Emily's First Homecoming

Emily looked so beautiful in this dress - it was a great style and color for her.  I did her hair but we never got a great pic of the back of it - which was the actual cool part.

She liked spinning in it.

She and Jessie looked so cute and happy together.  They had a great time swing dancing the weekend before and going to an escape room the day of the dance.

Greg was out of town but I did manage to snap a few photos before they left for dinner and pictures.

Here are their pictures with their group.

She had a fabulous time.

A Day with Baby Girl

Mack started school on the 24th and that was the day that the day care was doing teacher appreciation so they were closed.  Mack didn't have any good options for who could watch Blake since Sophia had to work so I volunteered to drive up - worth it to spend a whole day with Bean.  

I arrived Sunday after bedtime, but it was nice to catch up with Mack and Sophia.  The next morning Mack and I got in some early Blake fun with her 6 am wake up.  She wasn't so sure about me, but she warmed up.  

I got to feed her yogurt an hour later when she woke from her nap.  She said bye to mom and dad and the two of us had the day together.

I loved getting to hold her and feed her her bottle.

Since it was a Monday, we called Kate and she got to enjoy watching Blake play, singing to her and talking while Blake ate.

To get some exercise I took Miss Blake for a walk, Mango wanted to go with us.

In fact, we spent a lot of time with Mango and Bailey; they are Blake's favorite play things.

After putting Blake to bed, Mack and Sophia went to the movies and I went to sleep on the couch.  The next morning I hear Blake's early wake up and played with she and Mack before telling her goodbye when she went down for her nap.  I dropped Mack off at school on my way out of town.  It was sad saying goodbye because I don't think I'll see them before Thanksgiving.  Man I love being with that little one and I love watching Mack and Sophia love on her and take such great care of her.

First day of school

My last two years with Emily 😢 have started.  Emily is a junior and loving it this year- especially choir and musical theatre.  She is thrilled to avoid a certain math teacher by taking math online in the library.

Man I love my two little buddies - although they aren't so little any more.  They are so good to each other, rarely argue or get impatient with each other. They genuinely enjoy being together.  It is such a wonderful phase of life for me.

I can hardly believe what a beautiful, mature girl my Lily is becoming.  She is loving 8th grade with jazz band, 8th grade band, and percussion TA.  Her online science class is getting her high school credit and time with her favorite librarian.

I don't buy the school pics but it is fun to see them 😂

Kids in their ballet classes are always surprised to learn they are sisters with their different skin, hair and eye colors, but they are great sisters 💖

Easton Reunion

The last weekend of summer we headed to Utah for an Easton reunion and Whitney's reception.  We headed down Thursday after work.  Upon our late night arrival at our hotel we discovered that we only had two queen beds, no couch or roll away bed, and five people.  Emily volunteered to sleep on this chair, it didn't work well and she eventually moved to the floor.

The next morning we met up with cousins at temple square and got to tour the new visitors center.

The model of the remodeled temple and the temple experience were super cool - made me really excited to walk through the temple during the open house.

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast on Beth's porch and Emily enjoyed kitty time.

Then we headed to the lake where Brett spent all day taking the kids out and letting them try wake surfing.  They had a lot of fun.

From there Greg, Emily, Natali, Miguel and I went for a hike to get a little exercise before dinner.

Emily's hair looked incredible in the sunlight.

We ate pizza at the air B&B while the sisters got Laurie's house ready for Whitney's reception the next day.  Sunday we went to church then headed to Laurie's.  We helped with all the food and decor and got to enjoy a few minutes of the party before we hit the road.  We had to get home at a decent hour because the girls started school the next day.

Summer Time Random Fun - July and August

The girls accompanied Greg and I to the Shakespear Festival.

One Sunday when there were two missionaries speaking these men realized that all 6 Bishops of the 4th/River Ranch Ward were in the building so they had to get a picture.

First Saturday in August means clothing drive so the girls went through their closets and sorted all of our clothes into sizes.

Then we delivered them to the downtown building and helped put them in their proper places.

Day of I helped check volunteers in while Greg and Emily helped keep the clothes organized and assisted shoppers.

Then we helped with clean up.  It is quite a project but 940 people visited the exchange on Saturday- amazing good was gone.

During the 4th gen academy Lily got to play with her buddies, including a day out shopping with Hazel.

That Friday night before we visited Salisbury's wedding reception we stopped by DeWayne Hill's assisted living center since we had missed him at Christmas.  He was happy to see us.

The last week before school started the girls had lots of work to do, finishing their online course and deep cleaning their bedrooms.  To celebrate their completion the girls each invited a friend and we went to Boise to play.

We relived Zoo Boise memories, ate at Chick-fil-A and visited the climbing gym.

Thoroughly worn out we made our way home - goodbye summer.