July 2025

 BAPTISMS WITH THE HATCHES

Noah and Erika got to go to the temple with Brent and Sarah and their kids while I watched all the littles.  Savannah, Izzy and Aria had slept over so they were sleeping through most of the morning.  Even Lilly just slept in her little car seat for most of it.  I decided to make a nice breakfast for everyone when they got back.  That was fun.  7-1-25

VIVIAN PARK WITH GRANDMA SIMON AND THE HATCHES
After baptisms and breakfast, we headed down to Vivian Park in Provo canyon.  This ended up being a lot of fun.  Grandma had some yummy food.  Everyone was fishing with Simon and running around playing all kinds of games together.  We had our frisbee so we climbed treese and fished it off of the pavillion roof for a lot of the time.  Then we went up to Bridal Veil Falls.  Everyone had fun over there too.  Lots of good time together.  7-1-25

4TH OF JULY!!
We did our parade in the morning, next to the Maughans.  That was hot and fun.  Then lots of bumming around in between that and going over to Barnes Park for the fun in the park and Fireworks.  It was a great 4th of July!  We especially loved having the Hatches with us and playing crossnet, football, frisbee, the littles talked grandma and Simon into buying the light up swords so that was fun too.  It was fun to have Charity and Hunter with us and the Maughans showed up as well.  I think Grandpa was there and Granmda and Simon too.  7-4-25

SADIE'S FRIEND PARTY
We decided to celebrate Sadie's birthday with her friends and family a little early this year because we will be camping on her actual birthday.  We found the cutest idea for her friend party on FB reels.  It ended up being a lot of fun!  I got a bunch of cute little stuffed kitties and some little boxes that look like pet carriers and we did a little adopt a kitty day!  It was so fun!  They all got a kitty, picked out it's name, decorated it's box, made it a collar of beads and pipe cleaner, we had some kitty snacks and kitty cupcakes and then they played for a little too long.  I only had one regret and that was not making the party a little shorter.  There was too much dead air at the end.  But overall I think it was a hit!!  Sadie loved it!!  Everyone was so helpful with it- I think we even got Noah and Jack involved in it all :).  Molly and Erika of course wished it was their party.  7-7-25

SADIE'S FAMILY PARTY
Everyone met up at Gailey Park for some kitty cupcakes and creamies.  I think Sadie loved having everyone's attention and it was nice and chill for me :).  Lots of fun gifts and lots of support from everyone.  7-7-25

M&M CAMP
We had an awesome camp again this year!  Things went so well.  We went to Marsh Lake again.  We were in a little bit different camp site, not as close to the water as we liked in the past, but still great.  We kept it pretty chill, even tie dye- Emily forgot their shirts so it was pretty much just us- I gave Jonah one of ours, so he could participate.  Probably the highlight of the camp was watching Josh and Sadie bond.  They had a lot of fun together throwing logs and hammering them.  Josh was so nice to humor her and spend so much time doing what she said.  We also got to celebrate Sadie's birthday with everyone up at camp!  This was fun.  We brought some hostess cupcakes to celebrate.  She loved that.  Nate, Sadie and I all went on a "birthday kayaking trip" and went out on the lake for a while to spend some good time together.  That was fun.  WE did our marshmallow war on the last day, before leaving, just across the road from the campground.  I think this was a good year for the wars- everyone had a better attitude.  Good times though!  7-9-25--7-12-25

MEETING THE HOLLISTS
We met up with Charity, Hunter and his parents at Olive Garden Monday night.  This was a good experience.  I was grateful that they were so nice, friendly and talkative and the evening went really well.  They were also so nice to pay for our portion of the meal.  So generous.  I think this will be a great union of families.  I'm excited to meet the rest of the family.  7-14-25

KEITH'S LUNCHEON
I was lucky enough to get to help set up Martha's son's wedding luncheon.  This was a lot of fun because Krista Johnson and Jodie (forgot her last name) were there as well.  We had so much fun!!  Even went to get some lunch together after at Great Harvest.  Good stuff.  7-15-25

CHARITY'S WARDIE SHOWER
Brooke was so sweet to throw yet another shower- this time for Charity!  It was in her front yard, they served chicken salad sandwiches and other cute little foods- I brought some cupcakes- it was super cute and really chill.  I only wish Charity had been able to share some of the details of how they met and stuff.  But she got lots of fun gifts and had so much support from the ward.  I was really happy about that.  7-19-25

