Jesse and Annette's wedding-luncheon

After the sealing and pictures were done we headed back to the church for the luncheon. It was basically a family reunion. With two large families like Jesse and Annette have, a family only luncheon was still very large.

Mary was super helpful behind the scenes, as was her mom, Nancy.

The head table with the important people. :)

Cousins

Lots of family:

Since we were all dressed in coordinating outfits, we snapped a few family photos.

Siblings:

Jesse and Annette's wedding-temple

 We were so happy to head up to Utah for Jesse and Annette to get married! The kids didn't remember the last time they flew on an airplane before we went to Seattle in April, and now they got to fly twice in one year! We flew out of Mesa in August, so it was HOT. 

Our kids helped keep the younger cousins occupied during the sealing. They hung out inside in the waiting room to make it easier to keep everyone corralled, and to stay out of the heat a bit. After the sealing was done the cousins lined up to wait for the lovely couple to emerge.

When they finally emerged the nieces and nephews ran forward for a dog pile-style group hug.

We tried to snap some photos relatively quickly since it was pretty hot outside. Jacob was the photographer, trying to organize and wrangle a million family members.

Brayden and the lovely ladies. 

Hanging with fun peeps

 We're not exactly party animals, but we did manage to have a few fun get togethers. 

Annie had a presidency party with the YW 1 class presidency so they could bond a little. They had a good time (even though one of them had to miss it) and were able to make some tasty treats and have some fun.

Ryan and Annie convinced me to take them to the Skate Country Night so they could hang out with their friends for a while. Middle school friends mean a lot, and I'm glad they have good friends that are good influences, for the most part. :) 

We are trying to be a little more social, so we hosted another Sunday Sundaes party. I have a hard time limiting the number of people we invite, so we ended up having more than 50 people once we accounted for kids and everything. Maybe not the most reverent Sunday activity, but there was a lot of fellowshipping going on and we got to know more people in our ward.

Potty party! Megan had an ingrown toenail and was soaking her foot, but super bored, so Annie and Ryan brought the game to her. 

Don't remember what this picture was for, but hey, Eegees! Delish!

Back to school

Megan, Ryan, and Annie headed back to school on July 17th. Of course I forgot to take first day of school pictures with everyone before they left. Managed to snag one of Megan once we were at school, at least. And a friend sent me a picture of her at lunchtime. 

Since Rachel didn't have to go back to school yet, she accompanied my mom and me on a lunch date for my birthday. (Yes it was 6 months late, but at least we got to it!) 

The first day of school the buses always run late after school (the whole first week, actually, it was pretty bad), so I picked Megan up by the crosswalk so I could avoid the parent pick up line that was SOOOOO long. 

Ryan reminded me to take a first day of school photo of him after school one day. Never did get one of Annie. 

Rachel had her first day of school on Friday and she dressed up her feet real special for it. New socks one of her friends gave her.

After 2 weeks of school (for the little ones) everyone had a day off of school for a teacher inservice day, so we took advantage and met Jacob for lunch, since that was one of our plans to do over the summer that we never quite got around to. Chick Fil-A for the win!

Since we didn't get a back to school photo of Annie, here's what she looked like 2 weeks later, when she GOT HER EARS PIERCED! She was pretty excited for pierced ears and is enjoying wearing lots of cute earrings now.

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).