Busy June

As you can tell by my scarce postings lately, June was a busy month. We had the last week of school which included Benj in the school talent show and Jace gathering a bunch of awards for academics. Caitlin took the ACT again and bettered her score by a couple of points. She also had her senior pics taken--yes, she is now a senior! Stefanie had orchestra camp for a week and started color guard. She'll be on the rifle line next year and is practicing hard.

Cait and Stef had a week of stake YW camp. You can't call it "rough camp" here--because air conditioning and a swimming pool and someone cooking your meals is not very rough. It's more like a YW conference or retreat. It's a good thing and camping skills are passed off and testimonies strenghened, but it's not camping. Chris and I went up for Bishop's night on Thursday, and spent some time with our ward's girls. We took up the traditional Champions Ward treat--IBC root beer and cream soda-- and enjoyed being with them. We have an awesome group of YW in our ward! The day before, on Wednesday, Chris had gone to Galveston and spent the day with the YM on their High Adventure. They were learning to sail and kayak. The day after we went to visit the YW at camp, we had a funeral in our ward. That was one of those weeks that it takes a couple of days to recover from.

The next week, Benj had cub day camp. I went with him every day as a Den Walker. It's nice to be with him and good to be a part of scouts. Scouts is one of those things that you really don't understand unless you're doing it, so I try to do all I can--especially in cubs. The drawback of the week was the weather. Our city had its hottest June on record and the week of 100-plus weather was during cub camp. One day driving home we saw a thermometer registering 109! But, we survived!

During the week of cub camp, Stef had her 15th birthday! I thought I would post a few of my favorite pics of her. These are from when she was a little squirt.

Hanging onto Dad.

So proud that she put her shorts on all by herself!
Yes, that's an empty leg hanging out the back.

Showing off Easter dresses with her big sisters.
Do I really have to pose with these girls?

I hope she had a good birthday even though I was pretty hot and tired through it all. June starts our Birthday Season at our house. We have a birthday a month until Christmas. (except for Oct, but then we have 2 in Nov to make up for it.) For her birthday dinner she chose grilled chicken, ravioli, pasta salad, and carrot raisin salad. I knew I would not be able to make all of that after being at cub camp all day so we split it up and had ravioli with green salad one day and chicken with pasta salad and carrot raisin salad on her birthday. She also had triple chocolate cake--a favorite for all of us! We like to have that warm with vanilla ice cream melting into it. (Tip when having warm birthday cake: don't put candles in it--they all melted into the cake!)

The day after cub camp ended, Jace left for his scout camp and Chris went for some of the time with him. I hope they're having fun! We also started watching my friend's kitty for her while she's out of town. We have been enjoying that a lot! I think the best way to have a pet is to just have it for a while and then give it back. Benj has to say goodnight to the kitty before we put her in the laundry room for the night and the first night he nuzzled her a bit and said, "Good night Paisley, I love you." then a short pause, then "AAaah! I can't believe I just said I love you to a cat!" The second night, he nuzzled her again and said, "Good night Paisley, I love you. Aaaah! I can't believe I did it again!"

Katie, our niece that is now a part of our family, finally found a job! Her first day is today and I think she's glad she's got that taken care of finally! She was holding out for an accounting job but just couldn't find anything in that field. She's taken a job with a dental office.

Well, on to July. Things will hopefully slow down a bit. It's time to enjoy the summer!