First Day of School!

This past Monday was the first day of school for our little family. A momentous occasion for a couple of reasons. The first being that Maisie is now starting Junior High, and is attending a different school than her siblings!

She's attending 7th Grade at Clayton, a school that is out of our boundaries, thus necessitating she ride the bus. It's been a bit of an adjustment, but I think it's suiting her well, and she seems very happy to be there.

Danyn is now one of the oldest kids in our carpool, starting 4th grade this year at Newman.

She has a new teacher, Mr. Sagers, who we all like, and she has the love of her life in her class. So all is well.

Rory is in 2nd Grade at Newman and has Mrs. Pierce, who has a delightful Southern accent. Rory loves her already, and is enjoying school so far.

The other big change involves Finn, who will start Pre-K at Newman in about a week. That means that for four days a week, all the kids will be in school, and I'll have three hours at home by myself. I never thought this day would come, but I'm turning cartwheels just thinking about it. Yay for school!

Magical Birthday

Rory turned seven this past week, and what a magical birthday it was! First off, we watched a Harry Potter, the last movie we'd yet to watch in the series. Before she could do that however, I gave her one of her presents so she could be super cozy for the movie.

She opened the rest of her presents later that afternoon, and got to spend several hours building her new creations.

Before it got too late, it was time for us to pack up and head to the Lantern Festival!

I'd seen friends post pictures of the ones they been to in the past, and asked Rory if she'd like to do that for her birthday. She was totally game. Especially as she got to decorate her own lantern.

All we had to do was wait for the sun to go down. Luckily we had some neighborhood friends to keep us company. One lady from our ward, Becky Shingleton, made Rory an impromptu Oreo "cake" when she heard it was her birthday. She even got to blow out a candle!

Finny made sure to buddy up to Becky as well, as she had a rather large bag of Swedish Fish to share.

As part of your entrance fee, you also get stuff to roast marshmallows, and a little prize for the kids, which involved these glasses.

As soon as the sun was fully down, they started a countdown. It ended up being fairly chaotic. I'd purchased enough lanterns for us all to have one, but they turned out to be a bit tricky to light. The wind was blowing enough that the bic lighters we had kept going out, but luckily they had a ton of tiki torches handy. They made all the difference.

Then it was just figuring out how to get enough hot air built up inside the lantern that it would fly high enough.

Some of our attempts went a bit astray, and Finn's lantern got a hole burned in it too big to salvage, but we managed to get most of them launched.

Then we just got to watch the magic of thousands of lanterns floating off into the sky. It really is quite spectacular.

Getting out of the parking lot afterwards was much less spectacular. We only moved a car length in the space of an hour. Kinda rough on some tired kids. Anticipating this, we'd planned for Rory to have her birthday cake the following day.

Rory has been counting down to her birthday since before summer began, but I think she had a good one. She was very happy with all her presents, and was a good sport about her activities. Rory has grown a lot this past year, and has worked to better control her temper. She can be very sweet, and will often offer to help you with something without being asked. She's smiley and fun, and loves to dance, making up her own steps and routines. We love our little Rory Lynnigans!

Summer Stuff

This is just a collection of random summer stuff that doesn't really fit into any category. First up, Finn helped Dad pick a whole slew of cucumbers from our garden, with the exclamation, "It's really a cucumbery day!"

In preparation for trek, I spent a lot of time hiking, including this gorgeous one to Lake Mary with my friend Beth.

We stopped for a snack and had a little friend trying to wheeze our trail mix.

Nate and Elle moved from their home in Logan to Salt Lake once Nate had finished with school. While they moved, we watched their boys, and at once point, that involved some story reading.

One night we needed a babysitter when Maisie wasn't available. We called on Shanna, one of the older YW from another ward who I love. Finn was having a hard time going to sleep, so she snuggled him to sleep.

Earlier in the summer we had some cousins visit from out of state. We went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point as one of our activities.

And last but not least, no summer would be complete without at least a few trips to the property. One with the Rogers, where the kids worked to make their forts a little more cozy.

And one with the Baylys, where my scones have become a necessity. I think I've made scones for every Bayly camp out for the past six or seven years.

And hopefully, that has us caught up for summer. It's been a crazy, full, busy, hectic, exhausting, surprising, and fun summer. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited for school to start on Monday.

Girls Camp

Another thing I got to share with Maisie this year was Girls Camp! It's a bit of a different feeling having one of your own girls there with you, but it was a lot of fun to see Maisie continue her young women growth.

We had a fairy tale theme this year, and we had chosen to use Sleeping Beauty as our particular fairy tale. However, we decided it needed to be rewritten in order to make Sleeping Beauty not be so passive as to her rescue. In our version, she helps the prince get through the forest of thorns and fight the dragon.

One other change we made is to have eight fairies total, each representing one of the values. The girls picked their favorite color, and prior to camp, we did a little photoshoot, with the color of their fairy featuring prominently. We only have four girls, so the four of us leaders got to be a color as well.

