Monday: Pine Creek Play Day

My friend Debbie has a tradition with her kids where they camp for 4 or 5 days right before school starts for one last summer HURRAH! They have other plans this year (since all but one of her kids is a nearly-grown teenager), but we still had a play day/ picnic up at Pine Creek on Monday.

Jenny, Haylee, Rosalie, Terin, Danny, Cassidy, Heidi, and Addie walking toward the creek
Jenny, Cassidy, Haylee, and Terin (beeeeehiiiiiives!)

Heidi feels the icy-cold creek water

James and Rosalie join in

Shoes on the creek bank

Danny and Addie at the creek

Heidi, Debbie, Hannah, Me, and James just chillin'

Me & my cutie-midgey-niece, Hannah

Heidi & Aunt Debbie=Best Pals

Heidi, James, and Hannah coloring on the picnic blanket

Heidi

Rosalie, Addie, & Danny checking out some butterflies

Addie & Danny in the woods

PEEK-A-BOO!

Aunt Debbie sent the kids on a fun treasure hunt (for tootsie pops!)

James and Hannah opted out of the treasure hunt cuz they were too tired!

They had a drink and watched a Thomas DVD instead.

Addie enjoying her sucker

Danny relaxing in Aunt Debbie's hammock

Addie & Danny got the life...

Debbie & Heidi

***

On the way home, we encountered a

Montana Roadblock...

(don't mind my nice cracked windshield)

I took this out the passenger side door...how now, brown cow?

Around the bend we found another roadblock, this time with horses.

(this is the ledge where Rich & I were engaged, BTW)

This is the last switchback coming down Pine Creek road...

the ranch is in the distance there...

I love Paradise Valley!

Too Cute to be a Pirate

These photos were taken at our Pirate FHE last week,

but I forgot to post them!

This is my terribly adorable niece, Lexi Melin:

aka: "She-Jay"

(that's what Angie was calling her because she looks exactly like her older brother, TJay. :))
Way Too Cute!

More Sunday Photos

Melin Kids out on Clyde Park Road

Sunday, August 16th

***

Also, yesterday marked the one-year anniversary since the Nielson's plane crash in St. John's, AZ. Stephanie (who lives in Provo now) marked the anniversary by hiking to the "Y." She also found the courage to post a photo of her new face on her blog. It's all just so miraculous...really! Who survives severe burns on 80% of their body and then climbs a mountain a year later? There are SO MANY miracles all around us that we don't recognize with out hindsight because we take our challenges day-by-day. But love is all around--God is all around, and our lives, our children, our health are all gorgeous miracles.

Coming Soon...

Sunday after church we drove a mile or two into the country and took pictures of the kids. Here are a few favorites... (I will load the rest soon!) Three little sillies!

My Favorite: Addie, James, & Heidi

(Back on our street)

LAST MONDAY

Need a Little Lisa...

It's time to get comfy because I'm going to tell you story. At first I was just going to post a picture of the necklaces I just made, but I am in a writing/ personal history kind of mood, so you get a story today. Ready? Okay.

Once upon a time, I lived in Provo at Frankenhaus, alone in a big bedroom at the top of the stairs where it got very hot in the summer time. Actually, the time upon which this all went down was the very hot summer of 1991. My boyfriend, Kevin, was using Frankenhaus as his mailing address while he was out gallivanting around the U.S., visiting his sisters and working in Washington, D.C. He would come back for a week or so at a time and stay with me, then be off again. It was while he was away that one Miss Lisa Robbins knocked on my door looking for him, having recently returned from Korea (I know what you're thinking now--you're wondering why I am stuck in PROVO for the summer while everyone I know is off on bold international adventures and the answer is that I had to WORK while I was in school. Don't be jealous).

So Lisa knocks on the door of Frankenhaus asking for Kevin (and yes, I realize I just changed tenses, but it's okay--pretend like we're just chatting and forget the grammar, k?). I tell Lisa that Kevin is gone, but she can come in and we end up hanging out all day long. I discover we love the same music, especially the Sundays and agree that Harriet Wheeler was the best singer of all the singers we'd discussed that day. I don't remember what else was discussed, only that from that moment on, we have been friends. Like instant, just-add-water, bosom-buddies. She is 364 days older than me, meaning her birthday is the day after mine, the year before mine (and while I don't read my horoscope or anything, I can't help but think there is something to astrology because Libras are freaking AWESOME). We have shared many a party, and the very next year after we met, we were both missionaries--Lisa serving in the Dominican Republic, me serving in exotic North Carolina. You can bet the very best letters I got were from Lisa (because--oh, yeah--we were both English Major nerds, too!) Post-mish, we were back in Provo together for a year, and then life pulled us in all different directions. But we've stayed friends because we are both committed communicators and because Lisa makes me laugh like no other!

THEN: Lisa, Me, and Phoebe in Summer 1995
NOW: Lisa with husband Tom in Virginia
(notice she just get lovelier with age, which I envy)

Lisa lives and works in the DC area and was married to her long-time friend-n-love, Tom Anderson about the same time I gave birth to James (so I had to miss the wedding, which still makes me a little sad). She keeps a wonderfully witty blog (much more clever and understated than this one) and you should check it out HERE. A few years ago, Lisa took a glass-bead-making class and sent me some awesome handmade earrings, as well as a few other lose beads. I have been wanting to use the beads for a long time, but I just didn't know how. Another Awesome Libra Friend, Debbie, taught me to bead jewelry, so this week I finally made myself some Lisa originals! I can take a little Lisa with me everywhere now! BEHOLD:

Two sets--one of glass & stone beads, the other with lots of blue glass and silver (from my mom). Can you spot the Lisa beads?

There's the blue one on the necklace...

and the green one on a bracelet!

***

Lisa, have I told you lately that I love you? Because I do. When I reflect on the randomness of our meeting, and then the subsequent strength and longevity of our friendship, the phrase "blessed and lucky" always comes to mind. Also, I can't help but feel like the best fruits of my relationship with Kevin are my girl friends! Yay that. Anyway, thanks for being you and for all the thoughtful things you do. My home and my inbox are practically littered with loving Lisa things, and I really do cherish them because you're fabulous.