12 on the 12th--July 2019 Edition

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1. I worked a half day then drove to the airport.
2. I flew to Minneapolis and then on to Grand Rapids, Michigan for my 30th high school reunion.
3. Betsy and Emmit were out collecting berries when I drove into their neighborhood.
4. The message on their chalkboard.
5. Fresh flowers from their yard and Petosky Rocks in the vase.
6. The photos books I've made them from previous trips.
7. View of my guest suite, complete with fan!
8. Brownie ala Betsy.
9. The views are so beautiful.
10. Emmit up to bat.
11. Me, Faye and Betsy at Emmit's baseball game.
12. Their family room that night before we watched What About Bob.

What Happened to July?!

How can summer be so long and so short at the same time? It's an annoying conundrum for me. When I was a kid summers felt carefree, vacation-filled and endless...they don't feel like that to me now.

Whitney and Madison try to get together every couple of weeks (Madison is very busy) to hang out and giggle (they've been friends since kindergarten). One day they used some cheap dollar store mugs I'd bought to decorate with Sharpies and then set the ink in the oven (ala Pinterest) but the ink still smeared and it ended up being unsuccessful.

Whitney has been volunteering (i.e., shoveling manure) for 2 hours a day at Bridle Up Hope and gets to earn a riding lesson for every 10 hours she works. She's only had one lesson so far, but is up to almost 30 hours of volunteering thus far.

Landon went to Martin's Cove, Wyoming on Trek with the youth from our Stake (about 500 people). He hasn't been very forth coming with the details but the Sacrament Meeting we had after it had me doing the ugly cry, so I know it was a great experience for everyone involved.

I had my 43rd birthday and Amie had her 40th! We went out for both of them even though they're only a week apart. We had a 3.5 hour lunch for mine and then lunch and a little shopping for hers and laughed so hard that I was giggly for the rest of the day.

I've read 14 books this summer so far, including this one that we read for our July book club. It was hilarious!

We spent July 4th and the 24th at Adam and Amy's house (they have a pool!).

It has been the summer of Lola for me since I have spent 2 weeks of July (not consecutive) dog sitting and house sitting while Adam's family has been on various vacations. Staying at their house has been my vacation.

Landon wore this ensemble quite bit as he sanded and repainted the gutters and trim on the house.

I think he ended up enjoying this project as he listened to music and got into the zone.

Sadly Adam and Amy's girls have been so busy this summer they haven't spent any time here. Bella has only spent one night here the entire summer!

Betsy (my BFF from high school) and her 2 boys flew in from Michigan for 3.75 days and nights and were welcomed by this lovely porch art by Landon. (Betsy's son Emmit is in my new blog banner.)

So here we are only 5 days away from Landon's 16th birthday! and 2 weeks away from school starting. Crazy!

Book Club Birthday Lunch

For book club this month we ended up meeting for lunch at Pizzeria 712.

It was originally going to be a bonus gathering of sorts, but it ended up serving as a birthday lunch for Amy and I and our overdue discussion of The Midwife of Hope River (4 stars).

Michelle, Collette and I were the first to arrive and asked to be seated outside (surprising because of the heat, but it was in the shade and the restaurant was hot inside too, plus we thought we could be louder).

Oh sweet nectar.

The girls didn't have any trouble spotting us.

Five of us ordered the braised beef panini (delicious) but Jana ordered pizza.

Jenn brought us pineapple lip balm and macadamia nut kisses from her trip to Hawaii.

Collette gave Amy and I these darling journals with our initials on them, and the book club girls gave us $100 gift cards...Amy got a Visa gift card.

I got a TJ Maxx gift card, woohoo!

We had our waitress take a couple photos of us after lunch and she did a good job. It's always nice to get a photo of the whole group for a change.

I spent the rest of the afternoon having my longest phone appointment ever with Betsy! We hadn't had one since she visited last July (we always go to extremes like this). My family were all gone and her boys were out with their grandparents so we were free and easy...it was glorious and a most excellent birthday gift.

Not Quite Easy Casual--The End

After our chilly afternoon at the pool, Betsy went back to the hotel to get their stuff packed up for their early morning departure (so sad!) so the boys hung out at the house with us and we gave them some BYU shirts.

