Mission transfer , C Temple

Jane and Annabelle, just taking selfies as usual. :). I find a lot of random photos on my phone of the kids. 

Penny is not allowed on the couch, or at least, her fur is not to be on it, so we'll sometimes bring her little bed over and put it on the couch, or have her lay on a blanket, and sometimes the kids will just pick her up and set her on them.

Life is busy and I often find myself mindlessly going about my business, just trying to take care of things and get kids where they need to go and do my own stuff as well. This mustve been one of those mindless mornings because we got in the car to go to Nora's soccer tournament, we got there and set up our folding chairs and sat down and were watching the game when part way through I felt like one of my feet was hotter and sweatier than the other. I looked down and realized I'd worn two completely different shoes! Apparently I need to slow down and think. 

August 2nd Elisabeth got transferred to the Otavalo area; not right in Otavalo, but surrounding area to Cotocachi. She loves it and she loves her companion Sister Ustua. It's cooler. Many of the people there speak another dialect and wear a special kind of clothing and hair. So that's been fun for her. She even bought one of their traditional outfits that the women wear to church. You'll see it pictured below.

After Charles received the Melchizedek priesthood, he was ready to go through the temple. We got him an interview with the stake president shortly thereafter because he wanted to attend Emma's wedding (Elisabeth's best friend, and Charles' best friends older sister). We went shopping for temple clothes etc and while we were doing that, the sister helping us mentioned that none of the mens pants come hemmed. Which meant I needed to learn a new skill. Thank goodness for youtube and the good people who upload videos and teach us how to do all sorts of things. It took me about an hour and a half, but I got it done in time! 

Going through the temple with Charles was so special for our family. And we were grateful to have some good friends with us for the experience. 

 

21st Anniversary, Women's Epic Trail Race

Here are some old pictures of my mom that we got from her siblings. 

July 25th was our 21st wedding anniversary. I've been wanting to eat at an Italian restaurant in SLC called Valter's Osteria, and we'd heard it's expensive, so we decided to do that for our anniversary this year. I made a reservation the week before, but they were closed for a private party on the 25th, so we went the following day, on Friday the 26th. (which turned out to be divine timing, because I ended up having to do our funeral luncheon on the 25th and I wouldn't have been done in time to make that dinner appointment). The food was very yummy, I loved the sauces on the pastas, and the gnocchi was so good. We spent  way more than we normally do on our food so it is definitely more for special ocassions. 

Last year for our 20th we celebrated in Hawaii. We're hoping to do something bigger like that every other year now that our kids are older. Although I did mention to Scott shortly after our 21st, that every year we should have at least an overnighter, or a weekend away, even if it's still in Utah so I think we will try to do that. I love spending time with Scott and I love having alone time with him. 

The next morning, Saturday the 27th, was the Women's Epic trail race. Elisa L, Kim and I all did the 10k. I beat my last years time by 7 minutes, finishing in 1 hour and 10 minutes. 2200 feet of climbing in 3 miles and then turn around and run back. 

Clean Simple Eats was one of the race sponsors again, and they're great! I got to know them this past year since their daughter played on Nora and Scott's soccer team, which was fun. 

Trail running dog lake, rafting, HCT, funeral

I've been doing more trail running this summer in preparation for our upcoming Women's Epic Trail Race. Kim and I ran Dog Lake Mill D North Fork Trail which is one of my favorites for trail running because it's not too steep and it's a nice smooth, dirt trail for most of it. Kim's feet have been feeling numb lately as she climbs, so she didnt' go quite all the way to the lake, but we still did a lot of it together. 

Total was 5.4 miles RT and it took us 1 hour and 15 minutes; 45 minutes up and 30 minutes down. I like the dirt/tan line before the shower just after trail running. 

Charles and Drew planned and executed a rafting trip to Moab with a bunch of senior friends (and a few juniors). They were gone for a couple of nights and had a great time. 

Ludwig's invited us to Hale Center Theater with them to see a play called the Time Machine. We also got dinner before at Salsa Leedos. They have season tickets(plus 2 extras) with friends from their neighborhood, and I've gotten to know Britta recently through bookclub since she joined us several months ago. 

We did a hike and trail run in Yellow Fork Canyon the following morning. 

This is often what Charles room looks like. Until we help. And then it looks better for a couple of days. 

We've had 4 deaths/funerals in our ward this summer. 3 of those 4 were unexpected. One of those families is from Iran, and so I decided to make them an Iranian dinner, but since I'd never made Iranian food before, my friend Madhis, who is also of Iranian descent, took me shopping at the Persian market one day and then we cooked together one morning and made them Tah Chin which is a chicken and rice dish, and also this really yummy yogurt, cucumber and mint side. 

The husband and his daughters (they lost their wife/mom) also brought some of their mom's favorite persian cookies and dates they'd filled with a walnut, crushed pistachios and shredded coconut. He also made a side potato and chicken salad with green peas, which was yummy. As the Relief Society Presidency, we do the luncheons for the funerals. I'm grateful we have Sheryl who is so good at decorating and food planning and executing these. She's been a tremendous help. And all of my presidency is always so helpful, as are our service leaders. I couldn't do it without them. 

E 1 year mission mark, C Melchizidek Priesthood, house projects, girls camp, fundraisers

In June, Elisabeth his her one-year mission mark! Now that we're here, time seems to be going fast. And I'm glad. We're looking forward to having her home in December! 

She got new mission presidents from Utah and she loves them already. I am so grateful for these amazing people who are out there serving the Lord and watching over our children. 

