July and August

I am just going to give up on doing a separate blog for July and just cram the rest of our summer together.

July was crazy fun around here! Devin went to Sparring camp at his karate school and learned all kinds of new skills - his favorite is the volcano kick, which he is still working on perfecting. He also went to Space Camp with his cousin Trevor, a three day overnight camp with all sorts of space missions in simulators and fun activities. He had a great time!

Megan went to her first EFY with her cousin, Bethani, down at BYU and had an amazing time! She already can't wait for EFY next year. I don't think she got much sleep, but she had a great time making new friends and going to all sorts of classes and activities. We missed her, but I don't think she missed us much - too busy and too much fun!

We also did our annual hike through Timp Caves and had a great time, as always. The kids all love this annual tradition and all have their favorite parts of the cave - it's fun to go each year.

Of course, by far the highlight of the month (and August, too) was our Ririe family cruise to Alaska - it was amazing! The kids all had a great time on the ship with plenty of food and ice cream and hanging out with cousins or playing at Club HAL, and our time spent in Alaska was so much fun! Some of our highlights are:

• Visiting the sled dog training camp in Juneau (on Devin's 11th birthday - Happy Birthday, Devin!), getting pulled by sled dogs, learning about the Ididerod, and playing with the husky puppies (Seth said that if he could rank the days of his life, this would be #1!)

• Going to the Lumberjack show in Ketchikan - Autumn loved being part of the show!


• All the totem poles in Sitka - I think we have a picture of every single one


• Cruising through Glacier Bay - too amazing and beautiful for words


• Of course, spending time with family - it made the trip so much more fun to be together!

We will never forget our fun, fun time in Alaska - thanks again Grandma and Grandpa Ririe!

After our cruise, we spent a few days in Seattle with Michelle's dad and had a great time at the air and space museum. Seth and Devin especially loved the flight simulator, especially going upside down, Megan wasn't so sure, and Autumn was absolutely positive she never wanted to do it again!

For the rest of August, Megan went to Girls Camp and had an amazing time, Michelle did her second (and final) pack meeting as Cubmaster and then found out 4 days later that she is the new YW president in the ward, much to her absolute shock and Megan's absolute delight. It will be a fun adventure, I am sure - the 42 young women in our ward are sure to keep our whole family busy for the next few years!

The kids all started back to school on August 18 and we have settled back into a school schedule much sooner than we wanted to. Megan is loving 9th grade, Devin loves his 6th grade teacher and being big man on campus, Seth is tolerating being back in school and is enjoying 3rd grade and Autumn says that being in kindergarten is the "most fun ever!" Hard to believe that another school year has started already - where does the time go?