Girls camp!

Awwww, it's Lorien's last year of Girls Camp and Clare's first year!  Lorien got to be the level leader over the first years so the two of them got to spend some good time together.

Clare had a blast with her friends and got her quilt!  I guess the girls work on tying quilts and for every 20 minutes you spend tying you get your name entered in a drawing.  Every night a handful of names get drawn for quilts.  Some girls spend all their time tying and don't get their quilts until their last year!  Lorien got hers her first year too.

Both girls had a very positive week at Girls Camp.  I'm so glad they went.  We've also had Isabel at our house from Alaska.  Lorien has been so happy to see her friend.  They were level leaders together and spent a lot of time catching up.  I'm so glad Isabel has been here too!

The little kids have been a little bored with out their jailers around to harass them.  I've had to get creative entertaining them without devices.  They could be plugged in 24 hours a day if I let them.

We spent some time sorting sea glass and playing leggos.  Thank heaven for simple pleasures!

Fight, Fight, Fight!

Dave participated in an official Ju-jitsu match over the weekend in Sacramento.  He's been training really hard and we were so excited to go see him fight.  

We watched most of the matches and they were all very entertaining.  At some point I said "Wow, there are a lot more doctors and professors in ju-jutsu than I imagined."  Turns out having a black belt or higher makes you a doctor or professor (I cannot remember which) in this particular martial art.  Who knew...not me

Anyway, Dave's match was the most entertaining of the night!  We all cheered loud and proud.  Dave won the match with a submission move.  It was great!  Will and I went up as a date night and a bunch of guys from Danville came up to see Dave too.  Fun, fun, fun.  

The match was televised so Dave's family farther away got to watch it too.  

Will keeps getting older...

Happy Birthday my darling husband.  I am so grateful for you.  I am so grateful for how you take care of our family.  I am so grateful for how hard you work for yourself and for others.  I love you and am so glad you are mine.  I am such a lucky girl.  Happy Birthday babe.

A weekend of highs and lows

It took us a few days to get back into our home groove.  I sure was glad it was summer vacation and the kids didn't need to be too many places every day.

Adell continued taking early morning swim lessons with her swim team.  She had her very first meet on Saturday after we got back from Maine.  She missed two meets while we were in Maine...and two weeks of practice.

She did a great job at the meet.  It was so great to see her swim and try her best!  She swam breast stroke and free style.  Breast stroke is her favorite...I think it's hard to get the timing right on that one but she loves it!

While we were in Maine, the search and rescue crew in Idaho recovered Kayla's body.  Ugh, I cannot even type that sentence without crying.  We weren't sure what kind of arrangements Caleb and Shellie would make for Kayla's funereal.  We also weren't sure if we could make the timing work...what ever the arrangements.  Caleb and Shellie picked Friday June 15th for Kayla's memorial service and her burial to be Saturday.  Will and I agonized over whether or not we should go.  We also agonized with the kids.  We were in Maine when we got the timing news.  All of our hearts wanted to be there so badly but we weren't sure how or if we could make it happen.

We used up all of our frequent flyer miles on the previous trips to Idaho.  We also knew if we wanted to take the kids we would need to drive so we would have our own car and be able to be there at all.  We debated just me going, me and Will, me and one or two of the kids.  It was a lot of back and forth on our options.

We were able to help my Mom and sister, Camie, in Maine make plans to go out.  My mom has been wanting to be out with Caleb and his family for weeks.  With her so fresh off shoulder surgery she couldn't travel alone and would need some good help with bags etc.  My niece, Victoria, was also able to fly out with my Mom and Camie for the funereal.

Knowing so much family would be there to love and support Caleb...and knowing we had done the loving and supporting in the days and weeks right after Kayla's disappearance...we decided to miss the services and stay home in California.  It was not an easy decision.  

My sweet sisters sent me updates all weekend long.  It was lovely to see their faces and hear about the happenings in Idaho.

My brother, Mike, who is a musician performed at Kayla's memorial service.  Cue the bawling mess...

This is the back of my oldest brother, Chris, and my Mom's heads during Mike's song.  

Then my nephews, Philip and Jackson, sang with some girls from their choir.  I got to see videos of these tributes.  It was so moving and beautiful! 

