This first pic is actually from last week and reminds me we need to get over and check on Tan’s flower. 

 Like usual Friday snuck up on me! 

The weeks go flying by (especially in summer) 

Last Saturday the guys were still at Young men’s camp,  actually brother Boster was there that day and he sent some pictures of them fishing, but I don’t really like fishing and neither do any  of my guys. Since  I never got any pictures of them boating we’ll just go without pictures for that event. 

That morning, we had Seth’s friend Kamden over and we set up a slip and slide. The Tanner was a trooper (and Addster wouldn’t get off my lap) 

I think everybody had a lot of fun

When our guys got home And I asked “ How was Young men’s camp?” Colton said “good” and Cannon said “it was a good time” so that sounds like a win to me!

Sunday was Fathers Day!!! I hope Isaac had a good day but he would never say anything one way or another! The crazy thing that happened was, I left him with all five kids to get to church because I went to the early ward to sing with the primary kids. But then we just did primary and everything and then in our Ward, the speaker was my really good friend Ellen, but I just got caught up and enrolled in the meeting and I forgot the primary kids were supposed to sing so in between speakers when the pianist got up, I thought to myself oh I wonder Who she’s doing the musical number with? What?!!!!! That is not like me I am losing (So if you see it, let me know) But luckily, Janelle is awesome and she just went to the mic and said “will the primary children please come up and so then I was like oh holy cow and I got up too and we sang  for all 15 seconds that it takes to sing that song and it was done and… Maybe I’ll do a better job next year… But maybe not😂

Isaac got some new basketball shoes for Father’s Day. They were much needed his  last pair he bought when we lived in Mississippi so they might never have wore out, but I think they were Pretty tired just from sitting for so many years anyways these came with Cannon‘s approval so…For what it’s worth! He was actually so impressed. They came with socks, but really I only added the socks to the order to get free shipping so it’s like they came with two dollar He can still be excited about that, right? 

I don’t know what they were watching but they were definitely ALL watching 😉

Monday, we rode bikes down at the church. It was pretty cute. Addie gets going just as hard as she can and Colton and Tanner would flank her on either side, but then she would have “superpowers” to get away from them. I don’t know it was a silly game they were playing, but I was intentional about Not being on my phone, so it was really fun to just watch them  play and interact and make believe —the whole 9 yards. They had a good time. 😊

That night we went down to the lake and I think everybody had fun. I didn’t get in because it was just a little cold for me because it had rained a whole bunch Sunday and that rainwater makes it cold. One crazy thing this time was the water had gone down a little bit, but they hadn’t pushed the dock back in so it was a little tricky, but we made it work and the kids had fun and we were together as a family so I think that’s a win! Oh, and the other one was Isaac was like so are we just gonna buy pizza? Yes! Why yes we are. 

(I have pics of Isaac without the rope trying tricks and stuff but not smiling in those he was concentrating!) 

Cann and Colt are both getting pretty good

Seth tried surfing! 

He was right there he just needed to stand up. 

But they have fun “lay boarding too”

Tuesday Isaac served in the temple so he had to be on the road by 4 AM, Cannon had his morning football and basketball stuff and all  that the rest of us got done was send Grama a movie that said happy birthday. Then at noon Colt tended (With a lot of movies from the library) 

And I took Cannon down to Moberly and watched him play basketball. 

I talked him into tucking in tucking his jersey in when they played Thursday. 😏

That night they went to play basketball and try out the new shoes. Presumably they have fun. 🤷🏻‍♀️ he said the new shoes were a significant upgrade though so that was good.

Wednesday Cannon and I had to be on the road by 6:00 for his orthodontist appointment, but he was so happy to get the Herbst  device out of his mouth and now he has bottom braces too. We messed around in Columbia and got him a new mouthguard for football we stayed long enough that Wingstop was open so we could get wings coming home because he wanted to try that..they were glorified chicken nuggets that gave us death breath, I might do it again  but only if we went in and sat down to eat and got bone in-so it was a wing! 

We got back and all he did was have a little nap before it was time to be back down to his basketball meeting and then onto football. They had 7 on 7  in Moberly and Isaac wanted to go watch but he’d committed to help somebody move and I ended up taking him the truck then riding bikes with Bill and kids in the Church parking lot before activities started, but he said he was targeted once and had one catch and one touchdown so he was pretty happy! I was pretty happy that the new coaches wife posted a picture on the app. Cannon had to send it to me so it didn’t show up in the parents portion of the app but I still like it! 

