Old-growth cedars

In Rockaway Beach there is an old forest area with a huge cedar tree. It has changed a lot over the years. We have had to hunt for a trailhead in the middle of a neighborhood where you feel like you're walking through someone's yard, and then bushwhack our way through dense forest to find the right place. Understandably, someone decided that wasn't a good idea, and now finally they've made an official trail and entrance and parking lot and everything. It's nice, but it was also really crowded every time we drove by it, and has definitely lost the "we-just-discovered-this-place" feel it used to have, so that's a little sad. Still a fun area to stop by, though! And the new boardwalk trails are nice.

The hike is mostly all boardwalk now, but there's a little of the original trail at the end, and that's the best part. It's so nice to walk right down among the ferns and fallen trees.

Little Teddy by the big tree. Here is little Ky and Seb and Junie by it.

Wouldn't it have been amazing to see Oregon back when all the forests looked like this?

Hikes, walks, sunsets, and hummus

Some pretty sights near Netarts Bay, Oregon. The bay beach in early morning. Herons and pelicans and gulls everywhere!

Clams and Cannon Beach

Have you ever considered clams? Truly considered them? We have already established that I consider them from time to time. I considered what it would be like to dig them up, last time we visited Netarts Bay. I considered, at great length, the way they squirt out water as you run across their beds, like spouts as you run across a splash pad. I considered the weird way they burrow down into the sand. (Your life will never be the same after you watch that video.) 

After all that considering, on this trip I finally felt it was time to try cooking some. I like clam chowder! And I like fried clams. But cooking them yourself is a whole different story. Still, I was ready. So (not being able to dig our own easily, with the tides being what they were)—I went to the fish store and bought some.

This was a Saturday, and I wanted to cook them on Sunday, and the first thing I learned was that the clams are alive till you cook them!! !! You want them alive. That is weird. You tap the shell and if it doesn't close tighter,  the clam is dead and you should throw it out!And they don't have to be in water to stay alive, but they do have to be in ice…or in the fridge. The girl at the store did not seem concerned, as if there were a chance they might die by my negligence, when she told me this. She just said to leave them in the fridge till ready to cook, and then put them in a salt water bath for a few hours so they could spit out any remaining sand inside them.

IV(a). Hug Point

There are some great tide pools at Hug Point, and even though the tide wasn't super low when we went, it was low enough to see a lot of cool animals! (Last time we were there we saw a bunny! Although not, it must be admitted, in the tide pools. Either way, no such luck this time. But Gus does look a little like Ky in this picture!)

IV. Birthday at the beach

Clementine turned four while we were staying by Netarts Bay. It was a weird house with the kitchen on the top floor, a beautiful living room and dining room view, and a lower-level bunkroom with towering three-high bunk beds. The outer corridors smelled so strongly of Dog that Daisy and Junie couldn't even sleep in the bunk room and had to move upstairs to couches! But it was a lovely place to stay all the same. We stayed in this same neighborhood in a house with Sam's parents when we came to Oregon in 2017, and we loved watching the tides come in and out of the bay so much that I looked for a place nearby so we could do it again. If you want to play in the waves, you have to walk out past the waters of the bay to the real ocean, but the bay beach is peaceful and beautiful in its own right.

Clementine was up early on her birthday, and promptly put on her new strawberry dress, which I'd gotten for her at the strawberry farm we'd picked berries at near Hubbard. (Smart of them to sell cute little dresses there. I certainly couldn't resist them, not when Clementine had already proclaimed, "I'm a strawberry girl!")

To bear the weight of eternal life

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week we're taking a break from the past to write about the conference that just happened, October 2025.

General Conference! Wasn't it good? I felt like I needed it extra this year! It was so sad not to have a talk by President Nelson. I was hoping maybe he'd recorded one before he died, but no such luck! But I loved hearing from Elder Oaks and all the other apostles. The theme for me was Family and Personal Agency—specifically using our agency (in families and as individuals) to intentionally choose faith, choose testimony, choose kindness, and choose to strengthen relationships. I felt inspired and uplifted and determined to do better! Here, from my own probably inaccurate notes, are some of the things I liked best:

Sister Tracy Browning's talk on the importance of Primary Songs was so surprising and good. It's not a topic I would have thought to talk about, but as she spoke I could see the wisdom of it. So many truths that I know, so much gospel learning that is simply part of me, comes from primary songs I learned as a child! Even now I get inspiration in the form of those memorized songs and words. When I was Primary President we had the best music leader. She taught the children so many beautiful gospel principles with the songs, and I felt the spirit every Sunday as she taught. What a blessing for those primary children (and all the adults in the room too!). I need to play more primary songs in our home!