There was plenty of comforting silliness between the services.  My family knows how to have a good time, even when we are going through something very hard. 

I want to take a second to remember all of this.  I know I am not doing it justice with my writing and that stinks.  But I want to remember.  I want my kids to know.  People were there to love and serve all of us during this awful time.  People brought meals, donated boats, watched children, ran errands, distracted with conversation, hugged and prayed and loved us...constantly.  I could feel so palpably the love and support of God at this time.  I felt it through every friend who reached out to me and every friend who was a stranger to me but a friend to my family who patted my back and brought a meal to my family in Idaho.  It was heartbreaking and I wasn't in the circle of people most effected.  But people loved me and loved them.  God gave comfort via the people around us.  It was a miracle.  I am grateful.

Friday and Saturday was Clare's big dance show.  This was one of our reasons to not take the kids to Idaho.  Clare had been working all year on her dance numbers.  She had a few parts that were very front and center.  She didn't want to let her class down.  So we stayed and watched Clare dance.

She was amazing!



At one point I got a text from one of Clare's friends.  Clare had left her pants at home for her last number.  We called Wyatt at home who was able to track the dance pants down.  Will hopped in the car and RACED down to Danville and back up to Walnut Creek.  He pulled up just as Clare's dance group was lining up to go on stage.  She threw her pants on and didn't have to dance in her undies!

I know it looks like Clare is wearing the exact same pants in the above picture and below.  They were very similar.  Another friend had a pair of gray leggings that Clare could have danced in.  Her dance pants were a little looser and had some moto-stripes on the knees and thighs.  You couldn't tell the difference from the balcony...but Clare could tell!  It was important and Dad was a hero.

It was a busy, emotional weekend.  We were grateful to be home and sad to miss Kayla's memorial but think we made the best choice for our family.  We will get back to Idaho and Utah again soon and give our love again in person.

Red Eye Home...

What a trip!  We packed so much into our time back east.  I am so grateful we got to make the trip.  I'm so grateful for Will's careful planning.  I'm so glad he knows how to get the most out of a trip.  We don't go places that aren't visiting family very often.  It was so fun to show the kids around our personal family history sights.  It was so fun to remember our life and times in those places...and to think how our life would have been different if we stayed.

It was the best trip!  Rain, family and fun.  We did it all.  

We had a red eye home.  We checked all of our bags this time so no one had to wheel a suit case between legs of our flight.  We slept when we could.  Poor Clare had to share a row with strangers on the last leg home.  She couldn't get as comfortable as the other kids, and she let Wyatt use her blanket because he traveled home in shorts and was pretty cold.  

We were so wiped out when we got into Oakland (at about 2 o'clock in the morning local time).  Thankfully, there were a couple of Uber drivers out!  We had to take two different cars because there were too many of us.  I took Colter and Adell in the first car and Will and the big kids came in the second.

We were all so happy to be home sweet home!  

A day on the coast...

For our very last day in Maine we wanted to be on the coast.  We stayed in a hotel in Portland so we could wake up and get to the beach.  We drove out to Spring Point lighthouse first.  This lighthouse is set out in the sea on a long wall of rocks, I think it is called a promenade?  It is cool to walk out on these gigantic rocks all fitted together like a puzzle.  The lighthouse has been out there since 1897 and the rock promenade was built in the 1950's.  

After Spring Point we loaded up on Italian sandwiches and whoopie pies for lunch.  These two delights are unique to Maine and so delicious!  Italian sandwiches are made on soft sub rolls with ham, cheese, pickles, tomatoes, onion, green pepper and olives.  I know, it doesn't sound like much but to a Mainer they are heaven on a Italian roll. 

We ate our sandwiches and whoopie pies at the Portland Headlight.  This is another beautiful Maine sight, I've been told the Portland Headlight is the most photographed lighthouse in the world.  I don't know if that is true but I see pictures of it all over the place.  One time Will and I were staying in a dive of a hotel in New York City and the hotel had pictures of the Portland Headlight for art on the walls.

We spent a few hours traipsing around the lighthouse and over the rocks.  We checked out the beach and tide pools loving every second of the place.

I love this place so much.  It is so beautiful and feel so much like home.  Again, I'm so glad I got to take my kids here and have them experience it.  It isn't the same as growing up in a place but hopefully they will have a good memory from it.