My mom and sister (and her three little ones) came to visit us last week!  Good times!  We went on a picnic up the Nebo loop and went hiking at the Grotto and swimming at the reservoir.  We visited a lot too!  And the cousins played and we had a good time.  The left on Friday morning to visit friends in Idaho but came back today (Sunday) to spend a few more days with us.  It's been a lot of fun.

Beth and Ben also had Karate camp last week on MWF and learned some new self-defense moves!  Ben went to two days of neighborhood boys' camp (one day with his cousin Liam!) and Beth went to one of the neighborhood girls' camp run by our very own Cheyenne and Calianne!  Their new friends, the Deans, got a pool this week and all four have been swimming there this week, too!

Mariah went to another basketball camp this week.  This time she was at the University of Utah for four days with her team.  She played a lot of basketball and came back exhausted!  She got to see Grandma and Diane for a little bit Thursday before she left again to ump some softball games and before they left on Friday.  We got a picture of her in her camp shirt with our special visitors!

Savannah and Megan got to work most days this week.  They are money-earning people!  On Saturday, Megan helped run the Ezy-Roller Rally at Funfinity so we all went to support her and Chey, Cali, Beth, and Ben all got to ride on Ezy Rollers, too!  Fun times!

 

 

Today is Father's Day!  And last Sunday our Father was just  coming  back to us from his business trip.  We sat around and listened to him tell us stories about what he'd done while he was gone.  We love that great father of ours!  I snapped this picture of him and Ben this week.  Ben begs Kevin to play Minecraft with him everyday when he gets home from work.  Ben loves it and Kevin loves spending time with his boy.

In addition to working all week, Savannah also had institute on Wednesday and brought a newly-moved in newly returned sister missionary in our neighborhood with her!  Then she invited her and Caleb, a newly returned elder who grew up with Savannah to watch Star Wars at our house on Thursday.  Most memorable of all, though, was that on Tuesday evening, her childhood friend with the red, curly hair, Kassie, got married.  We went to congratulate her and marvel at where had the time flown!

Kassie doesn't have red, curly hair anymore!

In addition to working her job at Funfinity this week, Megan has been earnestly trying to find a second job!  None of her leads have come through, yet, but she is still striving mightily!  To blow off some steam, she took the sidewalk chalk and made a lovely decoration on our driveway.  She loves that sort of thing.  She also had friends over Friday AND Saturday nights when her dad surprised her and bought One Night Ultimate Werewolf for the family's game collection.  Good times!

Mariah left us for a basketball camp at USU Eastern this week!  She left on Monday and returned on Thursday plum wore out!  She had a good time, though, and started hitting some three's for me.  She's such a good daughter!  She worked as an ump for a couple of games when she got home, and joined Megan in her weekend werewolf games.  Good times!

Camp shirt!  I got a picture before she went to reunite with her bed!

Cali and Chey also had a basketball camp this week.  Theirs was at UVU, Tuesday through Thursday from 9 to noon.  It plum wore them out, too!  They had a great time, though, and learned a lot.  They also had tennis on Wednesday and Thursday evening and they ran their first girls day camp day on Friday!  They had about 15 girls for "Princess Day," and when I snuck back to get Bethany, they looked like they were having a great time!  Cali is still finding plenty of time to read and even won the raffle this week at the library with the five tickets she was able to put into the pot from her hours read!

 

 

Bethany and Benjamin had their last week of swim lessons this week.  I think they've both made great progress and they sure had fun doing it!  We've also had some new friends move into the neighborhood, a girl, 11, and two boys, 6 and 9.  They've been over almost every day and that has drawn in a girl and boy from down the street that we don't usually see.  Add that to the girls and boys we do usually see, and its been a summer party everyday at the Skinner house!  Good times!

Cheyenne's dog, Sadie, seems to be getting used to us, as well.  Chey is trying to house train her and so far it is going well.  Cheyenne takes her for walks everyday and spends the majority of her time with her and Sadie doesn't seem to mind the 400 kids that come in and out of her yard, so that is good, too.

Ben really likes Sadie too!

I forgot to tell you, Megan and I went on a hike last week, too!  It was super fun and super pretty.  We hiked to the hot pots up Spanish Fork Canyon.  Love that hike!  Love the girl who went with me!

This week was Art City Days!  Which meant that I drove Megan to work all week since there was no parking due to the carnival inches away from her store!  She worked five of six days and had a 25 hour work week.  She's a rock star!

We all went to the carnival on Wednesday night!  (Savannah opted out and went to see Wonder Woman with her high school buddy in a nice, air-conditioned theatre instead.  That sounded fun, too!)  First we needed to see Bethany perform in the Cheer Spectatcular!!  She did her SHS cheers very well and danced super well to "Live while We're Young!"  Cheyenne and Calianne met us at the football field (location of the Cheer Spectacular) after they were done with their second practice for CUTA (Central Utah Tennis Association).  Then we walked home and parked super far away (because we had to) and walked the rest of the way to the carnival.  Fun times!  We all rode the Ferris wheel and Beth and Ben rode the kiddie rides and all the kids rode the swings.  The other rides had too long of lines.  But we had fun and stayed until dark!

