These ended up out of order.
So it might seem jumbled,
but here goes.
The girls and I road tripped to TX
for Grandma Cuca's funeral.
Matching sandals
Bucees!!!
Our favorite!
Also stopped in Atlanta at The Works,
our other favorite!
Mochi donuts from The Works
Soooo good
Father's Day
I love this guy more and more
as the years go on.
So happy to have him by my side.
The girls pitched in and got this fun shirt for Drew.
Care Bear got her permit! Yippee!!
She passed the first time.
I signed her up for two one-day volleyball camps
at UNCG. With the timing of Grandma's funeral,
she was only able to make it to one. She didn't
love it and decided not to try out for the school
volleyball team. (Much to her mom's dismay...)
Pizza date night
Andrew and I went to an event for
World Refugee Day.
We got to see a few of my NAI students.
Eklaus, one of my favorites.
She got bumped up to the next class
soon after this event.
Veronique, another one of my favorites.
She's so fun and works really hard.
Caroline had stake Youth Conference
this summer. They had a couple days
that were just at the church. And then
went to the National Whitewater Center
in Charlotte for a day.
Rafting
Lunch
With Olivia and Piper
Lunch with Jayne and her Danish friend, Ann
Fun tooth socks for my birthday from Marianne.
I'm killing it on Duolingo right now.
Andrew and I are also studying the gospel
in Spanish 3-4 nights a week. I feel like I'm
progressing and it's so fun! I really hope we
get to serve a Spanish-speaking mission one day!
Scissor-tailed flycatcher in Abilene.
So pretty!
This is the cover bird for Wingspan,
so I was so happy I got to see it.
A stop at my cousin's cute coffee shop in Dallas.
I still haven't met him.
The three girls took a day trip to hike and shop.
Stopped in Winston
The girls each got an art-o-mat
My favorite gelato spot in Winston
We stopped at Lidl and Caroline found a
Fiddle Leaf Fig tree that she fell in love with.
It was so fun to watch her dancing with the
shopping cart when we walked out.
We did a couple little hikes at Hanging Rock.
Window Falls
Lower Cascades
Birding along the way, of course
We love having Whitney home!
Window falls (again)
Lower cascades, one of W's favorite spots
My birthday celebration
We had a small window for a date while Caroline
was at a stake activity, so we stopped for dinner at
Sixty Six Grill and Taphouse in Kernersville.
Yum!
Caroline had to do her student driving with the
instructor before getting her permit. It went well!
We all got to be together for church on my birthday.
Lucky me!
I requested these yummy Chicken Shawarma Bowls
for my birthday dinner and the girls and Andrew
pitched in to make them. I'm so spoiled.
On the day before my birthday, Jamie and I got to play
in a Loboton tournament. It's a fun, weird version of
king of the tennis court. Jamie is the third one from the left.
We got paired with these two other women we hadn't met.
We had a lot of fun. I think we played four matches and
won two of them???
Evening birding in Jamestown
Pre-birthday temple trip
My gorgeous hydrangeas.
I love them so much.
Andrew got back in to fishing for a bit in June.
Caught this little guy at Adams Farm Lake.
It's kinda crazy to me to see herons up in the tree tops.
Care Bear got her permit the day before we drove
to TX. So I put her right to work on the interstate!
Beignets in Louisiana!
When Brandon flew out to TX for the funeral,
he forgot his suitcase.
Oops!
It was so hilarious to get that text.
But I couldn't be mad because once I left on our
month-long road trip and left my suitcase at home. :)
So we had to find a Ross on our way to the Killeen
Airport and find a funeral-appropriate outfit for him.
We texted him pics to get his opinion and ended up
with some decent clothes.
Fun with the fam in San Saba
We have so many fond memories of visiting her.
Harry's boot shop and western wear is a favorite.
Whitney is working that hat!
The smell of those leather boots will
always make me sentimental.
This is the size of Shaq's foot.
Huge!
Dinner at Pepperbelly's in San Saba
The AZ Gerbers and Stonehouses joined us.
So did Aunt Irene and Uncle Bill.
So fun to have such a big group of family together.
Mark and Taylor invited us out to their AirBnB afterward.
We played games, lots of Wavelength, which was fun.
The stars are awesome in San Saba!
Hardly any light pollution.
We pulled over on our drive back to our AirBnB and
just looked at the stars for a bit.
This is my phone camera's astrophotography mode.
We got to see a shooting star while we were out. Exciting!
I went birding one morning by myself in San Saba.
Saw a couple bluebirds, some vireos,
and a summer tanager, among others.
Also saw a skunk and tried to keep my distance.
I don't know when we'll next be in San Saba, so we
made sure to stop at some of the iconic places.
The Mill Pond
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
So cute!
It was fun watching B take pics
Getting just the right angle
One of his masterpieces
This was our AirBnb!
What the heck???
It was a business front that had been turned into rooms.
It was weird, but worked fine for us.
Went axe-throwing
I love these kids!
Also had to stop at Whataburger while we were in TX.
The size of those burgers!
Dropping everyone off so I could head to my Girls Trip.
I loved having a little bonus vacation while we said
our last good-byes to Grandma.
Tennis date night
Heading out to Girls Camp.
It was ward camp this year, which turned out
really great. The girls all loved it.
