August 2022
After we got home from our Utah/Las Vegas trip...August went by in a flash! Summer goes by so quickly and as dropping two kids off at college was looming; I tried to hold onto summer for as long as possible. Also the Lionsgate Portal opened and we were trying to stay positive to manifest all the good things!! Ha ha!
While we were gone, Ailey and Bryn held down the fort with Reilly and Hunter nearby and keeping an eye on them. Ailey worked a lot and Bryn had volleyball camp. Bryn also hung out quite a bit with Reilly and Hunter and Hunter's family. She had a great time! She went to an Indians Baseball Game and to a BBQ with them.
In August, Reilly and Hunter announced Reilly's pregnancy to everyone. It was exciting! We could finally share the news! Although Reilly and Hunter did do a special facetime with everyone while we were in Utah with Kirk and told all of the family. Everyone was SUPER excited!! It was really fun for us to be there with Kirk and Meki when they heard the news!
We tried to get back into some kind of a routine after vacation but quickly gave up. Isn't that the beauty of summertime? We stayed up late every night.
We had a Stranger Things marathon. So freaky and so good!! It was like the 1980s again. We all gathered around the tv together to watch an episode or two every night. NO ONE was allowed to watch it on their own. Ha Ha!
Ailey started to pack for college.
We did a lot of night swimming. The weather was unbearably hot in the 100s for most of August. That is way too hot for Spokane! We headed to the lake as often as we could!
There was one crazy day when a freak wind and hailstorm hit and did a bunch of damage. Luckily it didn't really affect our part of town but we were driving to Coeur d' Alene for vendor night when it struck and it was so intense that we had to pull off of the highway!
The hail was the size of golf balls. It was actually pretty scary.
Mid-month the youth of our ward had a lake day. Tyler brought our boat and our bishop brought his boat. Ailey and Bryn both went too. Kam was making more money housesitting so he wasn't able to go. Lake Day was at Lake Roosevelt. Everyone had a blast!
While Tyler and the girls were at the youth lake day...I was at Stake Baptism Day. Not a fair trade. LOL. But while at Stake Baptism day we had quite the crazy incident occur. One of the kids being baptized refused to get into the water. Like not even a toe. He wouldn't listen to his mom, dad, grandma, or grandpa. He was holding up all of the other wards that had kids to baptize. His parents couldn't yell at him to get in the water because...you know...he was getting baptized....but he flat out refused to get in the font for a good 20 minutes. I had to run interference and had to get my friend Jen who is the Stake Primary President to STALL. It was quite the comedy. Eventually the kid got into the water. His parents told us later that he thought the water was too hot. That's a first. Usually the kids say it is too cold. There is always something interesting happening on Stake Baptism Day!
With school just around the corner...I took all of the kids back-to-school shopping even Reilly joined us. It felt like the old days wandering around with all four of them in tow at the mall!
Ailey and her Smokey the Bear *Influencer* hat! LOL.
Sitting at the ol' food court reminded me of this picture...
We were at the same mall doing the same thing! Only Bryn was excited for school to start because she was going to be a Kindergartner. No one else was excited. LOL. Those days don't seem that long ago.
I love this crazy bunch!
A week after lake day, we headed back to Lake Roosevelt for another lake day! Everyone had so much fun that Kameron and I wanted in on it! It was incredible!
There is a sandy beach all along the lake which is long and skinny. You can just find an area that you like...tie the boat up...and have a private beach to hang out on all day. We could set up our area then swim, float, picnic, and still do wakeboarding and tubing runs. It was SO perfect!!
Bryn and Kam found all kinds of treasures.
A perfect day in a perfect place with my favorite people!! I have fond memories of a few memorable boating trips there with my mom. That made it even better.
This month my presidency put on a big Stake Primary activity. We did a service project for refugee children of which we have many in our community. The kids stuffed backpacks and collected donations. We also made a big chalk town in the parking lot for the kids to ride their bikes and scooters around. They could create anything they wanted in the town. We had a few stations set up in Chalk Town like a grocery store, car wash, lemonade stand, town dump (aka the garbage) etc. The kids had fun and we helped out children in our community. Win-win.
Ailey and Bryn were volunteers and manned the grocery store. They were awesome and I am so grateful that they are always willing (and want) to jump in and help. Ailey made all of the darling posters. It was fun to have them involved! It was also really nice when it was OVER! Ha ha! I took the girls out for lunch as a thank you at one of our favorite places (and my mom's)...The Rockwood Bakery. I am so glad that we have so many memories and special places that still make us feel close to my mom.
Tyler and Kameron continued working on projects. They repaired the part of the deck that the tree destroyed. The estimates for someone else doing it were astronomical so Tyler decided to do it himself and waited until Kam came home for his assistance. Lucky Kam! LOL. They are a good team though.
It looks fantastic! They painted the new part and it matches the rest of the deck perfectly. They even added some poles so that we could hang the patio lights easier. It looks so nice!!
One weekend we went up to Greenbluff and picked peaches. We were craving peaches and ate so many this summer. My absolute favorite fruit is the perfect fresh peach followed closely by the perfect mango. Costco had some fabulous mangos this summer and we ate boxes of those too.
