Happy birthday, Chloe!

Basement is back being worked on after a four or five-month pause! I finished all the framing around the ductwork and just have a very few more boards to attach around the closet we’re adding, and then it’s done! Bill has been pulling wiring for the electrical and has gotten a ton of it done. Next up is bathroom plumbing and HVAC. We’ll likely get help with that, especially for the bathroom fan and if we have to move plumbing around. I’m so excited to see progress, especially after spending entirely too much time looking at houses only to hate the prices and interest rates. 

Genevieve did a cross country camp last week and it was so fun! While I have no idea I’d she’ll ever actually go to Riverton HS based on our current life plans, super fun to get coached by their cc team. 

Spencer went shooting with the young men at church last weekend. Also so fun. 

We did a room reorganization. Setup loft beds. Makes the rooms so much more open! The kids are loving it.

And we used our Get Out Pass and went to a trampoline park! So fun. 

And last but not least, Chloe turned seven! My baby doesn’t feel much like a baby anymore. She got her ears pierced and got some earrings and some legos and we made a penguin cake after she fell in love with a picture of one online. It was a great day. We had a pizza palooza for dinner. It was all delicious.

 

Happy Father’s Day

I built the other half of my garage shelf yesterday and promptly filled it up and still had stuff to spare, haha! But a lot of our camping stuff is on there now. I sold an old couch too and donated some stuff, so now the garage has significantly less stuff in it. 

This is all that’s left that actually some of it goes in the basement once it’s built  

Fathers Day today has been lovely! Spencer gave his first talk in church and did a fantastic job. Suzanne came over for dinner. Doug wasn’t able to come up, so we got to hang out with her. We had such good food. Happy Father’s Day Bill and all the other dads in my life! 

I framed my most recent paint by number. Or stretched it, I guess. It’s going to my office. 

A beautiful cactus flower on my trail run last week. 

A very windy picture at the summit. 

Canyoneering!

It’s been ages since we got out camping. We went down to Escalante Friday night and camped rough. Bill organized this trip with his f3 group back in March to do a few canyons, and we watched nervously all week as it was kind of rainy. It’s super helpful when your friend is high up at the National Weather Service though and can tell you exactly what the weather is forecasted to be! It was good weather and we had fun camping Friday night with our friends and then headed out Saturday morning. 

Goodness gracious, the road out was awful. Worst dirt road I’ve been on for years and it was 25 miles long. It was intense! Felt a bit like our van was going to shake to pieces but we made it. 

We did three canyons. Dry Fork Narrows, Peekaboo, and Spooky. This was the entrance to Peekaboo. We had a few good climbs and drops! There were ten kids along, including two toddlers, so we did a whole lot of passing kids up and over things, but honestly, they did amazing. 

Required f3 picture at the beginning of every event.

Hanging out waiting for someone to help them get over the top. 

It was not too warm, but pretty humid. We got so sweaty! It was about 70, which is crazy for June. I couldn’t have imagined better weather. 

It got SO skinny in Spooky. 

Post hike. 

And fries and shakes afterward in Escalante. Great weekend! Hopefully we’ll do a few more this summer. 

 

Another year of school in the books

Another school year in the books! I’m so blown away by how fast time is flying by. Spencer is going to middle school next year as a seventh grader. Genevieve will be top dog in sixth grade at the elementary school. Aaron is in fourth. Chloe is in second. They’re growing so fast. They’re such great kids. 

 

Spencer is living his best life partying with friends, celebrating the end of elementary school. He had his last soccer game Saturday for the season. He’s trying out for a comp soccer team this week. Lots of good things for him!

Genevieve had the best friends group. She has tons of fun with them. She has really gotten into digital art. She has this cool Roblox dragon design game she plays where she gets to create her own dragons. Her creativity is endless. She’s still playing soccer too and plans to play with some friends next year through Bluffdale’s rec soccer program. 

Aaron is the king of Minecraft and Roblox. He plays whenever we let him. He’s still a huge fan of cats. He loves his stuffed animals and has become a huge reader this year. He read all of Fablehaven and dragon watch. He’s read Percy Jackson. He has read The Last Kids in Earth series. It’s fun to see him enjoy those worlds. 

Chloe grew so much this year. She’s really grown in her reading. She also has great friends. Her best friend moved across the country this weekend, so that’s super sad. Thankfully we’ll be able to keep in touch. She’s really enjoyed her soccer season too. She played a couple years ago but didn’t love it. She really liked it this year. She’s doing a gymnastics class too. And next year she’s going to start the art class Spencer and Genevieve did this year. 

We got to go to the opening reception for the Bluffdale Art Show on Friday. Spencer and Genevieve had their art from their art class this year displayed there. It’s there all month. Their skills have developed and refined so much this year.