BYU Graduation

Last week we went to Utah to help Jared celebrate receiving his PhD from BYU.  We had a great time and are so happy for Jared and this amazing milestone in his life!

Provo/BYU is still very green and pretty.  We had a couple of warm afternoons, nothing major, but it was mostly cool and refreshing with some rain storms to liven things up.

 

On Thursday we went to Commencement.  Elder Russell M. Nelson was the commencement speaker. We had great seats with a great view of where Jared was sitting.  Although, it may be hard to tell through all the blurriness of my photos!

The graduates are filing in!

Jared is in the front row with his head turned this way. Sorry for the blurriness.  I still haven't learned how to take good photos when I am zooming in!

Another blurry pic, but there he is on his way out with a big smile on his face!

Ah, much better photo.  Congratulations Jared!

Another awesome picture with the brilliant rays of sun shining down on our happiness! Couldn't have planned it better!

 The next morning we went to the convocation ceremony where Jared received his diploma.

 

Proud dad! We are so happy for you Jared!

Didn't graduate, but what a cute couple!

After convocation we went out to lunch at Pizzeria 712.  We had never heard of it before but are glad Jared introduced us to it.  They had delicious food!  Cate's family came up from Las Vegas for the festivities and joined us for lunch.  

Here are the two lawyers stepping outside to take work calls! I couldn't resist getting a shot of that!

As of Monday, Jared is now a full time employee of BYU.  He will be teaching classes and doing counseling. Looking forward to hearing about the great things he and Cate will experience in the future.  We love you!

Summer Fun

I've been taking lots of pictures this summer so I thought I would do an update about some of the different things we have been doing the last couple of months.  Our pool has been getting a lot of use this summer.  The kids in the neighborhood seem to congregate at our house occasionally and it's been lots of fun.

Who needs a diving board when you have rocks?

 

Just hanging out.....

Can you see me?

The Robinson's had two birthdays to celebrate in July, Oscar and Gurrie.  At Oscar's birthday party we played the candy bar game.  This was my first time playing that.  Everyone starts out with a bag of candy and then you take turns rolling a die that tells you things to do, like taking from the players next to you or having to put one in the middle pot, etc.  At the end of the game, you hope you have at least one candy bar left in your bag!  It was a lot of fun, especially the last five minutes of the game when everyone knew time was running out!

Hoping for a good roll!

Ahhh, I guess things aren't going so well?

Chocolate peanut butter cup cake....Oscar has excellent taste!

Once upon a time, Scott introduced the kids to the "burrito twirl" (for lack of a better term).  He rolls them up in a blanket and twirls them around.  Now they request it every time they see him!

Gurrie chose a berry chocolate pie for her birthday.  Another excellent choice!

She got some fun stuff including this awesome book about horses!

 She also got the game, Pit, which everyone wanted to play immediately.  Anyone who knows me, knows I do NOT like that game and usually refuse to play it.  But they talked me into it and it was fun to watch the kids battle it out.  I was not converted though. 

If you have ever been in AZ in the summer you know we have a lot of thunderstorms.  We also have a dog who is terrified of them. It's usually not a problem when they happen during the day, but when they are during the night, it's like having a crying baby that wants to walk back and forth across your head all night.  As a matter of fact, I was up all night with her last night and so I hope there are not too many mistakes in this blog entry!

Trying to hide from a storm.

Still there.  She's not going anywhere!!

The day after being up all night.  I'm glad someone gets to sleep!  There is no justice.

Other than that, we have been busy with work and callings and school.  I am taking a class right now that is really, really, really, really, really, really HARD!!!  The text books are super hard to understand and don't ask me what I am going to do with the papers I need to write.  Ugh.  I have been taking a break from that the last few days to prepare a RS lesson for this Sunday.  That's not usually my favorite thing to do, but it's given me an excuse to put off writing an essay for which I'm grateful.  But I'll be back at it next week so keep your fingers crossed for me! 

We're looking forward to being up in Utah for BYU graduation.  Yay, Jared!

Morgan and Hannah's Visit

My nieces, Morgan and Hannah, came for another visit this summer and we had a great time!  They are turning into beautiful young ladies.  They are also the most polite, grateful, helpful, and just all around awesome kids!  Here are some highlights of the week:

Monday: I made them run errands with me and then they started their Harry Potter marathon.  They were determined to watch all eight movies while they were here!  Stay tuned to see if they accomplished their goal!! The Robinsons also came over that afternoon to swim and then we had a BBQ/swim FHE night.

Fun times....

.....and conversation!

Tuesday:  We were going to be home for most of the day so they continued their Harry Potter marathon.  Can't remember how many they got through but I think they watched most of them on this day.  That evening we went bowling. The girls were VERY good at it.  Scott and I were both a little humbled!!

Good form Hannah!

Morgan waiting to see if she got a strike (she had a few actually).

We brought Gurrie with us.  The three of them have become good friends and they had a great time together.

That night, Hannah and Gurrie decided to prepare a song they could perform for us on Friday.

Wednesday:  We did our annual shopping trip to San Tan Village complete with gelato at Frost.  Then home to continue the Harry Potter marathon.  They watched well into the night......

Not sure why I don't have pics from this day, but not much I can do about it now.

Thursday:  Started the day with another Harry Potter movie!  Then on to Sunsplash for a water slide adventure!!

This is the Sidewinder. No way was I getting on that thing, but the girls went several times.

This is Hannah and Gurrie.

Back up the other side......

....and up the other side again.....

.....and finally settling at the bottom. So brave.

This is Morgan braving it on her own! 

Corinne came with us and showed the girls a great time.  It was her suggestion to go to Sunsplash this year rather than Big Surf and they loved it!

This is the Double Dare.  I think the name says it all.  The girls are waving from the top as I'm sure you can see!!

Wave pool.....they are out there somewhere......

That night we all went to Feed My Starving Children.  That is an organization that puts together food packets for starving children around the world.  Scott and I have been there a few times and thought the girls might enjoy it.  So we spent a couple hours putting together rice and veggie packets.

All ready to work!

The Robinson's joined us that night too.  Here they are sampling the product and feeling satisfied with a job well done!

That night after we got home at around 10pm, the girls watched the LAST Harry Potter movie!  YES THEY DID IT!  In fact, we all stayed up and watched it with them.  I had never seen the last one so it was good to see how it all ended.  Although I could have done without that stinking snake!

Friday:  We had gotten tickets for the Gaslight Theatre in Tucson for this day so we drove down there and enjoyed a wonderful melodrama, Ghost Blasters!  They always do a great job, it's a fun place to go.

It's a fun setting where they do sing-a-longs and bring ice cream sundaes to your table!! What could be better?

What a cute couple!!

What a cute family!!

What a cute place!

I actually lived in Tucson from 6th through 10th grades.  So everyone indulged me as we drove around a little bit.

The first house we lived in down there.  It has NOT been taken care of, as you can probably tell.

Steele Elementary, 6th grade

We stopped for an Eegee.  The best slush EVER!  Unfortunately, they are only in Tucson.

That night we went over to the Robinson's to celebrate the 4th of July complete with fireworks.

Happy 4th!!

After fireworks we went inside for the performance!  They did a great job, it was BEAUTIFUL! Thanks girls!!

There were several others, including Agnes, who stepped up and played for us too.  We enjoyed a wonderful concert.

Saturday:  We drove the girls home, sniff, sniff.

I guess we wore them out.

It was another great week with Morgan and Hannah!  Wish you could come more often.  We love you!