One thing we missed last summer was swimming.  We were at the Hill Cumorah pageant for three weeks and Mindy had girls' camp so we didn't sign up for the local recreational swim team.  But this summer we were home more so we did it.  Last week was the last swim meet and now it's over.  Mindy swam the butterfly and the backstroke for her races. As for Camille, I realized that despite taking lots of swimming lessons for several summers in a row, she had not really learned much swimming at all.  So I signed her up for adaptive swimming which means she gets private lessons for the price of the group lessons!  It's great.  I figure since she qualifies for adaptive PE at school and has some gross motor delays, she qualifies for the adaptive swimming.  With private instruction, she has made a lot more progress and can now float on her back and front.  She's working on her kicking and her side breathing now.

Last summer Camille went to Cycleability Camp which has the goal of helping children with disabilities learn how to ride two-wheeled bikes.  They work with the I Can Shine organization  which has bikes with specialized roller wheels on the back. By the end of the week she was almost there, but unfortunately she got sick and we went on a big trip so by the time we got back she had forgotten what she learned and felt quite anxious about getting on the bike. Camille with her two volunteers.  They helped her the whole week.  It turned out that one of the volunteers actually knew Camille's sister from school orchestra several years before. We went every day up to Summit Academy High School in Draper and practiced for 75 minutes.  It was hard work but Camille enjoyed it and it was great exercise for her. So this summer we did it again!  Fortunately it was the week that the older kids went on trek so Camille and I were able to concentrate on bike ca...

About seven years ago in 2010, four of our older boys went on pioneer trek with our stake:  Jan, Garrett, Lincoln, and Everett.  The weather was quite challenging for them and things didn't work out quite as planned but it was still good.  Because the trek is expensive and involves tons of planning, they didn't do it again until this year.  This time my next three children went:  Susanna, Talmage, and Mindy. We got them all ready to go with appropriate pioneer clothing and buckets with the right gear.  They were assigned to trek families and were excited to go!  They all had a good experience--the weather was good--and they gained a greater appreciation of our pioneer forebears and how much they sacrificed to come across the plains. Almost 400 youth went and almost 100 adults went with them.  Scott and I were disappointed that we didn't get picked to go but as we realized what our summer plans were (two weddings and a big trip), we realized th...

We had another wedding in our family, about six weeks after Lincoln's and MiCayla's.  This wedding was in Boise on Saturday, June 24th.  We drove up on Friday afternoon, as soon as our children got home from trek. My cute grandson My cute granddaughter My mom, my sister who drove from Rexburg, and me My dad and brother in law The big moment! All the friends and relatives who came for the wedding After the pictures at the temple, we drove out to the Larsens' house and then kept driving a little farther to the property of their neighbor's.  We had set up tables and chairs in their yard plus tablecloths for the wedding luncheon.  I had hired a caterer to serve us some Cafe Rio type salads which tasted good.  Unfortunately the meal had something in it that made most of us sick about 12 hours later and caused us some gastrointestinal distress.  Sadly, AnnaSue probably got the sickest.  Fortunately most of us wer...