July- Bear Lake and Ava as Abu

Summer fun in Utah started with a Cowley trip to Bear Lake. It was finally the moment when Brent and I could relax, after being so busy with graduating and packing up our house in June. *Videos aren't working today sadly, I'll have to try to upload them again later.

The kids had tons of fun swimming with their cousins:

We went to a ward that was just for visitors and it was standing room only- I think 800+ people. There were so many people in Bear Lake and it really showed in some places, like church! 

The kids soaked up their cousin time. Here they are playing cards:

Just our family went to Logan for two nights- the kids (and mostly Brent) were super excited about the hotel's hot chocolate.

The kids had fun swimming at this pool too, and Coen got so comfortable jumping in! 

We had a picnic at a park and then went to see Elemental at the theater.

We all really liked the movie! 

After, we went to the mall to this old creepy arcade that the kids totally loved. It felt like we had stepped back into the early 90's. The kids were happy to play whatever arcades weren't broken, ha. That evening we saw a really big firework show at the park in Logan (and left Ava back at the hotel since she had a tummy ache from eating so much popcorn and a costco hotdog). 

The next day we went to see the Logan temple on our way back to Bear Lake.

Looking for potato bugs:

Back at the condo with cousins, throwing paper airplanes off the balcony.

We all wanted a turn to hold Mollie.

Almost everyone came on the trip except Mark! We each took a night to cook dinner for the group. 

I only caught the end of the song Coen was singing to Mollie:

We had lots of fun at the beach, thanks to Brent's siblings and parents for bringing all the fun toys! 

Buried Audrey:

Ava was super into this project of building a moat. Ava says it was a palace for Marie Antoinette and they had two weeks to build it or else they'd get their heads chopped off. They survived.

Brent took me out paddleboarding:

Cooking smores one evening:

We went out for yummy hamburgers and raspberry shakes.

Feeding the fish at the marina- they swam up to us with their mouths wide open, ready for their food!

Brent introduced the kids to Indiana Jones as they were preparing to watch the new one in theaters.

We had lots of yummy food and together time, like doing origami, Grandma's book party, playing Brent's movie game as we drove around the whole lake, and just talking. 

Back in South Jordan, Brent and I had to organize all of our stuff since it was feeling a bit chaotic. We had some of our suitcases organized with Hawaii only stuff, but others had a mix of all of our clothes and toiletries. 

We went to visit Grandma Cowley, who can't remember us anymore, but we want our kids to remember her! We had a nice time visiting with Patty.

The next week Ava and Coen each did a camp with Addyson and Owen. The girls did drama camp, where they practiced and learned a version of Aladdin, and the boys did Ninja camp. It was a lot of driving since the camps were in Lehi and Daybreak, but Michele carpooled with us and these kids' excitement to be with their besties made it worth it.

Cher stopped by for a little visit.

Coen dressed all of these bears:

I took the girls to 7-11 day:

Audrey helping Grandpa in the garden:

We went to see the tabernacle replica at a stake center nearby and learned a lot. 

One day to save on some driving time, the boys slept over at Owen's house and Addyson slept over at ours. Here are the boys at their Ninja camp:

Costco dinner for the boys:

Michele and I were texting about how funny it is that we each have one very clean child, and one child who's so messy. If you look at Owen and Addyson in these pictures, you'll know which one they are.

The girls created their own board game:

Emma came over to play- these two had lots of fun this summer now that Audrey is older. They look like little twins.

Since my work party at Cowabunga bay overlapped with Ava's performance of Aladdin, Brent went to see the dress rehearsal and took Audrey and Emma with him. There were 80 kids in the play and each kid got a speaking part. 

Addyson was medium Aladdin (there were three), and Ava was Abu. Ava says: It was very fun and I loved it. Dressing up in that costume was fun, but it was way hotter than it looks and it was summer.

We went back to Cowabunga Bay for the late afternoon...

And then I took Ava back for her performance. She was funny as Abu!

These will be great memories for these girls!

Then back to Cowabunga Bay, where we had lots of our family join us. 

The kids decided to put on a performance of Boston being crowned Queen. We received invitations to Queen Boston's coronation in Grandma's room at 4:15pm.  Coen was the Bishop and Ava and McKenna were the younger sisters. 

For posterity's sake, we have a video:

My dad got us tickets to the 24th of July tabernacle choir concert. Coen got to go even though he's not quite 8.

I bought the kids a few new clothes at Kid to Kid and we had a fashion show:

The Cowleys hosted a luau goodbye party for us. We had yummy pork (and tons of other food!).

And then, we had to attend a proper coronation after the kids had done some more research. Coen had a serious Bishop face, while holding the Book of Mormon, and Ava read a long speech she had prepared. Then we had to do it all over again and crown Ava because the Queen had died. Then the Queens/King kept dying and we had to crown each child.

In the middle of the night that night, Audrey started throwing up. No! The worst! Brent took care of her and had me still go to work. She was sick all day, it was so sad!

That night was my dad's retirement party, and Brent and the kids sadly had to miss it so we wouldn't spread germs. We had Raising Canes for dinner and then my dad told lots of cool stories from his many years of working for the Church. He talked about the hinge points in his life- important little decisions that affected the trajectory of his life. He started working for the Church when I was 1, so about 35 years. And my parents lived outside of the US for 20 years of that. An amazing career!

One story my dad told was when he was serving as Elder Wirthlin's translator in Chile. When they were at the temple, a stake president approached my dad privately and asked if Elder Wirthlin would give a blessing to a blind man from his stake (they had traveled far to attend this temple). My dad told the man that stake presidents and even home teachers can give the same blessing, but he would ask Elder Wirthlin privately and let him know. When my dad told Elder Wirthlin, he said he did want to bless this blind man. They brought the blind man in and Elder Wirthlin blessed him to receive his sight, and then the stake president and the blind man left. A few months later, Elder Wirthlin was back in Chile for a training. At a break, that same stake president found my dad and reported that after the blessing, the blind man was able to have an operation and did receive his sight. My dad went to get Elder Wirthlin so he could hear this directly from the stake president, and Elder Wirthlin just nodded and smiled when he heard the report- like he already knew.

Brent and I were able to sneak away for a date to see Mission Impossible in XD, where it shakes your chair. It was intense, but good!  Thanks to Tammy who watched our poor Audrey who continued to throw up, for like 4 days. It was an awful bug, and she just couldn't heal from it! Luckily the rest of us did not catch it.

Coen found potato bugs and loved making them a house.

We got some rain and it felt so nice, and reminded us of Oregon! The kids danced in the rain and got soaking wet.

Our friends the Janes, met us at Silver Lake for a hike. Audrey and Matilda were best little friends in Oregon and hadn't seen each other in a year. Audrey threw up in the car on the way there, but then was able to walk around and feel good outside. 

The kids liked this teeter-totter tree.

The good thing and the hard thing about moving so much is that you meet so many cool families, and then you move away from each other. We miss the Janes!

That evening we went to visit a friend from Brent's mission, sister Yates. She recently moved to Utah after her husband passed away last year. It was fun for her and Brent to reminisce the old days, and then she took us on a ride around the neighborhood on her golf cart. Then then she was so nice to take us out to Zupas for dinner.

The following evening Brent and I went on another date to Mexican food. We need to do better at going on dates all year.

On Saturday we went to see the floats from the parade and we met up with my friend Erin there.

That evening we went to the Dahn party which included nerf gun wars and lots of cotton candy. Ava ate 5 or 6:

And this only takes us to July 22, but the next day we left for St. George so that will be its own post.