FINALLY 18

It's finally here....Kayla's 18 birthday.  She's the last of her friends to gain 'adult status' and the right to vote.  Her roommates put on a Surprise Party for her (hopefully I can post a video from that soon)

Sporting a new BYU hat

A new Minne MOuse onesie

We just LOVE this girl! She is a self-motivated, determined, hard-working, athletic, beautiful, kind-hearted, service-oriented ROCK star!  So thankful she is part of our family! 

Naegle Farwell

We are so sad to see the Naegle family move from our neighborhood.  They live diagonal of us and moved in just before we did almost 12 years ago.  Our kids have grown up together and these girls will miss seeing their friends at school, church, mutual activities, and running between houses.  Cory and Tasha have been such good friends to us and we will miss their family dearly.

Ward Homecoming

One of the traditions Roberts started when he became the Bishop of our congregation was for he and I to go see each of the young women before they leave for school dances.  It always makes for a fun afternoon as we try to coordinate locations, schedules, and running late schedules.  We love these Royal Daughters and are so grateful for the kindness, love and spiritual strength that each of them add to our neighborhood and ward.  

Kayla Drop Off #2

After dropping off Kayla and David at college just a few hours before their first classes, I wanted to go back this week to take her to the grocery store and see how things were going.  

Here she is in her kitchen

Her side of the bedroom - I love the picture wall

We went to get her 1st pair of Tap Shoes.  Yes, we are paying a lot of money for her to take 3 dance classes at BYU, but sometimes you just take life as it comes.  She looks like she'll be a great 'tapper'.

Did some shopping...

She looks so grown up pushing a grocery cart

And used the official 'Helaman Halls dolly' to get all those groceries up to the 4th floor. 

So proud of this girl.  We never imagined that Kayla would start college as a part-time student with 3 dance classes, and 3 academic classes with help from the Accommodations Office.  We've always been good at making plans....but sometimes life doesn't go as planned.  Through it all, we are so grateful that she CAN come down to BYU, live on campus with her friends, and start this next phase of her life - brain injury and all. 

Biology Leaf Project

Summer of 2017 might go down in our family history as the summer of the Leaf Project.  Emily has chosen to take a very heavy load of classes her freshman year of high school.  About as heavy as is possible.  She started 7th grade in 8th grade Honors math, so 2 years ahead in the math category (Lindsay also chose that path).  She is also in the highest English class & Honor Geography (classes her other sisters did as well) But, unlike the sisters before her, she decided to skip Earth Sciences and go straight to Biology as a freshman.  When you take Bio as a freshman, you also have to do an intensive Summer Leaf project, which is not a requirement when Bio is taken your 10th, 11th, or 12th grade year.  We'd heard horror stories about the 'leaf project' but this summer we got to experiences ourselves.  

Here's a quick overview of the project by Emily:
The requirements of this leaf project were as follows;- 2-5 individual leaves of 40 listed species
-labels consisting of the genus, species, family, and common name of the the leaf, along with the location and date the leaf was collected
-press the leaves inside wax paper and books for 4-6 weeks
-mount the leaves onto a sheet of paper and attach the label
-place all of the mounted leaves into a binder and alphabetize the binder according to genus

I wish I had a picture of what our basement looked liked during the 6 week period that Emily was 'pressing' her 150 leaves.  Just imagine a library - without bookshelves.  Stacks and stacks of books on  pretty every open space of the basement.  We had a good laugh one night when Emi was modge-podging leaves into a portfolio and found we only had 'sparkle' modge podge left.  We hope it brings Mrs. Reddish some laughter as she goes through hundreds of pages of pressed leaves. A big Thank You to Tessa, Mia, Marshall, and others for their help in finding and sometimes trading leaves to complete their collections.  I think we're all glad to see this project get turned in. 

Powell Adventures Video

The past few years we have spent Labor Day weekend either traveling to a BYU football game, or watching the BYU game on a houseboat at Lake Powell.  This was a Lake Powell year, and one of our favorites. 

We loved spending the weekend with the Curtis's (minus Joelle who is serving in the Barcelona Spain Mission) and the Wrights (minus Kyle who was doing final prep for the LSAT).  Our family added a few extra with David joining us, and at the last minute,  Aubrey and Elan as well.  What an great group!  Really.... some of the kindest, thoughtful, helpful, fun loving, water loving, adventurous people we know. It made for a fabulous long weekend, and we're so grateful we could spent it all together.

