And Home Again

Mark has been in his room building Lego ships, Emma has been sitting at her school desk, drawing pictures. Braeden is pestering me. "What should I do now? What exactly needs to be done?"

(It's less about being a noble son and more about being done with his work so he can leave and play with his friends.)

We're all settling into being home in different ways.

As for me, I'm carefully avoiding the packed bags, the laundry, the empty refrigerator, the huge pile of mail and the blinking answering machine.

At least until I've posted some pictures on my blog.

If you have the time, patience and interest to endure these pictures, well then you really are a friend and I love you.

Starting out:

In case you're wondering, Adam fit everything in.


A few days into the trip, enthusiasm for the van fading.



The Dahl Reunion:

As we were dutifully capturing this picture, my cousin Gretchen said, "I have so many pictures exactly like this."

I said, "No you don't, this year my dad has a beard." (I am enthusiastic about my dad, less enthusiastic about his beard.)

my dad, and my uncles, Demar, Drew and Joe
Aunts Jennifer and Claudia, Grandma and Aunt Olivia

my nephew Ruben shooting a marshmallow gun, incidentally, a big hit with the little boy set (you can shoot them, you can pick them up, brush the grass off and eat them...what's not to love?)

my brother Ammon, The Perfect One

Marianne and Enoch in the background (blue shirt, hat, beard...what is it with beards and my family?)

The salty Salt Flats:

a dust/salt storm

BYU:

I have disappointingly few pictures of our BYU trip but sometimes you're too busy soaking up sights to remember to take pictures.

my second favorite mountains in the world

Mark in the Hinckley Building: hot, tired, bored with his reminiscent mother

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House:



Temple Square in Salt Lake City:(great temple shots courtesy of Adam the great photographer)




Hiking to the top of the world:

this is the view along the trail we took to Smith Lake with Marianne and Robert and a whole bunch of kids

Robert, leader of our pack and carrier of Carolina...

Mark, enjoying a water backpack

beautiful Nevada wildflowers

if you squint, you can see the mountain goat-like children on the trail

sweet Lili

the reward at the top of the trail

although look how close the snow was...I didn't swim (shocking, I know)

We ate dinner at Angel Lake. In the distance you can see Robert fishing with the kids. Hyrum and Mark enjoyed poking and prodding and carrying around a hapless fish that found its way onto Carolina's hook. I didn't get a picture of the fish. I was too busy telling Mark to stop poking its eyes and to put it down.

Target practice with Grandpa:

Mark putting in ear plugs because his "ears were popping"

A buggy ride with my parents:

and Goldie...

The Tina Trampolina Concert:

Deseret (Tina), Liberty (Trampa) and Emma (Lina)

Clarissa, the accompanist. Liberty and Desi sewed the costumes, in the background are their friends who dubbed themselves the Wanna-benas.

The Thespians--Missoula Children's Theater:

the entire cast

Braeden, the leprachaun on the left (Clarissa's the one on the far right)

Emma, a winter wind worker

Mark, a dust bunny

And that, my dears, is all!