Lake Tanwax with the Christensen's

 We were able to spend Labor Day weekend up at Lake Tanwax where our wonderful friends own a lake house.  Well, they actually have two cottages on the lake which make it so perfect for our two families to get together.  This year Aaron brought along his ski boat so we got to enjoy a bunch of fun out on the water.  I love this wonderful family and the great time we all have when we get together at the lake!

Nothing like a fire on the lake front

Mornings on the lake are like glass...Julian loved taking the paddle board out

Kari is way too cool to be a mom with 5 kids!

Hyrum tried wake boarding for the first time

This is the extent of my adventuours side...did not want to try water skiing or wake boarding but I'll get towed along in a giant chair 😆 Julian and Eli were good enough to keep me company:)

Having fun at the lake

Hyrum and Aaron taking the little sailboat for a spin around the lake

We introduced the Christensen's to the game of Kubb

Beautiful sunset over the lake

Another wonderful day on the water

Kari and I got a little sailing done

Julian, Tessa and Max having a blast!

Thank you for letting us come hang out at your beautiful lake for the weekend!  We love you Christensen family!!!

What We Did in August

 

I spent a week in Dallas, OR at our Stake Young Women Girls Camp.  I was once again in charge of Service hours for the girls.  We made quilts which we donated to a local group that visits new moms in the Hillsboro area.  We raked and weeded some of the flower beds around camp to make everything look nice. And we made bracelets and cards to give to our "Secret Sister"

Our 3 boys went to a Young Men overnighter at Stub Stewart State Park.  The twins went on a bike ride with their friend Landon to watch the sun set.

Townsend getting ready for a pancake breakfast.

Julian and Emerson hanging out at their campsite

We took the Skinny Dan out on the river

Hyrum took the boys swimming at Hagg Lake

I visited Paige and her family in Las Vegas.  Took the boys to the splash pad but they were more interested in playing in this big puddle of mud:)

Cecil got to ride on a horse for the first time

Graham on his horse

Took the DeShetler boys to feed the ducks. 

I sure love visiting these kiddos!

Spent a weekend at Cape Lookout on the Oregon Coast for our Ward Campout

Julian with his friend Jacob at the beach

Took a lovely little walk around Kilchis Point.

Hyrum enjoying the view at the Point

Of course you can't visit Tillamook without stopping for a bit of ice cream!

Germany Friends Reunion: Utah

 My friend Jody Dean (who lives in Ohio) planned a fun Utah reunion with a bunch of ladies that we both knew while we lived in Germany.  I flew down for the week and had so much fun with the people that were able to make the time to visit together.  We ate yummy food, hung out at the hotel pool, went for a few little hikes, tried hot yoga for the first time...basically had a fantastic girls trip.  Thank you Jody for organizing it!

Friends being silly in Park City!!  Love these guys so much (Jody Dean and Rebecca Platt)

Hot yoga!  It was my first time trying this and the room temperature was seriously 100...I was sweating so much it was really terrible.  Don't think I'll ever try that again!

At the spa in Park City getting ready for our fabulous massages.  Our friend Sarah Brown was able to join us for this:)

Delicious Mexican food with friends!  Missy Layton and Lydia Beck joined the group in Park City.  It was so great that so many ladies made time to hang out.  And yes, that is our awesome rental car!

We took a lift up the mountain in Park City to do a short little hike.

It was super nice most of the trail was in the shade.  It gets hot in August in Utah!

Having fun and being silly walking around the art galleries in old town Park City

Old town, Park City, UT

Posing.  I think I totally nailed the expression 😂

Since we had the awesome convertible we had to get head scarves and take a "Thelma and Louise" photo:)

We went to Sundance for an outdoor theater production of "Footloose"  It was super fun.  Maratee Andrus joined us for the evening.

Jody, Lydia and I walking around the gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  It was a really hot day so we opted to rent a golf cart to drive around the gardens...so much fun!

At the gardens

It was such a great time hanging out and reconnecting with friends from Germany.  So much has changed in all of our lives but when we get together we always have a great time.  It was sad that so many of the ladies that actually live in Utah didn't make the time to hang out.  I'm sad to think that the politics and divisiveness of the last Presidency has caused a rift among us but I truly believe that is what happened.  I guess this trip let us know who our real friends still are.

Summer Vacation: Washington, DC

 Of all the cities we were seeing on this great trip I was most excited to show my boys around Washington, DC.  I wanted them to see the monuments, memorials and buildings that run our government.  We had a wonderful time in DC (Some of which can be attributed to our wonderful location and rental house...we were just a few blocks away from the Supreme Court and Capitol buildings!)

After a long day of driving from Boston we took a short walk when we arrived at our house to see the Supreme Court building lit up at night.  It was wonderful!  There were no other people around and we had the place to ourselves to walk around and explore.