The girls went to girls camp, and Scott and Charles work all day, which meant I had a lot of free time to myself for a week. I did some good reading and writing and Penny just followed me around, like usual. During that week I also completed a couple of house projects. I took down the Christmas lights that were in our kitchen and replaced them with fairy lights. And I painted our front door white. It had really needed a good paint job as it was getting very worn looking. I also did a lot of mission clothes shopping. I found Banana Republic golf pants at Costco on sale for $15 so I bought 7 pair in a few different colors. I was so pleased because everything I was looking at online was more like $40-50 each! 

The girls had their stake girls camp and enjoyed their time. Nora outgrew her cleats from last year so we went cleat shopping and she found these and loved how comfortable they were. And she likes the no laces. 

Cheer has some fundraising opportunities and one of those is working concessions at the RSL and Bees games. I hate doing this, but I did several with Jane to help her out since we're asking her to pay for $1800 of her cheer fees (the total is $5000). After about a month of going to games with her (and Scott went to a couple with her too), the team ended up pulling out of this fundraiser because of some challenges they were experiencing with the employer, but luckily we'd gotten quite a few in already, 13 shifts I think total between the 3 of us, so she was able to earn just over $1000 from that which is great! 

The worst night was working at Little Cesars with their 450 degree ovens (3 of them), in this tiny space, with no air conditioning, it's open air, and it was over 100 degrees outside! I literally sweat through everything I wore and Jane was worried about me because of how red my face was. I am glad that's over! 

Charles received the Melchizedek Priesthood Sunday July 14th, along with his best friend Drew. We did it together at the Watsons home. And then a couple days later we got his certificate and then I was able to scan all of his mission documents he needed for his visa and I turned them into the mission office in downtown salt lake. We got them in about a month before the date they said he needed them in so we're really hoping he gets his visa in time so that he can go to the Ghana MTC instead of the Provo MTC. Fingers crossed. 

4th of July

4th of July we were fortunate enough to have the Romneys with us! We went to Provo in the morning to watch the hot air balloons, as we've done in years past, and it was beautiful. I love the patriotic music they play as they fill them with air and watch them take off.  We go bright and early as they start around 6am. But we got the girls to come! Yay! 

Charles didn't come with us because he signed up to compete in our cities Pickleball tournament that morning. And he won! We stopped by on our way home, hoping to see his last match, but we missed it. But he did show off his winning gear! 

That night we went to the city park to watch fireworks. We go earlier in the day to lay down blankets and we do this near some of our neighbors which is fun. Kassie and Katie had dinner with us and went to fireworks with us as well. It was fun hanging out with them. The next evening we had them over to watch the new movie, Fall Guy, on our projector. 

We get to the park a couple of hours before fireworks start, once it's cooled off, and we walk around looking at vendors, sometimes the kids will go on the rides they bring in, and there is live music. We also bring games to play while we wait. 

Jane and Nora's friend Megan happened to wear the same outfit one day when they were together. Cute twinners. 

Friday we picked up Reese from the airport and she stayed with us that weekend until we dropped her off in Provo for FSY Monday morning. Friday night Annabelle was working so we stopped off at Zulu Grill for some food and to say hi. They have the best sweet potato fries there. 

That weekend we made our traditional flag fruit pizza. We went to 4 stores before we finally found premade sugar cookie dough! I guess I wasn't the only one around here with this idea. 
We loved having Romneys and Reese with us! 

frozen cookie dough sales, Soccer Tournament, lake blanche, Lower Falls Bells

An Email To Elisabeth: 

"Hey Elisabeth, did I mention that Annabelle fell on the treadmill this week? She got pretty beat up. But she's finally starting to feel better and not limp anymore. 

Nora and I went out to Dad's work to drop off a couple of fundraiser papers: one for frozen cookie dough and one for SWIG. Afterwards we got lunch at Raising Canes, the one that's pink and is owned by some famous guy that I can't ever remember his name. 

This week Nora has a soccer tournament in Saratoga Springs. We stopped off at Hokulia after to cool down. 

Elisa L, Kim and I got to trail run Lake Blanche this week! It's my alltime favorite hike in our area. It's gorgeous the entire time. And the view at the top is stunning. And guess what we talked about for part of our jog? friendship. I told them about our conversation and your bible study of johnathon and david and we then had a good discussion about what makes a good friend and qualities to look for in a future spouse. Things that were mentioned were a strong faith/gospel living and loving, kindness (and like you and I talked about, seeing them in all sorts of situations and how they respond), hard working and self improvement in all areas and I think there were a couple more but I cant remember them right now. 

 We got quite a few orders from Dad's work for cookie dough, so the girls brought in some of the frozen dough to hiw work and sent an email out thanking them. 

Nora and Dad's team won their tournament this weekend! They were pretty excited. It's called the SSFC Frenzy Cup. 

Afterwards we went to Hokulia to celebrate. The owners were there and so sweet and happy that a few of the girls decided to celebrate there so they gave them free snowcones. And then they asked if they could post a picture of it on their social media. 

Dad and I went on a morning date hike. It was beautiful. We trail ran some of the down part. We love you and look forward to talking with you tomorrow! 

Nora was invited by her good friend Ali (from soccer) to hike Mt Timpanogos with her dad and some people from their neighborhood. This is a 14 mile hike and they would leave at 430 in the morning, so this would mean Nora could sleepover with Ali, which is something we rarely do. So she was all in! They did great! They didn't get back home until around 8pm, although they did stop off for dinner on the drive home." Way to go girls!