Launching Marian

Marian and I flew into Salt Lake City and then drove up to Rexburg.  It was cheaper for me to get a hotel in Rigby, so that's what I did.  It was great!  I had a glorious roads to run and I could run to Lake Rigby and run around it. 

This was the beautiful sunrise I got to run in.

I also got to take Marian to her new apartment.  I'm standing in her parking lot and can you see what's behind me?!  Its the Temple!

Marian's little room.  This is her desk area.

And her closet area.

And her stupid tiny "dresser" and her bed.

Her super-awesome friend Hailee came over to help her with her classes.

She got settled in.  We made multiple trips to Walmart and got her set up with groceries and sundries. She walked the campus and learned where her classes wold be.  We thought she would have an apartment-mate, but the girl didn't show up till after school started and she rarely came out to socialize. (She lived in a 4-person apartment with her own room.)

On our last day together, we went on campus to take pictures.

I was so proud of her!  She was confident and ready!

And the campus is really pretty.

We did an official photo in front of one of her buildings.

And just did some silly stuff.

Selfie with her in the background!

And this was the final selfie, right before I walked out the door and drove away and sobbed for an hour as I drove back to SLC.

She is amazing and wonderful and so grown up and going to do great with college!

 

Goodbye Pix

We have an odd tradition.  Whenever I leave for a trip, I take a selfie with each of the kids before I go.  Initially, the first time, I told them that this was in case one of us died; that way we would have one last photo.  And somehow this morbid thing has become a tradition.  

I was leaving to take Marian off to college.  The two of us were flying away and I had to say goodbye to Dad and the other three kids.  The girls took one last picture together, and then I got my selfies in.  And then we ran away.

 

Canoeing at the Lake

Miranda really wanted to take the kids out to canoe.  In theory, I also liked the idea.  What I did not like though, was having to drive very far, and then to have to have the truck drive to the end point.  The point-to-point paddling did not entice me, and an all-day event definitely did not entice me.  Fortunately, we came up with a fabulous solution! We went canoeing on the lake!  It was perfect. Dad drove the canoes out and helped us unload them.  Miranda and her 4 kids, and me and my 4 kids and 5 canoes all went out for a ride.  We paddled around the lake and checked out the shore and had a really nice time. The exciting adventure took less than 3 hours and was quite fulfilling.  10/10 would do it again.

And here are the fun photos to document the event, in utterly random order:

 

Celebrating Dad's Birthday

We went out to visit Mom after church.

And we officially celebrated Dad's birthday with family.

He enjoyed his cake.

Alex patiently waiting for his slice.

Good loot was had.

After the massive Pie Event, it was nice to have a low-key celebration with Dad.

Did someone say Pie?!

Dad had his annual Birthday Pie Party.  Apparently I was sadly negligent with the photo-taking and also forgot to nab whatever pictures Dad took.  So this is all I got.  But It is the most important!!!  I have the pie lineup list of all the pies we made. 15 different pies, and a total of 26 pies. Plus a few more were brought in by guests. It was a most successful event.

 

A girl and her critters

Marian likes the critters.  Salamnders are cool, but Cicadas hang around longer.

 

There were goats too

The goats were vastly entertaining.

The goats followed the girls up here in hopes of scoring some treats.

They were really cute!

Not a goat, but also very cute!

This cracked me up! Charlotte climbed the fence to reach the higher up leaves so she could feed them to the goats.  This goat was smart enough to use the step stool to get closer.

We took the goats out for a walk, in hopes of letting them enjoy nibbling the underbrush that could use some clearing out.

Spoiler: goats do not walk well, nor do they nibble on command.

Also not a goat, but it was fun to see Aaron between his MTC Home studying.