Bumpy Waters

Nothing too interesting here. I worked. Mike spent the day at Bear Lake. The water got rough and he ended up pulling the boat out of the water. He is going to see how it is tomorrow. If it isn't too windy he's hoping to meet up with Stockton and Alyssa. Judging by his weather app he isn't too hopeful about that. I think he has had fun though. Stockton and Alyssa are at Bear Lake with Alyssa's family right now. Alyssa also got 100% on her physics final. Smart kids there...

Mouse Attack

Today at work we had a baby shower for one of the counselors named Cierra. It was at Sundays Best. We had permission to leave a bit early. It was fun and delicious. I got oatmeal. Mike texted later today and asked what I was doing. I sent him a picture. I was at the church park with Bear.

Bear

Mike played with a different sail today

Shannon

Shannon hopped on board for a bit while Steve was taking Brandon and his friends skiing. Glad Mike got some in person human interaction today! Stockton and Alyssa had quite the experience. A mouse woke them up when it ran under their sheets and across their legs. GROSS! We haven't had a mouse problem for a long time at the cabin and now Stockton & Alyssa experience this while on their honeymoon! Lame. And disgusting.

Sailing at Bear Lake

Mike spent the day sailing at Bear Lake. He went by himself. He knew Steve and Shannon would be there and thought this would be a good time to try his boat on Bear Lake. I stayed home and worked. Jorja had a date with someone named Dean to try lots of different burritos. Maysen stayed home and worked. Preston wasn't interested in going. Stockton is still at the cabin, but got 100% on his physics final today. Alyssa couldn't take hers because she forgot to bring her ID. They are going to meet her parents at Bear Lake on Friday and Alyssa will take her test there. It would be cool if Mike could meet up with Stockton and Alyssa while they are there. Mike sent me a lot of pictures. It sure is pretty!

Shannon sent me this picture ~ Mike on his boat

Mike sent me this picture the same time ~ Steve & Shan on their boat

I played Dominion with Mike

He played the 2nd game upstairs

What a beautiful world we live in!

Bear Lake and EFY

So.... turns out I got super burned out on the blog for awhile. (Stockton was NOT happy with me.) I'm now twenty days behind. I spent forever getting pictures from Preston's Bear Lake trip and saved them all, but I can't find where they went. Anyway, I'm going to try and catch up now, but I feel bad because there were a lot of great days that I have now missed documenting. I will have to rely on pictures and text messages between my family. We'll just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

I woke up this morning to this lovely site on the porch. I don't know what animal got into this, but it was everywhere. Brett and I were going to pick it up the old fashioned way when Mike came showed up with a shovel. I don't know why a shovel didn't cross my mind, but it sure went faster cleaning it up this way! Not nearly as gross either.

I took Jorja and Madison to EFY at BYU-Idaho this morning. Mike took Preston to Bear Lake for Scout camp. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Rexburg. The girls got checked in and then we had lunch at Frontier Pies. It wasn't as good as I remembered. I dropped them off at their apartment and hoped for the best! I stopped at a lookout spot on the way back. I couldn't get a good picture, but it sure was beautiful.

 Amy

 Greg

I got to talk to Stockton today. Transfers were Saturday. He and Elder Alia are still together. They were shocked! Well, kind of. Their mission president called and talked to both of them earlier in the week. He had them each write him a letter about their feelings with staying together for another transfer and also about the Swahili family. Thank goodness Stockton loves Elder Alia! When this transfer is over, he will have been with him for half his mission! One funny story. A family in the district invited three sets of missionaries over. They speak English and Spanish, so they invited the English and Spanish Elders. Their daughter is in the YSA, so they invited the YSA missionaries. There happens to be three missionaries from Alta serving in this district. All three of the Alta missionaries ended up having dinner with this family. Stockton from the English side. Another Alta guy that I can't remember from the Spanish side and Sister Liljenquist from the YSA side. Stockton thought that was so funny. Super random. Also, Stockton got a new ward, so they will have three wards now. Hope that goes well for them.

Mike is staying with Preston tonight. They are staying at the Henderson's cabin. It is right on the lake and super amazing. Kids don't know how lucky they are. Mike and Preston went boating with Burke and then played Colt Express with some of the other kids. Mike also got Preston to come on a giant stand up paddle board with him. 

Jorja seems to love EFY already. She was worried that the dress she brought was too short. Cori bought it for her and it was shipped to our house. There were two exact dresses of different colors. She wore one on Sunday and it was shorter than she thought. We called up Hutch and she met us at a clothing shop. Everything was super expensive and nothing fit Jorja. It was great to see Hutch though! Hutch is planning on going to Idaho Falls tomorrow, so she said she would pick up something for Jorja. I spent a lot of time once I got back to the cabin looking for dresses at Target. I wanted to order one and have Hutch be able to just walk in and grab it. Later tonight I got a text from Jorja saying her counselor approved her dress. Yay! Yay! Yay! I think those two are going to have a great week!

