The Zoo

After Carter's race, we hit up the zoo with Jordan's fam! It's been a while since we have been and it was fun to see it through little's eyes again. 

We recreated this pic from when they were little. 

And this one too. They USED to all fit in the nest!

We love these little cuties!

on the way to the zoo Taylor saw East High! She never knew it was in SLC. And we had to stop on the way back and take pics. We are all High School Musical fans! 

 Such a fun day!

The begining of the lasts

August starts the begining of the lasts....last HARC and all the last moments in Senior Year. I've been feeling senitmental over it all and have shed a few tears already. 

He went to his running camp for a week and had a blast as always. 

This group of boys has my heart! They are such great kids and I love the bond they share. 

I'm hoping to do monthly dates with Carter up until he leaves so we started August off with go karting! And I had no accidents (if you know my past, you understand the trauma).

Awww...his senior pics were done before school! Tear!

Last, first XC race. And it was a big one! Carter did well, but not as well as he hoped. 

But he had some stellar cheerleaders cheering him on! Jord and his fam came up and so did his new friend Addi. She's a cutie!

There are many more 'lasts' ahead. I'm well aware, but I'm trying to emrace every moment and soak it all in. We love you C man!
 

Temple Square

 It is absolutely thrilling to see the SLC temple nearly finished! It has been so long since we've been to temple square, in fact, our younger girls don't remember going at all! We used to go all the time. 

Ry loved all the flowers. 

We've taken many pics on this platform and it was so cool to be back there again with everyone! 

We visited the new visitor's center too and brought Zhane along for the ride. We even had Mindy and Gavin with us for a few days but I didn't get a pic with them there. 

It was beautiful and I'm so glad we went!

Only a few more months and it'll be time for the open house! That will be massive and I can't wait to go. It's going to be a fantastic time in history!

Spokane

We planned a fun trip up to Spokane to go boating and to get family and senior pictures! Mindy was so generous and offered to do photos for us! We hit the ground running and started with Senior pics! I just stood back and watch the magic happen. Mindy was so good with him! 

The next day we did family pictures! And it was in the most beautiful spot! We had so many options for scenery!

And the smiles came very naturally, because we had quite the entertainment going on next to us and in front of us! Oh Mr. Gavin you are such a clown! And it really brought out lots of giggles and smiles!

The colors, lighting and everything were just perfect! I knew they would be amazing!

We shopped and wasted time until Chet was off work and then the boatin fun began!

It happened to be Chet and Mindy's anniversary so we had to celebrate them a bit! 

We had the MOST perfect day on the water! It was glassy ALLL day and I got to wakeboard first! We found a beach and set up camp and hit the water hard! 

We of course hit the clay wall and Mollie had to leave her mark. 

Then Mindy said to Chet that for her anniversary gift she wanted him to write in the clay for her. So off Chet went, spotting a snake even before he found a good place to write. 

Gavin entertained us again....never a dull moment with this guy. 

Snuggles!

When we had all we could of surfing and wakeboarding, we pulled out the tubes. Oh man, these were wild! I thought they'd be dangerous, but they were actually pretty fun! At one moment, Carter did a barell roll over Gavin and landed it! We were all impressed!

It was SOOO hot so we had to take water breaks and the crazies jumped off the rock. 

We love lake Roosevelt! It's so pretty! It was quite smokey, so we were sad it wasn't that clear. We went back the next day and boated there again, but it was so smokey we called the day early. 

We went boating one more day at another lake and Bri tried and tried to get up on a surf board but never quite got it. I was proud of her for trying so hard! our purpose for being here was to capture Carter surfing in a cap and gown. And we forgot it in the car! UGH, I was so mad, but sucked it up and enjoyed the evening. Chat GPT helped me out later. 

Pretty good if I say so myself! It atleast made me feel a little better. 

 

At the end of the night, the kids did a running jump off the back of the boat while we were driving! It was quite fun. 

We were pretty great at whipping out meals pretty quick, even if it was 9pm some night and we were still in our swim suits! 

 We love our times with these people! We were sad we missed Morgan, but so glad she is on her mission! Until next time!! We love you!

We woke up one morning to Rylee and Chet making breakfast! They had already been to the store and Chet bought her Mountain Dew and then they cooked breakfast together! The kids hit golf balls in the back yard and rode 4 wheelers and dirt bikes. We just loved being in their welcoming home!

And on another day, we did one more photo shoot at a track before we hit the water again. We loved these but it was SOOOOO hot!

Thanks for the best time everrrrr!!!