SUMMER......PART 2

Okay so here we go again...trying to catch up the blog with the actual life we live! A few days after Megan and I returned from VA it was time to go again....this time on our annual camping trip to Moon Lake. Moon Lake is a beautiful place in the Uintah Mountains, a beautiful blue lake surrounded by trees, mountains and along one side...a sandy beach and maybe 20 something cabins. These cabins are nothing fancy.....they were built in the 1930's I think, and the bathrooms fit a toilet, small sink, and very small shower. The walls and the floors are slanted and there is usually a bed in the dining area. There is usually no counter space in the kitchen and the ovens are to small to actually cook anything in them, but we love going up there every year with a couple of families from our ward....no phones (or cell service), no traffic (unless you count the deer, and sometimes cows that wander through the camp sites) We have been horseback riding, hiking, swimming, rented paddle boats and even a motor boat. Some people fish, or just sit on the beach and visit and it is just very relaxing! It is "Tradition" for us now! Nicole and I drove Big Red up there a day earlier than the rest of the family, and it was great to spend some one on one with her. I even let her drive the truck from Duchane to Moon Lake! The next evening Shane, Megan, and Abbie arrived in time for dinner, and the next few days were spent relaxing, enjoying friends and family, card games, smores at the fire every night, and watching the wildlife!

Utah Michigan Football Game

Robyne & I had the opportunity to go with the football team to their game at Michigan. We were able to travel with the team on their airplane, stay at the same hotel, and travel in their escort to and from the stadium.

We had a great dinner on Friday night with some other guests and University of Utah PR staff. Robyne was able to meet one of her favorite former basketball players (Jimmy Soto) and his wife.

The best part was being at Michigan's stadium ("The Big House") and watching the game which the Utes won 25-23. There were around 109,000 people at the game and we were packed in their like Sardines. Poor Robyne had to find a less confining seat for the last half of the game and ended up on a seat next to an usher. She probably had the most comfortable seat in the house.

The funniest part of the trip was getting on our Jet Blue plane whose name was "100% Blue." The Utes (Red & White) getting on a plane saying that to go play a team called "Big Blue" and BYU being Blue & White. Okay, I thought it was funny!

It was all worth it.....GO UTES!

Crazy July!

Happy 4th of July!

I was a little worried about July going into it, but living it was something else...in a good way! The girls started out with celebrating the 4th in Provo at Stadium of fire...they had a great time.A little guy in our ward, who had just been baptized called and invited Shane and I to come and do fireworks in their driveway with his family, we had a great time! Thanks Nicholas!!

The next Monday was Girl's Camp. We went to Heber Valley Girls Camp for the first time and it was awesome. There was a challenge course with a swing on it..It was a blast, that is me on the swing! On Bishopric Night, Shane and Nicole joined us for dinner, and testimony meeting!

We had never been to a Girls Camp with cabins before, so that was really nice, and the Stake did all the meals, it was great! As a camp director I didn't have to worry about all the equipment and all of the meals, so camp was alot easier for me this year. There is a lake up there and we were able to go canoeing, our stake property does not have a body of water, or a river so we had a great time at the lake. The challenge course was the best though, the girls learned so much as they learned to work as a team...I loved it!

We returned home from Camp on Friday and the following day Megan and I left for Virginia. She was going to EFY there and I was going to visit a few people from my mission, my only regret is that I didn't take many pictures... I was to busy visiting! On our drive down to Buena Vista I took Megan to Monticello, (the home of Thomas Jefferson) it was really interesting. Megan had a great time at EFY, she was in Buena Vista at SVU. SVU is a private college which is owned by members of the church. It has the same standards as BYU and all the professors are LDS. It is the members in the east coasts answer to BYU, although it is not owned by the church.

Megs at Monticello

Spud & Janice Butterworth

I drove to Roanoke and visited with some of the greatest people I have ever known! The Butterworths! Sitting in their home visiting, the years just melted away and I felt like it had been no time at all since I had seen them instead of the 25 years that it actually was! They took me to dinner and I just didn't want to leave them, but I had to drive on to West Virginia!

My missionary trainer and one of my bestest friends, Janice Louise Kay Wilkinson Rymer, lives in West Virginia now. Janice and her great family welcomed me into their home for the rest of my stay and it was great! Janice has three great teenage boys, and two adorable little girls, and I had alot of fun with these kids! It was great of Janice and Greg to let me stay there and hang out with all of them! I didn't get to see much of Greg as he was off to Scout Camp, however the boys had to come home to go to Youth Conference, so I saw a little of them and they were so fun!

The Rymer Boys! Anna

Elizabeth At the Washington DC Temple

After picking Megan up to head back to the Airport in DC, we swung by the DC Temple for a stop in the Visitors Center and to take a few pics! It was a great trip and we both had a blast! Wow! I will have to blog the rest of July later...sorry this is so long!

