Aaronhead

Aaron was asked to give a talk in Primary on something from the New Testament chapters we were studying that week. Instead he decided to just do whatever he wanted. And thus, Aaron's talk:

"One day Enos the prophet decided he wanted all his mistakes and sins forgiven. So he started praying 15 mins later he got no answer. So he prayed 60 mins later, no answer. 240 mins later still no answer so he kept on praying all night long. Then he got an answer. I testify that if you are praying for an answer and it does not pop up immediately you will have to wait even though waiting can be hard. But heavenly father will always answer your prayers. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen."

Aaron is very into feats of strength right now.

For example:

Blood family tradition: literally climbing the walls

Aaron was invited to Blake's birthday party, which was about an hour away.

I told him to bring a book to read and this is what he grabbed:

Two encyclopedias and Fantastic Beasts.

More feats of strength at Blake's party:

My friend Adrian is the Primary president and occasionally she'll send me some cute things that my kids did at church that week. At the end of July she sent this, "The chorister called Aaron up in Primary and made him the decider of how fast they would sing each phrase. I do not think she was prepared for how seriously he would take it or how many speed options he would come up with!" Coming up with many, many, many levels is one of Aaron's other current obsessions. Glad he could put it to good use in Primary!

Catherine in the 'Zona

Like I mentioned before, Catherine was living the dream in Arizona!

She and Brianna were partying all day, every day. 

At the roller rink

Catherine and Brianna got to visit Rebekah and have a cousin sleepover!

Grandpa, Grandpa, Aunt Claudia, Brianna AND Target?!?

Could life get any better!?!?

She also got to go to Girls Camp with Brianna!

This was kind of a weird experience for me since she was attending the exact same Girls Camp I did as a teenager. Apparently tradition is strong in that area, because she came home talking about traditions and singing songs that I learned more than 20 years ago.

Catherine said the best part of camp was the view of the mountains. Except the best view was apparently from right by the outhouses...

Brianna and Catherine enjoying a monsoon (and a beautiful sunset)

At the Tucson Temple doing baptisms with Grandpa & Grandma

She was very worried about flying home by herself, especially since she had a layover. We got her a temporary phone plan for her ancient iPhone, which was a great way to keep in touch while she was gone. Her only issue getting home was someone at the check in telling her to just stay on the plane during her layover. Thankfully they made everyone get off the plane, at which point she realized it was NOT going to Maryland. But she found the correct gate and made it home safely!

So happy to be back home.

Super happy.

She lasted all of one day before telling me she was bored.

But I was sure glad to have her back!

And so was Elijah...

Ninja Warrior

Since Catherine was in Arizona and Seth was off on a camping adventure with the YM, I signed the three youngest kids up for Ninja Warrior camp for a few days. Of course Elijah refused to go again after day 1, so my big plans for kid-free project time were foiled (I had to stay with him instead). But at least Aaron and Elise had fun! 

On the last day they had an obstacle course competition. I got to watch all the kids go through the course:

Aaron's turn

Elise's turn

Elijah's turn

(in the smaller gym)

This competition was exactly what Aaron is all about right now: feats of strength + crushing the competition. When it was his turn, Aaron wasted zero time. He was all business and he was in it to win. I wasn't sure he could pull it off since he was not the biggest or fastest kid at camp, but he did it! 

A very proud Aaron with his medal.

This has become a key moment in his life that is often brought up in casual conversation.

Super proud of him and his dedication!

Freedom Day

...we celebrated our independence with ULTIMATE FREEDOM! 

Elise was not quite ready to embrace freedom to the same level as Elijah.

Later that evening a slightly-more-clothed Elijah enjoyed some sparklers:

We also acquired a Gabe and a Montano for this celebration:

If there are fireworks, Montano is there. 

The rest of the sparkler crew:

There were also pop-it wars. 

I only got a few scorch marks on my shirt.

That night we braved the crowds, mosquitos, and heat/humidity to watch the Bel Air fireworks. Rather than dealing with finding a random spot to park and battling the crowds to get home, we parked at the Krazceks. From there it was a shortish walk to the private school grounds where we set up to watch. 

Apparently Seth's phone is much more interesting than me taking a photo.

It was fun to get to spend the evening with friends, even it was just as hot and miserable as I had anticipated. 

Grandpa + Cat goes to AZ

 We got to keep Grandpa for (not even) one whole day between his flight back from Norway and his flight back to Tucson. Don't worry--we made the most of it!

Don't miss Seth being crushed under Catherine.

And then it was time to send Grandpa AND Catherine to Arizona!

Looking very teenager-y on the airplane:

Landed in Tucson!

