random

Silly big kids.  We were ready to play games before bed and they were being all giggly.

We had an amazing D&D session.  It was so funny.  There were magic potions, size changing badgers, ninjago snake guys, etc.... it was fun.

Sam and Jer and training for a half marathon together.  It's Sam's first one, but Jer said that he's doing amazingly.  

Evelyn and I got to go on a temple date together to the Mt Timp temple.  That was fun.  I haven't been to that one in ages.

My mom, Evelyn and I went to the Snow White ballet together.  It was so cute.  Evelyn LOVED the dwarfs and was talking about how she would love one of their roles and how she knew which dwarf was which.  It was fun to be with these two wonderful women.

Jer and I went to the symphony with Jim, Amy, Jon and Isabelle (first time goer).  It was pretty and rainy.... including a double rainbow right above the newly finished (outside) Salt Lake temple.

But along with the rain, our neighborhood flooded again.  Our house, our neighbor's home and the row of town homes all needed to be bailed out.  Nick made the comment, "Thank you for coming to our annual 100 year storm clean up.  I really wish that we could nail down a day for it."

Jim and Jer working on trains.

Evelyn and I have been seeing a specialist about her eyes.  They want to detach the muscles from both eyes, straighten them out and reattach them again.  She's trying to decide what to do.  I'm trying to research the surgeon.

Jer's excited face

 

Neighborhood Easter Egg hunt

Our kids are getting older but they all still look forward to our annual neighborhood easter egg hunt.  Seth hunted for his last year (it's for ages 0-12) but Evelyn and Sam both helped hide eggs again this year. 

The first wave of little kids.

This cat has decided that it likes Tigresses food. 

Sam and James being social.

Last year, our old and grumpy cat decided to bite some of the little kids that wanted to pet her, so we exiled her to the backyard while everyone was in the front.  She's so old that all we have to do it shut the gate and she just peers out of the cracks wondering what we just did to her.

Sam was creative.  The kids loved trying to get the ones up in the tree.

 

Elder's Quorum activity

 

Our Elder's Quorum borrowed the Wheelhouse's track and hosted a pinewood derby.  It was so fun.  Jer, Sam and Seth spent all week making new cars. And we pulled out our old cars to race as well.  Seth's Batmobile won "most realistic". Jer's was "most aerodynamic" and Ada's won "most creative". 

Evelyn and I ditched out of the race early to go practice our organ piece for our Easter program.  Anna had her flute in the car, so we played a few songs together and taught her the basics of the organ.  Evelyn had so much fun learning about the stops, pedals and registrations.  It was fun to have her sitting by me during the meeting.

Caroling

 

Jer arranged for a different type of caroling this year.  It was about 50 degrees, so we hitched up the trailer, and with our piano, violin, flute, saxophone, clarinet and voices we wandered the neighborhood.  Ada and her friends knocked on all the doors and we just went.  It was so fun.

24th of July

I haven't posted for almost a month, so I'm working my way backwards through pictures.  We celebrated the 24th of July with the Clingers at the cul de sac of fire.  It was a spectacular firework display, delicious food and fun to chat with friends that we see on occasion. 

These are the "kids" waiting for the parachutes to be shot off so that they could catch them.

 

One in a hundred

So the last month has been crazy after crazy.... We drove across country to get out of tropical storm weather... and we brought it home with us.  It was a completely normal day.  I went to Costco with Seth and everyone else was at home.  It started to hail and within 15 minutes our garage, library area, and laundry room were completely flooded.... along with about 50% of the houses in our ward. Ada was so amazing.  She stayed and cleaned up the garage which kept the water from going down the stairs and into our basement.  Jer, Sam and I went and helped bail out the basements of the single older ladies in our ward.  Then the Komens and Alexx came to help Ada... When I got home with Sam, we were able to get the laundry room and library emptied out and the carpet mostly dry.  We were up until 2 am. Seth helped move all the books and furniture and Evelyn kept all the cats out of the way.  While I was at Costco, Jer texted me and said, "It's flooding!" I asked where and he pretty much said that it was Everywhere!  We got away with about $350 in damage and lots of elbow grease.  Our neighbors were not so lucky.  They just built an indoor basketball court in their house. It took them almost two years and they finished it this summer.  Now they have to replace the court flooring because they had about 2 feet of water in it. None of it is covered by insurance because flooding damage is only covered if it's sewage water.

We have a wonderful neighborhood.  There were people out in hoards running buckets and pumps.  Moving furniture and carpeting. Even delivering pizza.  

This is the neighborhood skate park next to the fire department. Definitely more like a pool that day.

The hail took out about half of our apples and most of the leaves.

Ada's poor garden was smooshed.  The tomatoes still produce and most of the garden was carrots this year, so that was good at least.

We had to empty the entire garage and treat it for mold.

Ada's yummy home grown tomatoes

I thought that this was an appropriate lesson.  The entire plant got destroyed with the hail... and three days later, it bloomed.  We definitely are meant to live through hard things.