We had some fun visitors this week!  My mom went on a road trip with her brothers, my Uncle Mike and Uncle John, and they stopped at our house for a night.  It was great fun to have them and my kids enjoyed getting to know Grandma's brothers better, too!  They came Monday and didn't have to leave right away on Tuesday, so we took them to Bridal Veil Falls.  It was a beautiful day!

 

 

 

I kept myself busy the next couple of days making several batches of apricot jam.  My neighbor's tree was full of apricots and I'm not sure I even made a dent in her supply but I think it made a big dent in my need for jam this coming school year!  Yay!  I think I made about 50 pints.

 



Thursday we spent the day getting ready for another camping trip.  This time just up to Lagoon where we had the Skinner Reunion this year.  We were going to go up Thursday afternoon but since it was so close, decided to just head up Friday morning.  It was a good thing we decided to wait, too.

Savannah had been feeling bad most of the week but it got really, really bad Thursday night into Friday morning.  She woke Kevin up around six and he took her to the hospital.  They did a CT scan and discovered that her appendix was badly inflamed.  They wanted to do surgery right away!

Meanwhile, I was getting everyone up and putting the last things in the car to hurry up to the reunion.  I convinced Kevin to trade me places and I brought the packed van and all the kids up to the hospital for him and I took over the care of Savannah -- or actually I took over watching over Savannah while lots of other people took care of her.  Which they did really well.  She had one of their best surgeons operating on her within a couple of hours.

Kevin and the kids were worried about Savannah but they managed to have a good time at the amusement park.  The older kids went on roller coasters together and the younger kids liked the little rides and the water slides.  They all went in the haunted house together (Ben said, "There were skeletons!) and on the Ferris wheel.  I think they made some good memories and had a really fun day.

After camping the night, they decided to come back home.  They got cleaned up and unpacked and came to see Savannah and I in the hospital.  Grandpa Skinner and Maria came down from the reunion to see Savannah, too.  The family accompanied Savannah on a walk down the hall.

                      

We had church girls camp this week!  It was the first time in seven years that Savannah didn't go!  She's all growed up!  She stayed home and worked and helped Kevin with the younger kids.  She was greatly missed!

Sarah, Megan, Mariah, and myself (I get to go because I'm one of the leaders in the Young Women program right now.  Yay!) all packed up Sunday night and left early Monday morning.  We rode school buses up to Heber Valley Camp (the church owned camp about an hour from here in the mountains).  We stayed in cabins with wooden bunk beds.  It was stake camp so the stake fed us lunch and dinner everyday and we took turns helping out with cooking and cleaning. We had flag raising in the morning and evening and devotionals every night.  We each had a turn at the ropes course as well as hiking down to the lake to splash each other in the canoes.  We helped in a massive service project, as well, and even spent some time working on certification.  During down time, the girls played games, worked on their skit, and also went on extra hikes with yours truly.  It was a beautiful place, we had beautiful weather, and there were beautiful friendships made and strengthened -- especially with our Heavenly Father.  It was a great week.

Hiking thru the pines . . .

... and hiking through the Aspens!

Sisters just off from the canoes!

A bunch of us next to the lake!

The brave 4th years who went on the overnight hike!  Go Megan!

On our way up to eat.

Singing camp songs while we wait for flag ceremony.

Our YCLs (youth camp leaders) leading the camp songs while waiting for flag ceremony.  Go Sarah!  It was so fun watching Sarah lead!  She did a great job!

Skinners in our different-colored camp shirts!

All the girls from our ward at camp.  The different colored shirts represent their different years at camp.

The girls who went with me on an extra hike.

Mariah on top of the mountain on that hike!

This was the overlook we hiked to.  Our camp lies below us.

We were surrounded by these butterflies all week.  They were so pretty!

We got back Friday morning before lunch.  Mariah and I had woken up at 5:00 to go on the sunrise hike, but we were all pretty exhausted!  Still we got great mob hugs from Ben and Beth and Cali and Cheyenne and I even managed to fight my way through to get a hug from Kevin, too! 

They had a fun week, too!  Kevin took them to McDonald's and to the splash pad and Cali and Cheyenne got to do a couple of days of basketball camp even!

