Lake Tahoe

It wouldn't be a trip to Lake Tahoe without actually enjoying Lake Tahoe.  We only swam in Lake Tahoe one day during the week but loved our beautiful day on the beach.

Two Little Hikes that were a big deal for me

I absolutely love Angora lakes.  It is so amazing.  The water was freezing but I love just being there.  It feels like a secret place and we have to hike in a little to get to it.  I honestly don't know how I even made this hike.  I just took it very slow.  And the night before we went a hike up to this meadow.  It was gorgeous and I felt so refreshed and I was amazed and did not even know how I climbed up those switch backs.  It's not like it was a hard hike, but I don't even know how I made it with the back pain I had been having and the pain and fatigue I still experience.  It was a small miracle.  I just wanted to go so bad and didn't want to wait behind in the cabin while everyone else was out and about.  I really, really, don't even know how I made it on these two little hikes, except that it was an answer to a prayer.  I wasn't miraculously healed and I could still feel my pain and fatigue, but it was somehow lightened for a bit when I so badly wanted to just feel a little bit better.  That's how a lot of the trip was for me.  And really, a lot of life is that way for me.  On a day to day basis I really don't feel well, but somehow, sometimes, I am given opportunities to still do some of the things I love to do.  I don't feel great, but sometimes I just feel well enough.  Those are the miracles that I experience in my life.  I've since had really crummy days and some pretty good days, but I remember those two glorious little hikes and being with my family and hoping that some day, I'll be able to do it again.

Lake Tahoe 2016

For our Boyce Family vacation we went up to the cabin in Tahoe. I don't even know where to begin with all of these pics.  So I'll just break the week down into some highlights. It was such a beautiful week full of laughs and lots of love.  I love my family and I'm so grateful for my parents who do this for us each year.  It is such a gift.  Our family keeps growing and growing and I love seeing all of the cousins together.  I remember making sweet memories with my own cousins when I was little and those were such fun times in our family.  I just wanted to group some of these cute cousins pictures together.  We eat at Lake Tahoe Pizza Co every time we go to the cabin.  When our whole group is there we always fill up two very large tables in the back room and then we snap photos in this old back end of a VW Bug.

My little violinist

Sammie started taking violin lessons from a cute girl named Ashley in January.  She had her last recital with Ashley in July because Ashley is off to be married and then moving to Idaho.  She had a great start and hopefully we'll be able to continue.  Her recital was so cute.  Sammie played "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" and another song that I can't remember the name of.  Learning to play the violin can be very hard, but she has done so well, and I'm so proud of her for trying something new.

My Poor Puppy

My little Calvin is always around my feet.  He follows me all over the house all day long and he loves to be close by.  One evening I turned and stepped on his foot and injured my poor little guy.  He hated having this bandage on his foot but his toe needed to heal.  It was a bit of a bother and he is sort of a baby when it comes to things like this,  but he is all healed up now though and doing fine.  I just felt so bad that I had hurt him.  And I still have almost stepped on his many times since then.  He hasn't learned anything from this.

July 4th

We decided to go up to Folsom for a week and spend the holiday with my family.  It was nice to get out of town and the girls of course loved swimming at grandma and grandpa's.  We mostly did just that.  The girls loved seeing their cousins and being with them every day.  We walked across the historic Folsom walking bridge that goes over the American River, and spent a little time in Old Sacramento.  We of course had to buy a bunch of saltwater taffy.  The girls tie-dyed t-shirts with the cousins, ate popsicles, swam a lot, and enjoyed a great 4th of July holiday.

My dad always buys so many fireworks that we are almost sick of them by the end. 

We surprised Luke and Noah when we showed up at their ward for church instead of going to my parent's.  11am was much more do-able for us than 9am.  Dianna snapped this cute photo of our kids together.  I love it!  I hope these cousins always love each other this much.

Summer Time 2016

I was reading through old blog posts and realized I have not written a thing since school got out.  It seemed overwhelming to catch up with everything that we've been doing but I thought I would highlight a few things together.  Sammie and Abby participated on a rec league swim team this summer.  It was such a fun a fulfilling experience for them.  Swimming is amazing!  They got so strong and improved on their swimming incredibly.  At the first swim meet they didn't really try that hard.  They didn't know what to expect.  Then they found out that there were ribbons awarded to those who placed in their heats at the meet.  This motivated them to swim harder at the next meet and they did so much better.  It was crazy how their times improved and they got lots of ribbons throughout the whole season.  Sammie's favorite stroke was the butterfly and Abby's was the freestyle.  I loved watching them swim.  I hope that we have time to do it again next year.

We had a fun movie night outside on the trampoline and we projected the movie onto the house.  On a cool night of course.  I can't even imagine attempting this now in the heat wave we are having.

Mostly I just loved the simple moments of June.  Since Joey was teaching 3 weeks of summer school, we didn't have any plans to leave town in June.  We spent lots of time playing and being home, swimming with friends, and helping Joey out.  

Olivia spent a few afternoons working for Joey by grading binders for his summer school class.  It's nice that he is so close to home that we can drop in on him.  Last summer we were helping him set all of this up.  I'm glad that we are not doing THAT again this summer.

June ended with a family trip to the Los Angeles Temple.  I was thinking about what a fun memory for my girls to have.  "Remember when we would go to the temple and stay in the apartments for the night?"  Sometimes it really does feel like a trek to the temple for us, but it makes it feel extra special.

We stayed Friday night and Olivia had baptisms with out ward on Saturday morning at 8am and then our ward had a family day at the temple and session times for the adults with baby sitters for the kids.

Afterwards, we headed to the beach for a couple of hours in Santa Monica and our good friends the Brown's joined us, even though they weren't beach ready.  They went home in a very wet and sandy car.