It is so beautiful here. I am so blessed to be able to live where we can see forever.
The month of June was very busy. We had 2 birthdays, a graduation, an Eagle project to write up, and all the other things that go with being part of a large family.
Rayne has been busy finishing her Sophomore year at BYUIdaho. She's on the swim team there and she loves it. She's lucky to have friends and roommates who like to play on the weekends, so she's been spending a lot of time at various lakes and canals... swimming, of course.
So this month has really been all about Chase. This little display is from his graduation party. We and the parents of 5 of his friends shared a big graduation party for our children. Cliff made all the food, our friends the Larsens hosted it in their fabulous yard, other parents decorated the tables, made memory books for the graduates, planned games for everyone. It was a lot of fun.
And the food was VERY good, of course! Cliff has such a gift for this! He made homemade garlic breadsticks, buffalo wings, tons of tri-tip sandwiches with veggie relishes and 3 different kinds of sauce.... others brought salads and dip. There were lots of people there--including quite a few that no one seemed to know (who invited them we wondered!). The little kids swam in the pool and the big kids played games and bonded. Congratulations Chase!
He is VERY glad to be done with his high school work. He graduated with great grades and he's decided to take a year off from school. He plans to: continue working and saving for his mission, take an autobody class and fix up his car and Rayne's car, and take a few other classes at the local junior college. All good things. Meanwhile, he's still working on getting his car actually running! My dad calls it the "one way car" because it's broken down several times on the way home from somewhere--it gets Chase there, but fails to get him home! 
He house-sits for a great neighbor who lives down the road. Ernie (our neighbor) knows the way to a teenager's heart: he not only pays Chase for watering and watching the place, but he brings over his ATV so Chase doesn't have to walk or drive his car to the house. Nice, eh?
He also did his regular "mowing" of the neighbor's "yard"--a few hours of work for $400--wish that happened more than once a year!
Finally, Chase completed his Eagle project. After planning for a month or so, he spent 3 weeks collecting donations (goods and money) for the Family House in San Francisco. He wanted to do this because his cousin Carmen stayed there with her mom Dorothy--for free--when Carmen was having treatment there for her cancer.
The Family House made that time there away from the family bearable for Carmen and Dorothy and Chase wanted to do something for them. So many people donated. So many people were extremely generous. He ended up bringing them a truckload of food and other stuff and many gift cards for groceries and gas (which they give to their families who need them). Chase and Isaiah and Cliff delivered the stuff at the beginning of June to the Family House. So Chase had a very busy June. He is now an official Eagle Scout.
Allegra turned 14 at the end of June. We had our usual family birthday party. She and her grandmother went birthday shopping (hence the manicure and the new shirt). She got just what she wanted for her birthday, including plenty of books.
She's eagerly anticipating girls camp, which will happen in July. Meanwhile she's taking advantage of long summer days where nothing is required of her except a few nominal chores and a little bit of math. Here you see her with Rayne, who played hairdresser for her daily while she visited us in May (for Spring break). Does not Allegra have AMAZING hair? She doesn't appreciate it now..... but she will!
Sweet Isaiah (you see him above with Chase too) turned 11 in May and has now entered the world of boy scouting, which he loves. He is a very good worker and he has been helping a lot... around the house, with the Eagle project, out in the yard. He assures me that he's not waiting until a few months before his 18th birthday before HE does his Eagle project! Isaiah is spending his summer working on various projects and playing more video games than usual and watching more movies than usual and just generally enjoying himself. Except! for those daily math lessons (Mom is so mean). Isaiah and Allegra are the proud owners of two guinea pigs--Zeus and Hades--and Isaiah is the most tender, most conscientious pet owner ever. Cliff and I are well. He's got a million projects lined up to do this summer. This is the first summer he's had completely off from work in many years. And he's not a man of leisure--he's happiest when he's busy. He's got a couple of conferences to attend. He's got cars to work on, he wants to sort and reorganize the "dungeon" (i.e. the game room and the food storage room), and he's got tons of outside projects--a deck perhaps? Definitely he's going to prepare some of the back area for possible grass in our future (I dream of grass in the backyard....). You'll hopefully see pictures this summer of his many accomplishments. Oh! Something very good: Cliff was "Teacher of the Year" in our school district this year--quite an honor. Surprisingly, this honor requires his writing 19 pages of papers for further submissions to the state and the national "Teacher of the Year" programs. He is an exceptional teacher, one of the many things I didn't really know about him 20+ years ago when we married. He is always surprising me with new talents. He does everything so well.
My big summer goal is to catch up with our scrapbooks! Is this an impossible task? Maybe. But I plan to spend every available moment trying. I also want to get some serious reading done and I want to work on memorizing a song on the piano. I have never been good at memorizing piano music but I figure one song a year may not be too hard? I don't know. We'll see. I'm also sure I'll get drawn into all the various projects that everyone has planned around here. And, unfortunately, I am sure I will spend an inordinate amount of time doing laundry and cleaning things. Sigh. I am very happy, though. We have a very good life.