I think everyone I've talked to after conference has loved Elder Kevin R. Brown as much as I did. He came to our stake conference a couple years ago as a Utah Area Authority, and I didn't know he'd been called as a seventy since then! He is such a wonderful speaker. So intense and enthusiastic. I can still remember how good his Stake Conference talk was, and this General Conference talk was just as inspiring! I loved how he talked about his personal "sacred grove" and how we can each use our agency to take charge of our own testimonies and choose to believe. The intensity of his "It is urgent!" was electrifying!

 In a similar vein, I liked Elder Kelly R. Johnson's talk—he was the forensic accountant (I perked up at that because Abe is in the Accounting program at BYU and I've heard him talk about that branch of accounting) who talked about reconciliation and how it means to bring us back into alignment with God. Like Elder Brown, he emphasized how we have to choose to initiate the effort to come back into alignment. God will help us restore and be reconciled, but we must make the effort ourselves by seeking daily repentance.

I liked Elder Peter M. Johnson's story about when he was a missionary and learned about the prohibition on Blacks having the priesthood. His missionary companion just patiently said "I love you" to him every night while he struggled through his questions and doubts, and that simple act helped him through his hard time. I also loved "the Savior's job is to heal; ours is to love."

Elder Matthew Holland is so much like his dad! And his talk was like his dad's too (the highest compliment!). I have never noticed or thought about the phrase "forsake not your own mercy" but I love its implications about how we should reach for Jesus Christ in the midst of our flaws and bad choices. It's so natural to want to turn away in hurt or embarrassment, but that's exactly the wrong thing to do. Elder Holland reminded us to turn in those times to the temple, serve the Lord, and we will see God's special covenantal love for us.

Elder John D. Gamos had a great talk and a great accent (he was the guy from Louisiana). I liked his analogy about how "adding more Jesus" can compensate for imperfections in our "recipe for happy living," and his story about the missionary who was trying to have more charity for his difficult companion.

I loved Elder Eyring's talk so much. It may have been my favorite. I have been thinking about one phrase since Conference: "God is strengthening us to bear the weight of eternal life." Of course I know that trials are for our good, but that's such an interesting way to sum up their purpose. It scares me a little—to think that eternal life requires bearing such a great weight—but it makes sense too. The heaviness and depth of the suffering caused by sin is an inevitable and necessary component of allowing agency. Heavenly Father doesn't make mistakes Himself, but He has to watch us make plenty of them—to see us hurting ourselves and each other. Thank goodness for Jesus Christ who took that weight upon Himself that it might not crush our fragile mortal spirits as we learn and grow, but the weight still exists and someone has to bear it. Surely that must be some of "what a fulness means." And, if we want to be like God, we must learn how to bear that fulness too.

Or maybe Elder Kearon's talk was my favorite? It's true that anything he says in his beautiful voice would probably sound profound, but he is also such a good writer. "Jesus died to give us as many new beginnings as we need." I needed to hear his words that "we can have a fresh start even in our feelings of grumpiness, our bad habits, our things that have been wearing us down for years;" and to remember that Jesus "never tires of giving us" those new beginnings. So beautiful. (I'm excited to get the transcript of this one because my notes don't do it justice.)

Oh, and Elder Uchtdorf! So much good doctrine in his talk too! "Receiving God's gifts is not a casual endeavor, but a conscious choice, a practice of every day and every hour." Like Elder Brown and Elder Johnson, his emphasis was so much on our responsibility to choose to receive. I also thought it was interesting how Elder Uchtdorf implied that the growth we see in the world around us, in nature, is specifically crafted to teach us an important lesson: "God's expectations are high, but he doesn't expect superhuman leaps. In the world He created, growth happens slowly, but consistently and constantly. We choose to walk after the Savior, one step at a time." So good.

I loved Elder Stevenson's thoughts (expanding on President Nelson's counsel) about being peacemakers. It felt powerful to think that simply by beginning with peace in our own hearts, we can make such a difference in the world.

Elder Renlund's analogy of the doctor "being associated with President Nelson's name" was perfectly thought-out and articulated, as always. I love that he was able to teach such good principles about taking upon ourselves Christ's name, while at the same time paying tribute to the kind of exemplary person and disciple our prophet was.

