Utah, Boat, Dog.

 We've had some major life changes take place in the Jolley household lately. (By the way, I just misspelled our last name. I first wrote Jolly. I'm finally giving into what the world wants, and that is for the -e to be omitted from our last name.)

At the end of May, we went to Utah for two-ish weeks to see family. The first week, we stayed with my mom and did all of the northern Utah things. We went to BYU, Temple Square, took TRAX to Music and the Spoken Word, ate loads of Cafe Rio, and saw many wonderful friends.

On the flight out to Utah, Beck threw up no fewer than 10 times. Who knew a little body could contain so much spew? Dan took Beck to the back of the plane to use the bathroom, and after several minutes, a shirtless Beck came marching down the aisle, stopping at each set of seats to make sure that everyone saw that he was half-naked and getting away with it. Beck loves being naked and rarely gets away with it anymore. 

Then he sat down next to me and proceeded to barf 98 more times. When we changed planes in Denver, I was the lucky contestant accompanied Beck down the jetway whilst holding a barf bag to his lips to catch anything that came flying out on our journey. 

I saw so much fear in so many pairs of eyeballs as we walked on the next plane to Salt Lake City. Everyone was silently pleading with us not to sit anywhere near them. Which, to be honest, I am used to that look. But this had an extra "nobarfnobarfpleasenobarf" level next to it. A new level of desperation.

So that was a tough part of the trip, only to be matched by the other hard part of the trip, which was when Harris took a turn at throwing up, and this time it was right outside the Church Office Building. We know how to leave an impression.

The second week of the trip, we went to St. George for Dan's family reunion.

There were 28 of us in a house with a private pool and a hot tub and a large lagoon we shared with a neighborhood. We cooked and cleaned up and swam and made s'mores and watched movies and made crafts. And then we would go to bed and do the same thing all over again the next day. It was all very fun, and we were dead by the end of it.

My friend Kendra took amazing family photos for us. 

The Original Jolleys:

The Whole Huge Gang.

And Our Small Crew.

Anyone who knows Dan Jolley knows that he has wanted a boat more than anything. More than a wife, more than kids, more than financial security. I kid, I kid. But a boat has always been on top of Dan's list. So when we found one for a very used one for a decent price, we decided to splurge. 

There's been a learning curve involved. Most of the time, I'm a huge planner. But sometimes the four kids and the homeschooling and all of the responsibilities pile up on me and there isn't much time to plan, so we jump forward and plan later. Which means that we bought a boat without knowing how to get a license, and without having a hitch on our van, and without knowing how to back up a trailer. The first time Dan went to take the boat out, he couldn't remember which one was ours. That's the level of jumping ahead I'm talking about. But we finally got licensed, insured, hitched, and practiced backing up the trailer.

In fact, here is a super blurry pic of Dan backing the boat up into the water. I'm his first mate. I'm a terrible first mate. I know nothing and help with nothing besides documenting boating trips by taking terribly blurry photos.

THAR SHE BLOWS! I realize that that phrase refers to a whaling expedition and not a ski boat, but it seemed much more interesting than "Here's our boat."

June on the knee board:

Gwen on the knee board:

Captain Dan, and his loyal Sea Puppy, Gilbert! Yes, in the midst of this non-planning splurging we had going on, we also acquired a dog. Just about as much planning went into the dog as did our boat buying.

I was so against him. But I love him. I'm his favorite, which makes me like him more. He gets it, you know?

Other happenings:

The lady that teaches June how to ride horses (and who also sold us our new puppy) offered to host all of our kids at horse camp one week this summer in exchange for my cleaning her she-shed. I do love a good organization project, so I readily agreed. The camp counselor quickly discovered that the only way to contain Beck was to keep him atop a horse, so he had more than his fair turns riding compared to the other kids.

Gwen had her big annual dance show. She and her friend Heidi have been in jazz together two years in a row. They did such a great job that it almost soothed my soul from the terrible experience of having to put mascara on an 8-year-old who hates it several times in a single week.

We've had this clematis for three years, but it would never bloom. Bloom it did this year, and I'm thrilled. Now I just need a better wreath for my black door so it doesn't look like a giant bruise.

We had our second annual strawberry picking fest with our friends the Cramer's at Sauder's Strawberry Patch. We went the very last day of the season because it was the only day we had time, only to arrive and find out that all of the strawberries are free the last day. We went crazy.

I made tons of freezer jam and we ate so many strawberries that we were a little sick. 

And our church photo from today:

The End.