Toward the end of the month Tyler started having some problems with his eyes. Never a good thing for a Type 1 diabetic. One morning he woke up with some serious "floaters" in his eyes and went to the eye doctor. He was told that he had some broken blood vessels and that he needed to met with the retina team.
Tyler wasn't the only one with doctor appointments this month. We had to cram in several for the college kids. Kam had a dermatology appointment. His first in two years. He got all of his moles checked out and his skin looks great! He also had his last appointment with his pediatrician. LOL. He has now graduated to a grown up doctor. Although I was glad that they could see him one last time and give him a check up before going off to college especially after two years on the mission.
Ailey had a consultation with an oral surgeon to have her wisdom teeth removed. The removal will occur the day after she gets home on Christmas break. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :) The oral surgeon is our really good friend and the nurse we met with is one of my dearest friends, Shannon, so the whole consultation was actually really fun and more of a hang out than an official appointment. It'll be good for Ailey to get that all done and hopefully be on the mend before Christmas. We also got the friends and family discount too. Sweet! We are so grateful to have such great people in our lives and in very useful professions. LOL.
Speaking of awesome friends in useful professions... my friend Mary is a college study and life skills coach. She teaches kids heading off to college organizational skills, time management, study habits, goal setting, and things like that. She met with Ailey and had the greatest coaching session with her. Ailey loved it and came home PUMPED! Mary helped her get organized and has some great systems that Ailey is super excited to implement. My sweet friend refused to let me pay her for her incredible services and gave Ailey the coaching session as a gift. We are so blessed in the friends department!!
As the month was ending we attended a fun wedding reception for the daughter of our friends Jodi and Blake. It was fun to celebrate her wedding and to hang out with all of our friends and our kids with their friends. How are all of our kids getting old enough to get married?! We also attended a beautiful baptism. So much good stuff this month. Kameron spoke in another ward one Sunday. The stake really got their money's worth out of him before he left for college. LOL. He did a great job and Bryn and I went with him to listen to him speak.
This month our ward started something new. We are piloting a new ministering program in Relief Society. It's called circles. So instead of having a companion and three ladies that you minister to each month... like old visiting teaching... we are now grouped into circles of about 6 women and we all minister to each other. I really like it. It reminds me, a little bit, of the small groups that other churches have. Basically 6 families taking care of each other. It definitely makes it easier and has been a lot of fun. I am enjoying this new way of ministering.
The month was filled with boating, barbeques, a garden party, game nights, eating out, ice cream runs, walks at the park, and family dinners. Kameron made us his famous fettuccini alfredo that we all begged him to make!
This is the best fettuccini alfredo that you will ever eat! Kam worked at an Italian restaurant in high school and learned how to make it. It is divine! I made all of the requested favorite dinners that the kids wanted before heading off to college. Reilly and Hunter came over weekly to hang out. We tried to squeeze in a lot of family time this month.
Reilly brought over some fun drinks for a Johnson Tries at one of our many family dinners.
Ailey playing the oculus is HILARIOUS! She had us on the floor laughing!
We could not get enough of the water this month!! We were in it and on it every chance we could get!
We could not do enough ice cream runs either!!
By the third week of the month all of the college kids heading to other colleges started leaving town. BYU-I starts so late. This was a rough time for Ailey as she said goodbye to all of her friends. Lots of tears. Kameron and Abbie (his high school girlfriend) were able to meet and catch up. She was working at Priest Lake all summer. It was good for them to see each other after all this time and to see that their friendship remains. Kam couldn't have had a better high school girlfriend. We are all better for knowing Abbie. She was heading back to college on the westside. This time of life is and feels momentous for both Kam and Ailey. A page is turning and a new chapter in their lives is beginning.
Ailey had her last day at Rite-Aid and both Kam and Ailey had their last Sunday in the YSA ward. No tears were shed for either!! LOL! Our dryer conked out at the end of the month and we had to buy a new one and my good friend Caroline moved to Utah. I shed tears about both of those things! Caroline and her family have been great supports to us over the years. Her husband was one of Bryn's XC coaches and they have a daughter Bryn's age and the cutest little kids that Ailey used to babysit. They will definitely be missed! I hate it when friends move away. :(
Remember the first week of June when I backed into the kids car? We FINALLY got the call on 8-22-22 from the body shop to bring it in for repairs. That is how far behind they are doing repairs around here. Good grief! Unfortunately there is no way that it will be done in time for Kam and Ailey to take it to college with them. Not cool.
On the last Sunday of the month Kam and Ailey came to church with us. I love it! Tyler got released as the 1st Counselor in the Bishopric because the Stake requested him!! He was released and immediately called as a Stake High Councilor. He will miss being in the Bishopric (and our ward will miss him!!) but he is excited about serving in a Stake leadership position. Now he gets to train other bishoprics and do all kinds of other interesting things. He will be great!
August went by way too quickly. I blinked and it was September and we were packing the kids up to send them off to college. Sigh.
