Here we go again

Pete told me he'd be on cleanup duty for dinner tonight and said I was free to go upstairs and rest, so I'm taking him up on his offer. Seeing if I can write a quick 10-minute update.

Boy, a lot has happened in the last couple months! We enjoyed a wonderful week in Bear Lake with the Marcum family. Tubing, hiking, rope swinging, sailing, playing on the beach, 4-wheeling, fire works, shakes, chatting, reading, and finishing the day off with a game of Mafia or the name game. It was so nice to be with everyone. McKenzie had just recently gotten back from her mission in California, and everyone else traveled from all corners of the country to make it. The week of course flew by and was over way too fast.

The next two weeks were spent in Salt Lake. Pete flew back to Boston to work and I stayed with his parents and spent a lot of time with his siblings and friends. We went up to Park City a couple of times to swim, played at nearby parks, did a few hikes and helped Lizzie with wedding preparations.

We finished off our trip out West with a week in San Diego. Spent a lot of time at the beach, John and Dan mastered boogie boarding, James rented a surf board a couple times, we went on some beautiful runs, spent a day at the San Diego Zoo, and finished with Lizzie and Jason's wedding. Rehearsal dinner on a ship, sealing at the temple, ring ceremony at a park overlooking the beach and dinner on a patio a few hundred yards away. It really was a picture perfect setting, and a lot of thought went into every detail. It was a busy, exhausting, exciting and fun day. So so happy for those two.

So here we are, finally back at home. I feel like we hit the ground at a sprint. We had only one day to recover and unpack before school started and are now in the thick of the busyness that comes with school, sports, church events and piano. It's not a good sign that I'm already looking forward to next summer (!) I really do love summer. But in a way it's good to be busy again, life feels purposeful and the kids enjoy any downtime they have. It's been interesting, ever since we got back (one week ago) no one has really asked for movies or screen time. The kids are so good at finding fun things to do together. It's not unusual to come downstairs and find John and Dan playing a card game, Will dressed up ready for battle looking for someone to fight or Joe playing quietly with the Zoob pieces, creating all sorts of crazy things. When they get bored with those things, they'll all run out and hop on the bikes, doing lap after lap around the dead end street. I often look at each one of the boys and think how much work it was getting each of them here, and how much physical sacrifice those first couple of years were, and how happy I am that I have each of them and that they have each other. So worth it.