Never say never

This summer we took our clients camping for a few days.  This is not anything unusual because we do this every year.  The thing that we did do new this year was take them all swimming at crystal Hot Springs.  It is an amazing thing to help people do things that they don't always do.  Working through the fear and the anxiety and having the event be successful is an amazing thing.  I hope in the dead of winter when things are not looking so good I can look back on this time and enjoy our getting out and swimming. 

You've got GOLD inside of you

Last week we took a trip to California.  Not just to take a trip but my nephew Ben was getting married.  On Friday we went to Sutters Mill just North, I think, of Folsom and went on a tour of the are.  It was amazing to check out all of the saw mill stuff and also to find GOLD.  It was a lot of fun.  Saturday we spent the day with the family and Ben and Natalie.  We enjoyed the day with them and loved visiting with everyone.  Here are some of the photos from the trip.  Not in a specific order.

Here we are at John's church.  St. John's.  It was worth the hike up the hill to peak in the windows.  Thank goodness we had Brent along with us to see in the tall windows.  The rest of us stood on stacked rocks to see.

Chugging contest with real Mexican Coke.  Looks like Elise wins.

Cute Ben and Natalie are enjoying their day!

Aunt Mandy and two beautiful girls.  It was a girls weekend for sure.

More girls...

Silly girls

All of the girls on the trip.  It was a lot of fun and look all those girls are so Beautiful and growing up too fast.

The saw mill that was huge and had great craftsman ship involved

John admiring the mill

the best traveling group around

we had a fun trip and can't wait to go on the next one!!!

Where did Summer go?

I just logged on and see that I have only blogged a few of the summer events.  I just don't understand how the summer seems to be over.  It feels like it just began.  Only yesterday we were counting down days to Memorial Day.  Now, here we are planning Thanksgiving.  Both of which are mile markers to any year.   I will try to fill in the blanks before the end of Fall but today I can't help tell you about the turning leaves. I sat out on my porch tonight while my plants had a little drink and there are plenty of colored leaves up there.  Last week prior to our trip to California there were not any leaves turning that we could see from home.  Now the mountain is littered with them.  Before you know it Old Man Winter will be here and it will start all over again.  "To everything there is a season."  I can't decide what my favorite is.  I like them all for reasons all of their own.

All grown up

 Ryan and  Christian are off to school in Pheonix.  We got to take them to Pheonix and move them into their new home.  That is a story in itself.  We will tell you about that another time.  We found wi-fi at the local Denny's and that is how we stayed connected for a few days.  It was great to hang out with these two.  They are great guys and will have a good time in college.

 Lori and I make a mean cleaning team.  We can whip two apartments into shape in no time.  It was a fun fast trip and we got them all moved into a neat little place so they can enjoy their school carrier.
Ryan keeps us in stitches all the time.

 Mom and Aunt Mandy were worried about getting the apartment set up,  Christian and Ryan were worried about getting the bikes running and having enough room to park them.

We even all took a ride on them.  With the heat at 116 we rode inside.  I never got the hang of the BMX bike with the seat that points up to the sky.

Ryan being silly...

 Christian giving himself a haircut.  Yeap, that's the life of a student.  Save, Save, SAVE.

Maybe grown up enough start school in a different state but still hanging up the sign made by your little sister.  Just to remind you of home.  Love you Ryan! We will miss you but you will love being in school.