Max's birthday, FSY and tennis

 Max is now 17 years old! He sent us links to some things he could use for his birthday and JB bought them for him. He's such an easy teenager -- responsible, thoughtful, funny and brave.

This month he has been very busy, including a great week at FSY. I'm so glad for the experience he had and the other youth, counselors and teachers he met.

Every day he plays tennis for hours. Yesterday they finished up summer doubles league play with the  Grand Prix tournament, and Max and Ben tied for the most points! 

JB bought this Joes KC BBQ shirt for Max when we were there last month, and I took a picture of him when he got it on his birthday so I could send the picture to the family group chat.

Here he is in Missouri, sporting another shirt with local flair.

And sporting his own high school shirt.

This next year — his senior year —will be full of college applications and mission application and so many "lasts" for our first baby. We all shared favorite memories of Max the other day. My first memory was of all his blonde hair when he was born, and how he looked all around. We are so happy to have him!

Fourth of July

We love the Fourth of July. What a great country we live in, where we are free to worship, think and speak, and where we all have the ability to become whatever we want to be. 

This picture below is the dessert we made for Sunday, July 3 -- a sugar cookie flag but the blueberry juice was quickly filling the stars area with purple! 

That night, I went to Provo to cover Elder Uchtdorf's speech at the Freedom Festival in BYU's Marriott Center. It was a beautiful talk about citizenship in God's kingdom being mankind's highest hope. I was up late finishing the story and getting it published for the Church News.

On Monday morning, our neighborhood bike parade was a hit again. 

JB and Max and Ben and I all watched from the curb.

Here come our bikers.

Afterward were some games and activities with prizes.

And then JB drove Max and Ben down to FSY at BYU! This was their first For the Strength of Youth conference and they absolutely loved the whole week. 10/10 would recommend for any teenager to go.

Millie is 6

 Happiest of birthdays to this new 6 year old! 

This is her favorite outfit, and she spruced it up by wearing 12 new scrunchies on her wrists and ankles.

The weekend was full of celebrating, from her oceans/mermaids/water party on Saturday morning, to cake on Sunday at Nona and Papa's house, to her actual birthday on Monday.

She got a mermaid tail and has worn it constantly since.

We -- including James -- made bracelets at the party.

And played in the pool

And used the same fish pinata that Max had at his party when he turned five, 12 years ago. Look at this jump ...

I stayed up too late trying to set the blue jello enough to stick Swedish fish halfway in. The cookies have a pearl inside, like an oyster.

We had donuts on Saturday, then for her birthday cake after Sunday dinner she wanted a pineapple cake. She made the request after I had purchased a pink box cake mix, so I decorated the outside like a pineapple.

We oftentimes marvel at where we got this spunky, silly, sweet, sassy 6 year old. Over and over I'm so grateful for her.

Rappelling

The last Monday in June, the stake presidency invited the bishops and their families up Big Cottonwood Canyon for dinner and an activity. Since JB is the stake executive secretary, we were also a part of the evening.

I did not do any of the rock climbing or rappelling, I prefer terra firma. Plus I was wearing sandals and felt unprepared. but Ben went down a bunch of times, JB and Max did it, and here's the best part -- Andrew conquered a big fear and did it!

Here's the picture JB took at the top.

And here is the picture I took at the bottom! Then he went back several more times.

We had S'mores

Millie liked this ledge, not too far up.

Millie and her friend Penny, our bishop's daughter

James with Hyrum and Junior, Penny's brothers

Instead of rappelling down, James tried out a little rock climbing from the ground up.  He had such great helpers and cheerleaders who helped him gain some confidence when he got scared.

Here's Ben going down

And here is Max with his friend Andy

A week in Missouri

When I first told my Missouri family that we wanted to come for a visit in June, in between basketball/tennis camps and FSY for our teenagers, my younger brother said he knew a guy who was going to start renting his big house on AirBnB or VRBO. It has lots of bedrooms, a big kitchen and a pond on plenty of land just north of Liberty, in Excelsior Springs. Next thing we knew, more and more siblings were able to come.

My sister and her husband flew in from England, a brother and his family flew from Seattle, two brothers and their kids also drove from Utah, five siblings in Missouri/Kansas came (sometimes sleeping over, sometimes not). In the end, there were 20 grandkids and 16 adults playing, eating, talking, kayaking, swimming, etc.

The pond was the biggest hit. The kids were in it just about every day. 

The other big attraction was getting turns driving and taking rides on the property.

JB walked every morning and often saw the cows in the pastures.

Cousins with Uncle Peter

I thought before hand that my parents would be able to come to the big house as well, but it would have been hard on my mom and her health. So on Tuesday, a big group drove to Chillicothe and visited them.

That morning we also stopped by Adam-ondi-Ahman and the spot where JB and I got engaged.

Then we drove through Jamesport, where I went to a small K-12 school my senior year. We stopped at some Amish stores and bought good treats and saw a hat that fits JB.

We took the road past my family's old house and then the route on 190 to Chillicothe, which is the home of sliced bread, as the mural shows.

We played at a park but mainly stayed in the shade in the hot humidity, then ate dinner at the buffet in town (kids are 99 cents on Tuesdays, wink wink)

James ate these mini corn dogs.

Millie had her dream treat - pink ice cream with gummy bears.

These cousins were inseparable all week.

On Wednesday, some of us went to see more historic sites, like Liberty Jail 

And the Independence Visitors Center.

The sister missionaries do an incredible job.

Then we went to Joes KC barbecue

One night my brother Michael showed my boys the stars.

Another night Aunt Sarah helped everyone roast S'mores

Friday we went to the Gladstone Municipal Pool. Two of my sisters live in Gladstone and this is a very fun pool. Millie was in heaven. She had been begging me to get into the pond all week, but I (and many other mothers) did not really want to get into the "wild water" and walk on mud at the bottom. So I played and played with her at the pool.

Ben and James (under the blanket) got chilly and sleepy. The cloud cover was deceptive -- several of my siblings got sunburned, and even with sunscreen my back turned a little red.

Look how happy cousin Kaylee is behind my tired boys

The boys got new Chiefs shirts. Max misses his cousin Nathanael a lot -- we are hoping for another chance to see them before missions.

Uncle Joe was always the tallest, but Max is catching up

Uncle Joe paid the kids to catch frogs. They went on a massive frog hunt for him Friday night when he went to the Royals game.

Saturday morning at 6 a.m. we drove away. That was sad! We had so much fun. 

We drove all day and made it back to our house in Salt Lake City at 9 p.m., so it took 16 hours with the time change and a long wait at the Chick-fil-A in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  We listened to "Endurance: Shackelton's Incredible Voyage" and that helped JB keep going. We have to plan the next family reunion!