July 2013

We had the Thompson Reunion up in Mt. Lassen in California. We stayed at a beautiful cabin where we enjoyed being with our wonderful family and exploring.

 

 We went on some beautiful hikes. This is Burney Falls

 We spent one of the days exploring Lassen Volcanic National Park.

 What's a family reunion without walking through a lava tube?

The rest of the time we visited different lakes around the cabin to swim and kayak in.

After the reunion we stayed in Reno for a few days with just our family. It was fun walking around downtown where we were staying with the boys. We visited Circus Circus and played in the arcade. The boys toughly enjoyed winning different stuffed animals or toys instead of getting tickets to get silly gadgets like most arcades give that are rip offs. We had some amazing food while there and we played at the pool a lot. I think the boys enjoyed the pool the most. 

We visited the Reno Temple.  

 The boys had fun seeing and going after the little rabbits everywhere.

We got to spend most of the one of the days at Lake Tahoe. We got there at a great time because we had the beach all to ourselves for a long time.

 So pretty out there.....

And relaxing!

 After the Lake we spent the rest of that day in Virginia City. We walked around exploring down town and then the entire city by train.

The boys had so much fun staying in a hotel that they keep asking to go back. They named their top bunk bed 18, the floor we slept on, and the bottom bunk 7, where the pool was.

Since the Reunion was in Northern California, we did get the fun opportunity to visit our Haymore side of the Family before the reunion.

It was fun going out to dinner with just the girls, kid free while our husbands watched the kids and ordered pizza.

We were taken to a fun pizza place the next day. I wish I remembered what it's called because it was good food and had a great fun center.

 

 

 

Through the Years Part 2

 

On the 18th of June I got one of those calls from the High Council to have me and Matt meet one of the Presidency members. I knew it had to be because of me because I knew there was no way that they will let go of Matt being on the High Council. My suspicions were right and I had a feeling it was due to girls camp so I was ready to tell them my answer (for sure!!). I just didn't know what they wanted me to do haha.

I was asked to be an assistant cook with two other women. I was amazingly excited about it even though I really don't have much experience with cooking in the great outdoors and cooking for a large group of people. It turns out that I was only cooking for the Stake Staff and YCL's. We only had one night to cook for everyone that went to camp. All other nights the wards cooked their own food. It's much different how things went when I was a YW.

Six days later, I had my bags packed and off in the mountains for a very uplifting week. It was hard work but so worth it. I was up a little earlier then most and stayed busy most of the time. I was still able to enjoy the camp experience by attending the different activities and down time (It was really needed). I was enjoying myself so much that I didn't take any pictures. I know I'm lame! I got to know people a lot better and even formed new friendships. Best of all I was able to watch the YW grow in their testimonies and bond with them.

At home the boys were having fun with my mom while Matt was at work (Thanks Mom!!). In the evenings Matt was spending his time doing things around the house to keep him busy. He went as far as planting beautiful flowers out front and planting a cherry tree in this crazy heat wave! I love him so much!!! I've wanted a cherry tree forever but only recently talked to Matt about it. I wasn't expecting it at all because I asked him to promise me to plant one in our next house lol. They also got to do other fun things like going out for dinner and going to an Owlz Baseball Game.

I wrote a blog post about our house Through the Years with pictures of our home at different times. Matt found these pictures online through the city and we thought it was pretty cool seeing the history of our home through different pictures. Here's more pictures after 3 1/2 years.

 Up close of Matt's hard work. We just need to add rock but what we want isn't available because the state of Utah bought all the rock for the year. All flowers come back every year :).