Summer Catch-Up: July

Moving on to July (I just might get caught up after all!).  For the 4th of July, we started out the day with a ward breakfast and bike parade at the church.  I won't mention any names (Whitney), but SOME people may have been too old to participate in the festivities this year.  Oh well, no pictures of her!

Poppers and sparklers in front of the house

We went to Vernon Worthen Park to watch the city fireworks that night, and actually had a huge scare.  When navigating around to find the best place to sit, we somehow lost Audrey.  If you've ever been to the park to watch fireworks, you know how crowded it is there.  Literally thousands of people crammed into the grass area.  And it was almost time for the show to start so it was pretty dark as well.

Adam went off looking for her while I helped set up blankets and chairs, trying not to freak out in the meantime.  When Adam came back to see if we had her, I left the kids with Whitney and started looking for her as well.  Minutes ticked by and I was getting more and more panicked knowing the fireworks would soon start and then it would be so much harder to find her.

I finally saw a bike policeman patrolling the perimeter and ran up to him.  I wasn't crying until I tried speaking to him, and then I could barely speak the words "I can't find my daughter."  Instant relief came when he said, "Is her name Audrey?"  Somehow she was taken to another police officer and he was waiting with her.  I took off running to where they were, and when she saw me we both ran into eachothers arms crying.

The officer said she was very brave and knew all of our names and phone numbers (which unfortunately neither Adam nor I had our phones with us!).  A very scary experience with luckily a happy ending.

And to end this post on an even better note, we had a fun visit this month from our dear friends the Woffindens, who currently live in Arkansas.  We were the best of friends during our Wyoming years and I'm so glad that we still manage to see eachother every few years.  Our younger kids who've really never met eachother, totally hit it off while the older kids who USED to be great friends were too shy/embarassed to talk to eachother.  It's sad how quickly they forget that they were once friends.  But we adults haven't forgotten and we were able to have a great visit with them.

Coming up next:  FINALLY a vacation this summer that doesn't just involve Mom/Dad/Whitney going on YW activities!  Stay tuned.

Girls Camp

Girls Camp this year was on the ward level and was awesome!  Not only did I get to go with my own daughter, but Adam was one of the Priesthood leaders as well.  Our theme was "One for all, and all for one" and our goal was to become unified as young women and leaders.  We planned long and hard to make this camp a memorable experience and I really think we succeeded.

 Camp was in Marysvale, Utah so on the way we stopped at Cove Fort for lunch and a tour.

Whitney with her friends cooking breakfast. I love the cute secret sister buckets hanging in the background.

Scripture time by a beautiful river.

Adam decided we needed to be like the boy scouts and have a flag on the pole.  Unfortunately, this was the only way to get the flag up and down.

We did lots of fun trust building activities.  Here are Whitney and Shelby trying to work their way across some cables together.  Not as easy as it looks.

Adam and I doing the tango across the cables.

It got really wobbly the farther out we got.  But we make a good team! :)

Whitney swinging across a shark-filled ocean.

The trick was to help all of your team across without losing anyone to the sharks.  Adam survived!

Whitney lending a hand to help all of her team get across the boards.  This was a strategy game that took a long time to figure out!

More cable activities.

Adam's turn.  This was probably the easiest task we had to do.

Karin swinging on the swings!

Whitney zip-lining down the mountain after climbing a really steep and scary cliff attached to cables.

One of the days we hiked to this gorgeous waterfall.  I could have stayed and looked at it all day!

Whitney and her "Ja-Mexican" friends performing their skit.

 

We also spent a day white water rafting down the Sevier River.  That was a terrifying, exhilirating, amazing experience!  But unfortunately no photos :(  All in all, this was the best girls camp I have ever attended.  I'm so grateful for all the leaders who helped plan and make everything possible, for my husband who took off more work to come be with us, and for these great girls of the Santa Clara 8th ward!

Summer Catch-Up: "The Trek"

In June, Adam and I had the opportunity to be a "Ma and Pa" on our very first Pioneer Trek.  We had no idea what to expect, but we had an adventurous spirit.  Here is our family.  We LOVED them!  They were so much fun to be around and such hard workers.  Even though some of the trials were tough (and muddy) they were such good sports.  I just can't say enough about these great kids!

