We have exactly two weeks of summer left and I am so glad to have 2 weeks. Every time I have finished up one thing, I have felt like school would be starting, but nope we still have summer. I am loving it. We kicked off our summer in Swanlake. We spent almost 10 days there. It started off with a huge Merrill Family Reunion. All of Grandpa's brother's and sisters and their kids came. We played on the pond, ate food, and visited. It was so fun, but also kind of exhausting. We were glad to have the farm to ourselves once everyone left. We enjoyed the pond, four-wheeler rides, cousins, and Grandma and Grandpa. It was really fun.
After our visit to Idaho we came home to take on Summer School. I swore a couple of years ago I would never do it again, but it was the right thing to do this year, so we did it and the kids loved it. Kylee came home happy almost every day. There was no homework, so we just did reading and then played. Plus, it is summer so we stayed up a little later. My favorite part was them riding the bus with kid from our neighborhood. We don't get to do that since we don't go to our home school, but it was a great opportunity. I asked Kylee what the difference between school and summer school was and she said it is that the kids ask her to play with them. I think school is a little less intense too, but what she mentioned is friends. She has mentioned trying to be a little more outgoing this school year so we will see if she does.
During the last week of summer school I had girls camp. It was a day camp in Lyons. I just went one day, so we wouldn't have too many leaders involved. It was good to be with all my Young Women to see them interact and play. I learned a few things about myself and the girls. I was grateful Gaupo could stay home so that I could go.
On the last day of summer school, we took off for Idaho again. We went to the Brady family reunion. It was regular style this year so 2 days 1 night. My big job was the float. It was a big job, but I think people had fun helping and the teens had fun riding on it. I had fun riding on it and I learned what family means for me. My cousin Colten summed it up when he said, "I can be silly here, because these guys know and will love me anyway." Family is somewhere you don't have to pretend you can just be what you are. Sometimes you have it together and sometimes you don't and family loves you anyway. Reunion is always tiring, yet too short. However, it was very fun and I think everyone had a good time.
After reunion we went directly to Arizona. Gaupo drove my parents car to Colorado and my parents and I drove our van to AZ. We broke it into two days, but it was still a long drive. However, the kids were troopers and did really pretty well. My Arizona vacation was probably one of the most relaxing it has been in a couple of years. The twins loved kicking around the pool in their puddle jumpers, so I wasn't constantly hanging onto two babies. The girls had fun play sharks and minnows, doing handstands, jumping in and Kylee learned how to do underwater flips from Betty. We swam at least once a day for and hour and a half. We saw all of our Arizona cousins. We got some time with just Oma and Papa. The kids adjusted pretty well to the time diffidence. We just lived there and had a great time. They also had a pretty good monsoon season and so that was fun to see all the rain. One time, Uncle Seth helped us catch tadpoles in various stages and we watched them grow over the following week. We had Betty stay a week with us by herself. We watched TV and had some special treats. It was a great 3 weeks.
Now we are home. I just finished a 3 day 2 night youth conference. I almost cried when it was over just from relief it was over. It had a huge service project that I helped the youth put together. It involved boys and girls camping out, a trip to Waterworld and lots of Nine Square. It was fun, but it would have been way more fun to not be a leader, but I was and the youth were pretty good, so I call it a win. There was a huge rainstorm on one night and so almost everyone ended up in the house. We had a group of girls in a camper and another group of girls that wanted to sleep in their tent despite it being wet. They were so funny the next morning when they insisted it was great. I think they loved it but it must have been a cold night. It is kind of stressful being in charge, but it was good to watch the youth be together and get to know a lot of them.
This week we don't have anything and its been great to just be home, have some friends over, clean the house, and just be. Its been a summer worth living so glad I have had the chance. We have one more adventure left--family camping trip for 3 days 2 nights. We will see how it goes. I am excited but it could be a little crazy. Oh well, that seems to be the name of the game lately.
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