Summer Break-The End

 Our Utah/Idaho vacation was a bit of a whirlwind vacation, but was lots of fun. The drive home was uneventful. We saw the dino at the gas station by highway 20. Megan actually took a nap (maybe another kid or two, did, too). 

Saturday Megan had her Synchro dress rehearsal, then we brought her team home with us to celebrate Megan's birthday.

Megan's synchro team did great swimming to Girls Just Want to Have Fun. She had a great time and loved synchro, her friends, and her coaches.

The week after we got back from our trip Rachel had band camp from 8am to 5pm M-F. Since she was working on learning to drive, she drove one morning, but didn't notice or register what the gas light meant, so when I got in the car to drive home and saw "0 miles to empty" I was a little worried that I would be stranded on the side of the road, so went the other direction, where Safeway was less than a mile away, and made it thankfully. I filled up our supposed 18 gallon tank with 18.6 gallons of gas. 

As band booster treasurer I spent a good bit of time that week at band camp helping out. Megan came one day to help out briefly and hung out watching the band practice from the stands.

They usually would march first thing in the morning, which in July is still blazing hot, then come in around 9:30 or 10 for a snack/sun break, before heading back out to the heat for another hour. After lunch they mostly stayed inside working on music and other stuff so they wouldn't die of heat stroke.

At the end of the week the band performed their music to show a little bit of what they'd learned that week.

Ryan finished off his city swim team experience with a couple more meets. Rachel did not participate in swim team after we got back from our trip since she was busy with band and such. 

At city championships he swam the butterfly, freestyle and breast stroke. I think he placed 3rd in butterfly, and, since he's at the younger end of the age group (11-12), next year he'll do even better. 

Megan had one last primary activity before school started, a pool party at the Johnson's house, where she had lots of fun with friends. She was disappointed when primary activities split into an older and a younger group since most of her friends were in the older group, but she persevered and had fun anyway. And they ended up having a lot of combined activities anyway.

With summer wrapping up, the kids were ready to head back to school (or maybe not ready, but ready or not, here it came).

Megan's birthday

 Megan kind of got 3 birthday celebrations: One in Idaho on her birthday, one in Utah the next day, and one back in Tucson. 

Idaho birthday: 

Utah birthday: 

Tucson friend birthday party: 

After their synchro dress rehearsal we brought the synchro team home for pizza, water fun outside, and other fun party stuff. Megan had a good time and felt the love.

Megan had a good time this summer with her synchro team. They were a good group of girls and they had fun together, so Megan was glad they all could come celebrate her birthday with her. 

And now Megan is 9. She's funny, confident, kind, a hard worker, and fun to be around. She's a great student and a pretty impressive athlete. Since she joined the Sapphire team at Springs gymnastics, she has improved leaps and bounds, learning new skills and improving the skill she already had. We're glad to have her in our family.

Summer break-Idaho vacation

 Sunday after we went to church with Mark's family, we had lunch then headed north to Sugar City to visit Lisa's family before heading on to Salmon for the family reunion. Rachel got in some freeway driving practice and improved quite a bit by the end of the hour and a half she drove. It was good having her have a nice long practice on the freeway in a place that was just two lanes and not crazy busy like the freeway in Tucson, or especially the crazy freeway in Utah. While she was driving she caught up to and passed what looked like a giant wing from an airplane.

In Sugar City we got to meet Kyle Wes Erickson for the first time. He seems to go by Wes more than Kyle.

It was fun playing with Brayden and seeing his fun personality. 

We hung out and played games for a few hours before we headed off to finish this leg of the trip driving to Salmon.

In Salmon we had a Jolley Family Reunion. The kids had fun playing outside while adults found lots of places to sit around and talk and catch up with each other.

The giant slip 'n slide was a big hit. Some donned trash bags so they could go even faster.

The adults watching the slip 'n slide tried to hide from the sun in the shade of a too small tree. 

Megan enjoyed the huge swing while lots of cousins and 2nd cousins of all ages played water baseball.

We all gathered in Grandma and Grandpa Jolley's yard for some getting to know you games. The dogs liked to join in, too. 

We did our best to get a picture with everyone that was able to come. And I'll do my best to figure out who all is here:

Back row: Greg, Cade, Brian, Melissa, J, (Jay's wife), George, Zack, Conner, Tyler, Berik, Todd, Jacob, Seth

Standing in front of back row: Jan, Patty, Ashley, baby Abbott, Eric, Mary, Rachel, Savannah, (Jacob is kind of in both rows), Emily, Allie?, Josh, Kent, Carrie

Sitting in chairs: Von, Easton, David's son, Sophie?, Gabby?, Heath, Becky, David, Reah, Annette, Boyd

Kneeling sitting: Chelsea, Carlie, Cameron, ? with ? in lap, Brooklyn, Jon with ? in lap, Sara, Molly, Mary's son?, Eloise, Jared, Nate, Abby, Bryce, Bryce's wife, Barbara

Front row: Mason, ?, ?, ?, Jon and Sara's son?, Parker, 3 Stokes grandkids, Ryan, Sammy, Ben, Colette, Annie and Megan

Monday evening we had the city pool reserved for our family. There was a lot of us! The climbing wall was cool, but slippery, but it was fun to be able to just fall into the water when you slipped. 

The water was warm, but the air wasn't particularly warm. I thought it was funny that Bryce (my cousin) joined the old(er) folks (my aunts/uncle) on the sidelines. Pictured in chairs Patty, Von, Reah, Grandma Knight, Barbara, and Bryce. 

Since Tuesday was the 4th of July, we had a pretty awesome firework show Monday night before some people had to leave. The funniest part was Penny, the dog, who loved the fireworks so much, she would jump around them and bark while they were going off.

Tuesday we piled in the back of the truck to to up to check out the cabin that Josh and Nate built, and where Nate's wedding reception was going to be. Later we piled in the truck again (and other cars) and headed up to the Upper Place for a hot dog roast.

Since Tuesday was Megan's birthday, she got to choose how she wanted to celebrate. Instead of cake she wanted pie, so we got a ton of pies to share with everyone. The birthday girl got to have pie for breakfast. Everyone else had to wait until later. 

A visit to Salmon is never complete without checking out the two headed calf. 

The kids enjoyed time together to play games. The adults watched some old family videos.

Jan and George brought their side by side, and the kids had tons of fun getting driven around in it.

Carrie or Emily brought face paint and painted any kids' faces that wanted it for Independence Day.

Happy birthday, Megan! There were like 7 giant pies! 

Since we were in Idaho, on the farm, we gave Annie, Ryan and Megan a little experience driving. They sat on my lap and got a little taste of driving. Annie didn't fit very well, since she's a little big to be sitting on my lap, but she enjoyed it. I think Ryan and Annie both braked hard at one point, which pushed them into the steering wheel, honking the horn on accident. 😂 They had a good time and Ryan wishes he could drive again. 

That night we did more fireworks and enjoyed time with family before we had to say good-bye the next morning. We drove down to Utah for a couple more days, then we headed back to Arizona on Friday, just in time for Megan's synchro dress rehearsal on Saturday, and Rachel starting band camp the next Monday.