Powell Highlights

The Young Adult Crew

David, Emily, Jess, Kayla, Lindsay, Elan, Aubrey, and Brenna

                                                           Minus Taylor the Latte Boy

Enjoying the afternoon choppy waters 

If we weren't out on the water, we could often be found in the upper stairs kitchen.  We were well fed.....thanks for organizing all the meals Stacie! You are amazing!

Emily and Kayla's last weekend together before Kay goes away to college.  These girls will really, really miss each other.  Thank goodness for FaceTime.  One picture we are missing is a group shot from the top of Sand Moutain?  What's up with that? Oh wait, Sand Mountain about killed us this year.  The sand was sooooo burning hot that I think we all got burns and blisters on the bottom of our feet.  David was the 1st one up....and then quickly down, breaking his flip flops in the process.  The rest of us used our sheer will and determination to just make it up to the top, to then realize that coming down was not much better.  I guess we learned you can't do Sand Mountain in the heat of the day.  Hopefully, cliff jumping after that, made up for it. 

Loading up the front of the boat with the singing/rock out dancing crew

Love seeing these newlyweds enjoying some time together as they head up the ramp to church Sunday morning.

Church in Page, Arizona.  The ward we attend down here is mostly Navajo, and we have come to love worshipping with them.  We forgot to tell David that church here in Page is pretty casual.  Sandals are great, we've seen people bear their testimony's more than once in t-shirts and shorts down here.  Elan wore his Lavalava with jandals.  But we did vote David - Best Dressed!   

Okay, and then the conclusion of the weekend.  We left Powell Monday afternoon and drove straight to Provo to drop David and Kayla off.  They will be starting BYU in less than 10 hours!  I may have cried a little as we approached Nephi (about 20 minutes south of Provo) I texted David's mom in AZ to let her know I was now experiencing what she felt last week, as they dropped him off at school and head home. with one less passenger.

Last selfie with Kayla before she headed up to her dorm room.  It's the one with the lights on and the big window on the top floor behind us.  So grateful for this trip and the time we were able to spend together.  The joy and memories will brighten my spirit on the days I miss her.  Love you guys!  

Go Pro Video

Brenna Surfing

Brenna up and going on her own!

Tom has been so good over the years to teach our girls how to surf, wakeboard, ski, and to hold on tight when he's driving them on the jet ski's or pulling them tubing.  It really has been a blessing in their lives, as it's built their confidence and helped them feel comfortable when other's invite them boating.  Just a few weeks ago, Lindsay ran into Tom at  Deer Creek Reservoir while she was up there with her friends. She was so grateful for the time he had spent teaching her how to wakeboard and surf over the past few summers, so that she could participate and not just watch.   

Thank you Tom Curtis Jr.  You're the BEST!

Kayla Surfing

Kayla Surfing - minus her helmet this time.  She prefers to live life on the edge.

David 'Lake' Surfing

From surfing the waves at Pacific Beach to lake surfing at Powell, David can pretty much do it all.

We're so glad he was able to join us for this fun weekend.

Lindsay Surfing

Sunday, Sand Mt, & Sights

A few more from our Sunday Services in Page

David got lots of compliments on his baby blue sports coat

A view of Sand Mountain 

 Getting up it this year was Torture!

I did not remember that we got a picture up at the top, but I guess we did.? I have no idea who else was up there with us snapping this pic. We should have gotten a pic of our burned feet when we got back to the bottom.

Driving out to see Glen Canyon Dam

A happy girl in her happy place.  Brenna loves the water!

Early Morning Skiing

There is always an early morning crew that goes out skiing to get the glassy water before most people are up.   

We always love to watch Tom ski - He's the BEST

Helmet time for Kayla while she single skied

Robert out on the wakeboard...

catching some early morning air

Fly Like An Eagle

Favorite food stop wwhen traveling south....Val's Burritos in Beaver.  We love Val's burritos, it's just not a quick stop when you're traveling.  Robert and Em occupied their time checking out some Eagle staues located on a flat bed truck in the parking lots. 

The things we do with our free time - while we wait for our food.