June iMoments

We all knew how excited Joey would be to get home to Maese after two long weeks. Well, maybe everyone except for Maese! 

As soon as we got home from our epic road trip, Danny switched Joey into a forward facing carseat. We figured he'd done his time in his infant car seat. :)

Joey was so glad to be home again, and to spend his morning cuddling with Mama...

...and taking selfies with Dad.

Claire has the family home evening lesson. Claire chose her own topic, and I didn't give any of it much thought. As I was going about my business, I happened upon Claire at the kitchen table with her scriptures and a notepad. My emotions caught in my throat as I saw her there. Parent payday, for sure.

Every kid falls asleep in the bouncer!

Sophie is such a big help to me. My "other-mother", she is always happy to do whatever it takes to take care of our baby.

When the bishopric is in charge of the food for a ward party, that means the bishop's wife and their four kids do the shopping. ;)

I'm sure we've gotten mail for the Damianos before, but we never paid it any attention. We sure got a crack out of finding this in the mail, though! They'd been out of this house for 14 years! I was sure to send a picture to Tiffany. :)

Well, Joey is a full-time walker now! I had to take a picture of him in the Superman jammies. I bought these pajamas for Luke, and they were one of my favorites. I was hesitant to put Joey in them, but one day it just felt right for Luke to hand them down. It was a strange set of conflicting emotions for me to see our sweet Joseph WALKING around in these jammies...reminding us so much of Luke with his bright spirit and his smile. But Luke never took a set while wearing these jammies. Joey is doing so much of what Luke was never able to. But whenever I start to feel sadness at that, I feel Luke close and I can feel that he is so proud of his baby brother and so happy for all that he will experience in mortality. 

Danny's cousin Britny was married and had an adult-only reception at Thanksgiving Point. Danny was one of the few cousins that were invited, and we were so happy to attend! The food was incredible, the weather was beautiful, and the company was fantastic. And no kids? So awesome.

We love spending out summer days at the pool with friends. We are so spoiled to have our own private pool!

Joey has decided he's definitely a fan of summertime treats. :)

We're all so glad when Daddy gets home!

Joey took his first spill off of Grandma Candy's curb and ended up with his first boo-boo. I asked him to show me his boo-boo and this is what I got! He's such a ham! And perfectly fine, by the way... :)

Joey has the most fabulous hair. But it was getting pretty long, so it was time to get another hair cut. I was trimming the sides when I stopped and just started laughing. He looks like one of the Three Stooges! This boy is too much cuteness!

#jealous

Johnny was so excited to teach Danny this new robot war game he got on his Kindle. I love watching these two foster their relationship as "guys".

The kids found the funnest game for Joey! And all it took was a fitted sheet, some vents, and the A/C on. :)

The garden is starting to produce, and Grandma Call asked us to pick some raspberries. Joey was so excited...he just loves the garden! And I love my little boys in hats!

His wide-saddle walk just kills me...

The best raspberries on earth are the sun-warmed ones you pick yourself. So good! Joey was eating them as fast as I could pick them.

We have an awesome neighbor who is quite an accomplished organic gardener. He is always bringing me surprises....but my favorite was when he showed up at my door with this gorgeous braid of garden-fresh garlic with a sprig of purple sage on it. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever decorated my kitchen with!

Father's Day(s) 2017

Father's Day weekend was at the end of the most intense week that Danny and I can remember having. So Danny decided early in the week that he was postponing his Father's Day until the following weekend. But we still wanted to celebrate Papa, and we couldn't let the occasion pass without a yummy dinner for Daddy. So the kids worked on Danny's favorite stuffed shells while I worked on our cake for this year's Call Family Father's Day dessert. I know how much Papa loves cherries, so I gave a black forest cake a try. It kind of turned out amazingly gorgeous, and it was super delicious as well. Another winner! We got Papa a full-face snorkel mask that he can use when swimming laps, and that was a hit as well. It was a great first half of our Father's Day celebrations.

