On July 3, Megan was set apart as a missionary and became Sister Ririe for the next 18 months. She was set apart in the MTC in the morning that day by our neighbor who is now the MTC president because our entire Stake Presidency was out of town. It was fun because President Nally gave us all a tour of the MTC after Megan was set apart – it was nice for us to be able to see where she would be living for the next 2 weeks. After she was set apart, we all went out to lunch, drove back to BYU to pick up Devin from EFY, went to the Provo temple to take some last family pics and then went back to the MTC to drop Megan off. She was so happy and excited and we were all happy and excited for her! We definitely miss her presence in our home and look forward to her weekly emails.
We have since heard from her several times and she is loving her time in Houston as a missionary. She is currently serving in Katy, Texas. If you want to follow her adventures, you can link to her blog from ours or check it out on www.sisterririe.blogspot.com. We will be adding her letters every Monday so be sure to stay tuned. This is a picture of her and her first companion in Texas, Sister Wahlin, and one of her with the 34 missionaries who reported to the Houston mission with her on July 17.
The Monday after Megan went into the MTC, Seth and Bryce left for the week-long scout 50 mile backpacking trip. It was a lot of hard work, but they both really loved the experience and all the awesome places they got to see high up in the mountains above Heber. Seth became an expert fisherman and loved to fish! They had to come home a day early (Friday night instead of Saturday morning) when a Thursday night rainstorm drowned a few of the boys’ tents, and while all of the other boys and adults cheered at the thought of being home in their own beds a night early, Seth was so sad that his adventure had to end early. I’m sure Bryce was not quite as sad. :)
While they were roughing it in the mountains, Devin, Autumn and I drove to Truckee, California and enjoyed a week of luxury in a gorgeous cabin in the mountains above Lake Tahoe for our Finch Family Reunion. We had a great time playing with cousins, swimming in Donner Lake, hiking, eating delicious food, and just being together. It’s a gorgeous area and we really enjoyed ourselves!
Bryce thought he would have all of his vacation used up between Hawaii and the 50 miler and a few weekend trips we have taken, but when he discovered that he still had a few days left, we decided to take a short trip to Oregon at the end of the month. We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa, Jeff and his family and Tami and her family! We played at the beach, hiked to 7 of the 10 waterfalls around Silver Creek, visited the Saturday market in downtown Portland, and just enjoyed hanging out with family. We were sad it couldn’t be a longer trip, but were so happy we got to make it to Oregon this summer.
Seth has been busy getting started on his Eagle project. He really hopes to have it done by the end of the summer, but we’ll see if we can get all the approvals and things done in time.
Autumn’s commercial that she filmed last month has started airing on TV! In case you don’t want to spend all day watching Disney channel or Nickelodeon in the chances of seeing it, you can check it out on www.flipeez.com. She is also one of the kids modeling the hats on their website.
We ended the month with Devin’s 16th birthday!! He celebrated by going to the DMV that morning and getting his driver’s license. I can’t believe he is already 16 years old! He loves driving and I love that he can get himself to fencing now. He looks forward to his first date, but is currently trying to figure out how he is going to do that when he can’t drive anyone besides family for the next 6 months. :) I guess he will have to find someone a little older than him to double date with. He will also be having a barbeque and outdoor games party this Friday night with his friends to keep the celebration going.
Have a great August everyone!!
