SO CRAZY BUSY!

Josh was called as a temple worker.  He works the Saturday morning shift and loves it!

Gavin and Cadie's family stayed the night after Tim's family farewell dinner.  We had a lot of fun singing and talking and playing games!

Sara was able to color Cadie's hair while they were here. It turned out so pretty!

We got Ticket to Ride Europe from Grammy. She found it at a second hand store for $3. It is in perfect condition. We've had a lot of fun with it. Thanks Grammy!

Sara was also able to give back to school hair cuts to the Ely girls. They are such cuties!

Ella

Madi

The twins went home with the Wrights after the big family dinner. They stayed most of the week with them in Tucson and had a blast!

They dressed up as cows for free Chick-fil-a meals!

Sam, Tim, Josh and Sam's friends Valo Aoelua and Brandon Bresee went to the Life Leadership Convention in Des Moines, Iowa and had an incredible weekend. Tim, Josh and Brandon carpooled with people strangers from Life Leadership, so they made lots of new friends. Sam and Valo flew.

These were my texts with Tim while he was driving there:

Tim - "What do you do if the car won't start?"

Me- "Jumper cables. Are you guys stuck somewhere?"

Tim- "Lol. Yeah we were but we made Hobo signs and we are fine now. Thx!!"

Tim- "It is fun to meet new people and they are all so nice!!! Lots of fun experiences already!!"

Tim- "I am loving every second and I just can't get enough!!!! Same with Brandon and Josh!!! We all don't want it to end."

These are the pictures they came home with. I can only imagine all the fun they had off on their own as 5 young men on the town.

 Brandon and Josh

  

Sam, Brandon, Josh and Tim

  

They ate at Zombie Burger.

Here they all are in the rental car. All so handsome!
Valo, Josh, Tim, Brandon and Sam

They visited the Botanical Gardens

The Des Moines River

The Robert D Ray Asian Gardens

The Des Moines River Bridge

The Iowa Capitol Building

Look out Sam!

The view of the city looking down the barrel of the cannon

Street Art

A gorgeous house they fell in love with!

Here they are with a bunch of their close friends at the convention.

Judy, Jonathan Ashlee, Sam, Josh, Jeff, Elvis

Billie, Tim, Mary

Valo and Brandon

Tim on the way home.

The Hardens!

My Aunt Faye and Uncle Mike came to visit and they brought their delightful granddaughter Kaycee with them for her graduation gift. She got to meet over 30 cousins for the first time. She is so sweet and fun! We had tons of fun keeping her entertained.

Tim, Sara, Freddy and Drew went and played laser tag with her on her second day here.

Day #3 Sara and I got to join Gram, Papa, Mike, Faye and Kaycee when they saw The Little Mermaid at the Hale Theater. It was SOOO good! The costumes were amazing and the Broadway version has lots more songs than the movie. The story is a little different too. We loved it!

Sara and Kaycee sitting on Ariel's rocks.

Gram and Papa

Uncle Mike and Aunt Faye

Just before bows, you can see some of the costumes. Hale Theater is in the round, so the audience surrounds the stage.

After the show we got pictures with the cast.

Here are the girls with King Triton

Ursula 

Sebastian and Flounder

And of course Ariel and Prince Eric

It was a great show and a lot of fun being together. After the show we brought Kaycee home with us to spend the night. We kept her up too late talking and being silly. 

After we all slept in, the next morning, we played some games and then took her out for Thai food, at The Royal Jasmine,  and shopping with Sara, Laney and I. It was her first Thai food and she loved it. 

She and Sara had massaman curry and Laney and I had red curry.

Saturday night, Dandi's family came and spent the night and we had Brandon, Lilly, KenaDee and Makaila over to see Tim. We had the biggest family prayer that night.  I had everyone stay in place for a picture afterward because it was so awesome!

Mike, Faye and Kaycee joined all the Ely gang at church for Josh's homecoming talk and Tim's farewell talk. We had a lot of Alger family and tons of friends there as well.  The place was packed!

After church we had all the family over for dinner. We had homemade mac and cheese and ribs with lots of yummy side dishes. It was wonderful to visit with everyone together.

 I was so busy visiting I forgot to get pictures. We did get a few before the Hardens left since we would not be seeing them again before they went home to Georgia.

A monsoon storm was rolling in and it was super windy. 

Sam and Jessi would only give me poses like this.

This is when the twins left for Tucson with the Wrights.

KenaDee, Brandon and Lilly

Giving Tim lots of love before he leaves!

Gavin, Jessi and I got to sing and play the piano together, a rare, but wonderful thing!

It was such an awesome week with the Hardens. Kaycee, Aunt Faye and Uncle Mike are the sweetest and we felt so blessed to have so much time with them. I hope they come again soon!