Snippets of Summer

August! Wow!  It has been such a wonderful summer.  I honestly have not made and/or found the time to blog, however, I  have had some amazing experiences to share.  I will just share the experiences in snippets of photos.

We took a family vacation for a week to a favorite lake in Utah. While there, we had a family photo shoot.

We did it self-timer style. We are not sure how Sammi, our dog, actually posed for this picture.  She spent most of the photo shoot chasing and looking for squirrels.

"Two little love birds hiding by a tree..."

Laughter is the best medicine:)!!

Bret and his girls

Our beautiful daughters!!

Friday, it will be 22 years with this guy...how lucky am I!!

Karissa with a chance to drive the boat---me oh my.  The only one not concerned--the dog!

I ran a 5K with my Jess and Savannie.  Savannie got 2nd in her age division, Jess got 3rd in hers.  I shaved 9 minutes off my last 5K and placed 7th!!  I am aiming for the top three next time:)!!

(pic via Russ Biehn)

Our amazing Handcart Days parade with 2,000 young men dressed as The Stripling Warriors--a story from The Book of Mormon.  It was an incredible sight to watch that many young men march down the street.  I don't suppose I will ever see that again in my life time.

GIRLS CAMP!!  This is where the main focus of my summer has gone.  It was a wonderful experience to serve the girls in this manner. I had so many tender mercies, and camp was better than I ever expected it to be.  We focused on the temple and always being worthy to go there.  We had each of the wards in our stake choose a country to represent.  We, as stake leaders, represented Switzerland.  Thus, the lovely costumes.  We only wore them for our skit---not the whole four days!!  Oh da lay heee heee!! :)

We were judges as the young women performed their skits.

Oh, out of the comfort zone for sure!!

It is a lot of work to cook for 200 people. Luckily for us, we had a camp cook, and all we had to do was serve the food. 

Here is a photo of about half the girls in the lodge in preparation for our priesthood leaders to speak to them.  The spirit was tangible and real. Many girls shed tears. You could have heard a pin drop. I am so impressed with youth today. They have a strong desire to do what is right, stay morally clean, and serve each other.  I learned from this experience that I can DO HARD THINGS!!  However, I don't have to do hard things alone. Heavenly Father loves me and will help me.  

Our little feeder fish that resided with us for 2 years died Sunday morning. Originally we thought Mr. Bubbles was living in our home, until "he" laid eggs last spring.  We then changed the name to Mrs. Bubbles.

Thus the name MR/MRS Bubbles on the tombstone.  We figure she "just keeps swimming" in fish heaven:)!!

We have also been on a few hikes, saw my favorite all time musical, "Sound of Music" at a local theatre, ripped up carpet in our living room(photos on a later date), and just been together as a family.

Summer of 2012 will not be long forgotten at our house!!

Can't wait to catch up with many of you. I promise I am still your blog friend. 

Be Nice to People,

Julie