What the second half of June looked like

Aunt Irene offered to sell us Grandma Cuca's car.

It's the PERFECT teenager car and we're so happy 

Whit can drive it and hope it can hang in there for Caroline

to drive it in a few years, too. 

Happy Father's Day! 

We bought a charcoal grill for Andrew.

He has loved learning how to grill.

The girls have loved having some new

options for dinners--kebobs and burgers. Yum.

For Father's Day, he grilled up some yummy steaks.

My mum has started blooming.

It makes me happy.

We found a new trail we can take to walk 

around the neighborhood.

Stopped for some portraits along the way. :)

Also tried to catch a bunny...

didn't work.

I was SOOOO happy to get this pic on my phone.

Greg and Nicolle were in St. George for a family

reunion and stopped by the chocolate factory

while B was working. LOVE that they reached out

and said HI to him.

Beautiful cotton candy sunset clouds

One of Caroline's day trip pics:

Mystery Hill near Blowing Rock, NC 

 This place was trippy.

It has a gravitational vortex there that

causes some gravitational anomalies.

They also built a room that

emphasizes those quirks.

Water can flow uphill....????

And balls can roll uphill???

It's crazy.

And it gave me vertigo to be in there.

After the vortex,

they had some other places you could visit.

We liked the plasma ball.

And had WAY too much fun in the bubble room. 

They had the coolest arrowhead collection.

It was HUGE.

And arranged so cutely by a woman 

who was also a quilter.  

Crazy shapes I'd never seen before!

Hooks.

Hearts?

I loved these!

Clear arrowheads!

I loved this arrangement.

After that, there was a historical home that you

could walk through. 

We liked this piano.

The woman of the house used it to teach lesson.

She had labeled the keys with different 

symbols to teach students that couldn't read.

Interesting...

And then it was on to AXE THROWING. 

It is harder than it looks!

Caroline got one in that part of the target

that is apparently worth more points than

a bullseye. Score!

I got one close to the bullseye.

But Whitney was the most consistent thrower.

She was a natural.

We had a great time at Mystery Hill.

It is kinda tourist-trappy and was a little overpriced,

but had such a great variety of things to see and do.

All of us had a lot of fun.

While we were in the area,

I picked a couple of other things to do that day. 

We drove down to THE Blowing Rock.

So, the town is named Blowing Rock, NC.

But there's an actual rock that it is named after.

You have to pay like nine bucks to go out and see it.

The views there are gorgeous!

But I don't think it was worth the fee.

I would prefer similar views for free on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

They had some cute gardens on the property, too.

Before we headed home, I decided to 

throw a hike into our plans.

Caroline was NOT happy to hear that.

She came along, but was rage hiking the whole time.

I didn't know that was a thing.

But she walked in front of us the whole time

with an ANGRY walk.

When Whit and I got out of view, 

she'd wait for a bit until she could see us

and then STORM off again.

Not her typical behavior...

I hope it's not indicative of what the teenagers

years will hold for her...

The hike was right in downtown Blowing Rock.

It was called the Glen Burney Falls trail.

You could park for free in their public parking

and then just start walking.

It was two and a half miles round trip.

There were a few homes still in view when

the trail started, but then it felt like you 

were out in the boonies.

.

 Weird tree on the way.

It was a gorgeous hike,

with a couple little waterfalls on the way

before you get to Glen Burney Falls.

This was Glen Burney.

Pretty!

Caroline decided she wanted to stop about 1,000 

feet before you could see the falls.

Little stinker.

Such a lush place to hike.

Rage hiking.

That's a giant millipede by Whit's foot.

The town of Blowing Rock has a cute little main

street with shops. We stopped for ice cream at Kilwin's.

It was SOOOO good.

Also stopped for a pic on the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way home.

I'm loving these day trips with the girls!

Some creature ate most of my day lily blooms,

but I'm finally getting a few.

They are so pretty. I love them!

More turtles at the lake.

Whitney arranged a version of Country Roads

for us to sing Sweat Family Harmony.

We practiced for a few weeks and 

finally all learned our parts.

So fun!

When we watched it back,

Andrew and I were like,
"Why do we look so SERIOUS?"

Ha! I think it took all of our concentration 

to hit our notes. (And even then I missed several...)

One evening we decided to do experiments.

We did the mentos-and-coke geyser a few times.

First try


It was hilarious to watch them trying to drink the last of the geyser.

Second try

Third try

We also tried making alka seltzer
rockets in film canisters.
We actually got a couple to work,
but none of them while I had the
camera going, of course. :)

Day Trip:

Trail ride at RedBarn Riding in Lancaster, SC.

This was Caroline's other pick.

We drove down just across the border into SC

for an hour long trail ride.

Our guides were SO nice and our horses were

cooperative. The scenery along the way was just OK.

And it felt kind of short.

But overall we enjoyed it.

Whitney has gotten back into visual art,

mostly sketching.

She is SO good.

It has been so fun to see her re-kindle that talent.

And just like that June is gone! It seems weird to not be driving across the country. Or at least putting together our plans to drive across the country. I'm so happy we got to see so many of our UT relatives over Christmas for Lauren's wedding. I'm REALLY sad that we can't see Grandma Cuca this summer, though. She's hanging in there. I miss her. Hopefully I can sneak in a visit at some point when this stupid virus is gone.

The other big news that wasn't photo-worthy is that I officially got released from my calling as seminary teacher. It was bittersweet. I have LOVED teaching seminary. It was so good for me personally to really delve into the scriptures every day. And I LOVED interacting with our awesome youth and learning from them. It was inspiring. But it was also exhausting. And I'm grateful that I don't have to wake up early every morning. And I'm happy that I can be there for Andrew when he has had a long night of church calls and wants to chat or hang out. I was really protective of my bed-time when I was a seminary teacher, so it will be nice to let that go.