We framed these pictures and placed them on dowels at the entrance to our campsite. We got a lot of positive feedback from these pictures from people all over the stake; girls would show up randomly so that they could get a look at them. They turned out better than we could have imagined.

We spent time together as a ward, and also as a stake, hiking, crafting, attending workshops, you name it.

But one of my most favorite things are the skits. I love the chance to see the girls blossom up there when they make people laugh.

Maisie even got her own special round of applause after her particularly good delivery of her line. And then again when she showed some serious sass as the princess who saved herself.

My mom wasn't able to come to camp this year, but we requested her special salad. She even sent along a prize for me!

I love my young women. I've learned so much from this calling, and am so grateful to be in it. I can't imagine myself in another place.

These girls are truly amazing, and I count myself blessed to be able to associate with them.

Pioneer Trek 2016

At the first part of July, our stake organized a Pioneer Trek for the youth. This was slotted to be more difficult than your average trek, with a one day, 15 mile stretch over Rocky Ridge, and a second 7 mile day hiking throughout Martin's Cove. I was anxious to be included, not only as a Youth Leader, but also because Maisie would be attending, and I wanted the chance to share that with her. Therefore, I was excited when I got asked to be an official photographer for the event. We hiked quite a bit in the months leading up to the trek, working to condition ourselves physically. We also prepared clothing, backpacks, and other supplies to make the journey as painless as possible. And so the Monday morning of the 11th, we were up bright and early, and ready to go.

Maisie was excited to be placed with a family that had two girls she knew her age. I think it helped the five hour ride to Sixth Crossing pass much faster for her.

When we arrived, it was hot, and the kids were all in good spirits, if a bit lethargic from all the sitting.

That night we got to enjoy some square dancing that helped liven things up a bit.

The next morning we were up with the sun, and the temperatures were freezing! Most people were using their leather gloves to try and keep their hands warm while we packed up our equipment.

It didn't take long on the trail to get the blood flowing though.

I spent most of my time wandering up and down the trail taking pictures of people pulling and pushing, and laughing, and splashing. We crossed water/mud six different times that day.

Oftentimes one or two people would pull the carts across the water, but Maisie got to participate in one of the water crossings.

Needless to say, there was a lot of waiting around, a lot of standing that day, but the weather was in our favor. We couldn't have asked for more mild temperatures.

The wind was a real problem though. At times, it was gusting 40-50 knots, and coated everyone's face in dust. Eyes were dried out, as were lips, and noses. Needless to say, we were a tired lot when we rolled in at seven that night, more than two hours past our scheduled arrival time. I've never hiked so much in one day in my entire life. I'd wager that's the case for most people. The next day we packed up and drove to Martin's Cove. The night had been so chilly there was frost on the ground in the morning. Maisie had joined the trek youth choir, and got to perform for the group several times while we were there.

That day we hiked through Martin's Cove, heard stories of people who suffered much, and left even more behind. Being as tired as we were from the day before, we were able to get a small glimpse of what our pioneer ancestors had to go through. I was particularly excited, as a photographer, to be able to take pictures of the Sweet Water crossing.

I stood in the middle of the river and snapped picture after picture of people crossing, wondering how it must have felt for those who did this in the middle of winter.

 Maisie was unable to cross due to some blisters from the day before, and I know she was sad she missed it. I was one of the last people to emerge from the river, and felt truly humbled as I did, seeing everyone on the other side.

Our schedule that day had been thrown into disarray, and after we crossed the river, the day was starting to wane, but we were determined to participate in the Women's Pull. We dried off feet, and hauled our carts to the bottom of the hill, where the men left us and hiked to the top. I handed off my camera to my dad, as I wanted the opportunity to participate in this. Somehow, I ended up being on the first cart in the line.

We heaved that cart up with everything we could muster, and then I walked back down the trail to help all the other women on their carts. I saw Maisie on a cart full of Beehives, and I jumped in to help her group. It was a special moment for me to be able to pull that cart up with my daughter by my side.

Once everyone had pulled their carts to the top, we walked the mile and a half back to the start of Martin's Cove, turned in our carts, and were grateful to be done.

The sun was going down, we hadn't eaten in six or seven hours, and we still had an hour left to drive before we had to set up our tents again in the dark. But we were smiling. And that was something I found truly amazing. We had late nights, VERY early mornings, not enough food, difficult conditions, and an inability to stick to any kind of schedule. But you didn't hear much in the way of complaining. You saw a lot of laughter, a lot of smiles. Great acts of service, compassion, and selflessness. People were changed, and hearts were made full. It was hard, incredibly hard. But I don't regret it in the least. I'm beyond grateful for the sacrifices our pioneer ancestors made on our behalf. And I'm thankful my daughter and I got an opportunity to feel, just a bit, what it was like for them.