Highlights Week 25

We celebrated our favorite father on Sunday. It was a little underwhelming because he picked out and purchased most of his own presents, but the kids made him some awesome cards, and I got him some high protein snacks and some new pliers (which turns out he already had). We sure love our dad!

 Every morning the kids do swim team and I go to the gym. It works out so perfectly. This week Hyrum and Abraham were able to join the diving class, which they were very excited about. Other noteworthy happenings this week include:

Hyrum and I went to the orthodontist

I went to the temple by myself on Tuesday, and took Abraham and several youth to do baptisms Thursday evening.

We went bowling

I hosted my emotional resilience group monthly lunch. It's summer break now, so a couple of the ladies needed a more kid friendly place for our gathering than the immaculate home we usually meet at. The monsoons have arrived early (for which we are exceptionally grateful) so my backyard was one giant mud puddle, but the kids managed to have a good time without getting too filthy.

Not pictured: All three kids rode their bikes down to the Brown's and the Brown's on Wednesday afternoon. Hyrum played video games with Kaden and stayed for dinner, and Mercy was able to finally have her sleepover at Olivia's. Abraham rode home and played some Fortnite with Dad, and I collected Hyrum and his bike on my way home from a Relief Society dinner.

Hyrum got invited to participate in Sage ward's youth camp, which ended up being a day camp because of the forest closures. He spent all day Thursday river rafting up near Taos, Friday morning shooting (we volunteered our property), and Saturday afternoon/evening at a BBQ and pool party. He had a ton of fun and made some new friends. I don't have any pictures, but we are so glad he was able to go!

We dropped Mercy off at the Barrios on Thursday evening. She was invited to ride up to Utah with Cassie to attend the extended family cabin get together, then hang out with Grandma and Grandpa until the rest of us go up in July. She'll be there for about two weeks and was super excited about her adventure.

While we were dropping Mercy off, we discovered a turtle cruising around in Cassie's front yard. I loved when we had tortuga in our backyard, so we nabbed this little guy and stuck him in the Barrios' back yard until I was done at the temple. After picking Hyrum up from rafting, we went back and collected him and brought him to our house. We've named him (we think it's a him) Tortilla (pronounced gringo style) and hope he decides our backyard is an acceptable new home.

Since both his siblings were off on adventures on Friday, we offered Abraham a 'yes day.' He started off by trying his hand at making crepes, then spent most of the rest of his day playing video games. Susan picked them up to go swimming in the evening, then we stayed up late watching dad play Horizon: Zero Dawn, which we haven't played in several months. 

Matthew got a new camera this week, so he spent the entire weekend trying out his new equipment. Abraham woke up Saturday morning not feeling well and spent pretty much the entire day napping on the couch. 
 

And on a final note, the Monsoons have come in all their glory and it's been rainy pretty much all week, which means we've had some spectacular clouds. New Mexico, along with most of the Southwest, has been under a years long super drought, so we are especially grateful for this very wet week.