Elder Gong gave a very Elder-Gongish talk. I liked it. He has such a deep understanding of the parable of the Good Samaritan. He has expanded my understanding of it in several different talks. This time I thought his point was interesting that we are all grouped together in God's church, the "inn," to help take care of each other and bind up each other's wounds. "We have all been hurt and have hurt others. Jesus brings us all to His inn, where we love and are loved, serve and are served, forgive and are forgiven." And then, as the parable teaches us, Christ will return and repay us for any service that has not yet been paid. I also loved "No one sits alone" (a theme of Elder Gong's) and even more specifically, "Each hello, each warm gesture, brings Zion closer." It sounds so attainable when you put it like that!

And then, of course, I absolutely loved the emphasis on the Family Proclamation during this Conference! Have I mentioned that I was in the tabernacle when President Hinckley first read it (thirty years ago; my goodness!)? I loved Elder Rasband's talk and especially Elder Oaks' bold words defending out "family church" and our family-centered doctrine. I loved his description of the absolute over-arching presence of the family in every part of Heavenly Father's plan: "The gospel plan was first taught in a premortal family setting, it is implemented in mortal families, and we will ultimately be exalted in eternal families." I loved his unashamed declaration that "as Latter-day Saints, we should not follow the trends of the world!" We must hold fast to our understanding of "the purpose of marriage and the value of children." It is one of my great worries that my children and their spouses will not be able to resist the pull of the world on this principle. As I know all too well, it takes a lot of faith and courage to keep welcoming children into your family! But it is so worth it! In spite of all the "fullness," the heaviness, and the depth and complexity of family life that I am only beginning to comprehend—I already can see that choosing family is worth the sacrifices. And someday, I assume, I will see even more clearly how "worth it" it is.

I also loved Elder Oaks' promise that "families flourish when they learn as a group." I want so much for family learning to be one of our family's characteristics! I want to, as he said, "pray together over [our] common concerns, worship together, share family stories and family traditions, and share sacred experiences." I want to find a way to keep doing that even as my family grows and changes. But it takes such patient and constant effort! The realization of this goal often feels very far away. Sometimes I'm so daunted by it. I have to trust God that He will help me, and again, it will be worth the sacrifice!

III: Wings, Waves, and out to the coast

We celebrated two birthdays on this trip, Sebastian's and Clementine's. For Seb's, we had crêpes and strawberries, of course, which even by itself is the best birthday meal ever. Seb also requested that we go to a waterpark he had heard of called "Wings and Waves." It wasn't far from where we were staying and it was on the way to the coast, so we thought we could fit it in on the day we changed houses!

The main attraction of this waterpark (definitely for Seb, but presumably for everyone else too) is that the waterslides come out of a real 747 which is parked up on the roof! It is quite a sight to see when you drive up!

II: Silver Falls in August

 

A place we love near Hubbard is Silver Falls State Park. It was so hot (we have had VERY hot weather on our trips to this area almost every time, so it must be more normal than I thought. I guess it's only on the coast that it's nearly always cool) that we decided to go in the evening so we'd be a little cooler. We have never been there at that time of day before and it was cool! Sebastian struck off on his own for a while and got some really cool pictures of the falls before the sun got too low.

Oregon Part I: Berries from Heaven

 

I think I have said before that my brain seems to categorize words by sound and rhythm. If I am searching for a particular word, I will almost always think of two or three other words—not right in meaning, but right in syllable and rhythm—as I feel toward the correct one. I can hear in my head the outlines of the word I want, sometimes well before I can see its details.

Today before I sat down to write, I had two verses running together in my head, and it took me some time to realize what they were because all I had was the rhythm and shape of them (no words):

It was many and many a year ago,

    in a kingdom by the sea

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

   By the name of Annabel Lee;…

I was a child and she was a child

    In the kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love—

    I and my Annabel Lee—

……

'Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed

   As if it could not be;

And some folk thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed

   Of sailing that beautiful sea

But I will name you the fisherman three,

    Wynken, Blyken, and Nod…

Why both those poems? Why together? (Google tells me, helpfully, that they "were written by different authors and have very different tones." Gee, thanks.) Only my subconscious knows for sure, but that doesn't stop my conscious self having a go at it…

We've been traveling to Oregon together since the children were small, when it was a sort of fairyland to us. We could contentedly go back every year. It's not quite like revisiting one's childhood home—it's just foreign enough to be interesting, but familiar enough to be comfortable—and the more often we go the more we love it. We don't do quite the same trip every time, but we revisit our favorite activities and places, even as our family composition changes. 