Top row L to R:  Logan "Thomas" Wrigley, Olivia "Elsie" Earl, Maddie "Sarah" Gubler, Adam "Pa Webb", Karin "Ma Webb", Tyson "Reddick" Brough.

Bottom row L to R: Travis "Zendell" Griffin, Cole "Andrew" Dillard, MyKyla "Karoline" Scholzen, McKenzie "Sabina" Smith.

Day Two:  We had a new addition to our family, Baby Charlotte.  Thank goodness the kids kept a close watch on her because I kept forgetting that I had a baby!

The Women's Pull.  It was pretty steep and sandy for a bit, but then it ended much sooner than we thought it would.  Our girls did great!

After the Women's Pull, we went through some muddy sections.  I pulled off to take pictures and ended up feeling really bad that everyone else got so muddy besides me.

So on the last day, I made Adam pull off so I could go through the muddy section with the family.  We were right by Utah Lake so there were some washed out trails that we had to plow through.  Nothing like mud between your toes!

Here we are with our "real" daughter Whitney.  She was in a different family than us, but we met up at the end for a family picture.  Whitney's family was apparently not as "fun" as ours, but she was able to have a good experience as well.

The bus ride home was an absolute nightmare, there are not words enough to describe it.  The bus kept breaking down and would only go 50 mph on the downhills.  Uphills were less than 20 mph.  Luckily, Adam pulled out some tricks to entertain everyone.

I tried to sleep, but a slow, hot bus is not the best place to doze off.  But apparently I did for a little while.

 

Yes, this a real seat from our bus.  Unbelievable!

But even with the bus ride home (which actually ended really fun once we had the kids attention listening to our dating and engagement stories), we had an amazing experience.  It was a lot of work to be a Ma and Pa, but completely worth it.  We learned so much about our own pioneer heritage and got just a small glimpse of what they had to go through.  I am forever grateful to the pioneers who had the faith and courage to cross the plains and pass their testimonies on to their posterity.  Sign us up for the next Trek in four years!

Summer Catch-Up: May

Yes, it has been months since I've updated my blog (a fact that my kids love to remind me of daily), but since it's too overwhelming to try to blog about three months worth at one time, I will break this up into three separate posts.  Let's start with May!

The month started off with the boys going to Father and Sons Camp.  They had a great time shooting guns, roasting marshmallows, and floating down the nearby river.  I'm told that Troy almost floated out of the State.  Which is precisely why what happens at Fathers and Sons should stay at Fathers and Sons and mothers should never know the danger they are really in!

And while the boys are away, the girls will play.  We went out to dinner, a movie, and then bowling.  Audrey didn't ever want to go home, she was loving it so much!

Audrey finished a great year of Kindergarten at Vista Charter School.  She excelled at reading and was definitely the most social one in her class.  I had a hard time keeping up with all the play date requests with her this year!

One of my favorite things about her year was the fact that she got to take violin lessons (for FREE) at her school.  Here she is on the day of her recital.

And of course, Audrey LOVED having her daddy as her soccer coach again for the spring season!
 

Whitney "graduated" from Vista (since 8th grade is their highest) and was honored as the Valedictorian for her class.  She had to give a speech in front of a big crowd, and also received numerous awards that night for Math, Language Arts, and Piano.  She enjoyed her year at Vista and even endured having to wear school uniforms! Guess we have to go shopping now that she'll be at the "regular" middle school next year!

On the last day of school, we pulled the kids out early to welcome home their Grandma and Pooh-Pa Blunck from their mission to Armenia!  Here the cousins are waiting for them to drive up.

Lots of Hugs!

We are so glad to have them home again!

Over Memorial Weekend, we took the kids to go play in the waterfalls at Gunlock Resevoir.  The water was FREEZING but when has that ever stopped kids from playing?!

Troy probably loved it the most.  The kid is half-fish.

The weather was gorgeous and so were the Falls!

Troy was the first brave soul to attempt cliff diving.  He proceeded to jump from higher spots but I FORBADE him from going to the very top, which he would have done had I not stopped him.  That kid...

Justin decided it looked like fun too.

And not to be outdone, Whitney finally got the courage to jump as we were getting ready to leave.

And here is a shot of our pretty spring flowers that Adam planted.

Well, that pretty much sums up our month of May.  Stay tuned for the remaining summer months!