Our first stop the next day was a visit to the Holocaust museum.  This was a wonderfully done museum that really outlined the horrors of the holocaust.  It was interesting and informative to walk through but also very hard to take in at the same time.

The boys reading about the prisoners

A very touching display at the Holocaust museum

The FDR memorial on the Washington Mall

Thomas Jefferson memorial

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial.  They let you dip your feet in the fountain and it was so nice to cool off.  We also saw the Vietnam Memorial and the Korean War Memorial (which was under renovation)  I'm so glad my boys got to see these great structures and learn some history.

The next day we started with a trip to the Washington National Cathedral.  What an amazing church!

Stunning interior of the cathedral

One of the many stained glass windows.  This one has an actual rock from the moon incorporated into the red circle of stained glass...so cool!

Beautiful Rose Window

I loved how the colors from the stained glass windows were coming through on this statue of George Washington

I loved the colors and details on this window.  Each window was so unique, it was fun to walk around and see them all.

Exploring the beautiful Cathedral garden

We drove 2 hours outside DC to Monticello, the historic home of Thomas Jefferson.  I had never been to Monticello before but Hyrum remembers visiting when he was a kid and his family took a trip back east.  It was a great place to visit.  Lots of history and I especially liked how they highlighted the lives of the slaves that worked on this plantation.  I thought it was a well balanced depiction of history.

Mirror and piano that were here when Thomas Jefferson lived here.

You could really tell how much Thomas Jefferson loved natural history by the articles he displayed at his home.  He had such an assorted collection of different things and was fascinated by the West and what explorers brought back.

Jefferson family cemetery

Instead of taking the tour bus back down to the parking lot from Monticello we decided to hike back down through the forest.  It was a lovely walk.

Posing with our friend Thomas Jefferson

Since we were so close we decided to explore a bit of the University of Virginia...founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819

Another beautiful University campus.  I would love my kids to go to one of these great colleges, there is so much history just walking around the campus!

We spent a lovely morning (although very hot and humid) walking around Arlington National Cemetery

The home of General Robert E. Lee.  He was asked to lead the Union Army but turned that down in order to lead the Confederate Army.  He said he wasn't able to fight agains his home State of Virginia so sided with the Confederates in the Civil War.

We watched the changing of the guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown soldier.  I didn't realize it but there are remains from unknowns soldiers in this tomb from every American War from the Revolutionary War all the way to Operation Freedom in Iraq.

I hope my boys got a sense of the reverence we show to our soldiers.  These men and women choose to stand up and protect us and our freedoms and I will be forever grateful to them and their sacrifices.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside the National Archives museum so we took a photo on the steps outside.  It was really neat seeing the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution papers.

We walked over to the White House to see where our President lives.  So glad Biden is in there now and not Trump!!

We met up with my brother and his family for dinner.  They live in Virginia so it was really fun to get a chance to meet up.

It was our final night in DC and Hyrum and I thought it would be fun to walk around at night and see some of the monuments lit up.  We went all the way to the White House to see it at night but it was 10:30 PM when we got there and they had already turned off the lights.  We were bummed by this but still had a fun time walking around.  While on the Capitol building grounds we came across this guy walking a dog.  It turns out this is President Biden dog "major"  They let us pet the dog and it was super cool to pet the dog the President of the US pets...what a neat experience!

The beautiful Capitol building at night.

So sad to think just a few months ago an angry mob of Trump supporters stormed this building in an attempt to stop the government from naming Joe Biden as our new President.  It makes me angry to know there are people in our country that don't support the voice of the people in choosing their President.

Our flight out of DC wasn't until the evening so we decided to go visit the Air and Space Museum outside DC.  This was such a great museum!

Neil Armstrongs space suit!

It was so cool to see an actual space shuttle.  The space shuttle Discovery has been to space 29 times!  It was super interesting to learn all about this space shuttle and it's many different missions.

The airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan during WWII.  I had mixed feelings about seeing this airplane.  It was an important airplane in that it was instrumental in ending WWII but it seemed wrong somehow to memorialize such a horrific incident, dropping an atomic bomb on civilian Japanese.

One of Julian's favorite movies is "Full Metal Jacket" which is about Marines that train and fight in the Vietnam War.  I wanted to make sure he got the chance to see the Marine Memorial:)

We didi a very quick run through the Museum of American History.  It has changed so much since I last visited.  I remember it being a lot more interesting with artifacts from across American history and culture.  Maybe things were different due to Covid but it really wasn't that well laid out.

You weren't allowed to take pictures of the original Star Spangled Banner so I grabbed this photo off the internet.  This was my favorite exhibit at the Museum of American History.  It was this flag, flying during the War of 1812, that inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem that turned into the Star Spangled Banner, our nations National Anthem.

And just like that our East Coast adventure was over.  Three weeks traveling, sight seeing, exploring, learning, playing...what a great adventure.  I hope my kids have great memories of our time spent on the East Coast!