The Professor and Mary Ann

On Monday the kids were back out at the lake and in addition to the usual swimming and shore playing, they got to go out on the inaugural ride with the GTX inflatable, known as Big Mama. Here are Maddie and Will with Ashton.  One of the uncles (Noah, here) pulls the boat around as fast and wild as they can until you're clinging for dear life. Ashton reached up to get something and he was flipped out into the lake.  He seemed to take it in stride whereas my children would have been scarred by it. Rob took me out for a canoe ride and then Rob, Maddie, Saydi and I went for a swim out to the buoy. It was such a lovely temperature. We had lunch and packed up and cleaned up and said goodbye to the Shumways and started our trip home. This time I wanted to come back through Logan. It was a gorgeous drive through the canyon from Bear Lake to Logan but our car was acting weird and I was nervous we wouldn't make it there. Thankfully we did, and we made it to see the temple whi...

Jeff and Saydi invited us up to Bear Lake to see them after their adventurous six months in London. We met up with them in Park City to caravan and we switched around people until we had two cars: McShums and Waylanders. Everyone behaved so nicely on the trip up -- makes me wish we could always sprinkle in a few cousins on car rides! When we arrived, as we were unpacking things and stowing food, Rob helped Emmeline conquer the spiral staircase. It is steep and metal and I thought that she would be stuck on the first floor for the duration, but she got all the way up, and Rob put one Jelly Belly on each step which was enough to motivate her back down. She had no problem with it the rest of the weekend!  That Bear Lake is almost unreal. It is clear, has a sandy bottom, incredible colors, and while we were there it was 71 degrees. In the water! Essentially a giant inflatable pool.  Maddie got to try out the new paddle board. She'd just learned how a couple of days before...

While Rob's sister and family was in town from Idaho, we went up to Alpine to a natural water slide. Rob had been here years and years before, but I'd never heard of it. We had to drive to the end of civilization and then had to hike 20-30 minutes from there in the heat. When we arrived at the slide, there were dozens and dozens of people and barely a spot to put your shoes. Kathy hiked up above and found that no one was in the pools up there, so we brought the whole crowd up here and had three pools all to ourselves. We took turns dunking in the glacial water. Aunt Heather leads the waterfall meditation Nearly the whole crazy clan. Once the slide had cleared out, the bigger kids and some adults went down the water slide which was about 10-15 feet long and dumped you into another pool about like this. Maddie tried it, which didn't surprise me, but Will was the first one down and that did! The kids all  had cousins to hang out with and Tyler even brought his u...

Even before his baptism, Sebi had a big weekend. The day before Rob took him down to the pool to try out for the UVRays swim team. He has desperately wanted to get onto it for a couple of years, after watching Maddie and Will and attending their swim camp. He had all kinds of support from coaches, siblings, parents, and friends and he dominated in the pool. Hooray for our newest Sunray! Then Sebi's baptism was the day before Easter. The grandparents all came and many friends and family too. Maddie gave a smashing talk, and he was baptized with Ryan from our ward too, so the chapel was packed with friends, teachers, and neighbors. Brother Olsen told everyone some of Sebastian's favorite things, and also that Sebi wanted to be a muffin when he grew up (Brother Olsen's son wanted to be a stop sign when he was a boy, which gives me great hope -- the Olsens are sharp ). He was baptized in one try (fish that he is), and then Rob gave him a very thoughtful and personal confi...

This is my favorite picture from Thanksgiving this year. It reminds me that this was a great year because of the McKids. They are all growing up so fast and Jessie is already in college, but they are so much fun together and such good kids. They are smart and witty and entertaining and kind. And we're still all quoting David's "I'll take some, coach, if it's all the same to you", though none of us has his comic timing. It was also a great year because of the food and all the family we had to help prepare it. This was the first year Rob and I got to host for the McFarland family. We had everyone but the Beans, who stayed up in Idaho. With all the other cooks, I actually did a lot less than last year, and the food was spectacular . Maddie and Rob get a special mention as our pie specialists. They have decided to take that on and have been practicing whenever they find fruit for a filling. There was a smashing lemon meringue along with the more typical pumpkin, a...

My sister-in-law Betsy just her first baby, a boy named Eli. I started this sweater while she was in labor and finished it when he was a week old. Then I decided it needed a hat, so that took a couple more days . . . And these are for two cute brothers, Declan and Malcolm, sons of friends of ours. They wore them to their sister's baptism and they looked so cute, but I realized I could have done better sizing down the 3 month old size. And TJ will notice that I took her suggestion on the hem at the bottom!

Over Labor Day weekend we had a whirlwind trip out to Berkeley for John and Clarissa's wedding. It was held at the Berkeley City Club, another beautiful Julia Morgan building. It was an intimate, personal ceremony and we were glad we got to be there to see it. Aside from that, we played hard, we ate well, and we fell apart before the dancing began! Here is more of the occasion in pictures: bride and groom with nieces and nephews reading an e.e. cummings poem during the ceremony Shumway siblings McFarlands were here oooh! nice eyebrow! Joss banged it into the door of the rental car that afternoon and it would not stop bleeding. the cousins snuck off for some pictures in the courtyard flower girls dance with the bride parents of the groom give a toast during Clarissa's mother Barbara's toast Sebastian talking to Grandpa Each table was themed with a spot from Manhattan Milkshakes used for toasts (John's friend Will said the next morning: "So it really is true -- yo...