July 2021

We started July at Bryce's company summer party. This year they hosted a BBQ dinner and then an evening performance of "Matilda" at Scera outdoor theater in Orem.  Seth, Bryce and I attended together and all had a great evening, despite the 100+ degree temps! (It cooled down significantly when the sun went down)

Autumn had a few fun adventures - She played tennis with Teddy: (she likes tennis, but honestly I think she does it mostly for the outfits :))

She got an ingrown toenail on her big toe that was severe enough to require minor surgery - gross! (and painful!)

And she went to Jackson Hole with Teddy and his family and had a great time exploring the great outdoors and spending time with everyone

On July 10, Bryce and I were lucky enough to be able to accompany Delaney when she received her endowments at the Mt Timp temple - SOOOOOOOO amazing to be back in the temple and to be there with Delaney for this happy occasion!!

Devin had a couple of big occurrences this month - he and his boyfriend, Levi Gagnon, were officially engaged and he celebrated his 24th birthday. :)  We love Levi and are happy he is part of our family.

I had some more hiking adventures with my sister Kim and my brother Bill when they were in town for our niece's wedding.  I love the Utah mountains!!

We celebrated the 24th of July with a yummy BBQ and fun games!

We had a really fun evening at my niece, Bella's, wedding to her now husband, Tim.  It was so fun to have all 7 of my siblings there - it's been quite a while since all 8 of us were together.  We love our family and spending time with them.  The weather tried to ruin the fun with heavy rains, but the rain and wind died down long enough for their wedding ceremony and reception before starting up again. It was a beautiful evening!

Autumn and her cousin Logan ready to go to the wedding

Teddy, Autumn and Raeleigh at the wedding

Me and my 7 siblings with our spouses (except Jenni's husband Phil who wasn't there)

The mocktail crew

Bella and Tim

Autumn and her Grandpa recreating their dance photo from Ben and Jess' wedding in 2014 :)

June 2021

 June was a fun and only slightly crazy month for our family. Take a look:

Autumn went on a two week trip across the country with 110 other recently graduated high school seniors, most of them from Lone Peak High school.  They started here in Highland and spent the next two weeks visiting Church history sites from Martin's Cove to the Sacred Grove and everything in between.  Here are a few pics of the Church history sites they visited:

                                                                Early morning drop off

Somewhere in Iowa

Winters Quarters temple

Carthage jail

Nauvoo temple

Kirtland

Susquehanna River

Sacred Grove - The leaders of the tour challenged everyone to read the Book of Mormon in the 2 weeks of the tour. Autumn completed the challenge and read her final chapter in the Sacred Grove on the day before she flew home.

They also visited loads of other Church history sites and Autumn loved them all. She was so surprised with how much she loved learning about Church history and how her testimony grew so much by sharing and recording her experiences.

The tour also stopped in several big cities along the way and Autumn and her friends were able to explore and play tourist for a day in each of the cities, which she also really loved:

Chicago

Cedar Point amusement park

Washington DC

NYC

Boston where they went to Fenway Park and watched the Red Sox win - so fun!

They ended their amazing journey at Niagra Falls and then flew back home to Utah

As a side note - for those of you wondering, Autumn has decided to attend Utah Valley University and is pretty excited to be a Wolverine!  She will be moving to Provo and starting college at the end of August.

While Autumn was out touring the country, Bryce and I helped Megan and Mitch pack up all of their stuff from their apartment in Logan as well as stuff from their homes in Utah county and along with Mitch's mom, helped them drive and move it all into their new house in Boise, Idaho! Their first home is in a cute neighborhood and has plenty of room for them to grow. We helped them clean and move their new furniture in:

Bryce and I drove back to Boise a couple of weeks later when Bryce had a mandatory Friday off of work to help Megan and Mitch with a few projects like building shelves in the master bathroom, fixing a couple of sprinklers, pruning trees and planting flowers and refinishing their kitchen table:

Megan and Mitch are eager learners and are having fun setting up their new home.  We ended our second trip to Boise with a fun BBQ at my sister Kathi's home, which is only 30 minutes away from Megan and Mitch's new place.  Megan's cousin Amanda (Kathi's daughter) and her family live close by as well and it was so fun to get together with them.  Amanda is excited that one of her cousins lives close by! ;)

In between our two trips to Boise, Bryce and I took a few days and drove to the Four Corners area and explored Mesa Verde and other cliff dwellings in that area.  We had so much fun exploring this area together and learned a lot about the ancient Puebla people.  It's a beautiful and fascinating place!!

On the way home, we decided to drive out of our way to hike to House on Fire, which Bryce has wanted to visit for years now. It was pretty cool how the striations on the rock above the house make it look like it is on fire. 

We did some wedding planning with Seth and Delaney as they look forward to their wedding on November 19. I went wedding dress shopping with Delaney (no spoiler pics here) and they had their engagement photos taken at Squaw Peak in Provo Canyon.  Here are a few of their faves:

We had a short visit from the Bakes when they came to drop Ian off for school.  We were in Boise for most of the time that they were staying at our house, but we did have a fun Father's Day/Jeff and Tami's birthday BBQ on the one evening we were all together.  We ended the month with a visit from the Holloways where we did a bunch of hiking and having fun together:

We capped off the last weekend of the month with 2 family weddings on the same day.  By the grace of God and with more than a little luck, we were able to make it to both sealings that were only 2 hours apart - Alex and Sabrina in the Mt. Timp temple at 1:00 and then Brandon and Lauren in the Ogden temple at 3:00.  Still can't believe we made them both.  We enjoyed so much being with our families that evening at the wedding receptions:

Brandon and Lauren coming out of the Ogden temple

Autumn and Raeleigh at Brandon and Lauren's reception

Alex and Sabrina coming out of their wedding reception

That's it for June!!