The title to this post was just too fun to pass up!

We have been some busy people this summer; but I feel like that fits us in with the rest of the world rather than setting us apart. 😊

June is the month of birthdays for Josh’s family—including Josh himself. We celebrated one family member with burgers and pickle-ball, one with painting mini game figures, one with Sonic and cake, and one with a grandkid bike race. It was possibly the cutest race in world history. Josh’s birthday was sandwiched right in the midst of helping family move house, and my sister Mary getting married followed by a Muhlestein family reunion, so his very birthday was quite lackluster.😢 But he did get to do his hoped-for activities later on! One thing he really wanted to do was a hike up Bell Canyon. We did it a couple weeks after his birthday and it was fun! The kids were a pack of wild cards; but we all made it out alive. We even visited with some water fowl at Bell Reservoir.

As previously mentioned, Mary got married in June. We had a lot of fun talking about “getting Mary-ed” and reminding that “when you marry in June, you’re a bride all your life.” I feel like I was more involved in this wedding than I was in my own. (Thank you to everybody who made our wedding happen when I decided to leave the country for the whole summer!!!) But Josh was the real hero from our family, because he made the ice-cream cart that was used at Mary’s open house! We tried to find one to rent for the evening, but we couldn’t find one around that was cute (at least nowhere near as cute as the one Josh made) or one that would let you serve your own ice-cream (as the bride wanted BYU creamery ice-cream and the only carts I could find were very specific to the brand of ice-cream that had to be served therefrom). So I talked to Josh about making one, and even (ultra-supportively) looked up some tutorials on youtube on how to make a basic cart. Josh looked at my research findings, scoffed, and said “I can make one better than that.”

Well, he was totally right. The cart he made turned out BEAUTIFULLY!

And now we have this super cute ice-cream cart just hanging around! We are thinking of renting it out for other people’s events. I thought it would be nice to just make back the money we spent on it. But when I told this to Daddy he said “No, you should rent it out as a public service. If this type of thing isn’t available anywhere else, you should make it available.” 😅 So, if you’re one of those people who is searching for a beautiful, insulated ice-cream cart that you can fill with the ice-cream of your choice for your shindig, hit us up!

I also wanted to mention that Mary and Cameron were married in the Bountiful Temple, and it was so beautiful and joyful to be there with them as they became a brand-new eternal family. And I’m just feeling so grateful for the fact that MY own eternal family began in the temple (even the same temple!) nearly 12 years ago. It is a constant comfort to me knowing that God is just as much a part of our marriage as Josh is or I am. Living happily ever after (even with all the “reality” that consumes most of our energy) is the best!

The other big thing Josh wanted to do for his birthday that got postponed an entire month was to go camping. We learned the hard way that if you want your pick of campgrounds during the summer you have to pick them about 6 months in advance. So our camping trip was just a fun little overnighter at Jordanelle Reservoir this past week. Josh was, again, the hero of everything. He arranged everything, packed everything, and endured a positively horrific night of managing 5 kids in the same tent, two of whom had wacky blood sugar. Josh is the best! But next time, I think we’re going to bring our other tent, and make sure we don’t forget extra diabetes supplies.

We had lots of fun at the beach, though! We played in the sand, did some paddle-boarding, and thoroughly enjoyed watching a dog fetching every stick he could get anybody to throw for him out of the lake! And sunburns were only minor! I call it a success! (Again, all thanks to Josh!)

Some other fun things we’ve been up to this summer include

Fay’s next horse show–she crushed it!

Splash-padding with friends

Trips to the aquarium

Making things out of veggie straws

And just hanging out

We’ve also been working our way through our traditional Harry Potter book of the summer. This year we’re on book 5! We’re getting excited about finishing it and having our movie party!

And, one of my favorite parts of summer has been how many fewer socks come through the laundry thanks to everybody wearing sandals so much more often. Ahhh. Life is good!