Maybe I should’ve cropped it…

Thursday was absolutely crazy! We were going go to the lake with our friends back when I thought “We didn’t have anything” But then the weather got kind of bad and I realized I lost my mind. We had all kinds of things. I took Cannon into the school at 6:00 for football weights. Then I took him some breakfast when I went in to jury duty, cuz he had to be back there shortly there after anyway, so he just stayed, but he was either in charge of concessions or the gate or had games or something all day long. 

That was my first time being on a jury panel—my expression might say enough-It was awful! I am so glad I didn’t get selected! It was just a yucky case, and it was a giant waste of time for more than 60 people too. After our lunch recess, we had to be back at 1:00 so I watched a little bit of Cannon‘s 1220 game then I got back and the bailiffs weren’t even there to open the courtroom at 1:00, but they got it opened up a few minutes late and they picked the jurors and then they let the rest of us go. I was so happy. I nearly floated back to the school to give blood for the football blood drive. Then I came home for a few minutes and Isaac and I went back and watched Cannon’s second game. He played really well but in the second half I turned to Isaac and said he’s (the coach) gonna play to win this one and Cannon’s  not gonna get back on the floor, And I was right! But both times I saw them play that team this week Cannon was on the floor when they actually made a rally to mount a little bit of a comeback. He’s just not quite strong enough with the ball I don’t think…but he Played well. They should’ve won. They had the ball up by one with under 30 seconds to go but lost. You want a  team that can find a way to win, It sure looked to me like they just found a way to lose. 🤯 Sometimes the coach in me just can’t even handle watching things. But the varsity coach was coaching them yesterday and he kept yelling “run it” Which was so good for those kids! I swear they run that stupid five out motion and it’s five out stand around so I actually really liked that they had and “it” that actually got them moving. I’ve said for a long time now they need a special invitation to move and so— a set play is kind of a good way to get them going. It was a lot funner to watch, them be coached by the varsity coach…but a bummer that Cannon didn’t get any more. 

Today’s been rainy and we’re home going crazy (but headed down to the watch party for the tabernacle choir concert that was yesterday but their broadcasting that today I don’t know that’s weird but I was signed up to go so we call it a date!”) 

Bout it I guess—we made it most of the way through the concert. 😂

Pics from one of the nights—we stay up so late these days 😩

I’m so sick of the Addi Seth  fights I could scream! So instead I think I’ll blog. They probably just need some time/space away from each other and ME TOO!! 

Saturday Isaac and our friend Tyler went for a little ride on the horses. I text them both and asked for a pic, Isaac didn’t even see the text but Tyler sent this and said “not sure if this is Isaac’s best side or not” 

🤣🤣🤣 I thought it was hilarious. 

Isaac picked Cannon up from youth conference and they didn’t even make it home before Cannon had hatched a plan to go to the lake with his buddies that night. (I mean really he’s been working on that plan since last summer)  but they made it happen on a moments notice and I think everyone had a good time. He definitely had a longer list of friends but 4 + him and Isaac could fit in the truck so 👍🏻

Sunday morning I got a text asking if we’d sing for Father’s Day. Umm sure. Luckily, “I’m so glad when daddy comes home” doesn’t need much preparation. We ran through it a couple times Sunday and we’ll have sung before I ever emailed this blog out to anybody.

While, Isaac and Tyler were riding horses. Isaac noticed all the wild  Black raspberries and so Sunday, we went on a little four wheeler ride and picked some! (I wish Cannon would do things like this with us but I probably should just enjoy that the rest of them aren’t teenagers yet) 

Monday, we had the Missionaries over and they had a little trick up their sleeve for their lesson about faith where they lit a teabag on fire in the palm of the boys hand. It was pretty cool.p

Addi is doing awesome on the pedal bike— the kids are always wanting to go down to the church or the schools and ride just because it’s smoother terrain. 

Monday night we found out uncle Bob was in Keokuk, Him and his friend Dale stayed with us Tuesday night! The similarities of the mannerisms between Uncle Bob and Isaac’s dad blow my mind! Isaac doesn’t notice it at all, but I do even just little things like how they sigh before they answer a question it’s like they sigh as they’re thinking about it. So similar! They are different but Ralph died when Seth was almost 1 and Addi wasn’t born. Meeting his brother is as close as they’re going to get until the next life. 

