Adventure is Out There

Golda is starting to get wedding invitations in the mail, and her peers are starting to leave on missions.  It's a crazy time of life.  It's easy to feel like everyone is passing you by when there are weddings and missionary farewells and people moving away.  It's tempting for some of these new adults to feel like everyone else is doing something big, or taking the next step, but in reality, everyone is just figuring out where to go next.  Transitions are scary. Yet it's a time of life when it's OK to do something big.  Huge!  When you're 18 or 19, you can go and do whatever you want to do, so do it!  Don't lament the fact that people around you are moving on.  Move on too!  You can go anywhere in the world and do anything you can think of.  

 Caroline was Dance Co president, and went to UVU.  She has been an inspiration for Golda.  Thank you, Caroline!

 Last week was Golda's friend Evyn's missionary farewell.  He is going to Farmington, New Mexico, and will most likely be within the Navajo Nation for part, if not most, of his mission.  He gave a great talk.  He's so prepared to move on to the next phase.

 His mom brought us a thank you rose.  How sweet!

 I am so happy the girls get to travel now, especially with a whole batch of friends leaving on missions and to college.  These are all pictures that Genevieve sent me.  I was reading my journal from Spain in 1990.  It was my 5th summer spent in Europe, and I talked all about what I would do next time, and where I would go when I went back.  I did go back to Spain a couple of years later to work in a violin shop for the summer and travel around, and I spent time there with Scott in 1996.  But now it's been almost 20 years since I was in Spain.  It's sad to think that a place I loved so much has been all but forgotten in the day-to-day life.  On the other hand, look at the adventures I've had during the past 20 years.  But my point is, do things while you're young, when it's so easy.  I had parents who were super supportive of travel and education, and paid for a lot of opportunities for me.  And I had jobs where I worked and went to school sometimes 24 hours a day, literally.  At one time, I had school from 8 to 4, a waitress job from 5 to 10 pm, a hotel job from 10 pm to 6 am, and another hotel housekeeping job from 6 am to 10 am on weekends, so I could go to Spain for the summer.  It's possible.  In college, I took weekend gigs almost every weekend, where I went to different cities in Indiana and Kentucky to play in orchestras.  So I got to see the midwest, and get paid too.  When I lived in Indiana, I took every invitation to visit friends everywhere. Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor...Spain.  I traveled with Gema, the sister of the family Golda and Ruby are staying with in Spain.  We were roommates, and we drove up and down the east coast, all over Indiana, and she even came to Utah for Christmas.  We had fun, and it led to a richer life.  Golda and Ruby had dinner with Gema the other night in Extremadura.  She loves the girls dearly, because they are mine, and I love her for that.

So go and be young, young people.  Do the exciting things; the missions, the marriages, the travel, the adventure, college.  And don't forget to connect with the people around you, to absorb everything about them that is different than yourself.  Give your heart to them.  It will come back to you fuller and deeper than before, I promise.

 Lanslevillard

 Annecy

 Turin

 Turin

Golda, Olympe, Catherine, Ruby

Cheers

 The best thing about summer is the ability to take off and go whenever we want to.  I'm making it sound easy, but it's not.  It takes a lot of effort, determination and desperation not to schedule anything in July, but I try.  Still, there are a lot of obligations.

 You know that Cheers song that says, "Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name."  I never understood that, because I always want to go where nobody knows my name, where I'm free of everyone else's opinions, and free of the obligations that come with having friends, family, a church and a community.  Of course, all those things are good things.  Sometimes I just wanna go where nobody knows my name.

 Park City will have to suffice.  At least none of the bugs on the hike knew my name, or if they did, they weren't saying it.

 Dead deer.  We were trying to hike from the condo to the Jordanelle shoreline.  It's close, but all fenced off.  Our little walk ended up being five miles, but the kids didn't mind.

 These guys know my name, and that's OK by me.

 I know.  I want to, too.

 Bird nests.  I bet everybody in this muddy little community knows every one else's name.  And I bet they all have chirpy little bird opinions on everything.