Catherine had been looking forward to this all year. She was going to get to spend three weeks hanging out with all the cool people in Arizona, with no siblings or parents to interfere! Between my parents, Brianna, and most favorite Aunt Ashley, Catherine was never bored! I'm surprised she wanted to come back at all!

Visiting with Brianna and company.

Meanwhile back in Maryland...

Lofoten, Norway

(as narrated by Seth)

 

Me and Grandpa at one of the airports.

Don't remember which one.

Boarding the plane to Sweden.

The trans-Atlantic flight or whatever it's called. 

Us preparing to board the speedboat history tour.

Same thing.

Just boarded.

"Yay, we're on a boat tour."

We went through a bunch of different areas. Sometimes we went fast, sometimes we didn't. Essentially the guide would either tell us about how it was in the winter (this place is a very popular tourist location in the summer because the water warm and very beautiful), or he would just give us little tidbits of history of the areas we were in. In between the narrations we would go really fast across the water. When we hit choppy water it was super fun because we'd bounce across the water. Surprisingly, we didn't actually get that wet. 

After the speedboat we had lunch and decided to go on a hike. The sign said it was only two miles up to Devil's Gate as far as we could understand (it was in Norwegian). But then it totally turned out that the two miles was just to a checkpoint. It was a lot more than we bargained for. It was long and hard but also really worth it. 

Stairs at the beginning of the hike.

After a while the stairs disappeared so we just had to scramble up muddy terrain.

This was before I started walking ahead of the rest of the group.

Great view

At the top. There was a little platform. We hung out for awhile.

Standing on the gate itself scared the crap out of me because right behind it was like a 50-100 foot drop straight into rocks. The view was gorgeous. You could see the city-ish thingie they had down there. There was another path you could have kept following up the mountain, but we were tired. The Youngs went up it and they came down while we were at Devil's Gate. Bro. Mattson packed little energy gummies and that's all that kept me going. The honey stingers or whatever. 

Grandpa at the Gate

While we were hiking we saw a couple mountaineers climbing up with all these ropes and stuff. It was cool to see these guys dangling over a huge drop while climbing a massive pillar of rock

Devil's Gate

Right as we started biking the next day.

Just a cool place to take a picture.

Right as we left to start the first day of biking.

Cool detour that we took.

Brother Young accidentally broke a law by picking a flower growing on the side of the road.

The stinky beach.

Cold.

Covered in seaweed.

But it was so much fun.

This was the day that stunk.

The wind was blowing super hard against you.

It got easier eventually and then it was really easy after that.

Bro. Young was a good motivator.

Another detour. This is the parking area next to the beach that we went to.

It was really nice and sunny right where we were, but nowhere else. One of the locals said, "I've never seen weather like this before!" (Apparently it was uncharacteristically warm and beautiful the week they were there. Almost no rain, lots of sun. They really lucked out.)

At the beach

Me, Everett and Felix on the rock.

Last day of biking, after we finished. 

We stopped by this huge mountain that made me feel really small.

There was a bridge and we threw rocks into the water.

It was really fun.

The house we stayed in for the last stretch.

It was a refurbished fisherman's hut. If you google 'Norway', a picture of this house will pop up. You can see through the floorboards to the water below. They had this really weird stair/ladder combo (really steep stairs) that got you up on a balcony thing. I sat there and played on the Switch for a while because I was really tired. Then Bro. Young got into the water. All I remember is him screaming because it was so cold. You could see huge waves of kelp in the water because it was so clear.

The house had a tiny water heater. I was the last one to shower and it was cold. 

But I got dibs first the next morning and it was nice and warm.

Me & Everett's room.

It was comfortable I guess.

It was a massive mess.

Really, really good restaurant that we went to.

It had all sorts of food that I've always wanted to try, like whale, reindeer, fish eggs (which were actually really good), and fish tongue. Stockfish is SO much better than any of the fish we have here. 

Right before the kayaking trip.

Kayaking group.

Our our way out we had to maneuver around huge clumps of seaweed and random logs and rocks. We went to this massive open area and it was just a gorgeous view of a huge lake and mountains all around it. We saw some locals who live on a little island and have to kayak in order to go anywhere. 

The ferry on the way home. 

It kinda felt like a low-class airplane and it took forever. But it was kinda cool because you'd see these gigantic waves hit the ship and then there's a huge spray of water. If I remember right, someone in our group got seasick. 

The bike routes.

The third day had a lot of bridges we had to go over, but they had great views. One of the days we went over a huge mountain. The wind was so strong that for a second I stopped pedaling up the hill because I was tired, but I kept moving up the hill. On the way down, that was so much fun. I was hitting at least 30 mph zooming down it. 

Definitely worth the money.

Back in the States with Spencer and Sydney!

So glad it all worked out.