Sarah came back to us this week! Yay! We were all so excited to see her that we stayed up late Monday until she arrived. Since then she has watched shows with Savannah, gone shopping for LDS romance books with Mariah, Cali, and Chey, snuggled with Beth, and played computer games with Ben. She has played tennis with her dad and the twins, and she has gone hiking with me! It has been great fun! We love that Sarah girl and are so glad that she is home!

Bonding over a show at breakfast!

Mariah and Cali and Chey had cross country camp this week! On Thursday they started at 1:00 and got back around 8:00. Friday they left at 7:30am, traveled to a campground down south, stayed the night, and came back Saturday around 2:00pm. They said it was a lot of fun but also EXHAUSTING!They went on multiple runs, many of which were in the mountains, learned about training and nutrition, and also heard from motivational speakers. Good times!

The freshmen at Cross Country Camp!

The seniors!

Everyone

Before camp Mariah also played basketball and worked and studied for the ACT! Cali and Chey continued working on their tennis goals and are just minutes away from their 100 hours!

Bethany got to go to Camp Jeremiah Johnson this week for Activity Days. She had so much fun! They did rafting and archery and crafts and lots of other stuff! She is making new friends in our ward and doing really well.

Benjamin had one day of karate this week and friends over to play a couple times. He and Beth also went to the Springville rec pool a few times. Mostly I think the poor kid is getting kind of bored! He declared this week that he couldn't wait for school to start! He did have placements for his new flag football team this week. Hopefully that will be fun for him. 

Sarah and I went hiking this week with my friends. We hiked to Silver Lake, and then we continued hiking to Silver Glance Lake! We went about 8 miles and it was beautiful! It's one of my favorite hikes. We even jumped in and swam a bit. Even better!

Kevin is in Colorado Springs this weekend teaching for IITAP. We all miss him like crazy! Today is our 24th Wedding Anniversary! Time sure flies when you're having fun. We've done so much, though! I feel like we have really filled those 24 years. I feel really blessed that I've been able to have him by my side for all those things. I really, really like him! Even after all these years! Happy Anniversary to us!

The long-anticipated Elton Reunion in the Grand Canyon happened this week! We drove to Las Vegas on Monday and stayed the night with Grandma and Grandpa. It was fun! We drove the rest of the way on Tuesday to the KOA in Williams where we were all camping. Pete camped to the right of us with his four youngest, Maggie camped to the left of us with Rick and Dylan and Emily. Dave, too, put up a tent there when he arrived on Wednesday. Mom and Dad were in a cabin as were Amy and Paul and their family! Diane couldn't make it this year :( as well as various others.

On Wednesday we went to Bearizona which had a drive-thru section where we could see animals in there native habitat including BEARS! Then it had a walk-thru section where you could see more animals and even a petting-zoo area with goats. We got stuck under an awning for awhile during a downpour but never fear, the kids entertained themselves with girls' camp games and Ben fell in love with a pocketknife from the gift shop. We all had a really good time.

Later that night we went into the town of Williams to enjoy Route 66 and see the nightly cowboy shoot-out!

On Thursday we went to the Grand Canyon! And boy was it GRAND! What a beautiful site! We went hiking along the rim for a little ways, had a picnic lunch, did some more gift-shopping, and then went back to the rim to appreciate it a little more.

We made it back to Williams in time for the daily rainstorm. The kids still managed to always have a good time enjoying the KOA's indoor pool, playing card games under shelter, and Ben, Oliver, and Charlie made dams under a picnic table. When it wasn't raining quite so hard, Ben loved playing "Ga-ga Ball", Pete and Maggie's families raced the Go-Karts, and there was even a pretty cool playground.

 

 

That night some of us went back into Williams to have pizza for dinner. We met back at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin for our nightly campfire and this time got to hear stories from Grandpa. Campfires with family are the best!

The next morning we all packed up and said Goodbye! We got some good family pictures and we weren't packing in the rain so it was good! We decided to go back into the Grand Canyon on our way home since it was sorta on our way and it was so GRAND! It made for a long day of travel for us, though as we didn't get back until 10pm. Still, what a great trip! It was a really fun time.

 

Dad and I got matching shirts!

You will notice that all our "Skinner Kids" pictures are missing two! Sarah had finals week up at BYU-I, and that is pretty important! With the completion of those finals, she graduates from BYU-I with her Associates Degree and a pretty stellar GPA! She is hoping to transfer to BYU Provo starting in January to get her Bachelor's Degree. We are super proud of her!

Megan left the MTC this week and flew to Singapore! She traveled with her companion and MTC group. She even got to call us from the airport! It was great to hear her voice! We all tried super-hard not to cry and she and her companion sang us a song they had made up in Malay. We got an email from the mission office that she made it there safely! We hope to hear from her again soon and are so glad that she is safe!