I also forgot to mention that Beth and Ben had swim lessons this week.  They love it and are doing super well!

On Friday, they had no swim lessons so Meg and I took the opportunity to visit our favorite hair dresser and get our hairs cut.  Meg even got highlights!  Man is she cute!!

While we were getting beautiful, Savannah dropped Cali, Chey, Beth, and Ben off at the Art Festival where they made stuff and got cute pictures painted on their cheeks by none other than our own Mariah!  She did service for YCC (Youth Community Council) all week working at the council booth, the scone booth, painting faces at the art festival, and holding a banner in the parade!  All that and she umpired two nights this week, too!

That afternoon (Friday) I had promised to take the younger kids to the Spanish Fork Pool, so I did even though it was windy!  So we were glad we needed to leave early to get a visit from my sister and her family!  It was fun to see the Gillespies and eat pizza and catch up.  They got to see Savannah for the first time since her mission, too!

About an hour after that, Sarah arrived!!!  She came from Rexburg to share Art City Days with two of her roommates.  We are so glad she came!!!!  They went to the parade with us in the morning and then, with Mariah, went off to get some BYU ice cream.  They had dinner with us and then went to enjoy the carnival.  They were back in plenty of time to watch our most amazing front row firework extravaganza!  It just amazes me every year with the ease of it!  (Our new dog came to watch too so Chey could whisper reassurance as the world exploded around her.  She did pretty well!  I know ya'll were worried.)

Parade time!

BYU Creamery

Kevin missed the parade and fireworks this year and Sarah's visit!  He was in Searcy, Arkansas teaching for IITAP.  He did great, as usual, but since he was just getting over a bad cold he had the beginning of the week, when I talked to him Saturday night, he had about talked his voice into oblivion.  Poor boy.  He had never heard of Searcy but was impressed with its beauty.  We will be excited to have him back!!!

He got to go fishing, too!

Monday was Memorial Day, so Dad was home from work and Sarah was still with us!  Sarah didn't leave until evening so we had dinner together.  All ten of us at the same table again!  My favorite view. . .

The other big news on Monday was that we found a dog for Cheyenne!  Gwen brought her back from Vernal for us.  Her name is Sadie.  She is two years old, spayed, and vaccinated.  She was being trained as a hunting dog, but her owners found she would rather cuddle than hunt.  That's good news for Chey who wants a dog for running and cuddling and playing some fetch.  Kevin and I are just thrilled that she doesn't jump on people, chew important things, or bark like crazy!  She is warming up to us and though Cheyenne was in love immediately, the rest of the family is warming up to her, too.  Cheyenne spent most of the week in the yard with Sadie or on walks with her. 

Savannah worked every day this week and Megan worked most of the days.  Meg also went to a workshop at LDS Employment Services on interviewing.  She went to support her friend, Maryann, and although she did NOT want to be there, she learned a lot!  Some things are like that.  Savannah had Saturday off but Megan worked.  Savannah felt like a pizza right around the time Meg was getting off work, so she bought a pizza and shared it with Meg in the park when her shift was done.  Such good friends and good times!

Bethany participated in cheer camp this week at the high school!  She'll have three days of it next week, too, and we'll get to watch her in the giant Cheer Spectacular next week to show us the things she's learned.  Her friend, Macie was there, too and they got to walk home together each day!  That part was pretty fun, too!

Mariah and Cali did a lot of this this week:

I had to take Cali to the library TWICE!  But they (along with Chey) ran everyday, too!  Mariah also had a basketball tournament on Friday and Saturday and played five games!  It was fun to watch some basketball again!

On Friday, Megan, Cali, Chey, Bethany and I took the time to hike the two miles to Stewart Falls!  Soooo beautiful!  They are all great hikers and had to wait for me sometimes, but we had a great time!

That's Cali, Chey and Megan up there.  Yikes!

Saturday was the annual Art City Days/Nestle 5K!  Over 1900 participated this year.  The weather was gorgeous, as usual, and every one in our family was there to run except Sarah.  We had some medal winners this, year, too!  Kevin PLACED for the first time in his 15 years of running the race!  He is often one place away from a medal because he is that fast consistently.  This year, he took the bronze home for the third-place win!  Yay Dad!!  This year, Mariah took first place in her age group!  Go Mariah!!  Everyone ran a great race.  I came in at 40 minutes and was the last of the family to cross the finish line.  Go family!!  Oh, and we won a ladder in the post-race raffle.  :)