Friday night, we woke Sarah and Megan up to go play some tennis with their dad.  Megan played lots more games Saturday morning with some friends, too.  Sarah managed to get some time in at Funfinity Saturday afternoon.  It was great to be back with our family, but normal life . . . well that's taking some getting used to!

Last Sunday, I took Beth and Ben for a walk.  We stopped by one of my favorite spots.  Beth and Ben did some "fishing" with long sticks.

Savannah is getting acclimated to her job.  She's feeling more comfortable with her coworkers. One of them even took her on a lunch date last Saturday.  Fun!  She's also feeling more able to contribute to the work projects.  That makes her enjoy it more, too.  When she's home, she kinda wants to do something other than be on the computer.  Crazy!  So she's been watching some TV with her sisters and on Saturday she took Megan, Cheyenne, Cali, and Beth to the theater to see a movie.  What a great sister!

Savannah with her newly-blonde mother!

Sarah had an uber-busy week!  The girls' softball tournament was this week and she was scorekeeping.  On Tuesday and Wednesday she worked from 10:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night!  Those were some long days!  Then she worked at Funfinity Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  She also found time to go to the movies with her friends and Mariah Friday night and do several projects to get ready for camp (where she's a Youth Camp Leader this year)!

She loves this baby bunny!

Megan played tennis M-W evenings this week and it was HOT!  She had a match Thursday night where it was not hot but the wind blew and the rain slew.  No fair!  She still got to play though and it was fun.  She has finished organizing her new room and it is nice!  What a flair she has for design.

Mariah's friend, Jessica, came back from an extended vacation and Mariah was able to go to the pool with her this week.  She's been reading the Legend trilogy and says they are "Great Books!". She's also been practicing piano and her basketball skills when she gets the chance.

Cali and Cheyenne have been playing with friends and working on their new room.  They also got to go to sewing class two times this week!  Lucky girls!  They made sewing pants one day and owl pillows on the next.  Cheyenne has been very busy with the rabbits, too.  We have five new babies and we sold another, too.

New pajama pants!

Bethany has been very busy with the girl gang in our neighborhood.  I honestly sometimes hardly see her!  Even when she is at our house with all the friends (which is also often since they eat about 25 popsicles a day) she is busy with them and doesn't interact with me.  She is busy and social and loving her summer.  It is great!

Benjamin sometimes plays with Beth and her friends and sometimes plays with the boy across the street and sometimes just entertains himself.  One of the baby chicks is his and he is really good with it!  He loves his new room, too, and has had fun playing there, too.

I spent a big part of this week on the new room for our four youngest.  First I took out the carpet and put in linoleum squares.  That doesn't sound nice, but it is!  There's a lot of moisture in our basement and this will help us not worry so much about whether the carpet is wet or not.  Plus, it has a wood-look.  Then I repainted.  We got some fun rugs -- one that looks like a dollhouse and one for cars and trains.  We also got some curtains for the bottom bunks.  We still need to hang some shelves and pictures and finalize some storage issues but most of it is done.  Yay!  I am happy with it.

I watched a lot of tennis this week!  On Monday, was the doubles portion of the Maple Mountain Tennis Tournament.  Sarah played with Allyson and Megan played with Alisa.  Their first match was against each other!  It was fun to watch them and they all played well.  Sarah and Alyson have more experience though and won!  They went on to play two more matches that day and never lost.  They won the whole thing!  It was a lot of playing out in the sun but great fun to see them do so well!

Megan and Alisa went over to the consolation bracket and they won there which made them the winners of the consolation bracket!  Yay!  I forgot to get a picture of Megan and Alisa together but here is Megan with her ribbon:

Megan started again Tuesday morning to play in the singles tournament.  She lost, entered the consolation bracket and then played again Wednesday morning.  She lost there, too, thus ending our three-day tournament experience!  She had fun, though, and learned a lot!  It was a good experience.

Tuesday (after Meg's morning match) we had Bethany's friend birthday party!  She wanted a jungle party so we made monkeys out of construction paper, played jungle games, had a monkey piñata, and even had make-your-own monkey cupcakes.  It was great fun!  After two hours when I announced the party was done, Beth said, "What?  I thought we were going to play some more games!". I guess she wanted to play all day!  A few of the friends stayed most of the day so I think she got her wish!

