Summer Vacation??? A Vacation???

This Jenae and I at Summer Games right after the award ceremony

We went to Wingers for a late lunch after Summer Games.  Every year Michael designs a shirt to wear which says he is Jenae's biggest fan.  What a guy!!!

 This is Vitaliy in his Class A and Andy in is Class B - they made the Class B shirts for their camp.  Tyler designed the shirts.

Here he is posing for the picture!  What a great smile.  By the way, he and Sasha are now sporting the famous Golling haircut.  Which, by the way, was not forced on them...they asked for it.  Well, it was sort of forced on Sasha, but once he got it, he was happy.  I am pretty sure he didn't think I was talented at cutting hair, but once I was done he realized, Wow, she didn't do half bad.

Please note Jackson's designer style...three ties and pajamas on his head....he pulls it off!!!

I gave the camera to Sasha and ten minutes later he had fifty pictures taken...here are a few of the good ones.  Jason and Jenae out front.

Dusty loves Basketball

Jackson just kickin' it!

Sasha

Tyler in front of the computer.  He is a wiz at helping me with the computer!

Did you know that the "G" in Pleasant Grove stands for "Gratitude"  We sure picked the right place to live.  By the way...this is the view from our porch!  Oh, we live in a beautiful place!

The summer is going full force now.  Jenae competed in Gymnastics at Summer Games in Cedar City last weekend.  She received the Gold medal for the beam in her age division.  It was really exciting.  Michael, Jenae and I drove down Friday night and stayed in a hotel overnight.  Okay, that really was a vacation.  We went swimming until ten o’clock, along with at least thirty other kids, but it was fun and the pool was warm.  We went out to eat and nothing was rushed.  It was really fun.  I really enjoyed having the time to spend with just two children alone together. 

Friday morning, the same day we drove to Cedar City, Vitaliy and I drove up to Weber State for Michael’s Boy’s State graduation.  I have to say it was intimidating sitting in a room with 259 young men who you know were 99.5% Eagle Scouts and 99.5% with amazing grade point averages.  Out of all the young men, 197 of them received scholarships.  Michael did earn one of the scholarships and that was exciting as well.  The majority of the graduation was focused on gratitude for our armed forces.  The youth Lieutenant Governor was a young man named Andrew who suffers from Cerebral Palsy.  He was absolutely amazing and incredibly motivating.  I hung on his every word.  He was elected to his position by his peers and I can certainly see why.  He had my vote.  The other boys loved him!  Watching him made you appreciate life and strive to be a better person.  By the way, thank you Stephanie for joining us at the graduation.  It was amazing seeing you!

So…Michael came back from Boy’s State, Jenae competed in Utah Summer Games, Jason, Tyler and Vitaliy leave for their Varsity High Adventure Camp tomorrow, Andy joins them on Wednesday, Michael leaves for his Ventures High Adventure Camp on Tuesday and I will be home with our “younger” family consisting of Jackson, Cali, Dusty, Jenae and Sasha.  I will only have five kids!!! Five young kids for that matter.  This should be fun!  There is a whole different set of activities you can do with just younger kids and I am looking forward to that.  Maybe we will camp in the backyard…they would love that!

Vitaliy received his first class A Scout uniform today and he posed for a picture in it.  Let me say that again, did you catch that…HE posed for a picture!  He is very proud to be a Scout and I am really excited for him. 

We should have some baptisms coming up soon.  We found out today that when the boys are sealed to us in the temple, which can happy anytime after their baptism once Vitaliy receives the priesthood, that all of our children will be able to come into the sealing room to witness it!  That is very, very cool!!!

I am anxious to share my testimony of the gospel with the boys.  There have been many things I wish I could explain to them better.  But, the most important thing I wish they knew is my love for my Father in Heaven.  It is because of His relationship with me that helps me with my relationship with my children.  I was sitting in Sacrament meeting today.  I was asking forgiveness, yet again, for not being as good of a mom as I can be.  I asked Heavenly Father, how does he love us but dislike the things that we do?  What made me think that was I find it hard to find the likability of a child when I don’t like what they are doing.  My husband asked me, so it’s not that he is being bad, it’s just that you know he can be so much better.  Then I realized that I just received part of my answer.  Heavenly Father must look at us, and in my case, often, and think, “She could be so much better than she is being right now”.  That made me realize that if I look at it from his perspective, I can approach it positively.  It was a mini-revelation and I needed it.  Now I just need to apply it.  It has changed my mood and I am grateful for that.

I want more than anything for the boys to have the gospel in their lives.  Not just because we have it but because it brings me so much happiness, comfort and peace to know who I am and how I fit into my Heavenly Family.  So, I look forward to sharing that with them as soon as I can.

I appreciate all who support our family in what we are doing and thank you for that support.  It helps more than you know.  I also really appreciate all those families who have adopted and share their stories with me because it helps me in so many ways.

Families…..It’s where it’s at!!!!