summer ideas

With summer coming right around the bend (tomorrow for us here in the desert!) I figured I’d link back to some posts about what we do in the summer that we are gearing up for.

Summer reunion ideas: HERE and HERE and the “Fear Factor” part we added to our reunion is HERE. (also some game ideas that would be great for summer reunions in this new years post HERE)

Summer goals: HERE

Summer book-reading list: for adults HERE and for young readers HERE and HERE.

Summer photo tips: HERE

(also sparkler/light photo tips in the middle of this q&a back HERE)

My favorite summer salad: HERE

We can't forget the church stuff: summer Girls' Camp HERE (and some straggling questions about camp in the middle of this Q&A HERE)

...and Trek HERE.

Hooray for summer.

the things Dave missed

We all enveloped Dave into our arms last night to welcome him back after 8 days in China.  Boy howdy we missed that guy.  And I think it’s safe to say he missed us a bundle too. 

Here are a few of the other things he missed (besides us), for better or for worse:

--Elle’s toilet breaking

--Grace’s band performance

--The elementary school talent show:

Where apparently a couple girls got a little carried away with the lipstick I told them they could wear…

(They did their stuff from what they learned in this class back here.)

…and doing these hairdos in all their hair for the school performance and the parent performance.

--Elle’s choir performance:

--News that Claire’s finger was indeed broken after all three weeks ago because of that darn back handspring incident.  (We don’t listen to phone messages around here so we didn’t realize Urgent care was calling and calling to tell us to get to a specialist.)  The break is close to the growth plate and may have to be re-broken :(

--Elle’s scoliosis diagnosis

--another big Book of Mormon mailing (this time with help from all the ladies I go to church with…THANK YOU!!)

--Elementary school yearbook signing/ice cream party

--High school yearbooks

--The final volleyball banquet celebration(Much more on that later.)

--Graduation parties:(I wish I had a pic of the one with cousins…)

--Hanging with teenagers:

--I giant moment of weakness when I let five girls sleep over despite our “no-sleepover” policy.

--sister bonding:

--getting kids to and from all the last-week lessons.

--heat.  It is so hot here.  This was at 9:00 at night on one of the carpool pick-upsYes, that says 88 degrees.

--crafts (I KNOW he missed that part :)

--a sister sleepover on the floor dreaming that maybe the tooth fairy would come since they both lost teeth:

--The tooth fairy paid us a visit after two or three years of non-existence.

--Teacher-appreciation notes and gifts

--trying my darnedest to get Lu onto the summer swim team since we missed the deadline.

--gut-wrenching worry with one kid over grades

--celebrating text book returns:

--a high-performance volleyball tryout for Max for a national league

--sleepovers in my bed with the girls every night (they take turns when Dave is gone)

--trying to figure out a great summer job for Max (ANY IDEAS ANYONE??)

--trying not to be grumpy running on very little sleep

--A bazillion house-making decisions that almost caused a nervous break-down trying to do them solo

--five batches of cookies to help cope.

--The flowers I helped him buy me at the store since I knew he’d want me to have them:(I’m in love with peonies.)

Boy we are sure glad to have this guy back (along with the new glasses he brought home for the kids).

I sure wish I had a list of all the stuff we missed out with him in China. 

I’m sure it would include lots of interesting food and planes, trains and automobiles.

And lots of meetings.  Poor guy.

We have 1 more full-day of school here in the desert.

ONE.

And I’m holding on by my fingernails. 

the best college girlfriends ever {a reunion}

I went to Boston University for my freshman year of college and I wouldn’t change it for the world. 

I know I wrote somewhere on this blog all the drama of my heart wanting and yearning to go to BYU but my mind (with my Dad orchestrating it a little bit in the background) knowing I’d learn and grow the most by doing at least one year away.  (More detail about that back in this post…part one of Dave and my “Love Story” that I started writing a while back and really need to get a move-on to continue at some point…)

Well, my Dad and I were both right about all the learning and growing jazz I’d do in Boston.  I learned even more than I bargained for.  And that city hollowed out a big spot for itself in the center of my heart (see more Boston posts here and here and here). 