 

Wednesday after piano lessons, Mariah, Cali, Cheye, Beth, and Ben went over to Grandma's for dinner and fun!  Cali, Chey, and Beth spent the night even!  The next day Cali and Cheye spent the morning with a friend and then went to sewing class with her!  They made cupcake pincushions and headbands.  This was their second sewing class and they really love it.

 

 

Friday was the 4th of July!  In the morning, Kevin, Sarah, Megan, Cali, Cheyenne, Bethany, and I went to the tennis courts.  We just became the new owner of a ball hopper and 72 tennis balls!  We all got some great practice and then Kevin and I played doubles against Sarah and Megan.  Kevin is good enough and I am bad enough that the teams are almost even!  :P.  It was fun to play as a family, though.

 

For lunch we went up the canyon and had a picnic lunch with all the Gazdiks that were in town!  Grandma and Grandpa, of course, but also Mike and Sanae and Kayla and Jordan and Julia.  We had a great lunch and then spent time visiting and playing some games in the shade.

 

When we got back from the canyon, the girls got really serious about changing the rooms.  They had finally packed and sorted and organized enough to make things happen!  It took most of the rest of the day and is really still in process, but we got the beds and clothes moved that night.  Everyone is now sleeping in their new room with just all the reorganizing left to go!

 

On Saturday, Kevin and I went to the Spanish Fork pool with Mariah, Cheye, Cali, Beth, Ben, and Julia.  It was tons of fun and really hot so it cooled us down just right!  Kevin and I took Beth and Ben down the slide lots of times and practiced their swimming.  The other girls played lots of games.  It was fun.  That night we had the Gazdiks over to our backyard for grilled steaks and more great food and visiting.  It's always fun to have them over and it made for a great weekend!

On Sunday last week, I suggested to Beth that maybe she would like to get her hair cut short.  She latched onto that idea and from the moment we got up Monday morning, she wanted to know when we'd go to get it cut?  Now, Mom?  After lunch?  It's after lunch, Mom, can we got now?  So we went.  It looks pretty darn cute!  I even kept the hair so I don't feel like I lost anything.  Which is silly, I know!  It's sure a lot cooler for the summer!

Monday night Kevin, Savannah, Mariah, and I went to go see a community production of Fiddler on the Roof in which our neighbor starred as Tevia!  It was tons of fun and we all thought he did great!  It was so nice of Sarah and Megan to stay home and babysit for us!

Tuesday night Mariah, Megan, and I went with the youth to the temple.  The wait is so long that it takes three hours from leaving the church parking lot to dropping girls off.  I hope when the new temples open that it won't take so long!  It is great that so many youth go, though, and it is a great experience.

Megan did tennis morning and evening Mon thru Thurs again.  When she's not playing tennis, she is wishing she were!  I didn't get to see her match Thurs night but she won, so that's fun! 

Thursday night I had Relief Society and the Activity Day girls were invited, so that meant that Cheyenne and Calianne came to the church with me and we tied a quilt together!  They picked it up pretty quickly and did a great job.  It was a fun thing to do together!

On Thursday night Kevin was gone because he took Mariah and his Bantam team to a tournament in Salt Lake City.  Teams came from as far away as Idaho and Nevada.  It was pretty huge!  Kevin had a team of just-finishing-seventh-grade girls.  Most of them were on his team this winter but he did pick up a few to make a complete team.  Of course, our favorite player, Mariah, played, too!  They played Thurs, Fri, and Sat and had a great time.  It was fun for them all to get back to some basketball!

Savannah worked all week and on Saturday worked on packing up her room.  She says she feels like we are kicking her out!  We are really just moving her and Sarah to the upstairs room.  In fact, everybody is changing rooms except for Mariah!  So . . . that has been on everybody's mind this week, too!

Sarah played tennis and worked at Funfinity and also did scorekeeping for softball.  Her life is stressing her out!  Somehow, though, she still found time to go bowling with her friends and get introduced to sushi!

Sunday was Bethany's 6th birthday!  Kevin made waffles for breakfast, and after church, we barbecued burgers and hotdogs to eat in the backyard!  Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik pulled back into town from their camping trip just minutes before dinner time, so they joined us for the party, too!  Yay!  Cousin Jordan from California was also here because he's going to basketball camp at BYU this week.  It was a festive party!  As part of the gifts, we gave Beth some baby chicks (to share with Ben!).  It looks like we will be chicken owners once again!