DINNER WITH THE STAKE CAMP DIRECTORS
This was a cool little "meeting" at Cafe Sabor- super yummy!  All the camp directors and Marth, Christa and I all met up and had dinner and got to discuss some of the things we thought went well with Girls camp and then the things that didn't.  It was great!!  I actually really loved it.   We met up with Pres. Perry after and repeated everything we had said earlier :).  This was a great way to pass the time leading up to Brad coming home!!  I was getting super anxious!!  7-21-25

WELCOME HOME ELDER BRADLEY MAYNES!!!
We spent the morning trying to finish up Brad's spot in his room and getting the rest of the house nice.  The kids all made their posters to hold up- it was cute how into this everyone was- even Noah looking up the perfect quote for it.  They all worked very hard.  It was very exciting- felt like Christmas!  We all headed down to the airport a little early, found the perfect spot by the doors he would come out- it was literally as close as we could get to where he would come out- not that they were happy we were there and not that they didn't tell us to move a million times, but it was the perfect spot!  We could see the people who were going to walk through the doors through some frosted glass, before they could see us, so Nate was watching that pretty closely.  We had a bunch of family show up- Grandma Ruthie, Grandpa Hatch, Grandma Hatch and Simon, Meg and Chris, it was pretty exciting!!  There wasn't anything that could pull my attention away from those doors though!  I was focused :).  Probably annoyingly so.  But what a surge of relief when he came through those doors!!!  HOLY MOLY!!  The cheers!  The smiles!  All the hugs!  Mine first of course :).  What a cool moment that was!!  I was so relieved!!  There's just so much pride and love and relief and gratitude for him being in one piece.  Made the whole two years worth it :).  Maybe.  But SO cool!!  He made the rounds and hugged everyone.  Me again :).  He quickly pulled out the pink and purple llamas he had bought for Molly and Sadie.  They were so excited!  Molly showed him her llama sign- they had a little llama thing going the whole time he was gone- super cute.  We snapped a few pictures (totally should have gotten more), and kind of urgently made our way to Costa Vida just right there by the airport.  We needed to feed Brad- he had to be starving- and then get back to the airport to pick up Kelly!  We had a good time introducing Hunter and Brad and everyone catching up on each other.  Brad was SO TIRED, but managed to be pretty fun with us.  Meg and Chris came to Costa Vida with us along with Grandpa.  Thankfully grandpa had room for Brad's luggage (We had filled the van to capacity and didn't have any room), so he took that and we headed back over to the airport for Kelly and Devan.  This was a fun little moment- Brad stood outside the car with the sign we had made welcoming them and we all got to see them hug.  That was a very happy reunion for sure.  It was so good to see Kelly and Brad together again.  That was fun.  We listened to EFY music all the way home.  I showed Brad my Window to His Love song.  We got home and grandpa met up with us with Brad's luggage and he unloaded it all, all over the living room and gave away all his cool Peru stuff.  Ties, pj pants, hats, hoodies, ponchos, blankets, he gave me these really cool nativities- so cool!  It was a lot of fun.  It was so surreal having him home.  Almost felt like he had never been gone really.  Even though he's had a whole life without us basically.  He was pretty tired so we let him sleep.  Then we had meatballs and mashed potatoes as he had requested, for dinner.  It was so great having him at family prayer and seeing him in his bed that night.  Made my mom heart happy.  Such a relief.  7-22-25

BRAD, KELLY AND DEVAN WITH ALL OF US
The next few days are a blur to me now (again, three months later), everything is running together.  There was some games, not as many as we used to play because Brad doesn't love playing games :).  Lots of basketball which was so fun to watch!  We went and played gaga ball at the school which was really fun.  That was Pioneer day- we really didn't do anything for that.  Maybe a barbecue- see I am drawing a blank.  We ate out a bunch.  We had Kelly and Devan a little before they had to leave for their cruise, but didn't feel long enough for any of us.  And sharing them with the Brenchleys felt kind of hard that week.  I was exhausted if we are being honest and I was given the okay to not be planning every minute out, so I didn't.  But I did wish I'd done a little more planning when we were begging people to hang out with us :).  We did make time to go to the temple and that was nice.  The overall feeling was still relief having most of us together.  Made us miss Luke extra tho.  And saying goodbye to Kelly was another hard day.  We will get through it all though!  7-23-25--7-25-25

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!!
I honestly don't remember what we did for Nate's birthday.  I feel horrible it's left my mind.  But I do have pictures of him blowing out candles so I'm pretty sure we celebrated a little :).  Maybe I need to ask someone to jog my memory.  

