Fall is Here!

Today is officially the first day of fall (psst! Fall! That’s your cue! Your cooler temperatures can arrive anytime now. Anytime, Fall.). Well anyways, so I think it’s about time for a Summer of 2010 Recap.

2010 was the summer of…

Fun Fridays

Every time the kids did a chore, they got a bead. They could also lose beads for whining, complaining, fighting, etc, and gain beads for helping, being extra kind, etc. If they had enough beads by Friday (I think it was 108), we got to do something fun together. Fun Fridays SAVED me this summer, simply put. I don’t think I would’ve survived without the leverage. The things we did were simple and inexpensive, but the kids loved them. We went to some movies (thanks to friends and family who gave us their summer movie tickets when they couldn’t use them), had a sleepover, went out for ice cream, went to the mall, invited friends over for crafts, went swimming…stuff like that. Like I said: Simple. The one exception was our Super Mega Fun Friday when we picked up Matt from work on a Friday afternoon and headed up to Scottsdale for a stay at the Hyatt Regency at Gainey Ranch. What a blast!

No T.V.

Yep, that’s right. An entire summer without any T.V. Back in April we decided to cancel our DirectTV, and I guess we’ve just procrastinated spending the money to get an antenna that’ll get us all the regular channels. But before you feel too sorry for us, I should tell you that this was also the summer that we got Netflix, and boy, did we get our money’s worth with the “Watch Instantly” feature. Love it!

Car Troubles

Grrrr.

I’ll just leave it at that.

S.T.O.M.P.

That’s Students Taking On Moroni’s Promise. In the last chapter of the Book of Mormon, the Prophet Moroni states, “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”

The youth in our ward took on this challenge by reading the entire Book of Mormon starting with the first day of summer vacation and ending on the last day. As a Young Women leader, I took on the challenge as well, and it was awesome to read it again in such a short period of time. This time through, I learned SO MUCH about faith. Faith is so simple, yet so complex at the same time. But over and over again I read about people who simply had faith and were able to witness miracles because of it. That book is true. I’ve read it, I’ve asked, and I’ve received a witness that it’s true.

Swimming (of course!)

There’s no other way to survive an Arizona summer, is there? Lucky for us, Jared and Tara moved into a house with a pool really close to us last year, and they extended an open invitation to come swimming whenever we want. They are SO nice! Every Friday was open swim day for all the cousins, so the kids really looked forward to that. Some of these were taken at Jared and Tara’s, some at the hotel:

Alpine Trips With Cousins

Again, no summer is complete without them…

Sure was great to have Mom and Dad up there for the 4th.

Love those Skyline Stake Scout Camp shirts!

Yeah, it’s a picture of me eating two s’mores. And my eyes are closed. You’re welcome.