We’ve tried (loosely) to get Isaac’s family to do the family fun week out here but this was the first time we’ve had company from Isaac’s side of the family  that wasn’t Grandma or Grandpa…Oh wait I’m a liar. Tyler (our nephew) came. Tyler’s had a taste of the Missouri Isonville.

Anyway, I got things mowed over at the cemetery. I love it when it’s fresh mowed, but Rizzy‘s flowers were looking pretty good even though we needed to weed eat around stuff, but we found some clearance plants at Walmart so we decorated Caleb‘s a little bit too.  And then there’s these cool orange (they look like some kind of lily) flowers everywhere right now so we dug some up to plant at home…we’ll see! 

Tuesday Cannon had basketball in Moberly and Wednesday he had football down there. I didn’t go to either because I thought where we missed two weeks I wasn’t sure how much he would play but he asked me to go next week so I will try. Isaac works in the temple Tuesday though so it could be a little tricky. Leslie sent me a movie of him banking in a 3  though so that was kind of fun and then Wednesday for football he said he had three catches and one TD!! I thought that was awesome. I mean he didn’t have any catches all year last year nor did they even target him.  So my thoughts were kind of …can we not play football and just do “passing league” or  whatever this is called!?? Cuz  it sounded like a lot more fun if you’re a wide receiver. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Wednesday, we set up the slip and slide and had the Bushman’s out.  Tanner came out and played the fun big brother role but Blaine and Seth had a blast on it and  the girls …they had more fun once they came inside and played paw patrol! 

Thursday, we got the boys off to Young men’s camp (why is the load up process so difficult?!) and we hope they’re having fun and we’re just trying to survive till they get back! 

Cannon helped plan the camp— Or at least gave ideas of what they could do—so they planned a boating camp out to try and make it more fun…Because as you could probably guess Cannon’s at an age where he’s not exactly chomping at the bit to go to Young men’s camp it’s… Definitely forced at this point. But I do think he still has fun once he’s there! 🤞🏻

Anyway—I took this pic Monday of Isaac working on the boat, trying to get it ready to go

But they broke another prop, so this is probably the scene again tonight because one of the leaders was going down this evening, so I took wrenches and the prop and the puller and whatever else I just had him walk me through the stuff to pick up in the basement so he’s trying to fix the boat to finish up their camp. 😬

Hopefully it works. 

We are working on the libraries “Summer Reading challenge” and Add likes to do anything her brothers do! 

….bout it! 

I hate it when the pictures don’t work because they throw me off my story telling grove! For example last weeks Cannon’s phone in the toilet didn’t make the blog—for a minute there I  thought we were rid of our biggest point of contention and I was fine with it, but it still works…he was happy about that. There was something else that I thought of that didn’t make the blog but I can’t remember now. 

But gear up-I’m feeling full blown story mode today 😉

So let’s see what we were up to in Emery County…

First Seth getting on that 50 at Buck’s  house was SO GOOD for him. The 85 is way too tall for him, but he loved getting on it and as long as Isaac could catch him to stop him he was good to go! We’re so happy for that progress and the motorcycle department for Seth! 

Nathan came down to ride motorcycles, but before he got There Isaac took us out to “top of town”… I did not like it at all —the sewer ponds are  just my speed! I think Cannon had fun. I think the rest of us wondered why we got into that little adventure. 

Colt stalled his motorcycle in the middle of the main drag in Huntington on our way out so he was hating it from the beginning. 

When things are too hairy for me to drive up-we walk. 

And from the top of the hill we saw Tanner who was “just fine” wreck. I wish I had snagged a picture of Cannon Riding on the back of Isaac motorcycle so that he could get back to his so he could run and check on Tanner. I’m telling you it was a circus. 

Ethan was there by time we got back so that meant the kids were trying to swipe his hat.

Cherry shirts! 

Isaac did go riding with Nathan thankfully Nathan takes pictures!

Cannon had fun but it was pretty intense for him-or maybe one of the trails was and the other was fine…I dunno, but he bowed out a little bit early. He came home with Steven so I didn’t get any pictures of him riding but I was glad that Isaac got to ride with both Steven and Nathan and then Ethan and his girlfriend and her kids rode around behind them in the side-by-side,  it was fun to meet them too. 

