Wednesday, September 29, 2021

It's that time again!



Casey and I were at Girls Camp for meet the teacher night.
Luckily, Grandma who was babysitting, is all about that kind of stuff!
She was more than willing to take them in our place.

This was Rusty's last meet the teacher, as he is growing up all to quickly
and moving onto Jr. High next year!
His teacher is Mrs. LeSueur. 




Lindi got Mrs. Gershkowitz!
Such a mouthful for third graders, haha. 

I have met both teachers, and they are absolutely lovely.
It's funny how each child always receives teachers that they need
personally to help them accomplish their best.







Meanwhile, Lane was at Mesa High being all grown up at his Freshman
 open house, without his mother!
HOW did this happen?!
I have an adult sized child. 
It's wild. 

Quite a bit of his friends have older siblings who take the "freshies" under their wings.
Because of this, and older neighbor friends,  Lane is just as close to Sophomores and Juniors
as he is kids his own age! 
It's a wonderful thing, and the perk to ride connections isn't so terrible:)

They showed them around campus and helped them scout out their classrooms.
Then drove them to Chick-fil- A for lunch afterwards. 

 He is SO ready for High School!



I try to spruce up the kitchen the night before school.
You know, to try to make it seem more appealing.


And it's my only morning with a legit breakfast.
Because lets face it, early mornings are rough. 





Lane was the first to leave with  A hour seminary.
He is a busy boy this year.
He leaves at 6:30, and because of golf, doesn't come home until 5-5:30. 


I was lucky to sneak this picture of him before he slipped out the door. 
He rides with Collin and Emily Rudd to school. 
Bless the teenage drivers in our neighborhood willing to take him!!


He said he wasn't nervous for his first day of high school.
Weirdly, I wasn't, either.



Next wave was the elementary kids!
Now the nerves were coming.
I had a pit in my stomach and praying everything would go smoothly for them
after their previous year off from public school.


6th and 3rd grade, here they come!









Driving them a short distance to the bus stop was not so terrible:)



This little munchkin is enjoying having the house and tv all to herself again!
One last year of preschool with Ms. Suzy before her world gets rocked at Kindergarten. 



 

Monday, September 27, 2021

End of Summer





Happy to be heading to the lake!





I love the groups of people we can rummage up last minute to join us.
This trip we had parts of the Whitmers and Yamamotos!



We have had a very rainy Summer this year.
The last hour of the afternoon, we could see a big storm rolling in.
It looked like it was going to completely miss us, but last then decided to switch
directions and come right at us!

Luckily we were pretty close to the dock.

Everyone was rushing in and it was pure chaos.

The rain was pounding, wind blowing, LIGHTENING striking.
Everything and everyone were completely DRENCHED! 
At one point it was raining so hard I couldn't see the trucks and trailers lined up trying to back in
and fetch their anxiously waiting boats. 

I surprisingly was pretty calm during the whole ordeal.
You kind of have to be when you are the one in charge of driving and making sure
everyone stays safe. 

We made it out unscathed.
The perk to such a situation, you don't have to wipe down the boat before you leave:)

By the time we made it back home, the sky cleared and it was actually pretty peaceful
and beautiful.

We door dashed some Raising Canes and had a boat detailing party. 







Another day it had rained all morning long.
When if finally let up, we decided to go swim at Stapley pool!

We had the place to ourselves!
Rain sure helps keep the crowds away!

We stayed a good 4 hours.
I love a good swim sesh!



Lindi gathered enough courage to jump off the high dive for the first time!




Uncle Craig came home from his Mission!



It is too hard to buy clothes for the boys now that they are in bigger sizes.
Plus, they have gotten pretty picky.
I hate returning things, so I forced Lane to go back to school shopping with me.

Della eyed these high heels and just HAD to have them!
Maybe for your birthday.
How about a picture for now?





You must have pretzels and cheese while at the mall!




On the last weekend of July, Casey and I headed up to the mountains to be
cooks at our stake Girls Camp!

To be honest, Girls Camp in not my favorite thing.
However, when you get to go with your husband it makes it a lot more appealing!

I was told how much work it is to be a cook, so we had mentally prepared ourselves a head of time.
We started right off with a bang, actually before even arriving, by smoking 12 pork butts the night
before we left!

And by we, I mean Casey.
It was a process, but the first night we had delicious pork sandwich thanks to his hard labor. 

We spent 3 days chopping, boiling, grilling, and mixing. 
We sure got to know the kitchen crew well!
 Which is always nice branching out
to people you normally wouldn't have an opportunity to be friends with. 

Our kitchen corner.



The main ramada where we served and ate.










The stake also asked me to teach the craft station.
Ugh, I am not that crafty!

We decided on Pura Vida bracelets.
They were a hit!
I left all the supplies out and girls were at these tables every day
busting out bracelet after bracelet.
I like me some arm candy:)





Back to the unusually wet Summer... we got DUMPED on one afternoon.
It was so bad, the wind and rain swamped out our wards campsite!

These poor girls!
A couple of tents completely flooded. 
Everything got soaked. 
Luckily our bishop was headed up that day.
He was able to rummage up 12 sleeping bags to bring up with him.
They had to share sock, shirts, even underwear, they were walking around
barefoot because everything was sopping wet.

Casey digging some trenches to help clear out some of the water damage. 







Our new friends!
Leanne Crandall, Mycayla and Sutton Eaves (which Sutton is my best friends sisters son. I remember when he was born! And his grandparents lived in my ward growing up. Small world.)
And Craig and Camille Seymore were the head cooks.
We knew them before hand because their grandson is on Rusty's baseball team.
GOOD people right there.



 

Monday, September 20, 2021

Beach-a Can Guess What This Post is About?





Donuts are my love language.
Newport is known for the cronut at Seaside Bakery.
Of course the line was a mile long, but I didn't care!
We had a few trips down there through out the week.






I can't help myself with the coordinating swim suits.
This phase wont last forever, sniff sniff.






One thing is for sure, the waves are HUGE and STRONG at Newport!
Poor Rusty got worked while boogie boarding and he took a couple days off from it. 

I never got in past my ankles.
Dang Florida spoiled me.








Another Newport staple is BONZAI BOWL!
I got the hang of ordering online, riding the bike down, loading them into the baskets 
and hauling the goods back to the beach lickety split!



A common scene on game nights, dinner by the tv. 
The Suns were in the playoffs for the first time in 25 years, so it was a big deal!





We explored Balboa Island!
Can we say fancy pants Island?
Lane stayed back so we traded him with Grammy.

Della was not having the ferry.
Maybe she was confused by the cars on it?
It was a rough start with her, but then she calmed down and enjoyed it. 



Kids were having a sailing lesson.



I was digging all the table scapes on peoples waterfront porches. 





Reviews said to eat at Wilma's while on the Island.
We like to follow instructions:)





Topped brunch off with the original Balbo Bars!


more table scapes on the walk back to the ferry. 



A little happier on the float back!



While Casey walked back to get the car, we rode the famous ferris wheel. 





I looked up and caught the boys actually playing with each other!
Brought my mama heart some happiness.

Until one blamed the other for throwing it too hard or wrong.







My favorite dinner one night was the smorgasboard  of options we pilled in the middle of the table.
Taco Bell, Janes corndogs, fried cheese sticks and chili cheese fries, and Bonzai Bowls.
Good eating right there. 



And Lane got a deep fried cheesecake.









Last Bonzai. 





On our last night we went to Hopdotty's in Fashion Island, then walked to a fun ice cream shop.



And you KNOW our car went to TKB's for more sandwiches on the drive home!




And washed our ocean findings to put in a jar as a reminder of the memories we had in Newport!