It carries very distinct feelings, this layering of time and space, full of nostalgia and almost dreamlike in experience. I sometimes feel like I'm a double-self, experiencing the past and present simultaneously. Hard to capture in words, but those lines from the poems aren't a bad start, those galloping rhythms that feel like the race of time—from "many and many a year ago" when "I was a child" and so were my now-adult children—to now when the names and faces are different, but the experiences are somehow the same. Which one is reality and which the echo?

Those are the questions my brain is dredging up for me (accompanied by poetry soundtrack) as I look at these pictures and sort through the layers of memory that go with them.

So, humor me while I post about our trip, for the blog books that will simultaneously record these new memories and reinforce old ones. Skip on by if it's too much. I don't know what these books will mean to the kids, once they are all grown. But they are beyond price to me!

Peacemakers among them

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the April 2011 Conference.

I loved Elder Eyring's talk, "Learning in the Priesthood." I always feel like advice for serving righteously with the priesthood is so pertinent for serving righteously in motherhood as well. His advice for quorums seems perfectly suited for families:

Wherever I have seen remarkable learning in the priesthood, there are those bonds of love. Again I have seen it as both a cause and an effect of learning gospel truths. Love invites the Holy Ghost to be present to confirm truth. And the joy of learning divine truths creates love in the hearts of people who shared the experience of learning.

The reverse is true as well. Discord or jealousy inhibits the ability of the Holy Ghost to teach us and inhibits our ability to receive light and truth. And the feelings of disappointment that invariably follow are the seeds of greater discord and faultfinding among those who expected a learning experience that did not come.

So much of our family life is about learning—or at least trying to learn—together. And I DO find it so hampered by discord or contention! I wish I could find a way to get the children to feel the need for those "bonds of love" like I do!

I was also thinking about the idea of unity—specifically in relation to the Quorum of the Twelve, as we were reading instructions to those priesthood quorums in the Come Follow Me lesson this week—but also in families. I have written before about unity and how daunting I find it (there are few other ideals I feel like our world is further from right now) so this insight of Elder Eyring's actually felt astonishing to me:

The priesthood holders who learn well together always seem to me to have great peacemakers among them. You see peacemaking in priesthood classes and in councils. It is the gift to help people find common ground when others are seeing differences. It is the peacemaker’s gift to help people see that what someone else said was a contribution rather than a correction.

With enough of the pure love of Christ and a desire to be peacemakers, unity is possible in priesthood councils and in classes. It takes patience and humility, but I have seen it happen even when issues are difficult and the people in councils or classes come from vastly different backgrounds.

I think I had never thought before that a few peacemakers sprinkled in among all of us flawed mortals could actually create unity by heading off contention or misunderstanding right when it starts. I have always envisioned the Twelve talking about issues so carefully and lovingly and never really even wanting to be dis-unified, making it easy for them to reach consensus. And for all I know that IS how it is for them. BUT, in a regular old ward council or presidency meeting or Relief Society, there are always awkward moments of disagreement and even annoyance. You can definitely feel the Spirit leave the room during those times, but it didn't occur to me that someone from the class could step in and bring the Spirit back by helping foster understanding. I love what he says about "the peacemaker's gift" of helping people see each others' contributions and appreciate them as such, rather than getting defensive and uncomfortable the moment differences of opinion become apparent. 

Now that I think about it, I have actually had experience doing this among certain of my children, and it can be quite exhausting, frankly—quickly jumping in to head off argument or soften careless words before anyone gets too offended. But it does lead to more peaceful interactions, if you can keep up. I like the idea of becoming a more expert and accomplished peacemaker—just as President Nelson has urged us to—and then going around defusing tense situations like an army of bomb defusers. I love the idea of not just hoping unity will happen spontaneously (it doesn't, in my experience) but fostering it, nurturing it, creating it. Of helping, by our very presence, to bring the light and love of Christ to any situation in which we find ourselves. Doesn't that seem like exactly the kind of army our world needs right at this moment?

Flecks of gospel gold

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 2011 Conference. 

