Balboa Vacation

We recently took a really fun trip to Balboa Island, California, (near Newport Beach) with the Boyers (Carrie's family). This vacation is a 59-year tradition with my dad's family, so there is a huge group of aunts, uncles, and cousins that makes the trek each August! It's a great chance to catch up with everyone . . . and to enjoy the beautiful beach. Luke made it down for the first two days, but unfortunately, he's not in any of the pictures!

This is kind of a blurry picture, but it gives an idea of how many of us were partying together at the beach house! This is minus Luke, Sammie, Ben, Liza, and Spencer, who all made brief appearances on the trip, then returned home to their responsible lives.

Grannie and Abby built some beautiful "temples" (according to Abby) in the sand!

Katie had so much fun playing with her cousin Marian, who is just one week older than she is.

Here I am on the Balboa Island ferry with Katie, Melba (Melissa--my sister), and Lara (Luke's sister). Melba came all the way from Pennsylvania to join us! Lara lives close by in Huntington Beach, so she was able to spend time with us too, which was great.

Katie was really excited about the waves! Here she is with Aunt Anna.

Abby enjoyed a special outing to the Balboa Fun Zone with Pops and Aunt Jennie. Here they are on the ferris wheel!

Here are "The Girls" enjoying the beach while Luke was home alone in Spokane, slaving away. What a great guy!

Camping Trip

Well, this weekend we "took the plunge" . . . that is, we took our two very young girls camping. It actually turned out great! We found a nice spot along the St. Joe River in the Idaho Panhandle, and despite rumors of a hailstorm coming, had quite a good night squeezed into our little tent. Here are some photos!

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit

Last weekend, Luke's parents, Scott and Nora, came to visit for a few days from Utah. We had a great time with them and enjoyed showing them some of our favorite places here in Spokane!

Here are the girls with Grandma and Grandpa at the beautiful rose garden in Manito Park. Katie and Abby also loved playing on Grandpa and Grandma's "bed" set up on the living-room floor.

Here we are at two pretty parks along the Spokane River, Riverfront and Mirabeau.

Abby's Prayers

I love Abby's prayers. These are a few things she has included in them lately:

"We're sorry that my plants are dying . . . "

"Thank you that we can bless this food . . . and I don't like my dinner . . . "

"We're sorry that Katie is doing loud things in the prayer, and that she's not folding her arms and closing her eyes . . . " (Hmm, I wonder how Abby knew that?)

My Utah Weekend Getaway

I had a great 48-hour getaway to Utah last weekend. Taking Katie with me and leaving Abby with Luke, I attended an overnight reunion retreat with counselors from Academy for Girls, a youth program that I worked with from 1994 to 1998. I had a fabulous time renewing my friendship with about 25 of these incredible women! AFG was a huge part of my life for five years, and my experiences there helped to strengthen my testimony of the gospel and to prepare me to be a full-time missionary, then a wife and mother. I'm glad I had the chance to step back in time for a few hours and relive some of those decade-old memories.

Although it was a whirlwind trip, Katie and I did get to see both sides of the family! Here are some photos.

Katie with some eye-level friends she made at the retreat.

Katie, Lucy, and Marian: cousins born within 6 weeks of each other . . . in the arms of Carrie, Martha, and Adam. (This photo should adequately confuse posterity! Martha & Adam are parents to Marian, aunt & uncle to Lucy and Katie.)

An early celebration of my big 3-1 with the Boyers!

A visit to Spruces campground with Scott and Nora.