All the camps

Someday June will not be full of camps for us. This year was not that year. And knowing Malachi would be leaving for his mission this summer (but not when) made everything feel a little more frantic. It was our stake's year for FSY, and Ky decided to go one more time, but he went the last week of May to make sure it wouldn't interfere with his mission. The girls (Daisy and Junie) wanted to go to FSY early in June also to avoid conflicting with YW camp, but that meant they had to go to Snow College instead of the much-more-convenient BYU. And Malachi had all kinds of last-camping-trips and last-time-with-this-friend events he wanted to do in addition to our own family trip we were hoping to fit in. Whew! It makes me tired just remembering it.

All the experiences ended up being fun and worthwhile, though, I think! It was fun for Daisy and Junie to be roommates for Junie's first FSY. And they liked getting to know the Snow College campus. They lived in these cute little house-like apartments.

Goldie came with us for the FSY drop-off to keep me awake on the drive home (and she had her work cut out for her there). We stopped to see the almost-complete Ephraim Temple. Looking good!

The next week was stake girls' camp. Daisy was a Youth Camp Leader and had lots of responsibilities.

She had fun with the other two YCL's from our ward.

I didn't get any of the other pictures from our ward campsite where Junie and Goldie were camping, but I am assured they were also present and had a good time (sometimes dressed as barnyard animals).

Sebastian wanted to do a last little trip with Malachi using the United flight benefits, so they flew down to visit my brother's family in California. They packed a lot into the three days and had fun with cousins! We were so grateful that Philip and Allison were willing to take them in even with their own busy schedule!

Meanwhile at home during all this back-and-forthing by the youth…the rest of us were not idle! We played a bit in this little wading pool (which has now grown a layer of green moss at the bottom and we're all a little scared of it…)

Clementine mastered the monkey bars (even in a dress!)

Gus lost both front teeth (and grew them back again!)

We replaced all the paper folders for the new hymns with plastic ones, but they are still pretty full and I'm nervous about getting all of the new batches of hymns into them (and this is a Sisyphean work. As of this writing, at the end of July, there's already another batch we haven't printed and put in😩)

Clementine is under the impression that the more layers one wears, the prettier one looks.

Clementine and Teddy had much-overdue well-child checkups

Ziggy continued his occasional "Indian-in-the-Cupboard" phase

We had our Longest Day party at the Hammock Park, in a break between camps.

Abe came too! (You would think, in this picture, that Abe is standing nicely next to Malachi while Malachi looks admiringly back up at his older brother. But this is actually taken during a brief pause in the unending effort of these two to get in each others' hammocks/dump each other out of each others' hammocks. It was a continual battlefield.)

An airplane? No, I think he was a butterfly

More attempted dumping

Another fun thing we got to do in between camps was to go to a performance of "The Pirates of Penzance" in Logan. The school kids all got discounted tickets, and we'd planned for Clementine and Gus to go play with my friend's kids in Preston, Idaho while we went to the performance, but at the last minute her family got the stomach flu! So my wonderful friend Nancy let the little ones come to her house instead. They had SO much fun and talked about it for days afterward. The best part for me was getting to visit with Nancy and her kids when we picked up Clementine and Gus! They are some of my favorite people, and the times we get to see them in person are far too infrequent!

We got to see the cute pony!

And Hans and Ziggy went off to the pond with nets just as little boys are supposed to do! I kept thinking how much Ziggy would thrive in a place like this. I wish we had a little more "wildness" around our house!

Let's just see what's going on with those girls:

I don't even know what set them off

At least Nancy's kids know how to stand beautifully for a picture! (And Teddy. Good old Teddy.)

That reminds me of this picture Junie drew for Sam for Father's Day. It's our family, of course. She's got everyone all figured out. Sam and I are looking at each other in helpless resignation. Abe is wearing his frozen "get-this-over-with" grin. Seb is looking up at an airplane. Daisy and Junie are giggling about something. Clementine is pulling insistently at Daisy's arm. Ziggy is whispering something silly to Gus. Teddy is trying to stop him, and Goldie is trying to stop Teddy from stopping him, and Malachi is glaring at Goldie to get her to stop trying to manage Teddy. Ah, the joys of family pictures!