Probably the best story is that there was a jump and Cannon voted no way on so he went around it, but Isaac just didn’t calculate quite right as far as how fast he was going and how long it was gonna take Cannon to go around the jump and anyways, he was gonna end up crashing into Cannon so instead he just crashed so he didn’t hit him, which I’m thankful for but that’s still pretty rough. I didn’t see it though so you’re just getting my secondhand story. 

Sadie wanted to play water balloons the weekend before when we were there and it was just too cold so Saturday we mostly we just played around the house but they were also super excited to have a little water fight once the riders got  back. Really it was just 100% mud that we had to clean up afterwards it was gross but whatever. All in the name of fun I guess. 

And back to the sewer ponds that evening, We took Aaliyah with us too

When we got back, Sadie had a little T-ball thing set up and I might not have any baseball players this summer but I think Addster will  end up playing! She’s pretty athletic, we need to work on throw’n her hand a little 😉 but the hand eye coordination was there!  

On to Sunday! No Nintendo until you’re dressed and ready for church—So they got dressed and ready for church pretty quick! And I always love pictures of us walking to church. 

It was really fun. We saw Wayne and Teresa when we were walking in and then we got to chat with Don and Paula a little bit after sacrament meeting and we saw Nato and Stephanie too. It was just fun. Nate hooked us up with some good advice and camping gear for Monday night’s adventure too so that was really nice of him! 

Sadie loves fake nails so after church Aunt Lauren hooked her and Addi up.

Thankfully they only lasted about 90 seconds! 🤣

The Huntington stake youth had been to Nauvoo so they had a Nauvoo In Review little devotional thing. I went to it with Grandma, it was pretty good. I think Isaac might’ve been gone to get the camping gear at that point or something. But it was fun and when the kids shared their testimonies of it earlier in sacrament meeting then our kids kind of realized like whoa we go to Nauvoo  the time-Maybe we shouldn’t take it for granted. 

We also ran into Isaac‘s kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Tanner at church And she totally remembered him! But Grandma Ison got digging around looking to see if she had a class pic from kindergarten-no luck but, she ended up giving me a couple file folders full of pictures and stuff so I spent some time that afternoon putting things on Family search and I’ve got lots more to do but it was really fun. (I’ve heard about his dog Pluto but this was the first time I’d seen a pic.) 

That evening Isaac and Cannon went down to Castledale to take Stephen the Fork seals he used and then bought new ones to replace or something like that anyway all I know is Cannon got to ride Stephens electric motorcycle and now as you could probably guess… They’ve been shopping. But I confess, I do love the outside toys! 1000 times over I’d rather him buy a motorcycle than a gaming console!! 

And Monday we spent all morning getting ready for Isaac’s long awaited camping trip-It’s just so much work that’s what I have against it. But we had a good time.  Backpacking got vetoed (I was so grateful I was just nervous that wasn’t going to turn out well) Nato talked  us into borrowing his tent and just going up the mountain and it was beautiful and it was fun and it was like camping is supposed to be so I really felt like it was a mission accomplished as far as Isaac just wanting the kids to have a Utah camping experience. They had so much fun! 

And the only person on the planet that’s patient enough to deal with all of Isaac’s changing plans is Grandma Ison😉 We had scooped out all the mountain house, dinners, and had it all figured out and ready to go Saturday, but then Monday morning he decided he wanted tin foil (Hobo) dinners….At least he helped to make them! 

We took both and it actually turned out really well because that mountain house stuff cooks up so fast so they could eat that while the dinners were cooking. 

Anyways, lots of fun and lots of pictures! 

First stop a drink out of a spring on the way up the mountain…the pipe wasn’t there so they just had to go for it. Tanner loved it. 

After we picked a camp spot they unloaded the bikes and picked stumps to sit on! (Whoops didn’t realize Tan’s head got cut off in the pic) 

Addi and Isaac promptly took the water melon down to the stream! And then we set up the tent (I feel like that’s always an adventure the first time you do it) 

We saw a couple trout when he was putting it in too but I wasn’t quick enough with the camera—

The best part about this was when grandma Ison told me “He must’ve done that with scouts because I never did that” But he was determined for the kids to get to have a stream cooled Watermelon as part of this camping adventure. Grandma  doesn’t even eat watermelon but she bought one last week and this week for such a purpose. Good grief. (Thankfully, I’m confident she finds joy in spoiling her kids 😊)  

The kids played around while Grandma and Isaac scouted out our hike. 

