July 2023 Happenings

While Me, Megan and Matthew visited family for the first part of July, U and Sarah enjoyed the HOT weather in Phoenix. (Not that Mesquite or Vegas were a lot cooler. Just a little.)

U was able to visit his Aunt Pam in the hospital and give her a blessing before her heart surgery.

Cute Artemis! She fits on the top stair perfectly and looks so adorable as she sticks her head under the gate.

Megan went to Feed My Starving Children with some friends. Here are their packing results.

Aunt Pam came and stayed with us a few days after she was released from the hospital. It was nice to be able to visit with her. U's cousin Jarod and his family came and visited a couple times as well.

U, Megan, Matthew, Emerson (6), Easton (4)

A couple of group shots

Emerson and Matthew, Easton and U, Pam, Megan and Artemis, Jarod and Jaime

Easton and U, Emerson and Matthew, Me, Megan and Artemis, Pam, Jarod

We enjoyed our Turkey Yumbox.

Megan's drawing of I am Groot. She sure loves him!

July also brought the start of school with all the busy-ness that accompanies that. The adjustment to junior high seems to be going well for both Megan and Matthew. Although Megan thinks having to go outside between classes is HOT. And she's not wrong. Hopefully we will get some cooler temps sometime soon.

1st Day of School

 Megan and Matthew had their first day of school.

It was their first day of junior high and their first day at a school without uniforms. There were mixed feelings about the lack of uniforms, especially from Megan. They seemed to have a good day.

Summer Travels: Vegas

 Our next stop was Vegas. For most of our visit, it was just Cheryl-Lynn, Ben and Liz as Kiley and the older two boys were at Young Men's camp. We enjoyed playing games, swimming at a friend's pool, going on walks and a trip to the temple for the adults. We did initiatory and both of us did some of the people that Megan was baptized for last week! We also went to the Children's Museum, visited the Bellagio and celebrated Bastille Day.

Playing Clue.

Matthew and Ben liked collecting money and putting it in the Wells Fargo Bank. I remember Sarah and Luke doing that!

Matthew and Ben's total amount.

Megan enjoyed grocery shopping for meals for us.

Matthew's preferred way of going down the slide.

The downside to sliding backwards.

Megan really enjoyed shocking us. Especially Me. Some of the shocks were quite large. 

Megan: I'm going to shock you!

3D printed Groot

Cashier Matthew

Cleaning the instruments at the eye doctor.

Happy Bastille Day! (See the Eiffel Tower?) It's always neat to see the fountains at the Bellagio.

Megan, Me and Matthew with the flowers. I think the hummingbird is really pretty.

Megan, Ben, Matthew and Liz

She looks like Te Fiti from Moana.

Megan wants a tree like the purple one in our yard.

Cute guy!

Celebrating Bastille Day with yummy crepes. We shared a ham and cheese one. Matthew had one with strawberries, Oreos and chocolate syrup, Megan had one with caramel and bananas and Me had one with blueberries, blueberry sauce, whipped cream and lemon juice. The Adams also got 4 crepes.

Kiley, Cheryl-Lynn and Me went out to dinner after Kiley, Luke and Andrew arrived home. This is my part of a spring roll.

Ramen

Megan, Matthew, Ben and Liz

The next day, after going on a walk with my sister and packing up, we drove home to the HEAT of Phoenix (with no stops!). It was a long day but it was good to be home.

Summer Travels: Mesquite

 After church and lunch, we headed to Mesquite to see Grandma and Grandpa O and Bean, who was visiting them.

It was Squirtle Day on Pokémon Go. Megan was kind of excited....
We spent some time driving around slowly (because eggs hatched at 1/4 the distance from 2-5 pm) and catching lots of Squirtles.

Grandma holding Evee.

Squirtle photobombing the picture with Bean and an axolotl.

Bean with the axolotl.

Matthew and Bean playing. Bean was the queen and Matthew was her brave knight.

The kids enjoyed swimming in the pool and Megan and Matthew introduced Bean to the joys of scorpion hunting. (They found 4 and were able to kill 3.)

Grandma, Bean, Megan and Matthew playing Mexican train dominoes. It is a very long game! We also played Oh Heck!, Red 7 and Qwixx.

Matthew posing with the sword.

Grandpa squirting Matthew. Matthew had also squirted grandpa, which is why Megan is holding Matthew. However, grandpa had squirted Matthew first.

Megan and Matthew put buckets over their heads and swam around.

Matthew, Megan and Bean in the pool. They really spent a lot of time in the pool. Hours in the morning and hours in the evening.

Beautiful sunset!

Matthew and Bean enjoyed playing with the PlayMobils.

Megan, Matthew and Bean

Me: Matthew, Bean is not your pet.
Bean: Yes, I am. 

Watching Revengineers.

We went to a ward pool party. The kids enjoyed the big twirly slide.

After we got back from the pool party, Me and Matthew swam in the pool with the lights on. Sometimes the lights changed colors and sometimes they didn't. It was a nice ambiance and a good time to chat some with Matthew.

Megan joining grandma for her morning swim.

Matthew liked playing with the pool noodles.

Grandma giving Matthew a hug goodbye. (He said she could only give him a hug if he was upside down.)