Oh goodbye Summer... Goodbye to the carefree afternoon games among friends...
The crazy, loud and always intense games boys play
... nieghborhood parades and parties
....Slurpies and cool green grass
... outdoor concerts
... Field Trips with Mom, this one to This Is the Place Park
... Carefree Summer Evening dinners out with Mom and Dad
.. Father's Day 2013
... Play time without a care in the world
...More outdoor concerts
Dates with Mom.. this one downtown on the train to do all kinds of fun things
...Youth Conference
3D Movie afternoons with Mom. Don't you love those glasses.. ha ha!
Parties with friends...
Sparklers!! Fireworks!!!
Quick Summer Afternoon Showers.. (rare .. mostly in July)
..Family Reunions and Parties
Cub Country with 14 cubs!
Unhurried time with brothers.. hours of building legos
.Free slurpie day with Aunt Christine
... Exhausted boys in church..all those late Summer nights
EFY.. Michael with a bunch of his friends. He went in July. Jonathan went to EFY with Trevor Aiken in June
Crazy Fun at Scheels. . Whoa boy!
Watch out Jacob...!
Don't worry Mom I've got it.
More fun with the cubs at This is the Place Park
Sisters Reunion! I will have to write more about this later....
Pioneer Day Parade... Awesome.
Island Park 2013.. another one deserving of a post all its own
Unhurried afternoons of reading and reading..
Plenty of swimming...
What we will remember about Summer 2013
-It was the hottest Summer on record EVER in Utah.
-Our Suburban's A/C stopped working and we couldn't fix it.
-Luckily we didn't have to drive it ever.. almost
-Luckily, when we traveled to Island Park for our vacation, we left at 4 am and drove in amazingly cool weather.. it stayed that way the whole time and was cooler than usual. Tender mercies!
-We love Slushies, Icies, all of those delicious slushy
- Jack Bauer and his show 24- can be addictive.. luckily that addiction didn't last too long..
-EFY is worth every.single.penny
-We had Dad with us everyday, which was soo wonderful and a rare opportunity. My favorite was those mornings, waking up and just being able to talk to Steve for almost as long as I wanted.
-Summer 2013 was a summer of waiting, walking in faith and pulling together.
-Awesome family scripture time
-Thunderstorms which brought amazing Rain... won't forget that moment in Wayne and Robin's kitchen watching the rain come down in sheets, or that fun ride in the car through a soaking rainstorm on our way to Farmington, or that fun evening at home sitting on the porch watching the rain and the flashes of lightining. Those are favorite times.
-Frequent sweet trips to the temple...finding peace and strength there.
-King's Peak Hike.. Steve's amazing preparation. This deserves a blog post all its own....
-Jacob's first year at the week long Summer Scout Camp
-CherryHill!! Our fun evening there with Caryn and Brian and kids, and Cathy and Mike. And, the last Friday of Summer trip to CherryHill with Christine, Nate and Abbey. Must write about this too.....
-The kindness and generosity of family and friends... their prayers, encouragement and help.
-Learning and growing.
-And, to be completely real.... all of the above is happy happy talk... looking for and finding the good. It was a summer of choosing to have faith over fear. But, there were many hard days of working very hard to choose faith over fear.
It would be wrong to not note the kindness of others....
Caryn and Brian's most generous and kind gift of paying for one month of Eric's mission at a time when we weren't sure how much longer our savings and severance would hold out.
The help of dear friends in helping Steve secure a job with MarketStar... just a contract job but paid well and got us headed in the right direction.
I have learned so very much about how the small and simple things can really lift burdens and help those who are struggling get through one more day. It was the kind word, the happy hello.
I also learned that I need to share more... I cope by keeping things to myself and this isn't always the most effective way of handling things. If I would open up more, I would discover that others do understand and would be able to encourage me with their understanding and compassionate hearts.
