Mid August- First day of school, Charles' Eagle Award, date night, J gymnastics bar

 

We found a used bar that we picked up for Jane so she can practice her hip circles and other things at home. 

Good thing she loves gymnastics as much as she does because it's a lot of work, a lot of time(right now she's on pre-team so they don't meet as often as team but it's still 4 hours a week), and lot of  money. 

Scott and I had a dinner date at Gourmandise and I had such a delicious Mediterranean salad with falafel. 

This is what our bedroom looks like every night. The kids come in to plug in their phones and pray together, and then they end up staying awhile, visiting. I love it. 

Jane and Nora got some hand-me-downs from Jane's friend Leiah so the girls decided to dress as twins. 

Charles finished his Eagle before the pandemic but because of all that was going on in the world, they waited to have the award ceremony until August. Nice work Charles!

Family night playing some pickleball. 

We don't often get rain, but one day in August we got a ton! This is our retention basin down the street. We were grateful we didn't have any flooding at home; though a few neighbors had their window wells flood. Luckily they got the water vacuumed out before it got into the house. 

The kids all had their first day of school in the middle of August. First was Charles and Elisabeth and the next day was Annabelle, Jane and Nora. 

When high schoolers went to school Monday, but the others hadn't started, I decided to take the day and go to BYU Education Week. I loved it. I especially loved Anthony Sweats class on prophets and the health class by Dr. Matthew Morgan. 

And my lunch was delicious. They have a new place in the cafeteria called "choices for everyone" and I loved it!

I thought this was a cool chart..it shows how you could incorporate intermitent fasting, exercise and balanced eating into your schedule. 

Ironwoman and sprint triathlons and BYU sports

I participated in a virtual, 2-week ironman with some of my hiking friends in the end of July, beginning of August. Over 2 weeks I swam 2.4 miles, ran 26.2 miles, and biked 112 miles. Unfortunately, I started getting some vertigo from all the swimming (could have been from water in my ear, or from the flip turn I tried to do under water). I was able to finish fine, but laying down and getting up (in morning or while doing other floor exercises) was killer for awhile because the entire room would start spinning all around me and it would make me loose my balance and feel nauseous for the rest of the day. 

And I got this lovely cut from the flippers I was wearing while doing all my swims; apparently they were too small. 

During this same time, my good friend Elisa L had signed up for a Triathamom (sprint triathlon) and then she ended up being out of town when the race came, so she asked if I'd like to fill in for her. Since I was already training for this ironwoman I said sure. Here's my race info:

I had several people pass me on the swim, I passed some on the bike and a couple passed me, and then I passed a lot of people on the run. I got stung by a wasp while on my bike ride. It got me in the front of the arm, near the left arm pit. It hurt and was swollen and tender for days. 

Elisabeth is in student government this year. Here she is sporting her new student gov sweater. 

I love that Elisabeth and Charles are in high school together now and that they can go to football games together. Here they are all dressed up in neon and ready to head to the first football game of the season. 

Charles and Elisabeth and some of their friends participated in the annual, free, multi-stake sprint triathlon. They both finished, had fun and did well. 

Since all four girls are in soccer, we decided to take the family to watch a BYU women's soccer game. They are so talented! They were definitely fun to watch. 

Jane and Nora, at the end of summer, participated in the BYU gymnastics cubs camp. They both loved it. Jane loved it so much she decided not to go with her original plan to do stuntek in the upcoming year but instead go back to full-on gymnastics again. 

 

They had a friend that did the camp too so most days we were able to have one parent drop off and another pick up but the last day the other parents were out of town so I dropped off, went for a hike up the Y trail, drove back to BYU campus and got changed, walked around campus a little, ordered a smoothie from jamba juice and then waited for a short time for the girls to get out. It was a nice day. 

Garnica Reunion, Playa Del Carmen Mexico- Day 5 & 6 end of trip

Friday we spent the day at our resort, Grand Sunset Princess. We all had appointments at the resort during the morning/afternoon to get tested for covid since were flying back home to the USA the following day. Gratefully, everyones tests came back negative! 

There are lots and lots of lizards all around the resort. Baby Rain especially loved the lizards and sometimes refused to do anything else, even swim, because he wanted to watch the lizards. 

This is how we saved ourselves a spot each morning. Someone would come out early for a jog and we'd lay out some of our personal items on chairs. 

We did that at the pool and the beach since we often walked back and forth. 

Lots of Coati's 

The night before we were headed back home we took a family picture. I love this group! We're missing Angelo in the picture...he was taking awhile to shower and get ready and the sun was quickly setting, so we took this one without him but the next day before we left we made sure to take another picture with Angelo and with whatever family was available.

After dinner and pictures we went to the ice cream parlor for a quick dessert. The teenagers came here every night. 

We had such a great time in Mexico with family! I'd love to do this again someday!

 

Garnica Reunion, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico- Day 5 Chichen Itza, Ek Balam and Ik Kil Cenote

Thursday morning some of us (Me, Elisabeth, Charles, Fred, Robin, Shaun and Luis) went on an excursion with Alma LDS Tours to see a few Mayan Ancient Ruins. They picked us up at our resort and then we went onto Cancun to pick up two more couples. The drive to Ek Balam was another 2 hours or so.

This was my breakfast that morning which I ate on the shuttle. A very ripe and delicious mango which I could peel like a banana. These are one of my favorite foods that I've been enjoying daily (sometimes multiple times a day) here in Mexico. We just don't get them this ripe in the USA. 

 

Our first stop was at Ek Balam. 

There are stray dogs everywhere. They're all pretty timid and usually stay away from people. We were able to snatch a quick picture with this dog in it before it walked away to find another shady spot away from people. 

Look at the size of these caterpillars! Wow!

This is David, our native tour guide. He was awesome and I loved hearing about all the history behind the sites and also how he tied in scripture and traditions from scripture. 

Luis and Elisabeth

Charles, Elisabeth and Shaun

At the temple here at Ek Balam, they took us to where the entrance to a more sacred area was. There were three stone engravings outside of this entrance: The father of all, his son and the ghost. And if you look closely at the engravings and their hands, people who go to temples today will notice something familiar. 

Lots of steps to the top! They have a specific number or steps that they made on purpose but I can't remember the reason why (maybe for days in a year?). Here's Luis climbing down.

After Ek Balam we drove about half hour to our lunch buffet (it was included in the price of the excursion). 

From there we went to Chichen Itza, one of the 7 wonders of the world. 

The heat and humidity was pretty awful, especially when we had to wear masks the whole time while at the ruins (we just pulled them down to take a quick picture), but I was glad they were open and we could visit. 

2000 pillars representing soldiers in their army (could it be 2000 stripling warriors? Maybe)

After Chichen Itza we drove about 5 minutes to the Ik Kil Cenote. This was so refreshing! We had been all sweaty and sticky in our clothes and now we could get in the cool water. Elisabeth did not like all the fish swimming around us. 

We got back to the resort around 830pm (we left at 7am that morning). The family sent us this picture of the delicious churros they had at the buffet that night. Sadly, when we got there, they were all gone! But they still had plenty of other food. I loved not having to cook or clean all week, but rather just relax and enjoy time with family.