June was one busy month! Besides graduation, parties, Farm Chicks, and a trip to Texas a bunch of other things happened too.
First up: Kameron graduated from Seminary!
Congratulations to Kam!! We are so proud of you! Your four years of early morning seminary, hard work, and dedication have helped you to grow and learn and become an even better version of yourself. Your testimony has grown by leaps and bounds and I love the insights that you have shared with us through the years.
Graduating Seniors!
Kam with his very favorite seminary teacher! Sister Huber! She has been such a wonderful loving influence in Kameron's life. That is pure gold. I am so grateful for dedicated seminary teachers!
Proud sisters!!
Proud family!
We never once had to wake Kameron up or demand that he go to seminary. He just got up every morning and went without complaint. Kudos for that alone!
Way to go Kam! We love you!!
Next Up: Bryn's end of the year piano recital.
Bryn did a FANTASTIC job at her piano recital! She played the song "I'm Late! I'm Late!" from Alice in Wonderland. She received an award from her piano teacher and was gifted the music to Fur Elise. She was so excited!! She has wanted to play that song for forever!
Bryn's cheering section.
Beverly matching with Brynnie.
I had my birthday and turned 47:
We celebrated my birthday in style at my favorite Japanese hibachi restaurant!
Then we went back to our house for cake and presents. Tyler ordered me my new favorite birthday cake from Fery's Catering. The princess cake! You guys...it is SO GOOD! It is a Swedish layer cake with alternating layers of sponge cake, tart raspberry filling, whipped cream, and it is covered in the most delicious marzipan! Wow!
It was a fun family night!!
And...there was this! A double rainbow on your birthday has to be good luck, right?
In June we took Beverly on a lot of walks!
Reilly took this cute picture of Bryn at the park one night when we were walking the dog.
Bryn had her school picnic and Tyler came and had lunch with her. They had so much fun together!
Finally the last day of school arrived! Kam had already graduated and Ailey was in Texas so it was just Bryn celebrating this glorious day!
Bryn and her teacher this year...Ms.T.
Bryn had a great year and enjoyed her time in Ms. T's class. She especially loved her teacher because she is sporty! They got to play basketball, kickball, soccer, and volleyball all the time. Ailey also had Ms. T. in 4th grade and while she really liked Ms. T... her sportiness was not enjoyed by one Ailey Johnson! LOL.
Bryn with two of her BFFs: Joselyn and Sian
Dad took her out for ice cream too!
Father's Day arrived while Ailey and I were out of town. We missed Tyler so much! He had good day!!
The Sunday selfie that they texted us from church. Ha ha! How weird to only have the two of them at church! Kam is now regularly attending the YSA ward. It is still so weird not to have him there. Kam and Bryn provided Tyler with a delicious breakfast in bed that morning too.
After church Reilly and Hunter came over and everyone headed to the park for Tyler's traditional Father's Day picnic. They played a few games...no croquet tournament sadly. I guess it's no fun without me and Ailey. LOL. They ended up doing a bunch of hammocking! Tyler loved it. Ha ha!
Tyler with his Father's Day gift. A new grill. It was MUCH needed!
Shortly after Father's Day Ailey and I returned from Texas and she left the next day for a two day youth conference.
They worked with Special Olympics Unified Sports. The kids were all divided up and assigned to soccer teams with Special Olympic athletes. They practiced the first day and then had a big soccer tournament the next day. Ailey absolutely LOVED working with Special Olympics. She just adored the athletes...even if she had to play soccer. LOL. She loved that instead of her cheering the athletes on and helping them...they were cheering her on and helping her. They were giving her all kinds of tips and tricks and were coaching her. At the end of the day in the last game she made a goal and one of her athlete friends started cheering for her and said, "YAY! You FINALLY did something!!" Ailey got such a kick out of that!! She loved every minute of youth conference.
Things were so busy once we got home from Texas! We got home on a Thursday. Ailey had youth conference on Friday and Saturday. She was home on Sunday and then left for Girls Camp on Monday. Whew!
Ailey was a 4th year at Girls Camp this year which means that she got to do the high adventure and she was not happy about it! She does not enjoy high adventure type activities. Plus she needed to bring a real hiking backpack, a camelback, and equipment like that. This was how thrilled she was about it the night before.
She was so mad and tried to convince us that she could take another kind of bag and that, "All the other girls are!" Wrong and wrong. Teenagers are precious. (She gave her permission for this to be posted.) So let's just say we DID NOT have a "Happy Camper" the night before Girls Camp!
By morning she had resigned herself to her fate and we had Kam drop her off...just in case the other girls weren't bringing hiking backpacks despite the packing list requirements...because hell hath no fury like a teenage girl with the wrong bag! Better to vent her rage on her brother than her parents! LOL. But of course all of the other girls had them too!
Kam texted us this pic from the stake center. She was all smiles. Hallelujah.
The 4th years and their leaders.
