summer's last hurrah!

for kent's last summer friday before school started we took one last trip to see my family in madera. ok so it was for natalie's birthday, but it was also so we could go to help with harvest!!

here is caleb practicing by picking some grapes in the backyard. the kids were all SO HAPPY to play with and see everyone again. 

here is jenae patiently listening to natalie tell about everything in her backpack lol. we got pacifica pizza so we didn't have to heat the house =o] kent got to watch his BYU football game and we won! so that was cool too. 

natalie got to fill up her maren tank =o] and i got to fill up my family time tank. =o] time spent with my family is precious little! i don't know what i would do without cell phones and computers to stay connected across the miles, but there is nothing quite like staying up late to talk and laugh with my family. 

we went to the vineyard to help with harvest! i'm so glad we did! here is the before picture =o]

seth had a great time eating grapes and dirt. 

natalie proved to be a good little worker =o]

jenna tried her best too lol

caleb helped a little but mostly played in the dirt and convinced his siblings to join him! 

we did 23 trays and called it a day lol

again, i had to remind myself that our lives will be different once all our children can walk and just prayed that our offering was acceptable to the Lord. =o]

my incredibly dirty sons lol

once we got home and took baths and showers grammy took the older kids to the library. while she was gone i was able to clean up from lunch, clean up the tub and all the dirty clothes, clean out the car, clean up all the swimming stuff from the day before, repack and organize the suitcases, and then take a shower myself. it is amazing what can be done without the help of little hands lol

for the rest of the afternoon we just kind of hung out, which was nice =o] i got to pick melissa and my mom's brains about good non-fiction books for children. good times!!

jenna said she wanted to touch the sky =o]

this is natalie laying on the grass =o]

sunday morning was strangely not restful and i'm still trying to figure out how in the world we were late for church when it started at 1pm. i can count on my hands the number of times we have been late to church in our entire marriage. ??? who knows. jenna got to read a story with her grandpa so who cares.  

the kids did relatively well at church, and actually i got a lot out of each section. my mom gave a talk about the importance of seminary and it made me so excited about gospel learning. sunday school was about job and it helped to put the things that have been on my mind into perspective. and RS was their visiting teaching conference, which i LOVE, so that was uplifting as well. kent was a sweetheart and took seth during the 3rd hour so that made all the difference really. after church we ate dinner there at the building and then played for a bit out on the grass. it was a good ending for the weekend. i feel so much love for and from my family! i am grateful for them!!

the drive home was long. jenna stuck a pretzel in her ear and we had to stop to buy tweezers to get the last bit of it out. seth only slept for maybe an hour the whole way. kent and i had a great discussion about our vacation mode that was truly enlightening. (a friend recently told me that she and her husband usually end up doing therapy sessions in the car on long drives because neither of them can leave or yell because they are in the car with the kids. perfect, right?!) i recently taught a lesson in RS about elder zwick's talk "what are you thinking?" which discusses corrupt communication versus ministering grace, and let me tell you those techniques we discussed really work! i also kept practicing gratitude and truly trying to listen with an open heart and we were able to have a fruitful discussion which ended with us recommitting to be more united in our parenting. brilliant!

i am so grateful that we had monday to recuperate! we got the office ready for school and did some much needed organizing. i LOVE it when kent is in one of his clean out and organize moods!!  

so there you have it, the last of our summer vacations. it has been such an awesome summer. seriously i think we have outdone ourselves. kent was true to his word and took EVERY SINGLE ONE of his summer fridays off to be with us!! what more can i ask for? i am truly blessed in the family department. i have the best family of origin and i'm working the best i know how for our own little family to be great! hooray for families and summers filled with them!!