Merril's M.E.R.A. 1088!

Merril and Ryan R. decided to go on another adventure by competing in the M.E.R.A. (Motorcycle Endurance Riders Association) Utah 1088.  They have to ride over 1,088 miles in less than 24 hours.  Here they are, packing up to go.

If crazy had a face, it would look like these two.

Mark.the.shark.  He was outside playing on Gavin's longboard while the packing was going on.  I snagged this.

The rally wasn't just about riding a lot of miles but seeing lots of cool places along the way.  Different locations had different points associated with them.  They accumulated points, scavenger-hunt style.

That's Merril in the background!  I can't imagine how Ryan takes pictures while riding a motorcycle!  That's a little scary.

Another destination that gave them points, a Stonehenge replica.

Merril has a GPS tracker called a SPOT.  When turned on, it will transmit his GPS coordinates every 10 minutes and I can track him on my smart phone, even when he can't make a call.  The SPOT also has 3 buttons that can send a standard text like, "Everything's OK.", "In Trouble, send help.", and "Call 911."  It's given me some peace of mind, knowing I can help if he gets stuck or hurt while he's out of cell phone service.  The SPOT device was worth a lot of points and that combined with the other points nabbed Merril 1st Place!!  Ryan got 2nd because he doesn't have a SPOT.  

In then end, they rode over 1,200 miles in less than 24 hours.  WOW!

Oh yes, it's the first day of school...

We blinked and summer was over.  About time too because I was starting to go a little batty with the kids home all day.  Maxine started 7th grade, Jack-4th, Juliet-3rd, and Mikayla started preschool.  Everyone popped right out of bed and was ready way before it was time to go down to the bus.  I've been lazy since Mark was born but this year I'm putting my foot down and making sure the kids take a home lunch.  Fingers crossed that I can keep my resolve.

Maxine is excited that this is her last year at the Intermediate School because the bus comes so early: 7:05 a.m.  After this, the start time of middle and high school is later and later.

Mikayla is killing me in these pictures.  She was really excited to go to preschool.  It has taken quite the amount of coaxing for Luke.

Mikayla's preschool teacher plants wildflowers up a pretty little walk to the front door.  She wants to pick them all.  Her teacher said she could pick 1 a day.  :)

Jack is just getting bigger.  

Julie is so stylish.  Those glasses are not prescription.  She just saw them as Justice and wanted them so bad she purchased them herself.

Here's to a great year!

Dinner up at Kolob Cabins...

My side of the family doesn't tend to get together often, mostly because of lack of planning.  Everyone is busy and we let it slip.  The last couple of months, my Mom has decided that we need to have family dinner once a month.  The 2nd Sunday was deemed the day and we rotate who hosts.  This Sunday we had it up at the Kolob cabins. We showed up first and played around on the cement deer at Grandma's cabin.

Later everyone else showed up for dinner.  Yum.  Jeannie's kids took Jack out on the 4-wheelers and so did my Mom and I.  It was a perfect day and very pleasant.

Mikayla is silly, as always.  One thing that I love about her.  Another thing I love is when she's asked, "How are you doing?" she replies, "Great!" almost every single time.  Most people when asked "How's it going?" reply with, "Ok." or "Good."  It's unexpected to hear, "Great!" and I guess that's what I love about it.  Mikayla: You.Are.Great!

Little Jamaica Falls...

Little Jamaica Falls is just south of the Gorge and we were told about it the summer Mark was born.  We kept meaning to go but it just kept getting put off.  This summer, it was on our list of activities to do!  Little Jamaica is a mineral spring.  The water pouring out of the top is full of minerals and those minerals harden the ground and rocks.  People have brought sand bags down to build a little pool and it has all calcified, making a wall.

It was right next to the Virgin River.

Merril stopped by and then had to leave for work.

We stayed and played for a while.

It's a really neat place to visit and not that far away.  I don't think it's regulated by anyone and so there was a ton of trash on the hike down.

Towards the end, Mark got in too deep and ended up face down in the water, flailing like a frog.  I was right there and pulled him out and hung him upside down, hopefully getting any water to drain out of him.  Then I was worried he had water in his lungs so I watched him for signs of distressed breathing.  Merril was recently trained as a emergency medical responder for Search & Rescue and brought home his new EMR bag.  It has a pulse oximeter that tests blood oxygen saturation levels.  Mark was asleep but I totally sneaked into his room and put it on his big toe.  His sats were 96.  *sigh*  No worries now.

Kanarraville Falls!

We found the coolest place to go hiking!!  I have heard of Kanarraville Falls my whole life but I've never been.  It was one of our summer goals of things to do.  Summer is coming to a close and we decided we better get on it!  

The hike starts out on a dirt road for 3/4 of a mile. Jack carried Mark for a while until he got too heavy.  

The road starts to wind in and out of a cold river.  Shoes get wet and there is lots of avoiding bushes and trees.  We stopped for lunch along the trail.  

The trail goes along the river for a ways until you get up towards a slot canyon.  The canyon narrows and creates waterfalls.  It was like a mini subway and so beautiful.  

Mark was riding in the baby backpack but Mikayla walked almost the whole way!  It was about 4 miles total.  The first waterfall had a ladder and after the first waterfall, Merril and Mark hung back because Mark wanted out of the backpack for a while.  

The rest of us hiked up to the 2nd waterfall and then came back down.  

