Last Sunday was Father's Day! We had a nice family sacrament meeting and then an early dinner with cake and cards. We love the dads in our life and we had fun having Kevin and Jim with us.

We had dinner early that day because our reservations at Palisade started that night. We brought Megan, Sarah, and McKay with us and after a quick hour and half drive, we set up camp and bedded down for the night so we were ready for the fun to begin in the morning!

It was a great trip! We stayed until Thursday morning and never got rained on! My sister, Maggie, came up with Becca, Liz, and Dylan on Monday and camped with us the whole time. Ammon joined us Monday evening and Dakota came Tuesday. Hannah was there, too! Sarah, McKay, Dakota, left Wednesday morning and Megan, Ammon, Hannah left Wednesday night. We enjoyed a quick drop-in visit of the Griggs Wednesday night for dinner and the Francom's Monday day for swimming. It was a party! We swam and paddle boarded and jumped from the dock and read and played bocci ball and played Werewolf and talked and floated around on rafts and jumped from the rocks and got sunburned and repeated it all the next day and the next. We love these trips where we leave all our other cares behind. It truly feels like a timeless time. Sweet paradise.

Oh! We had some golfers this time, too!

Before the first group left.

Those of us who made it to the end!

Goodbye, Palisades! See you next time!

So, we had a really great time. Megan missed our last two trips, so it was especially poignant to have her back and be all together again. Especially since Mariah will be gone next year and this will be our last family trip before she reports for MTC training!

Friday we rested up and regrouped and remembered that the world is in a pandemic. Saturday, the twins participated in another tennis tournament. This one locally organized but still great experience. Also, I took Beth to get her first phone. We agreed she could get one for her birthday the summer before she starts junior high. She was super excited. She still is!

Also on Saturday while we were doing that, Kevin, Mariah, Megan, Ammon, and Reina, hiked Maple Mountain (real name: Spanish Fork Peak). It's the big mountain that you see out our back window. It is a super strenuous hike and really wiped out Kevin, Ammon, and Reina! (Mariah and Megan admitted that it was hard but they were still bopping around when they got back, unlike the other three!) What a great accomplishment! Mariah had that on her bucket list for before her mission, too. She's crossing things off left and right!

I think this is the picture of our house. See it?

They're on top of a mountain!

Mariah received this in the mail when she arrived home!

Cali and Cheyenne participated in their first USTA tournament this week! They played Monday through Wednesday. It was a compass draw so they were guaranteed four matches in singles. They both lost two and won two. Way to go! Doubles was double elimination and they lost twice in a row Monday night. They both felt like they learned a lot playing against tougher competitors than they are used to. I'm thrilled they got a chance to participate and that it was so nearby--Salem and Payson! It was a busy three days, but a great opportunity.

Savannah was a great help because I was pretty much gone for three days. She took Ben to his "browski" time which was at Luke's house this week (good timing)! And also took Beth and Ben to karate. On Wednesday, she took Beth and Mariah with her to meet Megan for lunch. Fun times for the sisters! (Ben was at browski's).

Mariah worked all week with Sarah and they had Ben work with them again for a couple of days. She's had the chance to meet up with friends in the evenings and she regularly takes her younger four siblings out for slushies. Her MTC materials arrived this week in the mail. We call it her "MTC in a box." We also found some time to go to DI (which finally opened!) and we found three comfy skirts (for riding bikes and sitting on the floor) and seven cute blouses to go with them. There's nothing like clothes to make you feel ready to go.

Bethany's friend, Eden, has organized a group of girls to come to her house every Friday night and learn to cook! Afterwards, they watch a movie and have a late-night. Fun! I love her! This was Beth's first night and they learned to make potstickers. I love when people plan and organize things. What a blessing it is in people's lives!

Speaking of which, Cali and Chey planned another party for their friends. This time they set up a movie screen in our backyard and watched "Footloose." The movie was just "alright," but they had a great time being together and the weather has been so fantastic, it's great to be outside!

Kevin and I spent all yesterday packing for Palisades! He's coming all the days this year since it's our last big trip as a family before Mariah reports for her mission. It should be a great time!

We decided it would be a good weekend for a quick camping trip! All the reservable spots in the state of Utah were already reserved, so we needed to look for a spot in one of the little, lesser-known places. We looked up Nebo Loop and found a spot at Maple Lake campground just a half-hour up the loop. The "lake" is really a pond but it is stocked with trout and popular with the fishers! We brought our fishing gear and had a good time fishing Friday evening and again Saturday morning. We enjoyed our campsite and did some reading and played the golf-ball-ladder-game. I did a dutch oven dinner and it was a hit! After fishing, we had a campfire with s'mores!

We all slept pretty well, since it wasn't too cold nor too hot and we had a pancake/bacon breakfast made by Dad! We did some more fishing and everybody caught a fish! Enough for dinner that night back home. After that, we decided to try the trail to Red Lake 1.75 miles in one direction boasting groves of maple and aspen trees, a water crossing, and even an old car. We found the right trail and (once we bribed certain complainers) made it all the way! It was beautiful and I'm glad we tried it. After a picnic lunch, we headed home just in time for the birthday party Beth needed to be to by 4!

Sarah and Megan and their cute husbands weren't with us for this trip because they had a trip of their own! They planned an overnighter to Moab so they could visit Arches. I guess they had bad wind that interfered with their sleep, but they did make it to the Delicate Arch the next day and made good memories!

This week would have been the week of Art City Days. It was cancelled because of COVID19 of course but the city decided to still do fireworks! That was Saturday night. Beth watched at her birthday party and Cali and Chey climbed Round Peak and watched with their friends. Savannah, Mariah, Ben, Kevin, and I decided to watch from the trail next to our house. They were fun just like usual!

Other than that, we had a pretty regular week. There was lots of tennis for the twins, some good friend dates for Beth and Ben, and work and friends for Mariah. Which reminds me . . .

Remember that computer I told you Ben wanted us to buy? We talked him into buying it for himself! In order to earn money he went to work with Mariah and Sarah three days this week for about an hour and a half each time, and helped put boxes together and do other odds and ends. I'm pleased that he gets this chance and that he's been so responsible so far! I hope he sticks to his goal and actually achieves it. What an accomplishment that would be! Go Ben!

Speaking of accomplishments, I decided MONTHS before Mother's Day that what I would ask for would be a screen door for our front door. None of the windows in our front room open so it's impossible to get any air in the house even when it gets stuffy in the front and the weather outisde is SO NICE. Plus, it turns out that I have a soft-place in my heart for front screen doors! So, our accomplishment was that after getting stuck in the mail for weeks, our screen door arrived and Kevin and I got up the courage to put it up. I absolutely love it!