both- a drive thru on the original date of graduation and the traditional one later.  We decorated our Van with balloons and a 2020 sign (sadly we didn't get a picture). The kids held small posters out the window saying things like, "Natali 2020" and "BYU here we come".  Then we drove through a line of up of simple things like a picture stand, moving the tassel, and then a long walk accross the football bleachers while they called her name.  

After all her effort to plan everything out she still managed to forget her Valedictorian medal on the big day.  It was sort of anticlimactic but a lot shorter and managable for the littles then a traditional graduation.  We managed to be in line right by her friend and future roommate, Anna.  

Grandma Nani sent this awesome sign, the money lei and a bunch of decorations to help make the day special inspite of her not being able to be there.

Harry Potter themed hat - shocker.  We held a little party with Wildfords and Grandparents.  We decorated grandma's house in Vikes colors, had graduation themed treats, a pasta bar (per Natali's request) the kids swam, we watched a slide show of pics the ward had put together of Natali, and played Encore.  We had a lot of fun - not the big party she had imagined back in February but all things considered she handled all the changes to her life like a pro.

They held a seminary graduation but only one parent could go and since I was in Florida I just let it go but she did finish seminary - yeah!

Then time approched for the traditional graduation.  Natali considered not participating but was asked to give the speech for the Valedictorians.  The was such and honor.  She got excited and spent a lot of time on her speech. Then just days before they cancled it due to a staff member contracting Covid.  Tears were shed this time.  She had been indifferent about it till they asked her to speak.  A few parents worked hard and threw together an outdoor graduaction in a neighborhood common area.  Natali wasn't too excited about it but it did let her give her wonderful, humorous, inspiring speech, wear her medal, ropes, and the candy lei some poor mother slaved over, and a cupcake.  Sadly, not many kids came and only one of Natali's friends but I think it was good for her to give her speech.   It was such a tough way to end this phase of her life but I am so proud of the girl she has become.  She is kind, resilient, observant, inclusive, determined, smart, funny, energetic, driven, practical, hard working, sensitive, loyal, an amazing big sister, baker, friend, and daughter.  What a gift to be her mother.  I sometimes can't believe how lucky I am to have her in my life.  She inspires me to be better.  When this year gave her lemons over and over she just got up and figured out a new way to get where she wanted to go.  I know that no matter what the rest of 2020 and beyond throws her she is going  to handle it with confidence and faith.  Love her so much.