CHARITY'S MAYNES FAMILY SHOWER
This was a fun shower- Jen threw it with Sydney's expertise.  Everything was so cute.  It was in Lynn and Ali's yard.  They had the cutest tea party type theme with tea cup cupcakes on shelves and fruit kabobs.  Some cute drinks with fruit to add- this is where Sadie got the adding fruit to her drinks obsession.  Some chicken salad sandwiches.  This was a combined shower with Kaleigh- Caden's fiance- so that was fun.  I loved watching them open all the Star Wars and fun gifts they got.  I think they were good and spoiled.  During the shower, Nate and the kids all came to pick up Kelly.  We had to say goodbye to her from there, Nate was taking her to the airport.  So sad!!  But very cool that she was able to come to as much as she was.  There were lots of people there for Charity along with Grandma Hatch even.  It was a good time.  We had to stop at CHick-fil-a on the way home for Erika- she couldn't eat much there and was starving from her sleepover with Charity.  Kinda funny really.  So nice of Jen to throw a shower!  7-26-25

BRADLEY'S HOMECOMING TALK AND BRUNCH
The day came- it was time for Brad to report to the ward and family that came.  It wasn't as full of a house as when he left, since the friends were all on missions, but there was a lot of support.  He had asked if Charity and Hunter could sing at his Homecoming and sure enough, Jay let them :).  So we got to hear Charity and Hunter also.  They did such an amazing job.  It was such a beautiful arrangement and then just blend so well.  It was so pretty.  Brad did such a fantastic job on his talk.  I loved the focus on the Savior and not on himself and how he learned that that was the way to happiness on the mission.  It was neat to hear how much he has grown.  We came to the house after sacrament meeting and had pancakes with all the toppings as well as leftovers from the shower the day before.  It didn't quite go how I'd planned and I forgot to get the other pans of pancakes out of the oven when we ran out, but it was fine.  Brad seemed happy!  He did have Brandon there and cute Anna and Kate Larsen.  It's always fun to see his friends, they're so fun.  He had a lot of family here as well.  Even Ike Ferguson- my dad's cousin- came.  He had been on Brad's email list and just loved what a great missionary he was, he had emailed him a bunch and just felt really impressed by him.  He said he doesn't usually go to everyone's homecomings, but he wanted to hear Brad speak.  Pretty neat!  It was nice to have him here to talk to about his life and things he's done for the church too.  So fun.  It was a packed day and then it ended!  And it was time to get ready for our family campout!!  7-27-25

THE FAMILY CAMPOUT- LOST LAKE
We got Lost Lake again, with the yurts, I think this was our fourth year here.  Maybe.  It was such a good week!!  It was so heavenly having Brad there with us the whole time, teaching us cool things and telling us about his mission.  We got to have Charity and Hunter with us as well.  It was sad to not have Luke and Kelly and Devan, but we survived.  I am not going to get all the details of this camp out, but some things that are standing out to me are:
When Molly caught her fish in her net!  She came running up from the creek almost screaming and EVERYONE jumped up and got really excited for her!  It was so much fun!!  The look of satisfaction on her face as she experienced everyone's praise and adoration... priceless.  This is why I love siblings so much!  
Brad inviting me to watch him fish :).  Nobody ever does that.  
The MOOSE!!  That was so dang cool!  Brad and I saw him up across the road in the weeds and then he made his way down the road and down through OUR CAMP and down to the shore of the lake.  We followed him quite a ways and then let him go.  We tried to wake people up while he was in our camp and get everyone to see him, but it was difficult.  Nate and Noah came out.  So cool though.
It was fun to see Brad and Sadie back together again.  Actually Brad and everyone.  He left a big hole while he was gone.  
All of our fun sitting around the campfire games- Smurf, Wavelength, Never Have I Ever, I don't think we played four on the couch this time. 
Hunter was the fire guy this year, he built a LOT of fires and ran through a LOT of trivia for Jack :).
Jack did great with his diabetes!  Almost no hangups!
It was a little colder this year than in years past.  That was a little bit of a bummer.
But we all had a good time.  It was a great way to spend that first whole week together.  Til next year!  7-28-25--8-1-25