Last Few Weeks in CA

We had some fun during June and half of July until we moved to Idaho. 

I had to capture this moment--Eli reading to Eve:

Eli got to perform the French folk song on his cello to his grade at a little talent show they had. My neighbor Lindsey was nice enough to get a video for me since most parents couldn't be there:

Some more pictures from that day:

Eli's whole class together for the first time on the last day of school:

Eli and Nate got invited to a fun pool party celebrating school being out at the Wren's house:

Eve figured out how to take selfies: :)

She was making some funny faces in the car one day:

Natalie took this selfie and I thought it was super cute:

Eli worked really hard to get his orange belt before we moved away from his karate studio:

We definitely miss that studio. It was a great thing for Eli during a difficult year and he grew and learned a lot.

Eve is often surrounded by people loving on here like this:

Hopefully we aren't spoiling her rotten. :)

She made a big oatmeal mess one day:

We got to take one last trip to Gizdich and the beach. Kristen, Brenden, McKenna and Seth met us at Gizdich and the boys loved seeing Brenden again:

Eve loved being big enough to help this time:

The boys loved posing with the tractor:

And Eve too:

We also got to go to the beach after and even though it started out cold, it warmed up and we had a fun day there.

I loved this moment of all the kids playing video games together (I think it was Tower fall) and Eve watching:

We had a fun last YW activity doing our own little water balloon Olympics and my girls both won events:

I was so glad they were able to keep having YW activities during the pandemic--being with those girls really helped during a lonely time.

Anna Wren (left) and her sister Olivia even invited the girls to a going away party at their house which was so sweet. 

Natalie made a perfect olallieberry pie with the berries we got at Gizdich:

Not runny at all! Amazing. 

Eve loved books! It's fun to rediscover all of our family classics again, like Tumble Bumble:

Another cute car shot:

Finally, after a lot of drama and exhausting work, including some amazing help from people in the Dakota Ward, we got the house packed up and it was time to leave. We had to leave quite a few pieces of furniture behind this time (including our dining table and chairs) but we had the essentials. 

Eve loved the ramp:

We took the obligatory pictures in front of the Uhaul:

Goodbye, Clovis. Idaho--here we come!

Atkinder

 We had a few days at home and then we drove to Idaho again. This was the first time the girls and I were able to see the house in person and we loved it. I was a little nervous about that but it did work last time we bought a house :). 
I especially loved the backyard:

We have an acre and a cornfield behind us so it feels really quiet and spacious.

We spent a day there and then drove down to Erda for the Atkinder with Tom and Lorna. Since they live there, too, it made it easy. I didn't get too many pictures from the reunion but we had a blast!

We rented some blow up slides and the kids loved them, even Eve!

The other hit of the reunion was renting the gymnastics place by Jon and Jaime. It was so fun! The kids especially loved jumping into the foam pit below the rock wall:

Eli entertained us by dancing on top:

Us adults all behaved like kids and injured ourselves. :)

Some other highlights from the reunion were the grandkid talent show we did, our Sunday discussion, our adult date night to Applebee's, teaching some of the younger kids Settlers of Catan, playing soccer outside, and just hanging out talking. 

Natalie made this and I had to snap a picture before we left:

We're so grateful for every one of those people, even the ones who couldn't make it.

Allen Reunion

 We had a blast at the Allen reunion this year. It was really fun being able to be together on Father's Day this year. We took these pictures with my Dad after church:

The bad part about having Father's Day up at Greenwood was that Joe probably didn't get the love he deserved since we were busy with family stuff. Eve also didn't sleep that well in our closet there and so we were sleep deprived. Traveling with a baby/toddler is hard sometimes! Joe also left Greenwood to drive to Idaho for a SUPER long day in the car in order to get our carpet/flooring set-up.
Here are some highlights of the week...

We took the older kids to go see Into the Heights late one night:

We all liked it and it was fun to be back in the theater again.

My kids went with cousins to go to the indoor go-karting place one night:

Us girls got to go out for dinner one night:

Of course the boys got some golfing in, too.

There were some days at the pool:

One day it starting raining and then hailing and the crazy teens were running around playing in it:

Eve and I were hunkered down in the hot tub. :)

We took some pictures one night and I loved this one:

Natalie managed to hide behind Nate. :)

Some of my favorite parts were watching the cousins play Tower Fall together and some group games, a family game night, a great discussion after church together that I loved. I also did the FHE lesson with Eli and we made a Jeopardy game with trivia about everyone. It was so much fun! Of course the dinners together in the evenings were the best, too. It was a great week!