more pictures from the mtc

it's hard not to think about what evan is doing.  it's really fun to get pictures from the mtc so we can at least see what people look like.  his time is really short in the mtc now--he's leaving on monday for japan...destination unknown when he gets there.

these are all the bountiful high elders in the mtc right now (i think there are a few missing, but this is what they could round up).

 happy 4th of july

 evan, elder carroll (evan's freshman roommate)

 4th of july fireside in the mtc.  some of evan's district got to carry flags.

elder dinkel, elder batis, elder parry (a companionship of three until elder batis left for japan)

travel plans--woot, woot! 

 budge hall byu missionaries

this is a group of japanese elders and sisters.  evan will have to get used to the "peace signs".  this is the way the japanese always pose for pictures.

lots of hours of football today

jake had student body officer meetings between two-a-day practices today, so i took a hearty lunch down to the school for him.  this is the between practice chaos.  i'm glad i wasn't in a closed room with all these sweaty bodies.  things seemed to go well for the first day.  in the morning, the varsity kids practiced defense and jake is getting used to his new position of defensive end.  in the afternoon, he rotated in and out at tight end.  he came home tired and hungry.

isaac and sam also had practice, four hours between them. 

lucky caroline left for st. george today with four of her cousins, her grandma, her aunt and her aunt's niece (on the other side).  they had big plans for swimming, shopping and seeing two plays at tuacahn.  i wanted to go, in fact i was the initial planner, but i have been gone so much and the boys really needed me here to feed them this week. 

the first day of the rest of the year

today is a good turning point.  everyone is home now for the rest of the summer (which is only two weeks) except caroline is going to st. george for a few days to see some plays at tuacahn.  so it's a good turning point.  "hell" week starts tomorrow for jake--6-7 hours of football practice all week.  football practice starts in earnest for sam and isaac.  craig is home after transitioning off his colorado case. and i've got to whip a lot of things into shape, including myself.  so i'm saying it's a good beginning.  the future looks bright. 

outlet shopping

i'm not a big shopper.  i don't mind going once in awhile, but back-to-school shopping is deinitely not my favorite thing.  having said that, caroline, sam and i hit the outlets on the way home from park city.  i have to say that it was a productive trip.  caroline got some very cute things for high school and sam loaded up on golf clothes (which can also double for school clothes).  we had a fun day too.  after that, the yankees and the red sox were on again.

coasters & slides

we woke up this morning in park city looking for some fun.  lucky for us, there are lots of ways to have fun in park city.  we started on the alpine slide and then moved to the alpine coaster (my favorite).  after a yummy lunch, we went to the olympic park and went on a massively scary and big zipline.  the zipline follows the same general path as the olympic ski jump.  we finished the day with swimming, sandwiches, and the yankees/red sox game on our ipads. 

cowabunga

today was the start of the parry family reunion.  almost everyone was able to come.  we were missing spencer and evan.  today we spent a few hours at a water park called cowabunga.  the cousins all seemed to have a great time together.  later that night, we headed up to park city where we had some condos reserved at the canyons.  i came up later in the evening because sam had football practice.   

the drudgery of unpacking

we've been on the road a lot this summer.  just got home from a week in colorado and now we have to unpack.  we got home yesterday around 6:00 and craig is totally unpacked, almost everything is put away.  me...not so much.  my suitcase is on the floor with dirty clothes spilling out of it.  i hate to unpack.  craig often jokes that i should just stay packed for the next time i leave town.  he likes his way.  i like my way.  yesterday craig gave isaac his suitcase, told him to walk straight to the downstairs washroom, dump the whole thing in the washer and turn it on.  unfortunately, isaac's i-touch was in the pocket of one of his shorts.  so maybe, just maybe, my slow, methodical way is okay?