June Joy and Fun on the 4th of July

June started off with a visit from my friend from college, Bonnie Lucas and her family. They were in Utah (they live in Georgia now) for the wedding of their son on June 5th in the Salt Lake Temple. We were also privileged to attend the endowment session for the bride the week before at the Salt Lake Temple. It's always a treat to be in the temple that we were sealed in almost 34 years ago!! This is a picture of me, Bonnie, Lee Ann and Yvette - two of Bonnie's friends. June 5th was a fairly cool day but a beautiful one!

As most of you know, those Maricopa Bakers spent 2 wonderful weeks with us in June - check out Rebecca's blog for tons of pictures of all the fun we had. The boys enjoyed playing outside and playing ping pong inside (I'll have to check if we have pictures of that) - Declan would always say "Bam-it, Slam-it" before he served the ping pong ball. He was very good at serving, for not being much taller that the table itself. Christian is getting very good, too. It was fun to play with them. Here is a picture of Declan with the blocks - we can hardly wait for Emmalyn to get here so we can get her picture with the blocks, too! Grandpa reading the boys their Book of Mormon stories before bedtime. Christian is reading now, too. He actually read Declan several stories while they were here. Declan loved the book "The Diggingist Dog" and Christian read it to him several times. We enjoyed visits from the Trouts and Olsens over July 4th. The Trouts took all the pictures on the 4th, so we need to get copies of all the fun!! We had a relaxing day and a BBQ and even made homemade ice cream. After dinner, we sat out on the lawn and watched the neighborhood fireworks for entertainment. Lauren and her roommate, Shalyn (pronounced Shay Lynn, not to be confused with Shaylin) came too. They are attending summer term at BYU. It was fun to meet Shalyn and we hope we get to see her and Lauren more times this summer! On Saturday, Curt and I helped out with the baptisms for our Stake. The Olsens and the Trouts hiked up to Stewart Falls, up near Sundance. We met them for dinner at Bajio's and then they came over and we all hung out at the park and visited.


Kaleen and Meghan playing at the park. . .


Texting while Tetter-tottering, Linda is always on the go. . .
Meghan and Kaleen and Sheldon and a few others tried out the swing over the creek - shhhh! Christian and Declan don't know about the swing yet. . .
The Trouts went to church with us on Sunday, then headed back to Henderson. The Olsens and Lauren and Shalyn came over to dinner, we had a fun BBQ together, then play a fast game of Cranium (good thing they know how to play, we've never quite got the rules straight!) Rachel is at EFY now in Logan and Dana is staying in Utah for the week. It's fun to see them!Olsen Family picture (missing Daniel!) Sheldon, Elaine, Terrell, Rachel, Dana and Roy. Terrell came down from Logan on his motorcycle - wow!
Can't wait to see all who are coming to Duck Creek - we love being with you!