Whew!

Okay, now I know it has been forever...for some reason this summer has gone by so fast and it seems like I haven't had any time to get caught up. And Julie let me know it, so here is somewhat of an attempt to do just that.
June was full of way too much excitement for us. It started out with the Dance Festival. 7 Stakes were here, 1000 youth, and we were fortunate enough to be able to be on the cooking crew. It was super fun. Rex and Riann were able to participate and had the best time. Rex learned the Waltz and Riann learned a dance from the 50's. So cool! The kids in this area are so neat, and I love being around them. We will be in good hands in the future.
During this time, the dance festival, our state experienced the biggest fire in its history, and it got to within 2 miles of our home. 2 days after all the kids went home from the Dance Festival we were evacuated from our home. It was a disturbing and scary experience, one I hope to never relive. Steve stayed here to help burn victims and to help protect our home, but the kids and I went down to the valley with the Sorenson's and stayed at a nice hotel. This is an image of the smoke creeping across the sky right above our house.

Super Scary!!!
This is a huge helicopter in a smoke filled sky, carrying thousands of gallons of water to douse the fire

They were finally able to get the fire under control and we were able to return home! That was a happy day!!!

July came and with it came Rex's 18th birthday. When did he get so old? He only has 1 year left until he leaves on his mission. Boy am I going to miss him!
Grandpa Bill, Melinda, my Grandpa Bill, my brother Steve and his wife Jenny and their two kids, and Julie all came for the 4th of July. We had so much fun! We rode horses and visited and played games and watched as the fire works started little spot fires of their own. Steve was able to be one of the Inner Circle Pyros this year and was able to help with the firework show, which was the best ever!


July also brought my rim to rim hike in the Grand Canyon. We knew it was going to be HOT, so we decided we wanted to do an all night hike during a full moon. We started on the north rim at about 6:00 pm and I drug myself out by way of the south rim (I'm pretty sure Steve could have just jogged right out...he is in disgustingly great shape!) at about 7:00 am! It was a LONG, HARD hike, and I am glad it is over. 24 miles....uggghhhhhh! It was beautiful though and now that it is over I am glad I did it. Next time however, I am going to be in a lot better shape!!! This is us right before we went in...notice the smiles :) Who does stuff like this?!
was

We had to take a shuttle over to the North Rim, which is 5 hours from the south rim. On the shuttle was a family who had just done the same thing that we were about to do, only they had taken 4 days to do it. Anyway, they had the best time and Steve and I decided that we really needed to bring our kids and do a hike on the south rim. So, during Christmas break we are going to do the 17 mile hike on the south rim...the kids are thrilled :)

Now it is August, and it is my last day of summer :( I start School on Monday and I am just heartbroken about it. I love summer more than anything and now it is over. It has been a wonderful one though with lots of good memories made. We just found out that we are possibly going to have an exchange student living with us this school year. He is a young man from Germany and we are all super excited to meet him and get to know him. It is also our 25th Anniversary, and we decided that we needed to do something we both liked to do, so our Grand Canyon hike was the first thing, and in October Steve and I are going to Disneyland for 3 days. I'm grateful everyday for this man who decided to marry me 25 years ago...I love him more now than ever and still consider myself the luckiest girl in the world!