August

We celebrated our nephew Luke in August.  He is the last of the 3 amigos (Rock, Cole and Luke) 

to leave on a mission.

Rock gets home on Labor Day and Cole has a year left.  Just 2 years now

until they are all reunited.

2 years ago when Rock was leaving

We all wanted to get a last picture with him but we were never all together.

Luke has been a great buddy to Isaac.  He helped feel the void when Cole left.

He has always had a piece of my heart.  I am so grateful that I got to be a part of his growing up.  I held him when he was just a little glow worm with the biggest roundest eyes and brightest smile.

  

We held another family Tie and Ice-cream night in his honor.

It also happened to be Luke's 18th birthday so we had 

to have a birthday cake to go with that ice-cream. 

These are the cousins that have followed the example of their older cousins.

Luke shared some very tender experiences that have shown him how the Lord answers prayers

and blesses those that turn to Him for help. 

 I still think about the things he talked about and 

am grateful what he taught me.

Waving for the pictures we are sending to Rock, Cole and Annie on missions.

We sang this beautiful song at the closing of the short program.

Luke opened up a lot of great ties. 

We love you Luker!  

 These first days of school sure come quickly.  

It really feels like I was just doing this.

This is the last year of elementary school for Ike- 6th grade.
He was ready to get back at it.  He loves to be busy and learning something.
Ike is playing club volleyball this fall, strumming the Bass, playing piano at church now
and a dedicated pen pal to his missionary friends.

We had a much happier first day of school with Meg.  

No nervous tears, just her beautiful smile to start out sophomore year.

She is still taking piano and voice lessons, dedicated exerciser and is in the high school show choir.

Almost on a daily basis I will still hear, "How can I help you Mom?"

Summer has run out of fingers to show how old she is...

a SENIOR!  

Less than a year in the home nest.
Summer is taking piano, voice and some Broadway rep dance.
She is attending a missionary prep class every Sunday evening....just in case.

 The weekend after school began, we attended our
 nephew Zach and Sarah Collin's wedding in the St. George temple.
It was a beautiful sealing.

We had a free night to take in a show at the amazing Tuacahn theater under the stars.

What a way to enjoy Beauty and the Beast.  

I kinda fell in love with St. George.  

Oh and I lost my mind and resolve in August.

We added a puppy to the family.

His name is Fritz and he is the little brother Ike never had.

He has enjoyed celebrity status and a lot of visitors

...some of whom he terrorized with his

puppy bites.

  

Naughty Fritz got put in time out after this occurred.

Most of the time, he is my shadow.
I move- he moves.  

July

We kicked off July with a celebration for my beautiful mother-in-law's birthday.

We met at Organ Stop Pizza to party.

 A Cousin dance train...why not?

Don't you love when a high school graduate doesn't think he's too cool to dance.

To celebrate the 4th, we headed up to the cabin 

and got to hang out with our fun 

nephew Adam Ashby and his beautiful wife Vianca and baby Charly.

Ike brought up his friend Alex who fit right in- card trash talking and all.

Trying out our marshmallow shooters



As fun as marshmallows are,  BB guns and targets are more their speed.

I love that lizards and horny toads can still fascinate 

Tom brought up part of his arsenal of fireworks.

Glad we had an audience to enjoy the show.

The girls and I took another trip to the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City.

If you love Shakespeare, theater or musicals this is the place for you.  

My girls were in heaven and I am learning to love what they love.

I signed us up for a behind the scenes tour of the shows.

We got to see how much work and coordination goes into running a show.

The highlight for the month was celebrating this kid turning 12.  

The first thing he opened was a package from Brazil filled with
some apparel and a portuguese Book of Mormon.

Cole also made a little video for him-

His favorite Brazilian family singing happy birthday to him...sideways.

Isaac was ordained a deacon.  This was a long awaited day.

We decided to celebrate at Top Golf since golf is hovering at the top of his list right now.

You can always count on monsoons and great lightning shows around his birthday.
He loves to hear the story about the night he
was born and the big storm we had to drive through to reach the hospital.

This was my attempt to get a group photo with a new app I have on my phone-

The idea is that I can remotely access my DSLR camera from my phone. 

The group was tiring of my attempts.

Isaac's first time in the temple

We had a great cousin group join in.  

This was also a chance to go with Luke (top right) before he left on his mission.

Celebrating with a Jamba afterward- Cheers!

Isaac also went up to BYU volleyball camp with these Farnsworth cousins.  

This was the night before check-in at cousin Mike's place.

I am sure they got plenty of sleep with this arrangement.

After vball, the Oklands picked him up for a weekend stay in Park City.

Not too shabby of a week for Ike.

While Ike was in Utah, Meggie was enjoying adventure in the great outdoors.

She attended AFY (Adventure for Youths)  in Idaho this year. 

Hiking, river rafting, ropes course, and a lot of team building excercises 

combined with gospel centered lessons.   

I had to steal some photos off the group's Facebook page.  

Meg went on this little adventure with her best friend Victoria.

She was gone for 10 days and I sure missed her but was so glad she didn't get homesick.

Meg has always battled a little bit of homesickness and she was a champ this time.

We love when the littles come over for a swim