It's been an amazing SUMMER!!! We have had SO much going on!
First, our great friends the Lee family came to visit (they were visiting family near by us and we got to hang out for a little bit). We were together in SC and now here we are a few more years (and kids) later. Lily and Andy still play just like no time has past :-)
We celebrated Maggie's 5th birthday!!! She had a PJ party this year, so we had a movie and A LOT of sugar :-) Maggie is excited to start Kindergarten and will be joining her sister in the Spanish-Immersion program.
A couple days after Maggie's birthday party, we headed out for our family vacation to Yellowstone National Park and Utah . . .
Here we are in Yellowstone. It was A LOT of driving and walking around . . . not to mention almost getting hit by lightening in the middle of the night during a terrible thunder and lightening rain storm (in our tent in the middle of a small meadow)!! But, we had many blessings and tender mercies that night. Both Esther and Isaac slept through the whole thing and Scott offered a prayer by the power of the Priesthood and no more than 5-10 minutes later after ending the prayer the storm went away. Such an amazing miracle for us and our children to experience!
Lily taking her Junior Ranger pledge right as Old Faithful blew!
We also got to meet some new friends from Canada :-)
We left Yellowstone in the pouring rain, but we got to see these beautiful Teton Mountains.
We made it to Dinosaur National Monument. And thank goodness we decided to stay in a Tee Pee because our tent had about a gallon of water in it because of the rainstorm in Yellowstone.
Lily was in Dinosaur Heaven!!
We took this picture because the last time we went to Dinosaur was when Lily was 4 months old (see picture for comparison) :-)
4 month old Lily
8 year old Lily
We made it to Jason and Laura's home!! Yay for showers!! Anyway, while we were doing our laundry . . . I went to move our clothes from the washer to the dryer and low and behold there was this LIVE scorpion hanging out on the top of our wet laundry!! Must have snuck into our laundry bag when we were in the Tee Pee. Crazy!! We can't believe it lived going through the washing machine.
Anyway, we got to hang out in the SLC and Provo areas and visited many family members and friends.
Seeing these two playing together was the BEST!
Uncle Greg and Brett made us dinner too!! Yummy food from Mozambique. :-)
We also went to a Folk Dance Recreation Night at BYU, it was SO much fun and the girls LOVED dancing too (Esther mostly loved eating the brownies, LOL).
SLC
Love my brother!! He works for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the audio engineering department (so he gets to travel A LOT with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). He gave us a little tour of the soundboard underneath the tabernacle in Temple Square. The girls love pushing some of the buttons Uncle Jason deemed okay for them to touch :-)
(Not Pictured) We also got to visit with my brother Sean and his family for a little bit too. It was SO good to be with family!!
We went to Seven Peaks water park too!
BYU Creamery!
Bean Museum! I also got to go ice skating with my friend Melissa, it was SO nice to skate at "my" rink. The Peaks Ice Arena will always feel like home to me :-)
SCHACHTERLE FAMILY REUNION!!!! Whoop, whoop!!
Setting up!
Talent show!
Bubbles!
Swimming!
Pioneer Trek, younger kid style!
Fishing!! Maggie was the only one to catch a fish! They caught crayfish too.
Enchanted Forest!!!
Swimming in our pool!
Beacon Rock hike!
Yay for Family Reunions!!
Once we got all unpacked and a little settled after all our trips, we headed to the fair:
Ventriloquist
Lily submitted a bag she sewed and won 2nd place and the Superintendent Award in her division! Yay Lily!
Cow Girl Tricks!
Clowns!
Back at home we have had A LOT coming from our garden. This salad is completely from our garden!! Yay for home grown!
Our garden produce!!
Isaac is getting big! He is now 5 months old and probably weighs almost 20 lbs . . . he's getting better at sitting up too! He's very excited to get real food next month, he drools so much when we are all eating our meals :-)
Well, if you made it this far, congratulations!! Thank you for sharing our summer with us. Maggie and Lily start school next week and so life keeps plugging along and we are so, SO grateful for our blessings!!
Until we meet again!