 Xanthe ran into a party decoration at the park the other day.  Thank heavens her eyes weren't hurt!

 Another hike, up under the Town lift and down Main Street.  That was a fun one.

 Happiest kid!  He's so little and happy.  I love his personality!

 Two good friends.

 Scott claims that I tricked him into going to Jordanelle by telling him that it was fun.  It's rocky.  If you know of a nice, shady beach area at Jordanelle that we didn't find, let me know.  It was fun anyway, according to me.  It's beautiful up there!  Scott sat under a big weed the whole time.  Hey, at least nobody knew our names.  Not the white families huddled under weeds eating sandwiches, and not the Polynesian families relaxing under their canopies, chilling to music, grilling hundreds of pounds of delicious, marinated meats to go with their coolers full of salads that they ate at their tableclothed, ballon-bedecked tables.  Man, though, I wish some of them had known our names!  "Circe, come eat some of this teriyaki chicken and macaroni salad!"  Scott wanted to ask how much admission to their party would be.  Maybe our problem is that we're just not Polynesian enough. Yes, that's definitely one of our problems.  Why couldn't my great-great-great grandfather have stayed in Hawaii? I bet Scott wouldn't complain if the beach was rocky if we were in Hawaii! ;)

 Back to the pool to soak up the summer mountain air.

 Araceli is suddenly so grown up.  She is the best!

 Photo shoot gone bad!  lol.  It is so funny watching Xanthe try to produce her genuine smile.  She can't do it!  Until she's not thinking about it, that is!

 So we had a fun weekend in Park City, just doing our thing, until we had to come back to set up chairs at church at 8 am Sunday morning.  I'm thinking I'll have to add, "Where nobody knows your phone number" to the song.

Summer in All Its Glory

 This is what summer looks like.  David provides the pizza, I provide the adult supervision at Cherry Hill.  Or not.

 Scott loves it when I slave over a hot pizza box to provide sustenance for our family.

 Pirate boy

 Sometimes we switch it up and go to a different body of water.  I like to fill up all the seats in the car, so we invite friends.
 No pizza this time, only bologna, the object of my heart's desire when I was a junk-food-deprived kid.  These kids were confused by the red stuff around the edge.  I guess bologna doesn't hold the same appeal in 2015 as it did in the '70's, slapped on a bed of Miracle Whip between two pieces of Wonder Bread.  I always was jealous of the kid who had that.  I had Jack Spratt whole grain bread and all-natural peanut butter.

 Tizzy built herself a stage, only big enough for one, mind you, and performed her greatest hits for the seagulls.  They were more interested in breaking into the cooler and getting at the bologna.

 Sam stepped on something in the water and his toe was bleeding.  Gushing.

 So, when Araceli and Ellison finally got back from their nature walk along a designated trail on which they had somehow gotten hopelessly lost, we packed up and went home.

 Meanwhile, in Sevilla!  Scott and I couldn't sleep the night before because Golda and Ruby were catching a flight in the middle of the night our time.  After the trauma of their cancelled flight on the way to Europe, we were just anxious to have them on the plane.  No problems this time.  Phew!

 Sonia and Victor picked them up at the airport in Sevilla and took them to their dazzling airbnb apartment.  I'll have to post a link.  It's like a palace.  At midnight, Ruby texted me, "We're going to our second tapas bar of the night now!"  That's my girl.  I am so happy they are in Spain!  I spent two summers there, soaking it all in.  In my heart, there is a place especially reserved for Spain.  Can't wait to see if my girls fall in love with it too!  Last time they were there, it wasn't for long enough. This time, 2.5 weeks ins't long enough either, but it's a start.

Thank you to Catherine Lavisierre, and her daughter Olympe and Genevieve and Hubert Neyrand-Roux, who took such good care of our girls and showed them around 3 countries.  They are so generous of spirit and so warm hearted.  I want to be just like them in their hospitality.  We love you all!