Gabby goes on Trek

 Gabby was able to attend her first Stake Trek this summer!  She was nervous about who her family would be and how hard it would be, but she came home talking about how wonderful and positive the whole experience was. 

I love these pictures, showing how clean and nice she looked when she left, and then how dirty she was when she came home.  From what all of her leaders said, she never stopped smiling the whole time. 

Some ward members and leaders that were on Trek.  President Hill is on the right.

 Gabby dancing with Ashton Polster at the stake dance.

Gabby's family group.  Her Ma and Pa were Brother and Sister Love.

We drove out to the middle of nowhere Utah (by Dugway) to pick up Gabby.  It was good to see her again after 4 days.  She was happy and tired, but excited to take a shower!

Corban turns 12

I had to post this cute picture of Corban when he turned 8 and was baptized just to show how much he's grown.  We talked about how his next big birthday after this would be when he turned 12.  

The time went by way too fast!

Today was Corban's birthday and he turned 12!  What a great birthday to have on a Sunday!  He was sustained in Sacrament Meeting to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and to be ordained to the office of a Deacon.  When Bishop Fultz called him up to the stand Corban had a huge smile on his face and couldn't keep from grinning the whole time he was standing there.  He has been waiting for this day for a very long time.  He kept smiling the remainder of the day too.  He got his temple recommend signed and we will go do baptisms for the dead later this week.  He will pass the sacrament and go do fast offerings next Sunday for the first time.

This was the year that Corban could have a friend party (we don't do them every year) and since we knew his birthday would be on a Sunday and right when school started again, we decided to have his party at the end of the school year instead.  We celebrated it on June 1st (a few months early).  It ended up being a celebration for the end of 5th grade as well as his birthday!  He and his friends went to the Dartside for a Nerf battle.  They had a lot of fun and got a lot of energy out.  Afterwards they ate pizza and cookies.  It was a fun birthday party!

Carter, Sam, Jaxton, Peter, Dallan, Corban, Kevin, Dillon, and Brock

(Poor Kevin broke his leg the day before and spent the night in the hospital, but he didn't want to miss the party.  He came and watched the boys battle.)

Uncle Curt 1941-2017

My dad's oldest brother Curtis Lee Wright passed away last week and his funeral was today.  I wish we could have gone down to Arizona to celebrate his life with his family, but it was the first day of school for us and my first day back to work, so we couldn't do it.  I borrowed pictures from a cousin to remember a wonderful man.

Brian, Gary, Aunt Judy, Heather, David, Forest, Eric

(missing Aaron and Curtis)

Eric and Gary made his coffin.  Beautiful!

Aunt Betty and Uncle Alvin Elmer (seated)

Back to School

 First day of school and the kids were very excited!  I wasn't so excited to go back to work after a fabulous summer, but I am glad the kids were ready.

Gabby - 8th grade

Quincy - 5th grade (Mrs. Kelly)

Corban - 6th grade (Mrs. Silvester/Mrs. Richardson)

Cousins ready to start school at Centerville Elementary

Lewis, Brigham, Ed, Corban, Quincy

After school with the rest of the cousins

Lewis, Ed, Lily, Quincy, Corban, Peter

The 6th graders

Gabby hated her picture that I took in the morning, so I took a new picture of her after school.  Here's our 8th grader at Millcreek Jr. High!

Eclipse

The path of what people termed "The Great Eclipse" went right across the United States.  Many people drove from Utah up to Wyoming or Idaho to see the total eclipse.  We stayed in Utah and saw our 91% coverage.  I have to say it was so much cooler than I could have imagined it would be!

We went up to Lee and Tricia's house to watch with cousins.  I didn't get the special eclipse glasses (they were sold out everywhere), but Tricia had a few that we were able to try out.  We made pin hole viewers that worked well.

I was surprised how fun it was to play with the eclipse shadows!  When Jared and Casi showed up with their colander it was so cool!  We also saw all of the crescent shapes in the tree leaf shadows.

 By just making a shadow out of your hand you could see the eclipse in the shadow.

 You can kind of see behind me how dark the sky was.  It looked like I was wearing sunglasses when I wasn't.  Everything got really dim outside and the temperature cooled.  It lasted longer than I expected and I kind of wished afterward that we made the trip up north to see totality.

Tried to capture a few shots through the eclipse glasses.

More shadows even between our fingers.  This was toward the end of the eclipse.  Notice how it made the shadows fuzzy?

It was fun to see posts from family across the country.

Thad's family watched totality in Tennessee.

Jamie watched totality with friends in Missouri

Dave and his work friends watched from a rooftop in Los Angeles.