Good Times

 We all went out to dinner one evening.  We went to the nice steak house.

Rylee thought this was pretty cool and needed a picture.

 I took this to send to Dan, since he was back in Okinawa.

It was delicious! Although Josh discovered he did not like catfish and Marian realized that she did. 

This kid got an official US driver's license!! 

I needed to document the giant bonfire.  This was as close as I could get without stifling in the heat.

All dressed and ready for church. 

Also looking cute and ready for church!

Around the house

Marian caught this giant praying mantis and it needed to be documented.

And by the way, Adam's family came to visit for a day before we headed to Nauvoo.  And I suck because these three photos are the only ones I took!  But here is Miley, trying to pull Carter on the zip line.

She was so doggone cute! 

 And the kids played pirates so I needed a picture of it.

Callie and her Chicks

 Callie loves the chickens And she spends hours tromping around the fields catching grasshoppers to feed them.  She has trained them to come and eat the grasshoppers out of her hands.

The now annual Pie Party

 Dad had his second annual Pie Party to celebrate his birthday.  I think we had 22 pies?  It was a lot and they were tasty!

The kids were fantastic at making these adorable labels for the pies and helping to set things up. 

Here are about half the pies.  There were two of most of them. 

Selfie with the pies!

Hailey gave it two thumbs up and a messy mouth.

Something interesting is that the very first pie to be completely devoured was the Chicken Pot Pie!

Playing at the Lake

 We went to the lake one afternoon with Deborah's family.  Much fun was had by all.

Yes, I was there and I may have gotten a little wet.

Callie built this impressive compound of sand. 

The kids LOVED the raft. 

Marian posing on the rock. 

Marian having a good time in the water. 

Callie lounging and relaxing. 

 Having a good time.

The girls want to make sure I got a picture of their creation from this angle as well.  

Back in Mountain Home

 We spent three days driving and made it back to Mom and Dad's.  Deborah and her kids were there already, much to the delight of my girls.

They built this delightful blanket fort.

And posed for a picture with it. 

I had to take the rental van in to get this tiny screw removed and the tire repaired. 

There was some chicken wrangling.

The baby chicks are now ugly teens. 

Ugly or not, the kids still love them.

We also prepped for Dad'd Pie Party.  The kids wanted to help peel apples. 

Grandma wanted an apple pie, so we peeled and sliced apples for it. 

 This girl cracks me up!

A little BYU-I

 On Monday we visited BYU Idaho.  I had scheduled to meet up with another of my former sister missionary friends and I kind of wish I had skipped the school tour to hang out with her.  But the tour was pretty awesome, so maybe not.  We loved the campus and the school and right now Callie wants to go there.

After the tour, we went to Big Judds for lunch and Dan was happy.  Then we drove away, heading back for Arkansas.

My first Sister Friend and a little photobomber. 

 I thought I maybe needed a "we were there" photo of BYU-I.  So this is it.

 A quick pic as we drove by the Rexburg Temple.

The nice waitress was kind enough to let Dan take a picture of this "Big Judd" one pound burger.  We did NOT order one!

I had this delicious burger.  

And Josh was happy with his lunch.

Idaho

 It was kind of the summer of seeing friends!  I didn't get any photos, but I saw my friends Beth in Provo Saturday morning before we left.  Then we drove to Idaho, with a stop on the way to see my friend Steph.  The funny thing is that Steph lives in Iwakuni, so I had to go all the way to Utah to see her!

We drove to Idaho Falls and stopped by Big Judds for Dan, but it was too busy to stay.  We went to church on Sunday with my freshman college roommate Jen. After church we went to her house and hung out all afternoon.  It was fun.  Dan and I took a walk to the IF temple that evening.  It was a nice, quiet day and I was glad.

Me and Steph!  I like her.

Dan loves this place. 

Me and Jenn and her other friend. 

The kids were very good and patient while I visited with Jean.  They entertained themselves with this very fun game.

Which was pretty hysterical. 

Visiting the Temple grounds. 

Visiting Provo

 The Friday that the reunion ended, we drove up to Provo.  We had a campus tour scheduled that afternoon.  The tour was lame.  It covered little and was short. I was also a little bitter that they gave the kids lame school shirts (my nieces got cooler ones and ours are ugly).  And even though Callie is the most likely to come to BYU, they wouldn't count her since she's not in HS. So it was quite disappointing.

It was also freakishly hot so the kids didn't want to wander around campus with us.  Dan and I wanted to see some old stomping grounds, but the heat was too much.  We made a beeline for the bookstore.

The only photo I thought to take.  Oops. 

Then we met up with some of my "Sister Friends"!  2 of our former sister missionaries were at BYU and came to hang out with us.  It was so fun to catch up.  The kids got bored though and I found several photos like this on my phone afterwards. 

 We did get a group shot of us and our sister missionaries.  No longer Sisters, they are Maddie and Courtney!

Then I was off to the Provo City Temple for a session.  It was awesome!

Dan took the kids to BYU's Bean Museum for a live animal event, which they loved.

Now, the good news about staying the night in Provo, is that we stayed at Aunt Dixie's house.  The downside is that the house had no AC.  It was a hot night.