Flordia trip

I decided to try and figure out this whole blogging thing before I get my own when i head off to Provo in a few months. So, I'm going to tell you all about the fun vacation I got to go on with my dad last week. My dad has buisness meetings in Ft. Lauderdale Flordia and invited me to come with him as sort of a post graduation/need relaxation vacaction and it was so much fun. We flew out on Sunday and arrived in Orlando late that night. Monday and Tuesday we spent the days traveling Everest in the Animal Kingdom, watching fireworks and going on our favorite classic rides in the Magic Kingdom and riding on our favorite haunted elevator at Disney Studios. It was such a blast and so much fun to go to Disney World again. Its one of my favorite places and i always feel like such a kid when I'm there. We had a blast! Tuesday night we made the three hour drive from Orlando to Ft. Lauderdale. Although the drive was long it was very eventful. After a long stretch of nothing but Flordia swamps we finally saw an exit and decided to stop to use the bathroom and get some food. The small town we stopped at turned out to be Yeehaw... the name says it all. It was the most disgusting place I have ever been but a rest stop I will never forget, even if I try. We were pleased to find that the hotel where my dads conference was is quiet the opposite of Yeehaw when we arrived though. Its called the Westin Diplomat and it was extremely fancy. It was right on the beach with private access to the beach from the two huge pools. Our room was on the thirty fifth floor, the very top, and looked right out onto the ocean, it was so beautiful. Wedensday, Thursday and Friday my dad had meetings all day and I spent my time laying by the beach, getting a pedicure, shopping, napping, taking bubble baths and just relaxing. I loved it! When my dad wasn't in meetings we had fun going out to eat, doing some shopping, drive by the coast, watching movies and just spending time together. Saturday we packed up our bags and came home. It was so nice to spend this time with just my dad. I'm so glad that I have such an awesome dad who would let me come! Thanks dad, I love you!

I'm Back

Today was great.....I got my stitches out and now I am able to type again. I have decided to go private due to some jerk out there who thinks that they can leave disgusting comments on my blog, so to any of you who know and love us send me your e-mail address and I will invite you to view and comment on our blog. I hated to do this, cuz it is an extra step for you, but it is a cruel world with some disgusting people out there. Nothing this person could say could hurt me, but I won't have my daughters subjected to this kind of garbage! So "I'mbetterlookingthan you" eat your heart out. Just so you know......a beautiful person is beautiful inside and out and you need to examine your heart and mind!

Shane's Update While Robyne is Recooperating!

Nicole Prior to Graduation
Nicole with Diploma...she did it!
Girl's after Graduation!
Megan at singing at Spring Concert.
Abbie's last soccer game

This is really Shane and he has never created a blog post in his entire life! Sorry the pictures are first, I will attempt to figure that out next time I post. Robyne had surgery last Friday and isn't supposed to use her arm (it's in a cast). Of course, we shouldn't be to surprised that Robyne is pushing the limit on "acceptable activities". Good thing she still has some pain meds! She be out of her splint next week and will also have the stiches removed. She is really doing pretty good.

Now on to our update...hope you don't fall asleep with boredom:

ROBYNE & SHANE: Celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on May 27th..can't believe she's put up with me that long. We went to dinner at Ruth's Chris that night and then took a drive and ended up driving through the Salt Lake City Cemetery. It was right after Memorial Day so it was beautiful. Okay, it wasn't exactly the most romantic night but I did take her with me to Florida the month before!

NICOLE: She graduated from high school last week...seems like yesterday that she was heading off for her first day of Kindergarten. She's been busy very busy this year, especially this past month. Between being an SBO, in the schools Vocal Ensemble, and finishing the Historian's scrap book she hasn't had a lot of spare time. Robyne & I were chaperone's at her Grad Night Party which was an exciting way to spend the hours of 11:00 pm until 6:00 am! Nothing like staying up all night with 250 of your favorite 18 year olds. We survived and even managed to have a little fun. We attended a lot of concerts and other activities for her during the past month...we sure are proud of her! To show you how I would do anything for her I even stayed up with her until 2:00 am last Friday morning to help her register for BYU (oh the pain). I never though the day would come when I would be sending money, let alone my daughter, to BYU but that happened on Saturday also. Oh, the things we do for our kids...jk.

MEGAN: Finished her Sophomore year and was selected to be in Hillcrest's "Chorale" singing group during her Junior year. She is pretty psyched about that! I think she's been the most upset about Nicole graduating than any of us...she's loved having Nicole around this year. However, she is going to have a fun time next year being the only London girl at Hillcrest. She has a busy summer with girls camp, trek, and efy. She is going to Virgina (Southern Virgina University) for efy in July. Robyne is taking her out and will go and visit an old friend/missionary companion while Megan's at efy. Her number one assignment from her Dad this summer is to get her "Learner's Permit" so we don't have to drive her to all of her activities.

