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!!

May 2017

May went by in a blur!! It was filled with singing, dancing, art and school projects and final exams.  It was crazy busy, but we had a blast getting through it all (except maybe the final exams - so glad school is out for another year!)

Autumn did so much dancing in May it is hard to remember it all.  The month started with her dance studio's company showcase, ballet recital (a beautiful performance of "Sleeping Beauty"), and end of year recital.  It was so wonderful to have Grandma and Grandpa Ririe here for all three of those performances!


Autumn with two of her favorite fans!


Autumn with her studio dance team and her very pregnant director, Ashley


Me with a couple of my favorite dance mom friends.  Their daughters are moving on next year, bummer for me. :( Dance conventions and comps are going to be much less fun without them.

Autumn also danced her end of year recital with her Jr. High dance team.  The theme was "Michael Jackson" and the dance team opened the show with a performance to "Thriller" that was AWESOME!!


Autumn and her fellow zombies backstage


Some of her dance team members after the show - looking a little more alive

She also tried out for next year's Jr. High dance company (made it and is in the process of trying to be co-president next year), the teen touring team at her current studio (made it) as well as trying out at a new studio that requires fewer hours of practice a week and fewer performances (made their top teen team).  After much agonizing, weighing the pros and cons, and prayer, Autumn decided to stay at her current studio with the extra hours of practice even though nearly all of her friends there are moving on from competitive dance or aging up to the senior team.  It was a tough decision, but ultimately she loves where she is, loves the teachers there and just loves to dance!

Seth and Autumn both had end of year choir concerts and Seth had his voice recital.  I would share a video of Seth singing, but have been forbidden to do so.

In other news, Megan graduated from institute and finished another year of college.



After being at home for a couple of weeks, she boarded a plane to JFK and then flew from there to South Africa, where she will be for the next month.  We get to FaceTime with her most days and she is having an amazing experience!!  She loves teaching the African children and even some adults. We can't wait to get pictures of what she is doing, but she did send us this one picture of the sunrise outside the house where she is staying in Port Elizabeth:



And this one of a courtyard in Port Elizabeth:



Seth celebrated his 17th birthday with a Bob Ross painting party with some of his friends.  They had a great time, despite the fact that we weren't as prepared as we thought we were and didn't have enough paint or the right kind of brushes - learning experience, for sure:



This is what Bob Ross's finished painting looked like:



And these are the artists and their finished works of art:



It was super fun and a great way to celebrate our very artistically minded Seth. :)

Seth rounded out the month with 3 AP tests, finals and one very intriguing final project for AP art history.  The students were supposed to recreate one of the 250 works of art they had to memorize for the AP tests.  Seth and his friends had a lot of fun with this project.  Here is his friend Hayden's recreation, which Seth helped with, entitled "The Swing" alongside the original work of art.


"The Swing" by Jean-Honore Fragonard

The Swing recreation by Hayden, Grace and Seth :)

Then Seth chose to recreate a work of art called "Lying with the Wolf".  He actually hated this piece, so his choosing to do it was more to make fun of it, but other than that, I have no words...


"Lying with the wolf" by Kiki Smith


Recreation by Seth and a very reluctant Sasha. Seth is wearing shorts in this photo - I promise.

Seth also attended a couple of concerts this month (he LOVES live music) - Andrew McMahon, where he and his friends waited after the concert to meet him...



And a band called Bleachers.  He had a great time at both.

He finished up the school year with an early morning kidnapping for breakfast with next year's Chamber choir.  Of course he was wearing his cat onesie...



Devin continues to do great in Phoenix!  We love getting his emails each week and hearing how hard he is working and how he is finding joy in what he is doing, even on the hard days.  It was so much fun to get to talk to him on Mother's Day and to see his happy face and hear his voice again. We loved hearing him share his testimony with us in Spanish, too.  It was a good, good day.



Even Frankie is getting in on the missionary spirit here and likes to start his day with some Book of Mormon reading...



We ended the month with Bryce and Seth going to the annual Ririe family Memorial day breakfast while I took Autumn and her friend Anna  to EFY at BYU.  Megan's boyfriend Brad is working Autumn's session and we met up with him at check in, which was fun.  Autumn is having fun and learning a ton at EFY and we are so glad!





Here's to summer!!!  Happy June everyone!