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When we got home I had a lovely surprise waiting for me in the mail – MY DEGREE!! Even though I am continuing on to get my Bachelor’s degree, I am still so proud of this accomplishment!!
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Associate of Science
Summer vacation 2012–week 6
Our original plan was to stay in Idaho for about 7 weeks. But with Derk’s broken ankle it really made things difficult, and we decided to head home a week early. I didn’t get many pictures this week because I was really busy taking care of Derk and the kids. We got some last minute fun in, though, and do have a few pictures to share.
We took another trip to Silverwood with Grandma and Grandpa (Derk came, too, but had to be in a wheelchair). Asher and Grandpa went on lots of water slides together!
We spent a nice day at Farragut with my dad, siblings, and nephews. This was neat for me because I came here as a little girl and got to think about the fun times my family had here all those years ago. I love taking my kids to places I went as a child and watching them do the same things I once did. The cousins had a blast blowing bubbles, digging in the sand, hiking around the lake, and playing in the water with Uncle James. We also had a nice picnic. It was a nice day, especially since Derk came with us. He had to just sit in a chair and read/relax the whole time, but it was nice to spend time together outside.
And we had a last family get together at my mom’s. The kids swam away in Nana’s pool with Uncle James, and the rest of the adults sat around enjoying the weather and chatting (and if you’re Derk, glaring at your wife for daring to take your picture…).
Cambria has been practicing her swimming all summer and was doing awesome this last time in the pool!
And here are a couple of pics from our trip back home. I am normally SO sad to leave, but with Derk being hurt it was just really hard and crazy. We all needed to be HOME. Packing up the car was really tricky because Derk obviously couldn’t help me load up much. His mom helped me quite a bit, but even so it took me until 2:30am to get most everything packed up. Luckily Derk was able to do some driving that first day, but I had to drive a lot more than usual (actually, he normally drives the entire trip). Once we decided we were taking off a week early, I had to check the Cache Valley cheese factory’s website to make sure we would pass through when they were open! Yes, the cheese really is THAT worth it! We ended up leaving a day later than we wanted to JUST so we could stop and get some “squeaky cheese” as we call it. The kids were so good that Derk promised them they could pick whatever they wanted as a treat when we first stopped for gas. Next time we’ll make sure to choose our words a little more carefully because Asher + a huge can of Mt. Dew = HYPER!!!!!! And lots of bathroom stops. 
It was definitely the most eventful summer vacation we’ve ever had! We’ll never forget all our memories from this year. 
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Summer vacation 2012–week 5
While we are all here together, Rebecca had the idea to do an annual cousin camp that would be 2 days of fun activities for all the cousins to do together. She put all the original plans together, even making up a spreadsheet to outline which adult would be helping her with which activities. And she designed shirts for all the kids to wear! They sure had a wonderful time!! There were relay races, lots of craft projects, a service project for Grandma and Grandpa, memory books, even a fun skit at the end that Rebecca asked Kyrie to write (which Kyrie LOVED!). What a fun idea and such wonderful memories for all the kids. You’re awesome, Rebecca! There are literally hundreds of pictures of cousin camp between all of our cameras, so here are “a few" of my favorites!
Kyrie, Asher, and Cambria.
Abigail, Lauren, and Dallin.
Zariah, Maleah, Anoni, and Quinten.
All the cousins in their cousin camp shirts, minus Quinten.
LOVE this picture of Asher and Dallin. They are so handsome and sweet!!
While everyone was together, we also took some family pictures. Here’s the WHOLE Stephens clan! And to think…all this started with just Scott and Jean – crazy!
Here’s Grandma and Grandpa with all 10 of their grandbabies.
And here’s our little family. There were 2 different cameras going at the same time, so we’re looking different directions. But at least we’re all smiling!
This week was quite an exciting week for the Stephens clan! Aside from being busy with cousin camp and everything else going on, we also had a whole slew of injuries! Many were minor (scrapes and bumps from playing), but there were 3 major ones – Dallin tripped on my laptop cord and had to get stitches in his forehead, Abbie was jumping on the bed and ended up falling off and severely breaking her arm in several places, and Derk broke his ankle on a water slide at Silverwood! The x-ray is of Abbie’s arm - you can see the fracture on the bone on the left, and the bone on the right is supposed to be connected up there at the top but was completely displaced. Poor thing has to have surgery and be in a cast. Dallin was a trooper getting his stitches, and I cuddled him as much as I could once he got home – I felt TERRIBLE that it was my stupid computer that he got hurt on! And poor Derk fractured his ankle and will have to be in a walking boot for at least the next 6 weeks. He couldn’t walk at all, and I was really grateful to Kevan and Eric for helping me get him to the urgent care.
We celebrated the 4th of July.
We ended the week by spending lots of extra time with my sister, Katie and her family. They ended up having to leave for her husband’s business, so we won’t see them any more this summer. We made the best of our last days together and spent as much time as we could hanging out. We went to Starbucks, shopped, and hit Silverwood one last time together.
This week was by far the busiest we’ve had, but we sure had lots of fun!
Friday, June 29, 2012
Summer vacation 2012–week 4
This week started off with another family dinner at my mom’s house. Benjamin had some ice cream and ate every last drop! 
The girls played lots of dress up at Nana’s, and today made us flash forward to Kyrie’s wedding day – yikes!
The next afternoon we met up with Abby and her boys at the park. Here’s Ben sporting my sunglasses!
Tuesday is when the real fun (and craziness!) started. Derk’s siblings and their families were able to come up to visit, so there were a total of 20 people staying at Mom and Dad’s house for about a week. The kids sure loved having all their cousins to play with! Drew, Rebecca, and their kids were the first to arrive. The morning started off with me giving all the girlies manicures.
Later in the afternoon, our 2 families took the kids to the Kroc Center to play. There’s a fun little indoor playground there, and it also has a climbing wall. Lauren and Cambria had a blast!
Little Dallin wanted to climb, too, and Derk was quick to volunteer to help him. I just LOVE this picture of the 2 of them!!
Later that evening Jenna and Kevan arrived with their kids. Here’s Rebecca getting in some snuggle time with Quinten.
Wednesday we took Drew and his family up to Silverwood (we had to go with them to get them in on our season passes). Here’s Lauren, Derk, and Abbie walking up to the entrance. So sweet.
And Kyrie giving Abbie a goodbye hug before we left.
The next day we were able to go to Silverwood with Drew and his family, and we sure had fun. Kyrie opted to stay home with Grandma and have some fun alone time.
This was a big day for Asher – he was finally tall enough to go on almost all of the biggest rides! He was super excited to ride the Corkscrew with me and had a blast!
We were especially looking forward to getting him on The Panic Plunge, but he absolutely refused. However, this summer he really got close to his Aunt Rebecca, and she was the only one who was able to convince him to go. He said he’d go as long as she’d ride with him, so up, up, up they went! Derk and I were actually on another ride that was right across the path from this one, and we saw him getting on and were cheering as loudly as we could. I was so glad that Drew and Rebecca thought to get a picture and video for us as well! Here’s a nervous Asher (with Uncle Drew and Aunt Rebecca) waiting for the ride to start!
Lauren was so cute and took the video of Asher’s first ride, so you can’t really see much of his face. But I just LOVE hearing how excited he was when the ride was over! Thanks for taking a great video, Lauren!!
Asher and Abbie had lots of fun together. Here are a couple pictures of these 2 cute 7 year olds!
As I mentioned in another post, I gave several of Asher’s baby outfits to Jenna for Quinten. Here he is looking adorable in one of the outfits.
These cousins have sure loved spending time together this week!
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