Full Bloom, Full Blown: September 2015

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

First Day of School - Fall 2015

Sophia's first day of Middle School - 6th Grade

Lily's first day of Middle School - 6th Grade

Abrahm's first day of sophomore year - 10th Grade

Monday, September 7, 2015

Summer Camping at Baumgartner

Hauled in "everything but the kitchen sink"...

The scenic bike ride to the river

At out campsite

Little brother towering

Smoke follows beauty

Abe captured the gorgeous lighting at our campsite view.

A friendly visitor

Rock Jumping

Burying their feet in the "hot spots" to keep warm

Abe...ever helping and protecting his sisters

Enjoying the sun

5:30 AM hike to see the sunrise...while Fred and I are still snoozing in our cots.

It was early...it was dark...it was cold... and in Sophie's words, "it wasn't that fun!"

Never did get to see the sun rise because the mountains were in the way...

...but they said the view was beautiful anyway.

Love these kids...LOVE that they love each other!

Fishing with Dad...

...and a makeshift pole

Hot rock spa...for free!

More fishing with Dad. Persistence.

trying her hand with a real pole

Success

Making a hot pool

Skipping stones

Abe trying to help Mikayla across the slippery rocks

The current was feeling a little swift, so she hung on for extra support

Abe fell down and Mikayla tried to save him...only saved the shirt...kind of

Trying to get re-dressed

Watching this through the camera was hilarious

Almost to the other side and Eden mentions that Mikayla left her rain poncho on the other side

Turn around and go back...Abe still helping...

...kind of

Rain poncho retrieved

Skipping more rocks

Crossing #3...as effective as the first two.

No one came back dry

A laugh a minute

Warming their feet back up in the hot pool

The beautiful bend in the river

Lily and her stick pole

Giving each other "grief"

Admiring her pretty rock collection before she set them free

Mikayla needing to be set free

"My life is harrrrrrrrrrd!"

Mud bogging

Ewwwww.

Found a snake skin. BOYS!

Changing fishing spots

Heading back to camp...we had to hurdle these two, huge downed trees over the path, every time.

Trying to salvage any dry wood after a full day of rain.

Improvising a bellows

Nature napping

Ready to head back home. GOOD MEMORIES!

A week later...these little plants sprouted in Abe's camp shoes.

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." (Marjorie Pay Hinckley)

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human being s should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." (Howard Zinn)

“God made the world for the delight of human beings--if we would see His goodness everywhere, His concern for us, His awareness of our needs: the phone call we’ve waited for, the ride we are offered, the letter in the mail, just the little things He does for us throughout the day. As we remember and notice His love for us, we just begin to fall in love with Him because He is so busy with us--you just can’t resist Him. I believe there’s no such thing as luck in life, it’s God’s love, it’s His.” (Mother Teresa)

“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing the things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” (C.S. Lewis)

Pages

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

First Day of School - Fall 2015

Monday, September 7, 2015

Summer Camping at Baumgartner