Summer in a Nutshell

Literally, our whole summer could fit in a nutshell. Thanks to year-round schooling, the kids go back to school in a week . Since none of us are ready for summer to be over, we are ditching the first week of school and going to Lake Powell instead. We are hoping someday they will all get water-skiing scholarships to BYU - so that's where we are putting our academic focus. The summer has been pretty great. We got off to a sketchy start with the Swine flu and missed a big chunk of June in quarentine, but we have since been trying to make up for lost time. Some highlights:

• Boating. We bought a boat w/ the Hales and this is what it looks like when we take the boat out together. With both of our families combined we pack 8 kids in that boat. When we drive by people on the lake they probably think we're polygamists (I think we should name the boat "Yearning For Zion"). The kids seem to be embracing their mandatory love of boating and all do really well in the boat together. Some of them are getting pretty wild on the tube and proving to be unshakable. I just had to include this photo of Em and Kaden because their new and improved way of wearing their swim goggles with the bands over the top of their heads sent me and Gretch into a fit of giggles. I guess that's how they keep the goggles from bouncing off on the tube. Looking good.
• 4th of July. The 4th of July did not disapoint this year. Every year the kids wait in agonizing anticipation to ride in Grampa Mills' magnificently decorated trailer in the annual Brighton 4th of July parade. Their parade duties include dancing to the musical stylings of Neil Diamond and tossing handfulls of candy to delighted onlookers. This year the Mills kids figured out it would be a good idea to only throw out the candy they didn't really like and keep the good stuff for their own personal use. These kids are candy geniuses. They are all genetically predisposed to love and hoard candy. Later that night we enjoyed Riverton carnival and fireworks extravaganza - also beloved by the kids. Em, Kaden & Lissa all got their moxy up and rode "The Ring of Fire" - the scariest ride of the carnival- with their aunt Melissa. They claim it was extra thrilling because the restraints didn't seem that helpful in keeping them in tight - they felt like they were holding on for dear life! Let's hope it only felt that way.
• The RV. We just got back late last night from a road trip to Oregon and Washington. We rented an RV for the trip and I must say, I think RV living is our destiny. Brandon is our vehicle connosiur and I guarantee this rig was his wildest dream come true. I love that we enjoyed all of the benefits of camping with none of the drawbacks. We were able to hike, explore, roast marshmallows around the campfire, and then retire to our delightful bed, with a real mattress and no rocks in it and no fear of bears unzipping your tent zipper and dragging you into the woods. Also, the RV had a toilet. So, no fear of getting up in the middle of the night to use the camp bathroom and getting dragged into the woods by a bear (I have bear issues). As an added bonus, the toilet meant I could finally drink all of the Diet Coke I wanted while traveling. Amazing. We hit Oregon first. We stopped in Vancouver and were able to spend an hour visiting with Emily Sue. It was so good to see her and we had a great time catching up. It was too short a visit for us, so next time we rent an RV we are going to drive up and park it on her front lawn for a 3 week visit. From Vancouver we went to Cannon Beach. That was it for us - we fell in love with the Oregon coast right then and there. Now that we have so much family around those parts it is temping to move up there and be lumberjacks. After dragging the kids off the beach we headed up to Washington to meet the Bakers at Mr. Rainier. We had a wonderful time hiking around such a beautiful and technicolor green mountain w/ my parents and Troy's and Tyson's families. This is an amazing planet and I absolutely love it when I get to see a new part of it. So now, I must sign off because everything we own smells like campfire and must be laundered and I think that's going to take a few weeks so I better get crackin.