Goodbye, Elisabeth! Hello, Summer!

A lot to catch up with this post!

On a Saturday, we went to Menchie's and ate 64 ounces of frozen yogurt amongst us to celebrate Abdiel's piano recital and Elinor's soccer season. He played Bach's Prelude in C and Elinor scored somewhere between six and eight goals this season.

The recital happened at The Piano Gallery.

Miriam stayed warm during soccer games.

Justin took a quick work trip to Pepperdine where he and his two colleagues split this $11 fruit bowl amongst them. 

Miriam tried to stow away with him.

Instead of drowning our sorrows after Elisabeth left, we bounced them out at a tumbling gym AirBnB in Salina, UT. 

Dropping Elisabeth off at the MTC featured many more tears than this picture captured. The acquisition of our super van between Julia's departure and Elisabeth's departure rendered us unfit for the underground drop-off location. Warm sunshine instead.

We took some family pictures the Monday before dropping Elisabeth off. The winds at the lake were high, so we're interested to see how the pictures turned out! Miriam, Gabriel, and Elinor were all stunning, of course.

Gwyn paused from having her hair done to read with Miriam. She's such a good big sister.

Today Justin dropped Katharine off for a week-long government camp called Girls State at Weber State University. 

The tumbling gym was in the bustling metropolis of Salina. We visited a local museum, a P.O.W. Camp from WWII, and secured a Memorial Day breakfast at the Lions Exchange club. We love small town America!

Gwyn was Aunt Polly in her class play of Tom Sawyer.

Miriam entraps herself in many places.

The tender mercy of Friday was our wonderful neighbor driving by just as Lia was taking a newly-assembled trellis out to the garden. Two hours and a hammer drill later, John had two trellises secured so firmly to the stone any Romeo could ascend a blossomy staircase to his love's window pane. Except in this case it's the parents' window pane, so Romeo would be in for a surprise. 

We have joined a neighborhood play to kick off the summer and Gwyn, Abdiel, and Katharine will be the featured fiddling group of the Wild West scene. 

Nothing like the freedom--in both dress and schedule--of summer. 

Youngest children often secure frivolities of which no eldest child would ever dream, like ruffle-sleeved bibs.

Or wearing a flutter sleeved shirt without a onesie underneath.

That Memorial Day Breakfast. The kids were over the moon about the thick slabs of ham.

Lia and Abdiel did baptisms at the Manti temple.

The cooking arrangements left Lia feeling like they were camping in the great outdoors. One bathroom to share amongst eight people and having to remove shoes every time we entered the living space left everyone else feeling so. The chance to introduce Abdiel and Gwyn to the classic game of world domination, Risk, made every sacrifice worth it for Lia, though.

Thursday after dropping Elisabeth off Lia, Gabriel, and Miriam met up with Angela and Royce at Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. 

Wednesday before dropping Elisabeth off at the MTC we had a Los Hermanos picnic by the intramural football fields.

About an hour after Gabriel finished Joy School with his pals Kevin and Aaron.

Elisabeth had a very beautiful setting apart Tuesday evening. The whole family was able to attend. Miriam had a lot to say before, during, and after it.

Princesses getting ready for pictures.

Elisabeth with a few friends after her farewell. She gave a wonderful talk on helping people feel welcome at church and she and Julia played a gorgeous harp/violin duet of "This is the Christ."

Abdiel graduated elementary school!

We had the Skinners over for dinner while Justin was in Pepperdine.

Elisabeth did Gabriel's reading lessons with him a good chunk of the time she was home from college but not yet departed on her mission. He LOVED it and frequently explains to Lia now how "Elisabeth would have done it...."

Abdiel was also in a class play, an impressive production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. He was a soldier.

When Elinor's class went to the Hogle Zoo, Lia took Gabriel and Miriam along to join in the fun. The coolest thing was the polar bear swimming laps and the seal show, but they later heard that that polar bear has been swimming those same laps for the past three years. We think he has gone bona fide crazy and ought to be let back into the wild.

 And during all that hubbub, Miriam went and turned nine months old.