ABBIE: Finished eighth grade this year and is looking forward to summer. She's off to efy next week at Utah State with several of her friends. It should be a pretty wild time for them all. She scored the wining goal in her last soccer game on her Sandy Recreation team. This was her last year that she can play in Rec Soccer...she's now to old! What a way to finish. She has been so understanding this past month with all of the events Nicole & Megan have been involved with. We sure are glad we have her...she makes life so fun!

We've got a full summer of activities between girls camp, trek, business trips, and a family vacation. We are heading to New York in August for a last hurrah prior to the kids getting back to school. We've always wanted to go to New York and do everything that is there...should be interesting!

Good news is that Robyne should be back soon with an update. Who knows, maybe I'll even chime in from time to time.

The Rest of the Story...

Some great friends moved from our neighborhood to Seattle, WA. We missed their great sense of humor,funny stories,and even the Mr.'s teasing. So Sid, Sue and I decided to go visit them, and we probably had way toooo much fun! Here is a briefing on my latest west coast adventure!
We flew out on May 1st and were greeted by the smiling face of our own "Wandering Nana", of course it was great to see her again! She had picked a few places to take us so we headed out, but not until we stopped for lunch at a great little place, (where I tried to steal a cane for our hostess.) We headed out to the Seattle Temple,and it was beautiful! We also went to Picnic Point, and Edmonds Beach. We were able to collect sea shells and pretty rocks, now if I were only creative enough to figure out a way to display them! We went to dinner at a great little restaurant at the beach where the Clam Chowder was to die for! The Mr. was with us, a very patient man with 4 chattering women, so when the server asked where we were from he said "Texas". I was just dying!
The next day after Mr. went to work, we set off for a full day of fun and adventure! We went to a beautiful valley where they grow tulips and daffodils, at first we thought that we had missed the blooms...but we came across a beautiful place with multiple colors in full bloom, it was so pretty! We continued driving to a place called Deception Pass...WOW you can see from the pics in the slide show that the bridge is amazing, we stood on the walkway taking pictures of the ocean on one side and the fresh waters on the other side then we hiked down a trail to a beach below, it was a beautiful place. We then drove on and took the Mukilteo-Whidbey Ferry, and went on home! Our great Hostess made us this wonderful Shrimp Dinner, with rice and green salad, it was awesome. After eating we all loaded in the car and went to see Seattle by Night, by the time it got dark it was late and we were getting pretty goofy. Mr was driving us around and when he saw something he thought we would want to take a picture of he would stop...sometimes in the street. We couldn't take pics that fast, so he was kinda frusterated with us. He took the Pikes market at night picture. When we got near the Space Needle, we couldn't get a pic from the angle we were at in the back and one of the camera's was on the blink, so he pulled over and took his camera and stood in the middle of the street to get a picture...there were cars coming and the Mrs. was calling to him to get back in the car, meanwhile we were trying to get a picture of him standing in the middle of the street, and we were laughing so hard that I almost couldn't breathe, finally he gets back in the car and we look at the picture...we couldn't even see it and we started laughing again when Sid said, "Well,was that worth risking your life over?" Poor Mr. had to put up with our crazy laughting fits.
The next day it actually rained, but it wasn't to bad! We went to the Locks, it is like a little Panama Canal, it was really neat to watch the boats enter and the water level drop way down, the gate opens on the other side and out they go! We had lunch at Pikes Market, then went and rode The Duck. The Duck is an amphibious vehicle that drives on land and is a boat in the water. We had a great tour and saw all the famous sites of Seattle, it was alot of fun. While we were waiting to load the Duck we saw some interesting activity going on in the parking lot next to us...there was a truck parked with a camper on it, people were standing outside and they were wearing animal tails, noses, and some had full animal costumes on. They would use the camper to go in and change clothes, we thought it might be some activists or something, so I asked a guy? okay he was 1/2 guy and 1/2 squirrel, and he handed me a flyer!!! No they weren't dressed up like this for some worthy cause, like PETA or Save the Squirrels.....they were a social group. Yes people who have normal lives in the daytime, and evenings and weekends they dress up in animal costumes and go out in public places, this is how they get to meet new people...I guess with the same interests????? as they have. Anyway it was sooo strange, I think they called themselves the Seattle Furrys...it was nutty.
All to soon it was time to head to the airport,it was sad to say goodbye to Mr & Mrs, although Mr was probably relieved to get back to living with just 1 woman. They were the BEST Host and Hostess! This trip was rejuvinating for me, we kept busy, and laughed so much...I really needed that! Thank You Mr & Mrs, I sure do miss you guys!
Remember...don't feed the "animals."