 It was a fun hike but towards the end, Merril had to run back to do some work he'd promised.  By then, I had Mark in the backpack and Mikayla was starting to slow down.  The older kids kind of took off to get back to the car as quick as possible.  I ended up carrying Mikayla in my arms and Mark on my back for part of the time.  Woosh!  That was a lot of work but it was so pretty and we had a great time.

15th Anniversary to the Florida Keys...

Yay!  Time for our vacation!  To spend the least amount of time away from the kids, we left Sunday evening and flew all night on the cheap-o airline: Spirit.  We carried on backpacks because we had to pay extra for everything except for a personal item.

After arriving in Ft. Lauderdale, we rented a black convertible Chevy Camero and drove to Miami Beach for the night.  We went swimming in the ocean twice that day because the water was unbelievably warm, at least 90.

We had a nap and listened to live music as we ate dinner outdoors.

The next morning we got up at 5 a.m. to make it to Key West for our scuba lesson.  We passed Waffle House and Merril wanted to stop for breakfast.  Look how happy he is with his waffles!

We spent some time in a pool learning basic scuba like how to clear a regulator and goggles, had lunch and rode out to the reef.  We spent an hour diving and then drove to another reef and spent another hour diving.  We made friends with 2 single dudes from Belgium and had fun chatting with them about their country.  I guess European businesses close for 3 weeks during the summer to allow their employees vacation.  We saw a bunch of European tourists.

After scuba, we saw the alleged southernmost point in the continental U.S.  ;)

Then we went to see the sunset because Key West is the "Home of the Sunset."  There were food vendors and performers.  We got a virgin Mojito.

The next day we slept in and headed back up the keys.  Our flight didn't leave until 8:30 p.m. so we had the whole day and took our time.   We swam in the ocean again at Bahia Honda State Park.  Mini lobster season was in effect so there were a lot of people snorkeling for lobsters.

Merril insisted on a convertible.  He wanted a Jeep but the rental place was sold out so he settled for the Camero.  I felt like it was a great way to experience driving down the Keys!  

The Keys are all connected by a variety of bridges.  How amazing is that?  The longest, 7-mile bridge, is in the background.  This is where we ate lunch our last day.  They had a pool that you could swim in for free.  You could order food if you liked.

Our 3 day, 5 night vacation was amazing.  It was so much fun to be able to spend that much time with Merril without having to divide my attention 5 different ways.  The whole vacation was exactly what we wanted it to be.  There were no disagreements, no contention.  Everything was sublime.  Especially the Key Lime Pie.  ;)

My 5 kids...

We brought back shirts from Key West as souvenirs for the kids.  They all lined up for a picture.  I can't believe how big they're getting.

Mark is starting to get older and the rest of them are all growing up.  I love them!

Mark baby...

When Mark was born he didn't seem to look like any of our other kids.  Merril jokingly questioned his paternity to our 5th child.  I tried to order a mock DNA test for the first Father's Day after Mark was born to show that Merril and Mark were truly Father and son, as a joke, but those are hard to get.  But then Mark's hair started to grow in and the hair coming out of that boy's head is the exact same coarseness and texture as Daddy's hair!  Merril seemed satisfied.  :)

Further proof has come to light in the last few weeks!  Merril really likes salad.  He has huge salads all the time.  His dressing of choice is Thousand Island, which makes the rest of us stick out our tongues and go, "Yuck!"  However, Mark is my only toddler that has loved salad and after Merril gave him a taste of Thousand Island a few weeks ago, he refuses all other salad dressings.  That boy, is his Father's son.

24th of July float...

I've been called into the Primary Presidency since February.  It's been a new and challenging calling but I'm getting better at it.  The Primary is in charge of providing a float in the 24th of July parade in H-town.  I volunteered our truck and trailer and Merril took this opportunity to redeck the trailer.  We'd know about it for months but waited until the last minute to get it done.  This is the night before the parade.  We finished around midnight.  

It turned out really nice!

My favorite part were the 2 bubble machines on the back of the trailer.  Bubbles poured out behind the float and people thought it was a blast!

Juliet's baptism...

Juliet's baptism was set for July 11th, 2015.  Grandma Campbell had taken her to the fabric store about a month before to pick out fabric and a pattern for a baptism dress.  I took Julie to Deseret Book to pick out a set of nice scriptures and a scripture case.  We decided to take her baptism pictures at the St. George Temple and I loved how they turned out!

Juliet Aya Campbell was baptized and confirmed by her father, Merril L. Campbell.

 She's cute as a button.

Juliet was feeling "super!"  

Grandmas and Grandpas were in attendance but most of our families couldn't make it.  We invited several friends: Olivia R., Lauren S., Ellie and Ayzie H and their Moms.  :)  How thankful I am for good friends who were able to come and make Juliet's day a special one.  

Afterwards we had cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, and eggs for brunch back at our house!  

Aladdin Jr....

Maxine was in the junior musical production of Aladdin.  She auditioned and got the role of the Genie!  I helped with sets and made her costume, which I thought turned out great!

I have a love/hate with these plays because they rehearse Monday through Friday for a little over a month.  It's a lot of driving and schedules for the summer.  

That being said, Maxine did amazing.  She.killed.it.  I would watch her with such pleasing satisfaction.  She hit her notes, she delivered her lines, made her entrances.  It was a great role for her.  She's growing up into an amazing person.  

After the last performance, the cast went to DQ for a cast party.  They had to ask us to be quiet a number of times and about asked us to leave.  But they quieted down enough to stay until closing time.