For Danny's Father's Day dinner, he requested chipotle corn burgers...and I was happy to oblige! We haven't done these burgers in years, and we had forgotten how amazing they are. After dinner we had Danny open his presents. This year he got some long-overdue thermal gloves for when he's smoking meat and some special compression mud socks for his upcoming Tough Mudder race. He was a happy camper! But I think the biggest success of the day might have been our homemade Nutella cookies and cream ice cream. Holy ice cream buckets, Batman! Best ice cream we've ever had...it was that good! The perfect dessert to compliment the perfect father. :)

I could dote on Danny and sing his praises from the moutaintops all day long. He's the most amazing man in every way, but especially as a father. He absolutely adores his children, and can't wait to be with them after a long day at work or church or school. He loves taking them on grand adventures and making memories with them. But he most especially loves to teach them the gospel, and share his love and loyalty to his Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. Danny is the best Dad ever, and we are so grateful that he's ours! We love you, Daddy!

Happy Father's Day!

Waterfall Canyon Hike

After our beautiful hikes/walks in Georgia, we were antsy to get back on the trail. We decided our next hike to conquer should be Waterfall Canyon in Odgen. We hit the trail as early as we could manage for a Saturday morning, and managed to make it before it got too hot. 

We knew it was going to be a good hike when we ran into a Weber State University group that was having a "trail day" or something. They handed our activity books, pamphlets, and even butterfly nets to the kids. The nets were obviously a big hit! 

The first part of the trail was wooded and beautiful. We all appreciated the shade, and the kids enjoyed looking for certain plants from their pamphlets and trying to catch butterflies. Claire as a huge fan of the information stations, since she had learned a lot about Utah wildlife and wilderness during school last year.

The trail then opened up for a while as we hiked higher up the mountain. It really was quite beautiful! The last quarter of a mile to the waterfall got really difficult, however. It was really, really rocky and the rocks were the loose kind. But the kids persevered and the waterfall at the top was definitely worth the effort!! The falls are about 200 feet, and even better than the falls at Adams Canyon. And if the view of the falls wasn't beautiful enough, the view of the valley below was gorgeous.  Unfortunately, just about every in Utah had the same idea we did and the base of the waterfall was almost too crowded to sit! But we managed to find ourselves a nice little spot to enjoy our lunch, and we got to find out that Joey really likes mustard! :) It was definitely worth the work to get up there...but now we had to get back down...

The way down always takes longer than the way up. And boy did our ankles and feet hurt after traversing those loose rocks and trying to keep our balance! When we finally got off the rocks, and as we were walking by the water, Sophie spotted a snake on the creek bed! He was a decent size, and we're pretty sure he wasn't poisonous. ;) Can you spot him? 

And once again, Joey was an absolute champ. He loves his hiking back pack, which is good. We intend to do a lot of hiking!

We were hot, tired, and a little sore once we made it back to the car...but we had a blast. This hike ended up being 3.9 miles, with over 1000 vertical feet. And we managed it in 3 hours and 38 minutes. The whole family loved this trail, and I was again feeling blessed that we live in such a beautiful area. Can't wait to get out on the trail again!

Poolside FHE

We're still going strong on our Family Home Evening goal! But we had a change of venue when Papa said the pool was ready. Our family night activity was our inaugural swim at the pool. We even cooked out with Grandma and Papa. We loved our summers at the school...

Sophie had the lesson this week, and she worked all day on Sunday and a good portion of the day on Monday. This was a lesson all her own, and it turned out awesome. It was about choices and consequences, and she taught us the principles before moving on to her object lesson/activity. She did a fantastic job!

We have seen some wonderful blessings come to our family because of family home evening. Danny and I love the opportunity we have to bear our testimony to our children. We've had some wonderful gospel discussions. But I think our favorite part has been watching Claire, Sophie, and Johnny prepare and teach lessons. They take their responsibility seriously, and they teach with confidence and always finish with their testimony. I think we're doing something good here. :)

Ward Book of Mormon Party

Towards the end of last year, Danny starting thinking about something he could do to help strengthen the ward. He felt strongly that the families in our ward needed to read the Book of Mormon more deliberately, so he challenged everyone to read the entire Book of Mormon by June 17th. That would be finishing in just over 6 months, and would mean averaging between 3-4 pages a day. Danny and I thought it would be fun for the ward to celebrate the accomplishment with a big ward party. So Danny issued the challenge and called a party planning committee. He and his counselors also structured the sacrament meeting topics to coincide with the portion of the Book of Mormon that we would have been reading that week. 

