Get Ready for Cruising!

I just can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! We're leaving on Friday for Grandma and Grandpa's house, and then on Sunday we leave the kids and drive down to Miami! Wahoo! I don't know if I'm more excited about the cruise, or more excited to spend a week with our best friends, no kids, just having fun. I haven't seen Kat and Todd in forever! We have been so blessed this summer to have such wonderful family vacations.

So, I'm pretty sure that the next blog post is going to be all about the fun we've had on our cruise. :)

Youth Conference

I had my first experience chaperoning a youth conference trip this weekend. It was a little crazy, since I was battling a cold and I had lost my voice for pretty much the entire weekend, but it was still fun. I have awesome girls, and I loved having the chance to get to know them a little better. There's something great about hanging out in your jammies and eating junk food at 2 in the morning - something that brings out the honesty in all of us. :)

And it was nice to have Dan taking care of the kids all day so I could have the break. It's so nice to have him home more this month. I know that August will bring a bit of a busier schedule, so we're making the most of this while we can. (As in getting dentist appointments out of the way, etc.) We're bummed, though, because we had finally scheduled a temple date and Bart and Amber were going to come watch the kids for us, but we found out the temple is closed for the rest of the month. How sad, that the only real month that we have time together, the temple is closed. Bummer. We'll have to work around that somehow.

Fourth of July

We had a super fun Fourth of July - Grandma and Grandpa came to visit (uncle Chandler wanted to stay home and hang out with his friends, which we totally understand.) We got to go to the movies, and we saw Wall-E, which the kids just loved (and of course Grandpa did, too.) Actually, it really was a wonderful show, and even Rylie held out through most of it.

Then we had a barbecue in the thunderstorm (which brought the lightning, which struck the tree, which dropped the branch on our roof and Dad's car.) And then the rain stopped in time for us to enjoy a big party at Bishop Park with some of our friends from the ward. There were fireworks and lots of fun things to do there. I made these really cool blue popcorn balls (which unfortunately claimed a portion of my tooth the day after the fireworks, and now I have to get a crown. Pooh.)

I've put a few pictures with this post - but don't forget that you can see more pictures at our Picasa website! (I put fourth of july stuff in the "summer 2008" folder.) The link is just below my profile picture on the right. :)

the tuckfield beach trip

Two weeks ago was our fabulous Tuckfield family week at the beach - we had the entire family there, except for Quinten, who is in Nevada on a mission. It was a wonderful week - we took turns making some delicious dinners (I think Lindsay and John's fish tacos with the fresh mahi were my favorite, although Brittany and Tyler's enchiladas were a close second - we want those recipes!) And we had a fun birthday party for everyone (Mom, Dad, Livvy, Brittany, and Tyler...plus Cam and Kym's birthdays for the next two years). 

And we had a super fun baby shower for Lindsay and John. I have to admit, the guys were pretty good sports to hang in there for Brittany's crash-course-in-parenting-relay game. And we have some great shots of everyone smelling the chocolate "poopy" diapers.

I think the best part, though, was just being together, for seven whole days, with nothing to do but enjoy the sun and waves and sand and be together. I read two excellent books - The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, both by Khaled Hosseini. They were amazing, wonderful, life-changing kinds of books. And we got the family addicted to Wizard and The Great Dalmuti. :) 

I just can't believe it's over. As Mom would say, "In the blink of an eye..."  :) It was such a great time. We are so blessed to have been able to spend that week together. I know that those times are far too rare, and so when we get a chance to be a family together like that, we need to cherish the memories. Feeling the happiness and peace that we felt that week at the beach is just a glimpse of heaven, and I'm so glad to know that our family will be together forever. :)