Adventures out of the nest

The older kids don't get much press around here these days, but they do in fact continue to do good and interesting things! :) Sebastian has been doing a lot of stuff with his little siblings, trying to pack it in before we go off to Quebec for Sam's sabbatical leave in a few weeks. He was headed off to the Hill Air Force Museum a few weeks ago with the three little boys, and Clementine went racing SO excitedly down to her room saying "I'll get my shoes on!" Of course he couldn't leave her home after that! So she got to go too!

Seb said that Clementine sat exactly like this on every single bench at the museum.

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Seb really wanted to take Teddy on an airplane for the first time, so he planned a trip for them to L.A. on a cheap flight. They rode Trax to the airport and flew out late in the evening, then slept at LAX, walked to a nearby park Seb had heard had good planespotting, watched and took pictures of the airplanes all day, ate at In-n-Out, and flew back home!

Teddy loved it so much, and Seb loved enjoying it with him. Seb is training Teddy up to be quite an airplane-lover himself!

They saw A380s and 747s, both planes Teddy hasn't ever gotten to see around here!

Cute brothers!

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Daisy and Junie had girls camp the first week of summer break. Goldie and Clementine missed them so much! They were only gone four days (not even four whole days) but we were all very happy to have them home again!

They had a week at home, and then Junie went off to Oakcrest and Daisy went off to FSY, leaving Goldie home without them again! Poor Goldie! Daisy was roommates with Daniela at FSY. It was Daniela's first time ever being away from her parents, so she (and her mom!) were a bit nervous, but I think she ended up having a great time. We drove down together to drop off the girls at BYU, and it was good because Carmen took a million pictures and thus I have some pictures too. :)

Abe met up with Daisy at BYU during the week, so I got a mid-week picture of them too!

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Malachi went camping with some friends from Debate and the pictures they sent me were…a little alarming. Looks like Lord of the Flies! But I am happy to report that they did not kill Piggy nor divide up into tribes and become savages. Malachi did come home with a small forehead wound from shooting a pellet gun (not being shot at with a pellet gun, luckily), so that was something, I guess.

He also went to Young Men's camp in Moab. I loved this picture of him sharing a spiritual thought with the other young men on a hike. (Much better than Lord of the Flies!)

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Abe has been teaching at the MTC and having a great time living in Provo. He's living with my mom for the summer and then moving into an apartment for Fall. My mom says he is gone—either at school, work, studying, or out with friends—99% of the time, which seems about right for a college student. At least he's keeping out of trouble!

…or is he? He and some friends (including Sebastian!) went skydiving together! Why anyone wants to go skydiving is beyond me, but they had a blast and immediately started trying to convince ME to go. Hah! I would never in a million years. I don't mind being in an airplane; it's coming out of it mid-air that's the sticking point for me. But Abe and Seb both claimed it wasn't scary at all. Abe said the scariest part was signing the liability waivers at the beginning. :)

Abe paid for the photo package so as to have ocular proof of the experience. Such cool pictures! Then he came over and showed all his pictures and videos to an astonished crowd of younger siblings. Abe reported to me afterwards that he had "all the kids convinced" that they wanted to go skydiving too, and he suggested we should do it for Family Home Evening sometime. "I'll think about it," I said.

Then we were at the library and Ziggy insisted we should get this book…

…and we saw a lot of games going on between Gus and Ziggy that looked like this.

Whee! Tandem jump!

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Seb's airport job means that he can fly free on United flights (on standby, and only when the flights aren't full of course) so he has taken several trips to take advantage of those benefits. He loves airports and will often fly somewhere just to see the planes and the airport. One weekend he went to Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Denver, and home, all in a couple days. He slept in the airports and had a grand time. 

Teddy likes to follow along with where Seb is on the "Flight Radar" app.

Another weekend, Seb decided on a whim to catch a flight from San Francisco to Honolulu.

He sent back the prettiest pictures! It is always hard for me to believe that Hawaii is just over there, existing, all the time!

Seb took an Uber to Diamond Head and hiked up, then went to the beach (he had to buy a swimming suit first, since he hadn't packed any extra clothes!), swam, and ate some fish tacos before heading back home on a late flight.

I love those green trees and blue ocean!

And then on yet another weekend…he caught a flight from San Francisco up to Anchorage! He said Alaska was even more amazing than Hawaii.

He loved the endless snowy mountains!

He was there at nearly the summer solstice, so it stayed light all night. He flew in around 11 pm, and here is the sky at almost midnight when he went down to the beach.

Seb said the sun went down below the horizon, then it looked like sunset for about three hours, and then the sun came back up!

This was at 1:00 am! It is so amazing to me. I would love to experience those bright nights and I'm so glad Seb got to!