(Not pictured is Cannon who was driving around like a crazy man on the side by side and he came back FILTHY! Covered with dust everywhere “hey mom, did you bring me an extra work shirt?” Nope. So Mr Clean had to tough it out) 

I got asked so many times “did you bring…” no I didn’t bring anything I feel like you’re already camping when your traveling and then camping on top of that—we weren’t very prepared. Oh well. 

But the hike was maybe my favorite hike in a long time! So pretty-perfect weather-perfect company, all down hill, we had a good time. 

The kids loved hiding in these plants 

It was a good thing I wore my glasses because everything was at a distance but we saw deer and elk and heard the birds. The smells were awesome too-definitely some sage-but just good mountains air. 

Back at camp to get the fire started-

Hopefully it was everything they dreamed of! 

And when dad offered $5 to get in the creek-Sethy went for it, crazy! (He didn’t get quite as “in” as Isaac was going for, but I’ll still give  kid $5! The kids typically come to me to pay up on dad’s bets  anyway 🤣) 

There’s probably more but that’s already a lot of pics oh wait—Addi spotted this deer herself! 

But I better wrap it up. We went to bed (A little too early because we decided to put the fire out and then they were cold) But the next morning, I don’t know what time we got packed up and out of there, but we were probably home by 9:00. We didn’t  worry about eating breakfast until we got back to grandmas house. About those changing plans 😬 sometimes I’m grateful. 😉

Tuesday we got home we unpacked (We reset the water heater- Poor Cannon had a luke cold shower)  But we got showered and packed up to head back to Missouri. Then Isaac and I had a nap while the kids played Nintendo and then we hit the road! 

We left when we wanted to things were going good until there was a sign on the freeway in Colorado that the freeway was closed 😩😩😩  (it was for a fire) 

So we pulled into a little park another nice little family that was waiting. We were there for about an hour when we decided we better just go around the other way even though it added 2 1/2 hours so we left and we’re driving down the freeway and we pulled up the website that the other family had showed us that had cameras and showed the cars stopped but it was open again!!! So we turned around! We had driven about 10 minutes in the wrong direction but ultimately we were back going again. We definitely had to deal with a lot of traffic from the freeway being closed but it wasn’t 2 1/2 hours out of the way. 

Isaac Does most of the driving but I started driving at midnight and drove till 5:00  I always get a least part of the heart of the night -this time I would say all of it- but I do get some good listening in. And  I’m telling you what though after a night of camping and then that night Tuesday night it’s taking me longer than usual to get back to normal! 

Isaac picked up the knuckle boom truck in KC …and we had to stop for Tanner to puke by Jamesport because I let them do tablets 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

We  got home and thankfully found our animals were fine (And a lot of of the plants survived too) 

Just in time for the tornadoes—yikes—

Wednesday we got down to activities and they  said were we’re gonna cancel since the sirens are going off —then we were driving back it was pretty stormy. I found a couple pics of what it looked like, even though I didn’t take them:

This is exactly what it looked like when we looked south before turning on the bypass! 

Then I don’t know who took this I found it on the internet when I searched tornado in Kirksville but this is totally what our drive home looked like but without the cleared up section off to the left 😳

I’m really glad we were here for when there was water in the basement! 

(I’m really self conscious of pics like this because…well…the mess…we really live like this!!… but we don’t usually put this part on display 😩 maybe it will help you feel better about your mess)   Anyway we had water “peeing” —Isaac’s word not mine— into the basement because the window well had filled with water. 

It was a mess! 

Then yesterday the storms came through more in the middle of daytime , but it washed a ton of fish out of Kilmer‘s pond  into the overflow pipe and then out onto the gravel so the kids had a blast, saving the fish and then we just put them in a bucket and put them back in Kilmer‘s other pond🤷🏻‍♀️ And they put a few in our water trough too. 

Today Cannon went to youth conference and we went to the lake. I only took one pic and I’m not even posting it because even I am all pictured out. But the pictures posted easily today — yay—I have no idea what the difference is.  The  lake was SUPER high, those storms rose the water level several feet! It’s was a nightmare though because there was also TONS of debris in the lake and we’ve already bent 2 props hitting crud in that lake so we didn’t want to do it again.

And I think that’s about it!