July

Right at the beginning of July, we had our Atkinder reunion with Marsha here in Jerome. The first day, as we waited for people to arrive, we rented some waterslides and had a barbecue. I loved watching all the kids have a blast, even the teens.

We also set up a slip 'n slide for the littler kids:

Of course we had to have some karaoke:

I loved these pictures of Lizzie wrestling with the little boys:

We also did a talent show. Natalie sang a duet with Maddie:

Eli played a song on his cello:

James showcased his roping skills with Matt as his prey :). It was awesome:

We also went on a hike that night but first I stopped at the Taco Bell by our house to say a quick hello to Katie who was traveling through to Boise. It was so fun to see her and her beautiful family for a minute:

The hike was beautiful and so fun:

We had fun when we made it down to the spring water. It was freezing but a ton of us jumped in anyway. So worth it!

When we got back that night, we saw that our house had been toilet-papered. Grandma had been watching the youngest kids for us and they saw who did it through the windows--it was the Atkin boys' former foes from high school, the Olsen clan. They sent this picture to Joe:

  Of course we had to retaliate. I didn't go with but I got to hear the stories and it sounded like a lot of fun. Apparently our kids weren't knowledgable about TP-ing and didn't quite get their house as well as they got ours. We still have a roll of TP at the top of one of our trees :). We ended up also joining the Olsen family (who were also having a family reunion) for a breakfast at one of their businesses. It was delicious and so kind of them to feed our huge group. While we were there, our car got TP-ed too. :)

We ended the reunion with a day at Dierkes and then a trip to Five Guys. I loved this picture of the cousins playing with Eve:

It was a great reunion. We were lucky enough to get to see fireworks from our house:

Eve loves jumping on the trampoline, swinging in the hammock, and playing outside:

I love her cheesy smile:

Lizzie and I had the awesome opportunity to go on a rafting trip with our ward. Unfortunately, Natalie couldn't come since she had her theater intensive. It was so much fun! I felt really lucky that I got to tag along as a chaperone.

We were on the main fork of the Salmon River. I'd never been up that way and it was beautiful. We left super early and got there in time for lunch and some rafting in the afternoon. Thankfully, we were able to set up camp and then they would shuttle us back to it so we didn't have to pack everything on the rafts. Tuesday we rafted all day and then Wednesday morning we rafted again before we drove back. The rapids weren't too crazy but they were fun. There were only 4 YW who came, 3 adult women and one YA girl who came with her parents so us girls stuck together in a raft and had a lot of fun. We had good meals and Lizzie and I had our own tent so we slept as well as you can camping. We learned that our bishop favors devotionals at 11pm. They were good devotionals. There's definitely a lot of parallels between rafting and the gospel. Especially after a dramatic thing that happened Tuesday. We'd stopped at some rocks to jump off and swim around. There was a short stretch of rafting left before the beach we were stopping at and we were told we could float it in our life jackets. Lizzie went first with a male leader and his son and I jumped in to try to keep up with them. It turned out that it wasn't as easy as we thought to get to shore. It was easier to get off at some rocks than make it to the beach because of an eddy. We got off but it was really hard. We tried to tell other people to get off there but they struggled. Lizzie and I went back out to help one YM and Lizzie helped bring in one of the YW leaders. One of the YW got way down river but luckily her dad was with her. We were so worried about them and bishop ran down shore but thankfully we saw them come to shore and then they trekked back. Kinda crazy but so glad everyone was OK. Lizzie’s mermaid ability in the water came in handy. She’d be a good lifeguard. Anyway, it was definitely a memorable trip.

A friend in the ward with 3 girls watched Eve for me one day while I was gone and I loved seeing these pictures of all the fun they were having:

Soon after that trip Nate had his last baseball tournament at Bear Lake so we made a trip of it. We stopped in Soda Springs on our way down at the very same Arctic Circle I would stop at every year on our way to Star Valley for Allen reunions. It made me so happy and I had to send pictures to my dad.

The tournament ended up starting a day earlier than we thought when we found a place to stay so we filled in the gap by staying at a glamping place for one night. We got to have a fire built for us with s'more stuff:

We had fun watching Nate's team play in the tournament. Grandpa Tom and Grandma Lorna even came up to watch the games which made it more fun. Unfortunately the last game of Nate's season ended rough. He was put in as pitcher and the first kid up hit a home run. Somehow that shook up the team. He pitched pretty well but there were so many errors in the infield and outfield that they got way behind. He was moved to outfield for the end and made two great catches but they lost. A rough way to go out after a good season for him. 

I love watching this guy play baseball:

Team picture:

Since it was expensive to book any place to stay we ended up booking a cabin on Bear Lake and invited people to join us if they wanted. With Grandma and Grandpa, Jon & Jaime and kids, and Rich & Toni and kids it was a full house but a lot of fun. We played a fun four square volleyball game that Jaime brought and kayaked in the lake. The kids loved the hot tub at the cabin. 

Here are some more random happenings at home:

Eve loves to play with play dough and I sometimes challenge myself to make something detailed to make it more fun for me and I was proud of my Pablo. Eve always wants us to draw Pablo and other Backyardigans characters for her.

Playing with the hose while we did yard work:

We fought a losing battle with the dry patches in our lawn. our sprinkler system needs to be completely redone.

Watching a show:

The boys made and sold artisan bread to earn enough money for Nate to get an oculus:

They were so thrilled to get it after a long time of saving.

Regina and I snuck down to SLC for Jody Moore's VIP event. We stayed at Rich & Toni's the night before and it was fun talking to them. We had a great time at the event and learned a lot. Mostly it was nice to just chat and try to solve all our problems on the car drives there and back :). We also met up with Kelli and had lunch with her.

Finally, it was show time for Natalie's theater intensive. Here she is in makeup:

We loved her show. It was so much fun and so well done. I was blown away by the narrator (that's a hard role), the pharaoh, the brothers, and Natalie's friend who played Joseph. Everyone did so well. Of course Natalie nailed her role as the baker, and acted so well especially.

She had a blast:

Posing with Greta after a show:

July went out with a bang!