Summer Days in June

The second two weeks of summer were just insane.  Every day was scheduled down to the hour with swim lessons and comic book club for Noah, baseball games and daily band camp for Adam, daily summer strings for Emma (with two fantastic concerts at the end!) and swim lessons for Emma, and color guard camp for Leah.  As I'm sitting at my computer writing this on a very calm summer evening, I'm grateful for the ebb and flow of activities.  We are not a family who could easily sustain non-stop commitments all summer long. 

Between our busiest days we enjoyed an afternoon with a young mom and her beautiful baby, 

Adam and Noah's newest Lego Ninjago City set finally arrived, 

and Noah gave a baptism talk via video with Adam's help. 

Movie nights!  So far this summer we've watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Goonies, the girls and I have also enjoyed a few chick flicks. 

We spent a hot and fantastic day at Adventureland with our friends- if you really squint it's just like little Disney! 

We had a cabana in the water park where the moms spent most of our day, alternating with handing out loads of food and walking laps around the lazy river. 

And the kids had a great time by themselves jumping around the park and going from ride to ride. 

It was one of those days when I realized just how big my babies are- they don't need me to escort them to the bumper cars or the wave pool anymore- and they had a blast with that freedom too!

That night Emma had Little Leah over for a sleepover!  

There is no friend as great as a life-long friend. 

The next day the three of us went to the zoo. Hee hee- this starfish always makes us smile. 

Lifelong besties!

We had to say good-bye to our favorite missionary Elder Vaden.  He has been a great part of our lives over the last two years. 

Swim lessons means books in the shade- 

And card games of all sorts!

Noah has discovered the joy of the diving board and the drop slide this summer!

We tried out a portable ping pong net with marginal success and quickly upgraded to the real deal in the basement. 

Ahh Laney, my little nap buddy... licking herself. 

We spent a great day in Altoona at the annual stake smoke off- Adam and Noah were excited to get in the dunk tank!

And we randomly babysat an adorable stranger-from-the-church's baby that night. 

Everyone was enchanted by her, especially Laney!

And this week we've started saying goodbyes- these two won't see each other for two weeks- 

and these two won't see each other for three!

The Arkansas Temple!

 It has been almost 300 days since we got back from our last trip of 2022 and unanimously declared that we were done traveling for a good long while.  I'd say we definitely kept our word- we haven't spent a night out of our house altogether since then, and we were all ready for a quick overnight trip down to the Bentonville Arkansas temple open house in June. 

Except Laney, who always knows something is up when the crate comes into the living room. She had a great time with Buddy though!

There is nothing quite so silly as a road trip with these babies. They packed along books and games and activities and had a great time entertaining themselves back there.  It was only 12 hour round trip drive, so there wasn't really time to go fully crazy in the car.

Yes, we definitely need some new foam covers for the car headphones. 

We stopped in KC on the way down for Shake Shack!

And we stopped at three beautiful church history sites along the way- first up was Adam-Ondi-Ahman. 

This is Preacher Rock- we could hear each other clear across the field from here!

Next up- Far West!

It was interesting imagining what this spot looked like nearly 200 years ago, with a parade and a town and the excitement of the restored gospel filling up and then draining out of the area so quickly. 

And our final stop was in Independence.  We had a lovely tour from the sister missionaries and again, pondered on what the area must have felt and looked like in an era when the saints were trying so hard to figure out what establishing the restored gospel on the earth again was all about. 

Once we got into Bentonville, we spent the night swimming and talking with our own dads (it was Father's Day!) and then we all piled into the hotel room for one miserable night of stuffy sleep, snoring, and remembering the downside of sharing one hotel room as a family of six.  But we all survived!

The next morning we were up and at the temple first thing. It is such a beautiful building and a sweet experience to be in the baptistry, the sealing room, the celestial room, and the endowment room altogether. We took time to stop and talk about each room and what happens there and to recognize the spirit in the temple.  It is an incredible House of God!

Thank you to the fancy photographer who tried to hide Noah's basketball shorts behind some flowers! When everyone is in charge of their own packing, sometimes things like church pants get left behind. 

We love to see the temple!  At stake conference Elder Firmage taught us, "If you want the temple to mean anything to your kids, they have to know that it means something to you." We try hard to make the temple a priority and focus of our family, and I hope our kids know how much it means to us!

After a quick stop at Andy's Frozen Custard, 

we headed over to the surprise delight of the trip- the Crystal Bridges Art Museum. 

Noah was my buddy for the Reflections Room. 

We spied some incredible glass work by Dale Chihuly (thank you, Indy Children's Museum for teaching us about him!). 

And a Frank Lloyd Wright house. 

We really enjoyed our time in the art museum, but we had to get back on the road, stop by Ikea in KC, 

and get back home to pick up our pup and get on with our days of summer!  Our first (and possibly only) family road trip in 2023 was a delightful one!