July 2018

Here's a look at the adventures in our family this July:

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!

June 2018

We started summer off with a bang here in June! Here's our report:

Devin is doing great in Arizona and is somehow managing to love life as a missionary despite being on a bike in 110 degree heat every day.  He seriously just loves everything right now - his companion, his area, and even being on a bike in the heat.  I was worried that he seems to be getting a little too skinny, but he assures me he is eating well and just sweating it all off on his bike. :)  He also had the great privilege of having Elder Uchtdorf come to his mission and having him spend the entire day meeting with and training the missionaries - it was an awesome experience for Devin!








Devin's current companion, Elder Stevens, is from Saratoga Springs and both Devin and his companion really wanted their moms to meet, so Hollie and I met for lunch and had a great time talking about our missionary sons.  It was very fun!

The first weekend of June, Bryce and I headed out with a fun group of Laurels for our annual Stake Laurel High adventure activity, which is put on every year by a member of our Stake Presidency who LOVES hiking and canyoneering with the help of us as the Stake YW Presidency.  Bryce came along as priesthood help and we both had so much fun over 2 days of hiking and camping near the Capital Reef area.  On the first day, we hiked to Cassidy Arch...



The next day, we hiked 2 slot canyons - Ding and Dang.  We bouldered, hiked through waist deep water and did some technical rope decents - we all had a blast and came home a little sore, a little sunburned and a lot happy. :)




Two of our fearless leaders :)


The Stake YW presidency at the end of our adventure - I love these ladies!!

On June 3, we were lucky enough to get tickets to go to President Nelson's devotional for the youth in the Conference Center in SLC.  We were excited to go in person and figured we would be in the back of the balcony like we usually are when we are fortunate enough to get tickets to stuff like this.  We were happily surprised to find out that our seats were 7 rows from the front!  It was an amazing experience to be there in person and something we will never forget.  We know President Nelson is a prophet of God!!





The next morning, we got up early and drove to Southern California for a fun vacation!  Unfortunately, Megan started grad school classes that week and couldn't come with us, but she was so excited to start classes that she didn't care too much.  Plus something about her dating a boy she really likes has kept her from coming home too often... :)  She didn't even make it home for her birthday this month, though she did FaceTime us as she was opening her presents so we could be there for that.

Here are some of our pics from Disneyland.  My sister, Kim and her husband joined us for a day of playing and although we were exhausted at the end of each day, we did have a super fun time!!
















This is my favorite ride picture from this trip.  Seth took the front on splash mountain every time we rode it and got this soaked every. single. time. :):):)


While we were in California, we also went to the Newport Beach temple to do baptisms - such a beautiful temple!!


We also spent one sunny, beautiful afternoon at the beach before heading back home.

In June, we also had Stake Youth Conference in Manti, Utah.  Autumn and I and about 225 more youth and adults from our Stake had a lot of fun over three days playing games, doing a ropes course, attending devotionals, dancing the night away and going to the Manti pageant.  I'm not going to lie, this event was a total pain for me from beginning until nearly the end and I was so ready to go home on the last day.  Then we had one of the most amazing testimony meetings I have ever attended and then the pain of the previous days was somehow all forgotten. :)  It was a super meaningful youth conference for many of the youth of our Stake, which is why we do everything we do, isn't it? :)







Seth had a busy month working as many hours as he could get - that kid has become a pro at bumming shifts off of other workers so he can get more hours.  He's been known to work as much as 14 hours a day and is loving earning and saving the extra money.  He also manages to find plenty of time to be with his friends. :)


Celebrating Parker's birthday (Seth was very proud of the fact that he and Grace made the strawberry shortcake themselves)


The three amigos on Jake's mission farewell Sunday - he's headed to Belgium and the Netherlands

We ended the month with a visit from my sister Kim, who was in town to visit her kids who live here in Utah and also to outfit her son, Sam, who is leaving next week to go to Omaha, Nebraska (via the Mexico MTC) on his mission.  Kim and I managed to do 3 beautiful hikes while she was here as well.


Horsetail falls above Alpine


Silver Lake up AF Canyon


Grandeur Peak up Millcreek Canyon - Autumn even agreed to come on this one (Seth was working), and has decided that she may not hate hiking after all...


Autumn and Sam ;)

That's it for June!