July's Highlights

It's been a crazy few weeks with no time to write, and I'm short on time right now since I'm supposed to be doing homework. However, I'll fill you in on a few of our family's most recent highlights.

July 14 - Happy Birthday to Amanda! We celebrated Amanda's 13th birthday, and I now officially have three teenagers in the house. Help! :) I took Amanda and Celeste shopping and out to lunch, and Stephanie took Amanda to the American Idol Tour at the E-Center that night. They were only 3 rows away from David Archuleta, and I think they would say their lives are now complete!

Also this evening, Jordan came home a day early from his 50-mile High Adventure in Wyoming near the Tetons. His legs looked like an extremely bad case of chicken pox -- I think they lost the battle against relentless mosquitos who were not deterred by mosquito repellent and who were not afraid to fly into the boys' ears on occasion. The boys were supposed to write a letter to themselves, and Jordan wrote that in case his memory faded over time and all he remembered were the fun moments, he was supposed to read that letter and remember he never, ever wanted to go on a hike like that again!

July 15-20 Trip to Washington! We arrived in Leavenworth late Wednesday evening and stayed in the local KOA. We didn't have the kitchenette in the cabin like the picture on the website advertised, but we did at least have sleeping accomodations for 6. We were a little unprepared for "camping cooking" since we planned on using the stove and microwave they advertised. However, we spent a lot of time with John's family, some of whom did have accomodations, and we had a great time. I will say that the Leavenworth area is quite beautiful, and I was ready to move there. The kids spent a happy couple of days playing in Peshastin Creek and hanging out with cousins. We also went to see "The Sound of Music" at the Leavenworth outdoor summer theater, and we explored the German-themed tourist town of Leavenworth. Saturday we went jet skiing and swimming in Lake Chelan, and that was the highlight of our trip! I have never driven a jet ski before so I was more than a little bit nervous, but I got the hang of it and gave Stephanie and Chelsie a pretty cool ride around the lake (and I'm pleased to say we never ended up in the water!). I sent Jordan and Amanda with John since I didn't really need their commentary with reference to my jet skiing abilities. Chelsie and Stephanie gave me a better vote of confidence (or at least they didn't say anything out loud). We had initially planned on going on a river rafting tour instead of the Lake Chelan outing, but like we found out with the KOA, advertisements are not always what they seem. It turns out the sign hanging right next to the river and the river rafting headquarters listed a phone number for scheduling river rafting tours in North Carolina. Who knew? They never mentioned the fact they were located in North Carolina when we called. However, when they called and asked why we weren't at our scheduled 2:00 appointment and I kept insisting it was only 12:00, we realized there was a little problem and that we weren't going to be able to get there in time. :)

July 21 -- Now we're home and back to the old grind! John is setting up his home office today and getting back to his work routine. He will now be working from home rather than their new location in Midvale (long story, but all is well). I have two more days left of class and then a couple of major assignments that need to be e-mailed to the teacher by next Monday afternoon. So, though I would like to do something for the 24th of July holiday, I expect I'll be spending most of my weekend typing away on my assignments. At least I can say that next week at this time I will be done! That may very well be when I find the time to write again . . . so until then, Happy 24th of July to everyone, Happy Birthday to Suzanne, and Happy Belated Birthday to Jacob and Emily! I hope everyone's enjoying their summer -- it is fading fast!