Guess what? She had a great time including the high adventure portion of camp. This year they were boated to a remote area in the mountains around Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho to backpack and camp. They also did a tree ropes course which Ailey was absolutely TERRIFIED about. She is deathly afraid of heights. But she did it anyway and SURVIVED...or...did she?! This was the picture that her leaders texted to me when they were coming back to girls camp after the high adventure. :)
Ailey's 15th birthday fell during girls camp and on tree course day. Before she left we stuffed a birthday surprise into her dreaded backpack when she wasn't looking and I called her leaders prior to camp to let them know that it would be her birthday and they celebrated her in style! She loved it! They did such a great job of making her feel special on her birthday!! She is wearing her light up birthday necklace in the photo! Ha Ha!
Here are a few more pictures that I received of her at girls camp. Yep, she definitely had a GREAT TIME!!
Ailey with her two best friends: Hannah and Savanna
The 4th years getting ready to do the tree ropes course...on Ailey's birthday!!
Ailey in the pink shirt up in the trees. Wait, scratch that... Ailey in a pink BLOUSE up in the trees! That girl is one of a kind!! LOL. Love her!!
All done and all smiles now!
When I went to pick her up I didn't even recognize her!! Bryn had to point her out in the group of girls!
Who is this outdoorsy mountain girl?! Camp is so good for her!!
She, of course, was STARVING! So Bryn and I took her out to lunch and we got to hear all about her many adventures!!
Bryn was very excited to have Ailey back home!!
I love the warrior pictures that they took of the YW at girls camp this year!!
We celebrated Ailey's birthday as soon as she got home!
This year Ailey wanted to grill for her birthday. She wanted the Beyond Meat burgers with all of the trimmings. Have you tried those? They are actually really good. She wanted all of the sides to go with them and Hawaiian Punch to drink with Dirt and Worms for her "cake". No problem!
Ailey's big gift this year was her trip to Texas but she also got a much wanted pair of Chacos from us and some gifts from her siblings. Reilly took her out for a sisters date of swimsuit shopping and dinner. All in all, she had a great birthday!!
While Ailey was at Girls Camp; Bryn and I spent quite a bit of time at the library! Time to get going on our summer reading! Bryn also got something that she REALLY wanted!! Her OWN library card!! She was thrilled!!
One weekend my nephew Dane participated in Hoopfest which is our town's huge 3-on-3 basketball tournament. His family came and stayed at my sister Kelley's house and she hosted a family BBQ and cousin sleepover. My Uncle Steve and Aunt Margaret also came over.
We brought Beverly with us and she and her brother Henry were reunited.
The next day we all met up downtown to watch Dane play. We were able to watch two of his Saturday games.
Win or lose it was fun to watch Dane play.
This month something rather mysterious happened out at the lake. I know that I have mentioned on the blog before that *most* of my family thinks that our lake house is haunted. Nothing malevolent or terrifying...just occupied. There have been quite a few odd happenings over the years but never by someone outside of the family... until now! This definitely gives credence to our haunted theory when something happened to someone outside of the family who had no idea about our theories.
Here's the story:
My mom's neighbor Ed has a grandson, Rory, who is in his 30s. Rory was power washing Ed's house one day and my mom hired him to power wash her house as well. This happened on a week day while Rory was visiting his grandparents at the lake and while my mom was at work. No one was home.
Apparently Rory was power washing away...which made quite a lot of noise...and something happened that made him stop washing the siding and go back over to his grandparents house. When they asked why he was back so soon he said that he thought that no one was home at our lake house. They told him that no one was home and that my mom was at work. He told them that while he was power washing our lake house an old lady in a night gown came up to the window and looked out at him. (These are huge picture windows that look out over the lake.) He felt terrible that he had disturbed her. He thought that she had been sleeping. Ed and his wife assured Rory that that was impossible because no one else lives there. Rory asked about my granny and they told him that she died two years ago and that she had been living in an assisted living center for many years prior to that. Well Rory absolutely refused to come back and finish the job. He was 100% positive that he saw an old lady in a nightgown at the window. How crazy is that?! Hmmm... very weird.
In addition to all that we had going on this month we also had to repair our oven and had an expensive repair on one of our vehicles. Always delightful. It seemed everyone had all of their doctors appointments this month: Tyler's diabetes doctor, my yearly physical with my regular doctor, my yearly gynecology appt and a mammogram, plus more weekly PT for Kameron for his hip and knees, and a vet visit for Beverly. It has been crazy.
We were also able to get together with friends for all of these many celebrations of kids and graduations and parties. I met up with my friend Jane who is in the vintage business and was selling a bunch of her inventory because she moved (luckily closer to me!) and I was able to get a ton of great things for Sisters Creed for a sweet deal! I also loved working in my yard and planting flowers! Despite all the chaos and travel and celebrations I have really enjoyed my yard and flowers! And, of course, and everyone is still loving this sweet puppy!
Onto July!