Later we loaded up in the car to hit our town carnival.

We stopped on the steps of the Alpine Tabernacle for a photo op.

The boys just adore Landon!

We had prebought our tickets which makes the carnival a far more affordable experience.

Cute boys on the kiddie roller coaster.

Betsy and I took a self-portrait but Randy snuck in.

 Betsy is a crazy girl and went on several of the insane rides with Landon and Whitney.

I'm not sure if Emmit was upset that she wasn't with him or that she was spinning upside down like a crazy person.

For real!?

These two were all about the wild rides this year and kept taking off together while we took the little boys around.

Good times on the carousel.

Betsy took this photo while we stood in line for the Ferris Wheel. Randy and I kept our place in line while everyone else ran off to do other rides...I'm officially the line holder, nonride-going fuddy duddy...dang.

Betsy and Emmit, then Landon and Owen, then Randy and Whitney. I leaned against a tree and watched them ride. I saw a ton of kids from school and thought it was interesting how a couple of them stopped to talk to me, others waved, and some others acted like they didn't see me. Maybe they were equally traumatized by the reminder of school starting so soon.

We ran out of tickets so Betsy went and bought some so this ride ended up costing $9.50!! (It would have only been $3 with the prepaid tickets.)

It was finally time for funnel cakes (the only reason I tolerate the carnival) so we sat on the steps of the Tabernacle (as is our tradition) to consume these lovelies.

We were all pretty wasted by the end of the night and didn't drop them off at their hotel until 10:30.

I picked them up for the airport at 5:00am so it was a dark and groggy goodbye. The trip was such a whirlwind, it almost feels like it was a dream.

Not Quite Easy Casual--Day 3A

Water activities seemed like the best bet for our crowd, so Whitney and I got online to search out another fun pool for the day. We settled on the Scera Pool in Orem (which we had never been to before) because it had 2 diving boards, slides and lots of fun stuff.

We got there right when it opened at 12:30 and took this quick self-portrait that Owen and Whitney somehow missed out on.

It was overcast, but the it was supposed to be sunny and 91 degrees that day so we weren't concerned.

The new floatie was a hot commodity, especially since I'd accidentally popped the blue one while closing the back hatch of the car.

Lathering up!

I enjoyed all the colorful Adirondack chairs.

Owen entertained himself by going off the diving board over and over again.

The rest of us hung out in the pool next to the diving board and took turns on the floatie.

Betsy, Landon and Whitney went down the slides a few times, but it got kind of cold so there was only warmth to be had in the water.

My kids are huge.

We lasted almost 3 hours but were so freezing by the end that I was having visions of hot chocolate and a bread bowl of soup! It was ridiculous to feel so cold on a summer day and it made the outing feel like a bust.

Not Quite Easy Casual--Day 2B

Later that day we all fit in my mom's car and drove up to a canyon near Adam and Amy's house for a family gathering to celebrate Megan's 8th birthday and so everyone could see Betsy and the boys.

Emmit fell asleep toward the end of the drive and Betsy wanted to keep him asleep for as long as possible.

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip! Betsy had been sitting in the car with the sleeping Emmit but got out to hug my mom and ended up making this hilarious face.

Owen was so excited to be on a mountain, and Landon was good enough to "be on duty" taking him around.

Betsy had to keep checking on Emmit.

We got a mountain self-portrait.

Whitney, Bella and Megan.

Owen did a little creek crossing, he's hard core.

Robyn and her kids were the last to arrive, but completed to party.

They had gotten a dog that day (which appeared to be a guinea pig or a rabbit upon first glance) which stole the show for sure.

The kids roasted hot dogs, but the rest of us brought better take-out from various place.

Emmit woke up and got busy mountain climbing with the boys.

Megan got to open her presents and was surprised by the $10 bill we gave her.

At one point, Emmit plopped himself on Landon's lap, which was all kinds of cute.

I brought my tripod so we could get a group photo, which turned out great (I think) but is especially funny to us because Olivia's friend planted herself front and center. I just couldn't bring myself to ask her to stand near the tripod to try to make us laugh. Also, check out Randy holding the puppy in a blanket. He held the dog and rocked back and forth like it was a newborn baby.

Good times.