Lots of good stuff in this session. I have always liked President Oaks' talk on Desire. But what stuck out to me this week was President Ballard's comments on finding joy. He told the story of the young man who was looking for gold and couldn't find any for years and years. He was about to give up in despair when an old man gave him some advice:

The old prospector said, “Son, it seems to me you are so busy looking for large nuggets that you’re missing filling your pouch with these precious flecks of gold. The patient accumulation of these little flecks has brought me great wealth.”…

Then Elder Ballard says:

What are the precious, simple things of the gospel that bring clarity and purpose to our lives? What are the flecks of gospel gold whose patient accumulation over the course of our lifetime will reward us with the ultimate treasure—the precious gift of eternal life?

I think fairly often about the paradox of the mundane vs. the eternal in our lives. Sometimes I feel kind of resentful that the things of mortality take SO much time and attention. It seems if I had to spend less time just getting people from here to there, and figuring out how to make our money stretch to cover all our needs, and attending to food and clothing and every little immediate demand each new day brings— (and acknowledging, of course, that I have to worry about those things much less than most people have had to throughout history)—anyway, if I could spend less time on "mortal life" and more time in contemplation and service and things of the divine and eternal—it seems like I would progress so quickly! And I'd be such a good person!

But this story just reminded me again that it's not productive to always be waiting for the "gold nuggets" of unbroken study time and uncontentious family togetherness and beautifully complete gospel discussions. I should be content gathering the little flecks—a quick moment of insight during a hasty home church, two children giggling happily together at bedtime, a snatch of unaccountable happiness looking at the Fall leaves at a time my heart is heavy with worry. It is the accumulation of those things (and the deliberate gathering of those things) that will fill my life with joy.

Great things are wrought through simple and small things. Like the small flecks of gold that accumulate over time into a large treasure, our small and simple acts of kindness and service will accumulate into a life filled with love for Heavenly Father, devotion to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a sense of peace and joy each time we reach out to one another.

From sympathy to a decision to act

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the April 2011 Conference. 

Elder Eyring has a way of making things sound so simple and elegant. I love how he introduced the topic of his talk:

[The Lord] loves His children in need and also those who want to help. And He has created ways to bless both those who need help and those who will give it.

It's the whole purpose of life in two sentences! I love the efficiency of God's plan, which provides for every situation. When things are hard, He puts people and systems in place to help us. When things are good, He gives us responsibilities to help us learn humility and compassion. And of course those two situations cross over and combine throughout our lives. But I love that God's hand is always there with what we need.

I also liked this:

The Lord regularly sends wake-up calls to all of us. Sometimes it may be a sudden feeling of sympathy for someone in need. A father may have felt it when he saw a child fall and scrape a knee. A mother may have felt it when she heard the frightened cry of her child in the night. A son or a daughter may have felt sympathy for someone who seemed sad or afraid at school.

All of us have been touched with feelings of sympathy for others we don’t even know. For instance, as you heard reports of the waves rushing across the Pacific after the earthquake in Japan, you felt concern for those who might be hurt.

Feelings of sympathy came to thousands of you who learned of the flooding in Queensland, Australia. The news reports were mainly estimates of numbers of those in need. But many of you felt the pain of the people. The wake-up call was answered by 1,500 or more Church member volunteers in Australia who came to help and to comfort.

They turned their feelings of sympathy into a decision to act on their covenants. I have seen the blessings that come to the person in need who receives help and to the person who seizes the opportunity to give it.

I had never thought of all these feelings of sympathy he describes as being "wake-up calls" to help us remember to act on our covenants. But they are. They are invitations to act! I guess sometimes it can happen the other way too—an action of service can stir feelings of love and sympathy—but either way, it's nice to think that Heavenly Father gave us the innate ability to notice and empathize with others so that we could then learn to help each other. Of course, we can choose to ignore those feelings, but if we choose to listen to them, so many miracles can happen!

…You have seen that miracle of sympathy turned to unselfish action.…It is a manifestation of the Lord’s way to help those in great need become self-reliant. We feel compassion, and we know how to act in the Lord’s way to help.

Other posts in this series:

The atonement covers all pain—by Rozy 

Daisy's birthday, camps, and so on

Daisy turned 16! Hooray! Junie and Goldie decorated their room for her: balloons, a banner, flowers, and party hats for the animals.

Notice the gnomes and bunnies Clementine contributed to the banner. And look at the lonnnnnnnng arm of that bunny holding the purple balloon. I love it.

