Finishing up July

Thursday July 16th

 The stake primary was hosting a stake Activity girls activity.  I went to help volunteer for half of the day.  It was fun and they based the activity off of President Ballard's Conference Talk--"Stay in the Boat and Hold On" from October 2014.

 The craft they made was a cute little sail boat out of real drift wood from the coast. 

 Eating lunch with friends.

Friday July 17th

Alex had to fly back to Petersburg really early in the morning, so Garrett let him use his truck so that he didn't have to get up and take him to the airport.  So, that night all of us adults drove with Garrett to the airport to pick up the truck and to have dinner at this great BBQ place that's right there.  We left all the kids at home with a pizza.  

 I guess while we were gone, Sydney wanted to dress Lydia up like a cool greaser. Lydia's hair was full of gel!!  She looks cute though!

 Saturday July 18th

 Today we braved the heat and went to watch the Hillsboro AirShow.  It was SO hot!  It almost wasn't worth it.  Maggie was at a youth conference all day, so she missed it.  

 We usually just go to a park close to the airport and watch it from there. The Blue Angels were there this year, and they are the main reason I go!

Garrett and I left to go on a date (more on that in a second) and Jim and Georgia and Savann took the kids to see movies.  They split up and some went to see "Inside Out" and some went to see "Minions"

 For Garrett's birthday back in April, I got him tickets to go and see the comedian Jim Gaffigan and it was for tonight.  Garrett loves comedians and I love this guy because he is relatively clean.  And he has 5 kids so it's funny to hear his stories about having a lot of kids.  

 I tried to get a picture of him up on stage, but the lights were so bright up there it didn't really turn out.  

 So then I tried to get a picture of him on the screens and that worked a little better.  He was hilarious as usual and Garrett and I were dying!  The only bad thing was that it was SO short.  It felt like he was only up there for like 30 min. It could have been an hour or a little longer, but it felt really short!  I paid a lot of money for the tickets and I was hoping for a bit more entertainment!!  He was great though!

Monday July 20th

Garrett had to work that day, but Savann and her kids really wanted to go to the zoo, so they invited us along.

 Here's our gang

 trying to find the black bears

I really love this picture of Maggie because it's so funny!  We've been taking our kids to this zoo for their whole lives.  The first time we took Maggie, she must've been 3 or 4 and ever since she spotted the foot of this polar bear coming down from the ceiling, she's been terrified of it.  Even now when she comes, she hates going in there.  So, I had to get a picture of her at 15 and still scared of the fake polar bear foot.  She is so cute!

 It's also tradition to take their picture against this bear poster to see where they measure up against various bears. 

 watching the crocodile

 a sleeping cheetah

 goin' on safari

 Up in the Eagle's nest

The Guthries left to go back to Alaska on the 23rd.  

Friday July 24th

I was giving Lydia a haircut and Maggie out of the blue decides that she wants hers cut too.  Not just a trim but a hair cut.  She's had her hair long for so many years, the change was really cute!

 Such long hair!

 Not so sure!

 Before...

 ...and after!  

I thought it turned out really cute!

 I love that the kids like to play up in their "tree house".  They spend a lot of time out there!

Saturday July 25th

For some reason, Garrett and I were gone most of the day, but I have no idea where we went.  I don't have anything written on my calendar, so I guess it will remain a mystery.  While we were gone, the kids decided to have a tea party and a fancy lunch.  

I guess Lydia provided some musical entertainment and they danced around.  

Monday July 27th

 It was Maggie's best friend's birthday today and Maggie made Emma and herself these matching t-shirts.  She was so excited about them and they turned out really cute.

 That night Garrett helped Noah teach the lesson for Family home evening.  They taught about the anti-nephi-lehi's and how they buried their weapons and promised to never fight again.

 They gathered up all of Noah's weapons (and he has a lot!) and buried them in this basket and covered them with a blanket.  

 Noah showing off his muscles for the camera.

 Garrett helping Noah bear his testimony at the end of the lesson.

Wednesday July 29th

 For mutual, the girls were playing basketball, so these two decided to "dress-up" for the activity.

 Friday July 31st

 Playing outside--Paige decided to run through the sprinklers in her clothes.  

 riding his new bike

hanging out in dad's truck.  I'm not sure why the car seats were in the back of the truck.  

And that was our busy month of July!!

Camping in Detroit Lake

After our rafting trip, the McKibben's had to go back home the next day.  The Guthries went to Seattle for the weekend to spend some time with Alex's brothers and sisters.  They came back Saturday night.  We went to church on Sunday and I got a new calling that was completely unexpected--I was released as the YW 1st counselor and called as Primary President.  Yikes!!  I had served before in primary as a teacher, chorister and secretary, but never President.  I had been in YW for a few years and I was a bit nervous to go back to primary because I had been away from primary for awhile.  Luckily, I was able to re-call the counselors and secretary that were currently serving in primary, and they are such a huge help and blessing!  

Anyways, after church we were planning to go camping with the Guthries and Grandma and Grandpa in Detroit Lake!

Sunday July 12th

 Hanging out that evening after getting everything set up and after eating dinner.  

 This summer, the lake level was at an all time low--60 feet below normal levels! It was strange seeing the water so low!

Lydia, Noah, Bella, Devon and Paige

Monday July 13th

We spent most of the day hanging out and relaxing.  This is after breakfast, just visiting.  

The 3 younger kids were having a pine cone war with Uncle Alex.

On the left, the kids are getting to attack Alex with the pine cones.  

Defending himself with a racket.

This is how many pine cones they collected.

Checking out the lake, just behind our campsite.  The thing on the right is the dock that is supposed to be under water.  

Noah driving Garrett's remote control car around the tent. The 4 teenage girls slept in the main tent, Alex and Devon slept in the smaller tent and Savann slept in the trailer with us.  Jim and Georgia stayed at a nearby hotel.  

Later in the evening the kids decided to go swimming, so here they are blowing up inner tubes. My girls just reading.  

This is looking down on them swimming from up by our campsite.  Noah and I came out to watch them because he didn't want to swim at first.  But after seeing them, he wanted to go down there and swim.  We had Jim drive us down in their car.  

After dinner, chatting around the fire. 

Tuesday July 14th

We rented a pontoon boat again like we did the year before.  We had such a fun time that we wanted to do it again.  

We also rented this inner tube to pull behind the boat.  It didn't go very fast, but the kids enjoyed being pulled along.  

We'd cruise around the lake for awhile then find a good spot to stop and swim.  

Feeding the ducks

Feeding himself a snack.

All day long Alex kept saying he was going to flip my raft over--and I didn't believe it.  But, sure enough he and Alyssa flipped me over.  We don't have a picture of it, but we do have video.

Everyone back in and cruising around the lake some more

Noah taking a turn at the wheel. 

Paige and her long legs.

People had gotten out to swim, but we felt we were too close to some rocks, so they drove the boat a little ways away and everyone hung onto the rope for a little ride.  It was so funny watching the video of it!  Grandpa Jim is the very last one with his legs up in the air!

Lydia going for a ride

These tree stumps look like little alien monsters with a lot of legs coming to attack us!  Kind of a funny sight!

Still beautiful!!

We had to have the boat back by 5, so we started heading back to the docks.

Love this cute picture of my boys.

They tried to get me in the picture too.

Unpacking the boat.  Today was Sydney's 16th birthday.  Maggie had made her a cheesecake before we left home, so we ate it tonight and she opened some presents.  

Wednesday July 15th

We packed up and left this day.  Savann had some doctor's appointments, so they left a little earlier than we did. 

We did get this cute picture of Maggie and Lydia before we left though.