But that’s not what this post is about.  It’s about how after that year away I went on study abroad to Jerusalem with BYU.  And how I met my friend Nikki there:(Along with those other girls I adore…miss you Bec and Rochie!)

And how we came back and roomed together for our sophomore year at BYU, which led to meeting Nik’s Freshman (and high school) friends:

Who became my best friends.

Which eventually led to meeting this guy:

Which is another mushy story in and of itself. 

And it’s about how much I adore these girls.

We had so much fun together at BYU, I tell you. 

Here we are in front of the door to our apartment in Stonebridge:

…and here are the kids helping Dave and me reminisce a few years ago:More about that reminiscing trip back here.

We had parties galore.  Did pranks to all the guys we hung out with.  Took a trip together to Lake Powell.  And one to California.  We went on all kinds of crazy double-dates.  And had parties in the library.  One even with a lit-candle birthday cake.

One day one of our bedrooms flooded.

We had a giant slumber party and stayed up all night long.

They came to my missionary farewell:

…and even snuck into the MTC when I left to study to get ready for Romania (which I was a little horrified about since you’re not supposed to have visitors there, but I couldn’t help being so happy to see them!).

So someone decided it was time for a reunion.  (We’ve had a couple, but this one had the most of us together that we’ve been able to maneuver so far.)

The first night a few of them slept over here. 

We stayed up and reminisced all night with scrapbooks about the good old days. 

Dave and Denny joined in for some serious updates on what’s going on with everyone.  Some very interesting stories I’ll tell you that!(Don’t let Dave’s yawn fool you, he was mesmerized by this adoption story one friend was telling us.)

There’s nothing quite like having friends where you can pick right up where you left off and it’s like you never skipped a beat.

We headed out to meet everyone else the next day:…and to check into our hotel. 

The thing is, they got the reservations mixed up and put us in rooms that weren’t adjoining which they had promised.  And we needed to be together. 

That’s when my stand-up-for-myself crazy gene kicks into gear.  My friend Nik has that same gene so we marched in and talked to the best guy named Bryan at the front desk.  Boy howdy did he ever pull through for us to make up for the mix-up. 

He was able to put us in the “Presidential Suite” because it happened to be vacant that weekend.  Little did we know how amazing it would be as a hotel guy loaded us up in his golf cart to take us there.

We had our own yard.

…and porch:

…and even our own private entrance:

Needless to say, good old Bryan is my hero.

We were soooooo spoiled.

It was the perfect place to just talk and talk and talk and talk.

The next day we headed out to hike this same hike I’ve done a few times…with Max back here, and Dave back here.

It was just as beautiful as ever.

We started taking pictures on this peak at the top and couldn’t stop.

And then we really couldn’t stop when the jumping pictures began…

We stopped at one of my favorite restaurants (La Grande Orange) on the way back to our “home away from home.”

…and went to dinner…

…and I read them my favorite motherhood chapter as of late (back here).

As we said goodbye the next afternoon after staying up all night (again) and our second round of salted chocolate chip cookies from La Grande Orange (mmmmmm), I looked around at those girlfriends of mine and said a special little prayer of thanks to Heaven for them.

I wondered where I would ever be without these amazing influences in my life.  They molded me into who I am over all these years.  We have all grown and married and mothered and have so many life experiences in common and some not so common that we learn so much from each other on.

How grateful I am that our paths crossed all those years ago. Being with them reminded me of one of my favorite quotes my friend sent to me a while back:

"In Friendship…we think we have chosen our peer. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting—any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances.
A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends “You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.” The Friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of others."
--C.S. Lewis

I’m so grateful for that Master of Ceremonies who wisely put us all together all those years ago in that little corner of the world. 

Love you girls with all my heart!