This summer we had a lot of fun activities, camps, and trips planned. We had many playdates and the kids got to hang out with friends a lot. Once while playing and swimming at the Kasallis's house, the kids had fun playing with their new chickens. They didn't mind getting in the chicken coop and holding all the growing chickens. Apparently the chickens didn't mind it either.
We finally let our kids open the Escape Room game that the Kasallis's gave us as a Christmas present this past year. We spent a family night figuring out the clues and puzzles to unlock the "bomb" that had to be strapped to someone (Dad). The girls had fun working together and taking turns to release keys that have to be used to figure out the code that allows you to turn off the ticking alarm. The puzzles are different every time so the girls had fun trying it over and over and then teaching their friends so they could all have turns. I loved seeing them work together.
I considered this summer a success because Taryn learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. She spent many days going outside and practicing and having me help her start and stop until she figured it out on her own. We were able to take a video so she could show the Kasallis's. Grandma and Grandpa Black each had to go outside and Dad too when he got home from work to watch Taryn demonstrate her bike riding skills. She was so proud of herself. Now she loves to ride whenever she gets the chance. The first Friday in June is National Donut Day, so we made our annual stop at Krispy Kreme to get a free donut. The girls loved their summertime donut choices. They were yummy donuts and I love the traditions.
We had a summer pool party with Abby's club volleyball team at teammate Khy's house. We had a BBQ and the kids went swimming. My girls loved the diving board and took turns doing copycat jumps off the board. Or off the side as in Tessa's case. They kept trying to splash the adults who were sitting in the shade near the deep end.
All the siblings of the volleyball girls had fun playing and swimming together. They even had this cool tree swing that the kids took turns riding. They also had a garden inside a little covered area that was full of ladybugs because they had bought the ladybugs to help keep their garden plants free from other garden pests. The girls thought all the ladybugs were awesome.
Here's another picture of all the volleyball moms. We had fun visiting and hanging out. They are great ladies!
And once all the volleyball girls got in the water, we recreated a picture that we had taken last year with the volleyball team. We love how easily these girls got along and loved just hanging out together.
After the potluck BBQ, we had cake and desserts and the girls got to hang out and visit. Another day, we all met up at Tropical Smoothie Cafe for their free smoothie day. It was pretty much our team's hangout all season, so we had to meet up when they were giving out free smoothies.
We spent a week this summer dog sitting a friend's dog named Rami. The girls loved him. He was a good dog who loved the attention that all the girls gave him. We didn't allow him upstairs so the girls spent the week sleeping downstairs, which was fun for Rami because then he had someone to sleep with every night. Tyler was gone to scout camp all week, so it was just us girls and the dog. Here's Tessa taking a nap with Rami that I sent to his owner during the week so they knew he was being well taken care of.
Tessa spent three days in Denton at a percussion camp at UNT. My parents took her out there and stayed with her while she attended the camp. She had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Since she's already familiar with the steel pan, she got to play that in a couple of her performance numbers. Here she is with Grandpa and with one of her instructors, Mr. Bingamon.
Grandpa tagged along for her rehearsals and got a picture as she practiced on the marimba. The steel pan and marimba were the instruments she played on all of her numbers. She was very excited to learn new things and to meet other percussionists from across Texas.
Abby played on a volleyball league with other Franklin high school girls this summer. The entire summer was full of games and open gyms that pretty much were high school tryouts. They had Abby playing with one of the JV teams for their league games. Here are a few pictures from some of those games.
They also had Abby setting for the JV players. During one of their first open gyms, after seeing Abby hustle and set, they determined she would be a setter and she's been setting ever since. She's getting used to the new girls and they've become good friends quickly since they've been seeing each other all summer long.
Towards the end of June, we had our stake Girls Camp. I went up a day early with other leaders to help set up camp and prepare for everyone else to get there. The YCLs (youth leaders) were there a day early with us and we had fun working with them and taking them to a ropes course. I was the designated driver of Audrey's 15-passenger van, so I took girls back and forth to the ropes course from our campgrounds. Once all the girls arrived we were busy showing them their campsites and getting everyone organized. It was Tessa's first year at camp and she showed up with the ward not feeling well. She ended up getting sick once and we figured it was from car sickness and/or altitude sickness. Once she drank some water and took a rest, she was feeling much better. They had the most free time on that first day and Tessa was feeling well enough to try out the rock wall first. Kirsten was helping all the girls who wanted to climb the rock wall so I took a picture as Tessa got ready to climb.
Here's Tessa at the very top of the rock wall and then as she finished riding the zipline. Once she was drinking plenty of water and feeling better, she decided that camp really was fun and it turned out that her first day wasn't really that bad after all.
Tessa also tried out the BB guns and the bow and arrows. She thought it was a lot of fun.
I didn't see Abby much that first day, but as a big third year, she didn't need to hang out with mom at all. She said she spent most of her free time settling her stuff in the tent and taking a nap. I did get both girls in a picture with me so we could remember that we were all there together.
