It was a lot of fun being at Girls Camp, like it always is, but it was extra fun this year since Rachel and I got to be up there together this year. I was with the 1st year campers, but not a leader in charge of planning anything, which made it totally stress-free. It's nice not being in charge. We had 12 first years from our ward, so it was good to get to be around them, since that was half our ward.
Dance party:
Hike:
We hiked Incinerator Ridge which had a lovely view.
The rotations had lots of fun things to try out:
archery
rifle shooting
Tomahawk throwing
There were other fun things like a challenge course, service projects, and craft projects.
The girls had an awesome lip sync planned out to Fixer Upper since the theme was Love Rocks (and the trolls on Frozen were "rocks" that were love experts). They performed it wonderfully. Unfortunately my phone ran out of memory right in the middle of recording. :(
Rachel and Maryanne played lots of tether ball and loved it. Unfortunately Lydia was sick, probably from the altitude, and couldn't stay for the whole week, so they both missed having her around.
Friday morning after cleaning the camp we got one last ward picture (minus the girls the left early for middle school orientation).
And we snagged a photo with Cori Peterson, Stacy Compton and me.
Stacy was our ward camp director, and she got home from camp and moved to Utah the next week. It was fun having one last hurrah with her, having fun together that week, but I sure do miss her now that she's gone.
Another Girls' Camp in the books. That's 6 times as a young woman, and 7 as a leader. I have now been more as a leader than a girl.
After our drive home from our family reunion we unloaded, then Megan (who had napped on the ride home) and Colette went to pick up Cari from the airport while the rest of the kids got ready for bed. Another guy waiting for the same delayed flight had brought his guitar and was sitting on his tailgate singing in the cell phone waiting lot, so Megan and I got out and listened until Cari's flight landed. It was great to have Cari visit.
The next morning was the 4th of July, so we went to our ward's pancake breakfast. After the food there was the parking lot parade. The kids had decorated their scooters and we cheered from the sidelines.
After the parade they had the candy cannon. Where the rule is "If the candy is on fire, don't pick it up!" It's always a big hit with the kids. And no one got burned.
We came back from the breakfast/parade and Megan wasted no time putting together her princess lego set that she got from our neighbor, Shannon. The girls were excited to help, but they were instructed to let her do it herself (not take over like they tend to do). They did a good job teaching her how to follow the instruction booklet.
While the girls were building, Ryan and Cari laid on the family room floor singing primary songs and talking about the temple. Good quality aunt time.
We headed over to grandma and grandpa's house to open presents around lunchtime.
Megan was excited about her new doctor/dentist kit. And the lego sets she got.
That evening we went to the Weinzinger's house for a super fun 4th of July party.
The kids had fun swimming, then the contests began. Our kids are especially good at expectorating. Annie came in first and Ryan 2nd in their age group in the cherry pit spitting contest and Rachel came in 2nd place in her age group. Jacob did pretty good, too, but there were some amazing spitters that were too hard to catch, so he didn't place.
Ryan won the pie eating contest for his age group, then joined the next older age group and tied for first.
Once it got dark the real fun got going with the sparklers and fireworks.
Ryan was a runner, shuttling the fireworks out to the launching pad where adults would light them.
They also had a contest where the kids would try and throw the smoking firework and try to get it inside a little tyke playhouse from 20 feet away. Some were more accurate than others, but they all had fun trying. Except for Megan who was super tired by then and had gone home to go to bed.
The rest of Cari's visit, we had lots of fun playing all sorts of games and going on fun outings.
Cari got to see Annie and Rachel's dress rehearsal for their synchro performance that they had the following week, then we went out to Eegees afterwards.
Leaning over the big fan to let all their hair blow, I guess?
We had fun with Cari visiting. And we got one bonus day because of airline troubles with delayed flights. The kids were super happy about having her a little longer.
Cari left on the first day of the last week of the summer. That week was Girls Camp, so Rachel and I took some time on Monday to pack since we were leaving the next day. Since all except Annie of the girls' synchro team would be gone to Girls' Camp, they had a special practice on Monday at Clements. While the girls practiced, Ryan and Megan played on the cool playground close by.
Megan, Ryan and Annie got to spend the week with Grandma while Rachel and I were at camp. They had lots of fun hanging out and doing fun outings like going to the planetarium and the movie theater.
Rachel got back from camp Friday morning and went straight to middle school orientation. I got home a few hours after her and showered then went to get her from orientation. We went around and met her teachers, then headed home for an afternoon of brain rotting (uninterrupted TV the rest of the day). At least until synchro practice one last time at 5pm.
The following day the girls had their big synchro performance.
They swam to Surfin' USA and did great.
And just like that summer was over and it was time to get back to school. With something planned every week, the summer went by super fast and didn't feel as relaxing as we maybe would have liked, but the kids did have a lot of fun. Trip to Provo, swim lessons, synchro, drama camp, cooking camp, basketball camp, family reunion, and Girls Camp and a lot of swimming sums up our fun-packed summer pretty well.
July 1-3 all the Knights went up to Heber in the White Mountains for a family reunion. We realized a couple days beforehand that the cabin we had rented had no A/C and it was higher than average temperatures that week. We managed with fans and sleeping downstairs.
The kids had so much fun. We got an AirBNB that was big enough to fit all of us and it was great to let the kids run around and play while we hung out together. The garage was a game room with a pool table, a foosball table, and giant checkers. Many hours of games were played there.
There was a tire swing they had a good time with, too.
Some of us took advantage of vacation and relaxed more than others. :)
Since my mom planned all the meals and did the shopping, it was really very stress-free.
We ate out on the deck and had FHE out there afterwards.
When we were wondering where all the kids had disappeared to when it was time to brush teeth we found them sucked into a National Geographic show Grandpa was watching.
The next day we went to the park to play while Justin tried to recover from puking the night away. So sad to go on vacation only to be sick for most of the time.
The kids had a good time at the park on the playground and playing croquet and another game with PVC pipe that probably would have been better with kids just a bit older that know right from left a little better. :)
That afternoon we headed to a lake and the kid had a fun time paddling and floating around, and most even got some swimming in.
Jared and Rachel managed to get in a game of giant checkers before dinner.
The next day we packed up and cleaned up and made a million sandwiches for the road. And when I say "we" I mean Grandma Knight. Well, the rest of us helped with the packing and cleaning.
We headed over to Show Low to go on a hike. On the way Savannah got her acceptance letter to the U of A law school, which means they are moving to Tucson for a little while! We all cheered in excitement to have more cousins close by. Then Megan said, "What's so exciting about LaLa school?"
After ending up at different trail heads, we did end up finding the right one and enjoyed a beautiful hike on the Rim Trail.
All the grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa Knight:
McKenzie found a tree stump that was perfect for her throne.
After the hike we went to the Show Low park and the kids had a blast on the awesome playground.
The zip line was the biggest hit.
The merry-go-round was super hot sitting right in the sun, but the kids braved it anyway.
It was nice for the kids to be able to play together one last time before we headed home.
There were some tears as we left, but they were tempered by knowing that the Seattle Knights would be moving to Tucson real soon and they'd have lots more cousin time ahead. It sure was a fun reunion.