Gus drew this cute penguin for Daisy

We went and got Daisy's driver's license (easy as pie; she had already passed the road test the week before) and celebrated with lunch after. The man at the DMV was really nice (bless him!) and almost fatherly, lecturing Daisy with just enough seriousness about what a big responsibility a license was, and reminding her of all the rules she was agreeing to. It was super cute because the man said, "Now remember, for the first six months, no driving with friends!" and Daisy said, "…Unless your friends are your sisters!"

She wasn't wrong. And lucky for her, her friends are her sisters, and the first thing she wanted to do when we got home was take them on a drive around the neighborhood—all by themselves! Do their faces reassure you that they will be calm, responsible, non-silly individuals during this outing? 

It was a happy day for Daisy and all of us!

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A few other things:

Gnomes and bunnies drawn by Clementine

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Every year we have a contest within our family where we each guess when the snow on Timpanogos will be completely melted. We make our guesses around Memorial Day and then keep a close eye on it all summer. Sometimes the snow melts early in August (possibly even July some years) and sometimes it never melts at all before the next snow falls! As the summer goes on, it gets harder and harder to see the tiny little spots, and sometimes there is a bit of disagreement over whether something is a patch of snow…or just a shiny rock. This picture was to prove that the snow was not quite gone yet!

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For Activity Days, Teddy got to visit a nearby construction site where a new church is being built. All the boys got to drive the backhoe and front-end loader and even make them scoop up some dirt! Can you imagine a better little-boy activity?

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Some pretty skies

Junie and Daisy and Amelia collapsing with laughter (their default state, honestly) over something or other.

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It's hard to believe this was Goldie's first year at girls' camp! She seems so much the same age as Daisy and Junie. She was so glad not to have to stay home without them like she did last year!

Sam went to camp too! We thought it would just be for a couple of the days, but no other dads volunteered, so he ended up staying the whole time. He and the bishop stayed in a tent outside and all the girls got to stay in this great house. They had horseback riding and even their own swimming pool! It was fun that Sam got to be there with all three of our girls.

The leaders said the girls could choose if they wanted to do the hike or not, and Daisy was the only girl that chose to go. Ha! She was happy enough, since she usually finds herself talking to mostly the leaders anyway.

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Sadly, we aren't going to be able to do the children's choir this year, but Daisy and Junie and Teddy and Ziggy got to go to the summer choir camp anyway. (Goldie was at Oakcrest camp, the camp our stake does for 7th graders.) It was Ziggy's first time doing anything like that, and he loved it! He had told me he was absolutely NOT going to like the singing, and we'd soothed him with promises of pizza and games and swimming, but when he got home what do you suppose he said he'd liked best? The singing!

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Clementine holding up the tag that came on her dress, which shows a little girl wearing the dress. "MATCH!"

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While all the other children were gone at camps, we had a funeral to go to and no one to tend the little ones! It's a rare day that happens anymore. We ended up just taking Gus and Clementine to the funeral with us, and they were so good!

Clementine drew gnomes. This one gets more disturbing the more you look at it.

And then we went to Costco.

We also went out to eat one of the nights, since we only had three kids at home! Practically empty nesters!

Reacting nervously to the onion-volcano

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Here's Goldie at Oakcrest

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If you meet or talk to Clementine these days, there is a 98% chance she will tell you, a.) that she used to be three but now she's four, and b.) that she knows how to "pump" on the swings. She is SO proud of herself, and rightly so—pumping is a great skill! Now she tells me, whenever she's running to a swingset, "Don't push me! I can pump myself!"

These two are so cute together. Here they are off on an adventure, with backpacks!

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I was helping in primary one day and couldn't resist taking a picture of Zig's enthusiasm after being picked to pull the string "noodles" through the picture's mouth. The primary children LOVE this activity. Their song leader has so many fun ideas.

I love Gus's picture of Jesus by the temple

Ward potluck at the hill—Ziggy and his friend Henry

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Not sure why I took this picture, but these were some super good hamburgers.

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Sushi with Junie for her book lunch

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Rice crispie volcano models for our Volcanoes unit study

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Puzzle for Family Home Evening

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Three-eared bunny?

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Watching a whole line of utility trucks

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The last few missionaries from this big group of Seb's peers have been coming home this summer! It was fun to see all these cross-country friends back together again at their homecoming sacrament meetings.