It was an incredible experience! It was a push for our family to read the entire book in 6 months. Last year, we took about 10.5 months to read it...but we were up for the challenge! It was so amazing to hear about the positive impact this challenge was having in the lives of our ward members. Every fast and testimony meeting, at least half of the testimonies focused on the challenge. In almost every Relief Society lesson, it was mentioned by someone. Danny felt like our ward needed some miracles, and it seemed like there were families that were getting those.

Danny attended most, if not all, of the party planning meetings...and he was pretty excited with how things were coming together! He and I thought it would be cool to do the party somewhere other than the park or the church building, so they reserved Camp Woodland for the day. The committee took to the task with gusto, and before long they had a whole afternoon and evening of awesomeness planned for the ward.

Finally, the day arrived! Our family finished right before we left for the party. Our week leading up to the party had been insane. We had just gotten home from vacation the week before and launched right into Ward Conference, stake visits, a whole lot of appointments for Danny that had waited while we were gone, wedding receptions...oh, and Danny had final projects and assignments due for school. Did I mention we were prepping and smoking the pork for the party? And then, right when we thought it couldn't get crazier Danny's cousin passed away and his wife asked if Danny would conduct the funeral. This was a touchy situation, as his cousin unfortunately committed suicide. Danny spent hours working on his talk and meeting with his uncle, aunt, and widowed cousin. And the funeral was set for Saturday morning...just hours before the party. 

But, he's amazing...and we managed to get everything done! The funeral was a difficult experience for us all. It's the first funeral we've attended since Luke's, and it was hard on Johnny. Plus, it was just a tragic situation. But Danny did a wonderful job conducting the services, and his talk was incredible. He really did a wonderful job of providing comfort, but also teaching the Plan of Salvation and how that works in the life of someone like his cousin. It was quite an emotionally draining experience though.

I left after the funeral while Danny continued on to the interment. The kids and I stopped at Sam's Club on the way home for one more load of food for the party, and then made sure we were changed and ready to leave as soon as Danny walked in. Well, as soon as we finished Moroni 10, that is. :) But we did it, and we only ended up missing the first hour or so of the party. All is well that ends well!

The committee did an amazing job with the games and activities. I wished I had thought to take pictures when we first got there! There were bouncy houses and carnival games, face painting and photo booths, and a Book of Mormon scavenger hunt that ended with a prize at "the tree". Danny's "Lukey Bracelet" had served as inspiration, and now we have another one to wear that reads "There is power in the book. Turnberry Ward 2017". Danny loved the idea when the committee put it forward, but with one stipulation. It couldn't be red. ;)

We had about as good of a turnout as Danny though we could hope for, though we did wish more had come. We had enough food for an army! And we got raving reviews on the pork. Sebron Farmer had come to help us prep the 100 pounds of meet on Friday, and then he and Mike Kammeyer each took some to smoke on their smokers. Couldn't have done it without them.

While dinner was awesome, I think the highlight of the evening for everyone had to be dessert. Brother and Sister Lee own a novelty catering business, and so they brought their soft serve ice cream machine and their cotton candy machine. We had vanilla and pineapple ice cream, and four different flavors of cotton candy. And Brother Lee made some ginormous cotton candy for the kids!

We ended the meeting with a small devotional at the amphitheater. Danny shared a few remarks and then bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He then opened the mic up to anyone who would like to share their testimony and experience with the Book of Mormon. I was so nervous! I worried no one would share! But I worried in vain, because there were a steady stream of ward members bearing their testimony of this great book, and their gratitude for the Bishop's challenge. Even Johnny felt the Spirit, and was the first kid to bear his testimony. He made his parents proud. :) I felt moved to express my gratitude to our ward family for trusting Danny and following his counsel, as well as how the Book of Mormon has changed our family. It was a great meeting and a perfect way to end our celebration.

But just because the party was over and the challenge complete doesn't mean Danny didn't issue a new one!! We have six more months to finish again before the end of the year! Danny was kind enough to post a new schedule on the ward bulletin. :)