Devin was transferred to his first English speaking area. He was initially pretty sad about that, but is adapting well and loves his companion and loves working with the YSA's since that is his assigned area now. He continues to be happy and hard working and we love hearing from him each week! He also celebrated his 21st birthday on July 30. ;)
We celebrated the 4th of July by going to our local pond to do some paddle boarding and swimming...
Then we had a water balloon fight and shaved ice...
And then finished the day with a huge family and friends BBQ and fireworks at my sister Kristi's house. Happy birthday America!!
On July 8, Bryce, Autumn and I drove to Tucson for Autumn's National Dance convention and competition. This was her final performance with her competition team from The Pointe, where she has danced for more than 7 years. The girls did AMAZING and were awarded platinum (the highest) awards for all 6 of the dances they competed and won several overalls. Autumn was selected to dance in the opening and closing shows and even given a featured part in one of the dances. She had a great week taking classes and competing with these girls:
While she was busy in classes, Bryce and I had fun exploring around Tucson. We went to an old Catholic mission on an Indian Reservation, toured a botanical garden, drove to the Gilbert, Arizona temple where we did a session since the Tucson temple was closed for cleaning and enjoyed massive, amazing monsoonal thunder storms every day that we were there.
The next week in July, Autumn went to Girls camp, where she had so much fun and fed her testimony with some amazing young women and YW leaders from our ward:
While Autumn was at Girls camp, we received the exciting news that Seth has been called to serve a 2-transfer mission to Las Vegas and reports directly to the mission home on August 22. He is so excited to get out and start serving and to see where this next chapter takes him.
Later that week, Megan came down from Logan and we were able to go with Seth as he went to the temple to receive his endowments. It was a special, sacred experience for the four of us and I'm so glad Megan (though some pretty incredible tender mercies) was able to be there so the 4 of us could be together.
While Megan was home that weekend, we went to our local aquarium and had a great day as a family. It's been a while since we've done something just for fun on a Saturday and it was so much fun!!
The next week in July, Autumn went to EFY in Provo with her good friend, Jacee. Her cousin from California (Logan) also attended the same session of EFY, so we dropped her off at the same time. All three girls had an amazing week and were so sad to have to come home and back to reality.
The Monday after EFY, Logan and Autumn flew from SLC to Seattle to spend a week with their grandpa Finch. They had such a fun week as cousins together and my dad showed them a great time by taking them all around Seattle. Here are a few pics of the fun things they did together:
Megan continues to do great in Logan - she is having a great summer and has just completed her first semester as a Grad student. She manages to find time for fun in between all of her studies :)
Other July news - we had our first annual Stake Beehive day and it was a huge success! Beehives are so cute and fun and willing to do new things. :)
Three of Devin's best childhood friends (who all just returned from their missions in the past few weeks) showed up one evening just to say hey and ended up playing Mario Kart with Seth (which really pulled at my heart strings) and then spending more than an hour answering all of Seth's questions about missions and giving him some of the best advice I have ever heard. They really filled in as Seth's "big brothers" since Devin is still gone. I love these boys!!
Autumn drew this chalk drawing of our family on the floor of the waiting area at Texas Roadhouse (I love Devin's missionary tag) while we were waiting to be seated for dinner before we went to see "Newsies" at Hale Center Theater. Seriously THE BEST play we have seen in a long time - so much fun and so much amazing talent!!
That's it for July! Here's to a great August!
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