Throughout the week, the girls put on skits and cheers with their year levels. Tessa's first year group sang a song to the tune of Psycho but had changed the words to fit their first year experience. One of Abby's third year skits was a synchronized swimming number danced to the Blue Danube. It was pretty funny and really cute.
I am currently the 1st counselor of the Stake Young Women presidency. We call a camp director, so the presidency just goes to camp to help assist wherever we're needed. During one of their nightly presentations, the entire presidency was sitting together so we got a picture. This is Tracy-secretary, Brenda-president, me-1st counselor, and Christy-2nd counselor. I love working with these ladies. Christy and her family found out right before camp that they were moving to Arizona, so Girls Camp was her last hurrah with us in the presidency.
The girls went to the ropes course later in the week, and that was the next time I really got to take some pictures. I was driving girls back and forth all day as they went in three different groups to the course. While switching girls at the ropes course, I was able to run down and catch Abby while her group was doing the running squirrel. She was the end person who got to run as fast as possible to help lift another girl who was the flying squirrel. Abby had her turn as the squirrel too, but I missed it so no pictures from that side.
Tessa's group was the last group to go to the ropes course, so I got to stay the whole time with them and take a lot of pictures. Here are a group of first year girls as they waited to get their helmets and harnesses.
One of the first year YCLs was Emily. She was Tessa's favorite and they became close buddies during the week. Tessa didn't have any really close friends at camp with her, but Emily and the other YCLs took those singled out girls under their wings and made sure they still had a great first year experience. Emily was one of the main reasons that Tessa said she had a great time at camp. Here's a picture of Tessa while she was helping on the running squirrel.
I did get a picture (and video) of Tessa when she was the flying squirrel. She starts by running in the opposite direction of the other runners and eventually her feet lift off the ground. And then she's flying! She was flinging her arms and legs wide to enjoy the ride and even flew around looking like Tinkerbell for a minute. It was really cute. They also did another course where they climbed a pole and then walked across some swinging bars and across this wire while grabbing other hanging ropes. Tessa was the first to volunteer to try and she completed the entire thing. I was so proud of her, but she always has been one of our most daring and adventurous children.
Girls Camp was a Hawaiian theme this year and each year got a bright colored shirt and we all wore them on picture day. Here's Abby (on the second row) with her fellow third years in their green shirts.
I took a picture of all the first years down the row with Tessa on the end. They got to wear pink shirts this year.
I went down the row of third years too to get Abby with all of her girls. I loved all the bright colors. The 2nd years were yellow and the 4th years were blue. Here's a shot of the first years for their year picture.
And here are all the third year girls. Everyone seemed to have a really good time at camp. We spent one day doing classes and I taught a class on relying on Christ as your lifeguard. I taught it five times to groups of about 12-15 girls each. We learned about navigating the troubled waters of today by relying on Christ. We played games, read scriptures, and talked about holding on to spiritual life preservers like scriptures, prayer, testimony, etc. I gave each girl a life preserver keychain and I received a lot of feedback that they really liked my class. It was a little stressful preparing, but I had fun and enjoyed spending that time with the girls. On that last night, while everyone had their camp shirts on, we had a luau. Abby and Tessa prepared the Lava song. They both sang together while Tessa played the ukulele. They were nervous, but did a great job and got a lot of cheers when they finished. I don't know if they would have done it if I asked, but Audrey was the camp director and since she asked them to do it, they happily obliged. It was really cute. I was proud of them for getting up in front of over 100 people to perform. They did really well.
The leaders wore red shirts and we performed at the luau too. We did a lip sync of the song "You're Welcome" from Moana. Audrey frizzed out her hair to look like Moana and we were her backup dancers. Some of the priesthood leaders even carried Audrey out on a table to start the number, so the girls were going crazy before we even started. It was really fun, and everyone thought it was a really cute number. We had fun practicing it together and then performing it.
We spent some of the time at camp making these tiki mask boxes and they turned out really cute. We used them as decorations for the luau so I had someone take a picture of me with my girls while we were dressed up nice in our camp shirts. We really did have such a fun time at camp.
One of the activities during the week was for each girl to paint a square full of dots using a paint by number pattern. Once they all finished their squares, the leaders assembled them on this board and the final picture was revealed at the luau. This was the camp picture that went with the theme, Come What May, He Knows the Way. And the water lined up with the Hawaiian theme and our daily themes of He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Everyone was amazed at how the picture turned out and that they were able to say "I helped make that." I thought it was so cool.
After the luau, we separated into wards for our testimony meeting. We took this picture of our ward as we met with the bishop and his wife. We have such a good group of young women and I loved being able to spend the week with them.
I grabbed one last picture the morning before we left to drive home with Christy and with Audrey and Amber. Audrey and Amber were the camp directors and they did a great job planning and organizing camp this year. It was a great experience for everyone and we look forward to next year.
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