Week of August 10 - 16

Goodness gracious. Summer vacation is so short, isn't it? We start school on Wednesday of this week! The girls have mixed feelings about the beginning of school. I think they're not ready for summer vacation to end, either!

Speaking of things ending, the orchestra that Megan and Mariah have been playing in this summer finished this Wednesday and they had a small concert. The group has just five violins and they met Monday and Wednesday mornings from 8-9am. I really liked it as a way for the girls to keep up on their violins. I went running in Spanish Fork while they played. It worked out well! Here they are, wowing us all with their musicianship!

On Monday, Megan tried out for a different orchestra that is more advanced and was accepted! So, she'll play with them on Mondays during the school year, while Mariah will continue with this group which they hope will grow. I am excited for them both!

We had Relief Society Enrichment this week. Ever since I baked bread in an apple box for Enrichment in June, our RS president has been infused with enthusiasm to teach all the women in the ward how to cook in a box. Last month, we provided the supplies and we had an incredible turnout as about thirty women all came to make their own paper box oven. This month, we had everyone bring their "ovens" back to the church and we taught everyone how to heat up their charcoal and then provided them with goodies for them to bake on the spot. I am happy to report that even though the evening was windy and we had charcoal blowing about and some ovens blown topsy, turvy, we did not affect any lasting damage on the church or its property. I call that a victory! (Oh, and we successfully cooked muffins, cookies, and bread.)

On Friday we went back to Spanish Fork pool. It was a bit windy and it turned cloudy toward the end, but we had a great time. I started teaching Sarah how to dive when we were at Springville pool a couple of weeks ago, and this week she dove off the diving board!! Wow! It's the summer she learned how to dive! Mariah also dove off the diving board and could almost do as well as Sarah! It was so fun to watch them!

We were going to go on one more day trip yesterday, on Saturday, but the weather was rainy and cold. Grrrrr. So, we didn't get to go fishing in our canoe. But, we did go over to the church and played a family game of basketball! At least we did until Bethany insisted on being wherever Mom happened to be. Then they played a family game of Around the World. Dad had to shoot from the 3-point line and Mariah got to go through the middle of the key. Sarah won! Savannah went hysterical in laughter because she couldn't get past the fourth spot and Megan went hysterically into tears! Ah, the joys of playing sports with girls.

Kevin spoke in church today and did fantastic. Cheyenne had a talk, as well. Hers was significantly shorter but still fantastic! Her dad is a great example. As he is to us all!

Have a great week!

Week of Aug 3 - Aug 9

The first part of this week we spent going through the closets and the clothes and getting the right clothes in the right drawers for the upcoming school year. I use the term "we" very loosely here, of course. It was mostly me saying, "Here! Try this on!" or "Why don't you wear this anymore?" or "This really doesn't fit you anymore, you should give it to [insert younger sister's name here]," or "I know you want new clothes, but why should we buy new ones when we have 14 shirts your size???" At the end of the day, or three days I should say, we found everyone had plently of clothes which we tried to narrow down to 7 of their favorite outfits (so they will fit in their drawers and won't overflow into piles in their closets that mom has to dig through) and we put the rest in a pile for DI. Phew. What a project. We did decide everyone needed new shoes, though and that was enough to break the bank! Thank goodness for all the clothes we've been given. The girls will look very styling and I didn't buy a thing!

Thursday afternoon we left for a trip to Bear Lake with Kevin's family. Kevin's dad and his girlfriend, Laurie, and her two daughters were there. Also, Matt and Lynsey and their two boys, Michael and Afton and their two boys, and Dena with her two girls. It was a regular family reunion! Kevin's dad brought up his boat and two wave runners and we spent all day Friday at the lake. The boys skiied, we took turns on the wave runners, and the kids took turns being pulled behind the boat in the tube. There was also a lot of us just playing on the beach with the little ones. It was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, we chose the coldest weekend of the summer for our trip. It was a little chilly Friday, but Saturday morning we woke up to rain and cold, cold, cold! So, we didn't boat on Saturday, but drove down to Logan for bowling and a late lunch/early dinner. It was great fun to spend time with family even if it was cold. We even want to do it again next year and are optomistic that next year we'll even be lucky enough to get some summer heat to warm up our stay.

I forgot my camera! I am still really frustrated with myself for not having it with me! Maybe others will email me some pictures from the trip. Especially the one of Dad and three of his grown sons cooking breakfast for us in the rain and the one of everyone's one-year olds -- four of them all born in 2008!

Here are a couple I took with my Palm. This little stream ran past our campsite:

These are the kids waiting for us to leave the campsite for the lake. Do you think they're excited?

Week of July 27 - Aug 2

Kevin and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this week! Wow! Who would have known time would go by so quickly? I am really happy with the choice I made 15 years ago to marry this man. He is a real treasure and our lives are really happy! I love him to pieces. The really cool thing is that he loves me, too! Now that is a reason to celebrate!

On Wednesday (our anniversary) Kevin left work early and we went to see Harry Potter (a book we read together -- we've read over 60 together in our 15 years!) and then went out to eat. On Saturday, we took our canoe up Provo canyon and braved the rapids of Provo River! We survived the white water and were amazed at the gorgeous scenery that lies so close to us! We went out to lunch and then bought something for our home -- a monument to celebrate our first fifteen years -- a fountain! Then we came home and put it in! I love it! Isn't it great? "Happy fifteenth anniversary to us!"

I took the girls to the pool on Friday. Calianne "swam" along the first step from one side of the pool to the other (about 15 feet) with her head under water the whole way! She was so thrilled! She is still so thrilled! She keeps asking me to write it down! She has been thinking a lot about being a twin, lately. A couple of weeks ago she asked me if she and Cheyenne would die at the same time? That was an interesting thought to have. Today, she and Cheyenne wore some matching dresses to church. She said, "What if I forget who I am?" The good news is that I asked her several times during church and she didn't forget on any occasion. Sometimes I forget that life is different for them, even if it is in subtle ways. I bought a new package of panties for the twins this past week and as they started sorting through them grabbing pink ones to claim as their own, I said quickly, "No. We're just going to share." Cheyenne looked up at me and said, "Yeah. 'Cause twins share. Right, Mom?" It wasn't until that point that I realized that most people don't share their underwear. Heh, heh. Chalk that one up to another joy of twinhood!

Bethany has been working on cutting FOUR teeth this week! All of them along the top. She's had a fever on and off and often looks like this:

Poor thing. I'm trying to wean her, too, so life is often tough!

Last week, something momentous happened in Megan's life and we neglected to mention it. Megan has now joined the ranks of those who wear glasses! After we went to the optometrist and ordered the glasses, she asked me every day, every ten minutes if her glasses were in yet! She was so excited!! (Okay, I exaggerate, she stopped asking me every ten minutes after the first two days -- we had to wait seven -- days that is). It has now been a week and a half since she got her glasses and her feelings about them have shifted a complete 180 degrees. She hates them. She thinks they make her look ugly. She hasn't wanted to go to primary for the past two weeks (although she has) and she is absolutely DREADING the start of school. Poor thing. Of course, since I have worn glasses on and off for the past twenty-five years, my sympathy ran out rather quickly. I think she looks absolutely adorable, as always --