July 2017

July was filled with fun and tons of memory making. We love summer!!

Devin continues to be doing well in Phoenix. I'm not sure he loves summer as much as we do, but he is surviving despite the heat.  He does love being a missionary and had some great experiences this month.  He loves his companion and the other companionship of Elders who live right next door to them. We are happy he is doing so well.  He will celebrate his 20th birthday tomorrow, July 30, and we look forward to hearing how his missionary birthday treated him.




4th of July celebrations as missionaries - they are all wearing patriotic ties. :)



Here at home we celebrated the 4th of July with a trip to a little pond very close to our house where we had fun playing in the water and having a picnic lunch.  We later had a BBQ with a smoked brisket Bryce made us and it was so super yummy!! Happy birthday America!







Our next adventure for the month was traveling to Oregon for our Finch family reunion, which was in Lincoln City.  We had such a great time being together and catching up with each other.  Some of our favorite activities were walking on the beach and playing in the tide pools:









Hiking up the big sand dune in Pacific City and jumping off the dune:







Hiking up Little Bears Hump:



Going to the aquarium in Newport: (Bryce thought it was funny to show his "happy face" in all of the photos that day)











Spending time together with family - always the best!!  We also loved mealtimes, skit night and karaoke night, too.




My dad with 6 of his 8 children (sadly Kristi and Jenni and their families couldn't make it)


My dad with all but 6 of his grandkids and 4 of his great grandkids



The week after the reunion was Stake Girls Camp and I don't think anyone was happier than I was to move out of the planning stages and finally get going with camp.  The week was pretty amazing with lots of small miracles along the way.  We had fun, bonded as a Stake, did hard things together and played a lot, too.  Plus, in my opinion, there is nothing better than spending some time in the mountains if you really want to connect with Heavenly Father.  It was a really good week! Unfortunately, I forgot to take many pictures, but here are a few:


All of our signs were made by one of the Stake YCLs - those YW are pretty talented!!


Autumn (center) and a couple of friends in a canoe. We also zip lined into the lakes, played on the rock climbing wall and team building course, and did a little archery.


We saw hundreds of sheep on our 6 mile hike


The YW and leaders from our ward.  Autumn came home raving that it was the most spiritual camp she had ever attended. She had really great ward camp leaders!!


My own little sacred spot at camp - I love the mountains!!

My sister Kim was in town for just one day with her husband who was here on business, so we went on a morning hike together to these beautiful falls:



We were supposed to end the month with a short camping trip in American Fork canyon, but with work schedules and such, we ended up scrapping the camping idea and going for a Saturday morning hike and then playing on one of the reservoirs up the canyon. We seriously live in a beautiful spot of the world!







That's it for our July! Blog you next month!

June 2017

June was a pretty exciting month for our family, though we weren't together for most of it.  Here's a breakdown of what happened:

Devin is doing great in Phoenix despite heat so hot that it has melted the mini blinds INSIDE his air conditioned apartment.  I'm not sure how he manages it, but his letters home are always positive and filled with great experiences and personal testimony and growth.  He is happy to be serving as a missionary, for sure.  He has stayed in the same area in Northern Phoenix with the same companion (Elder Velasco) for his whole mission so far, and he is loving it.




The dangers of biking...



Megan spent most of the month in South Africa having the experience of a lifetime.  She loved working with the children, creating beautiful spaces for them to learn, and getting to know other college students from all over the world.









She also had amazing adventure experiences like bungee jumping from the tallest bridge in the world:









Hiking through some beautiful and exotic places





Going on multiple safaris and even interacting with some pretty cool animals along the way.  I'm not sure she loved the part when a group of monkeys ransacked her apartment, but I guess it's all part of the experience.











Megan did so much amazing stuff that there isn't room to write about it all, so you'll just have to ask her about her adventures the next time you see her. :)

I had 3 of my most favorite former Laurels over for a traditional brunch (we try to get together every time they are in town since 2 of them are now married and they are all busy and now living all over the country).  It was so much fun getting together with Alathia, Carly and Jane and getting caught up with them and my former Laurel advisor and friend, Brooke.




Autumn started the month with a week at EFY where she had an amazing time, made tons of new friends and learned a ton!



She and I then spent the next week "together" in Southern California, but really I only saw her a couple of times, even though we were in the same hotel.  She was off with her dance friends having fun at Disneyland, the beach, downtown LA and taking some pretty amazing dance classes at Millennium Dance LA.











Meanwhile, I spent that same week in SoCal with my sister Kim and we had a blast at Disneyland, California Adventure and then took a trip to Harry Potter world at Universal Studios, where I may have geeked out just a little.  We had SO much fun together!!






The girl in the front left seat though...





Meanwhile, that same week, Bryce and Seth went down to Moab for a Stake high adventure activity where they had a great time hiking, biking, repelling, white water rafting, swimming and other adventures too.







A few days after getting home from high adventure, Seth boarded a plane headed to Athens, Greece.  He spent the next 17 days in 11 cities in 4 countries in Europe seeing more art and architecture then even he could handle, though he loved every minute of it.  He came home exhausted and excited to tell us all about his European adventures.  Again, too many experiences to write about here, so you'll have to ask him all about it. :)

Athens:






Delphi:



Florence, Italy:








Rome:



Vatican City:



Sorrento and Pompeii:



Campania:



Paris:









And finally home again:



Since he got home, Seth has gotten a job at Blue Lemon, a cafe close to our house, and also just found out that he earned 5's on all 3 of the AP tests he took this year.  It has been a good month for Seth. :)

While Seth was in Europe and Megan was in Africa, Bryce and I took Autumn and two of her friends, Anna and Jacee, to a condo near Jordanelle Reservoir where we had a fun few days boating on the reservoir, hiking through the mountains (well, Bryce and I went hiking through the mountains while Autumn and her friends had fun on the alpine slide and coaster), swimming and playing games. It was a fun few days!













Megan got home from Africa just in time to celebrate her 23rd birthday with BBQ ribs (smoked all day by Bryce - yum!) and homemade mac and cheese - her favorite and a true Southern meal.  I didn't get a picture of her with all of her friends, but here she is with her balloons. :)



That's it for our exhausting month!! July promises to be just as busy and nearly as fun.  See you all in August!!