 Madison & Jorja

Jorja & Madison's company

7 Peaks

I took the kids to 7 peaks this morning, actually Maysen did because she drove us there!  It was crowded!  I spent the first hour looking for Stockton, Jorja and Preston.  I told them they could go on ahead while I put sunscreen on.  I just couldn't find them after that.  Maysen and I spent awhile at the bottom of a slide we thought they went on, then we gave up.  I finally let Maysen go down slides by herself.  I was starting to get really nervous.  Then I saw Stockton and Jorja come running to me.  They lost Preston!  Yikes!  Luckily they had just lost him.  I was sick to my stomach.  It only lasted five minutes though because Stockton found him.  Thank goodness!  The rest of the day was uneventful.  I was grateful for uneventful.

Now for my last day of pictures from Bear Lake.  These were actually from the first day, but I just found them.  Mike let Jorja and Preston go into the lake with their clothes on.  They thought that was so cool!  I was nervous when they were far away.

Jorja's head and Preston

 Stephanie - watching the kids, too far away for my liking

 Preston

 Jorja

 Mike

 Jorja and Preston

 Happy!  Happy!

 Washy!  Washy!

Yoshi

Jorja loves making balloon animals.  Today she was determined to make Yoshi.  She found a video where someone was explaining, but she didn't have all of the right balloons.  Pretty soon she just made her own creation.  I think it turned out quite awesome.

Jorja and Yoshi

 Front view

 Side view

 Family picture at Bear Lake!

Preston, Jorja, Mike, Stephanie, Stockton

Maysen

 Cousins!

Erica, Preston, Jorja, Stockton

Maysen, Weston, Jacob, Brandon

 One last knee board for the Porge!

 Love that sparkling water!

Swim Conference - Day 2

This is what most of swim conference looks like.  Waiting.  Luckily Jorja's ds was charged.  I asked Preston last night if it was.  He was wrong.  Jorja was a good sport and let him play it most of the time. She spent her time reading Harry Potter.  I have tried for years to get her to read these books, but she hasn't been interested.  This summer I insisted on reading the first book to her.  Now she is just finishing book three.  Love it!

Preston and Jorja

Preston wanted his own swim conference shirt.  Jorja picked one out yesterday.  They were all out of orange, so Preston got green.  He loved it.  He wanted to show off every part of it.  Preston got to watch them press the design onto his shirt.  When they first pulled the shirt out and it was blank he was so confused.  I told him, "Your shirt doesn't come with a pattern."  He didn't like that at all!  He got to pick what design to use on his shirt.  He was so proud.

Preston - front

 Back - All the boys names, even his!

 Sleeve

I didn't get many pictures of the kids actually swimming.  Jorja swam the the back stroke (50) in her best time ever!  56.70!  She has never been under a minute before.  She almost made it to the finals tonight. She was the first alternate.  Awesome job Porge!  She swam her butterfly (25) in 32.89.  Not her best, but look how great she looks!  I love all the exercise she was able to get this summer.  Although she is pretty burned out with swimming right now.

Jorja - butterfly

Preston took forever getting across the pool!  I know he really wanted to see his name on the big board.  I wish I would have taken a picture of it. He got across the pool in one minute and sixteen seconds, or something like that.  He did get another medal.  He loves it.

Preston

My two little swimmers with their new shirts.

Jorja and Preston

Maysen and Stockton came and watched the kids swim yesterday.  I had them stay home today.  Maysen had her first appointment with Holly. Mike went and picked her up and brought her to the appointment.  It was near his work, so that was nice.  I was able to get home in time to drop off Jorja and Preston and then leave to pick up Maysen.  When Maysen came out of Holly's office she was laughing pretty hard.  Holly said that Maysen is amazing.  I agree completely!  Maysen said she pretty much spent the entire time rambling about the characters in her story and their psychological traits.  Awesome.  I love that Maysen has such a good attitude.  I love being her mom!

This evening I brought Jorja back for the rest of swim conference.  She was swimming in the freestyle relay.  I thought that because her last relay was first, this one would be as well.  I was wrong.  It was last. Good thing I got there super early, and Mike left work early so he wouldn't miss it today.  Oh well.  Jorja got to jump off of the diving boards until the life guard told her she needed a wrist band.

Jorja on the three meter

I decided to run to Bubs and Ange's house.  It is Ange's birthday today and I wanted to drop off some garden beans.  Our neighbors gave us a ton and I thought she would like them.  The only thing I didn't count on was the traffic.  It was SO BAD!  I had no idea!  I ended up missing Jorja's swim while I just sat on the road.  I felt terrible.  Luckily Mike recorded it for me.  Jorja was the last in the relay.  The other teams were so fast!  They were almost finished by the time Jorja jumped in.  She got to swim by herself.  She did great!  I'm thankful Mike thought of recording it for me and I'm glad Jorja wasn't mad at me for missing it.

Jorja

We did go to Cafe Rio after.  Jorja loves their nachos and this weird little cake.  Pretty great day.

Now to more Bear Lake pictures.  This time Mike was acting like a Ninja with the rope.

Mike

 Mike and Shannon - fist bump

When Mike and I brought Jorja home we decided to watch the first Harry Potter movie.  While they were getting everything set up, they found three huge spiders in the movie room!  Eek!

Mike, Jorja, Preston and I all watched the movie.  I slept through most of it.  I was so tired!  Every time I would open my eyes I would see Preston with his eyes huge!  He watched the entire thing and loved it! He usually doesn't love movies, so this came as quite a surprise.