Cambodia, Puerto Rico, Arizona, Las Vagas

Our family was in 4 different places at once!

Cambodia, Puerto Rico, Arizona, Las Vagas

Now we are down to 3 since Claire finally got home! She arrived with a pungent aura and with Group A Streptococcus. 

A few of the highlights she shared with me:

1) her best friend's name was Kaka

2) "It was kinda nice not having my phone"

3) She gave me some context behind the letter she wrote home. She wrote it between bouts of vomit but her leaders warned her to only include good stuff in the letter because they didn't want parents to worry. In her mind, she thought, "You don't know my parents. My dad prays for a hurricane to hit the island where my brother is. They want us to suffer." Of course, in the very best possible way (I added that last part).

Iris and Sybil flew out on Tuesday. Sybil is in AZ

and Iris and David are in El Salvador. 

I've gotten some pretty awesome pics of the all of the people they are visiting and the fun things they are doing like climbing to see this volcanic crater. 

This is the middle of the semester for me, so I have a whole lot of school stuff going on. This semester we are required to complete 180 hours of clinical time. I will probably get 280.  Graduation in December is daunting and clinical time is the best way to learn. 

last night I hosted a dinner with some of my hermanas del barrio:

 

22 years!

22 years of marriage yesterday!

It was a glorious day with church cleaning, hot-tubbing, ate at home with friends from El Salvador, and what I wanted to hike at Mt Charleston. The wind was strong and the trees at the top were half dead, but beautiful:

Claire is still in Cambodia building classrooms for children in Battambang. She's also visited Siem Reap, an elephant sanctuary, Angkor Wat, the Killing Caves, and will have a stop-over in Singapore, and San Fransisco. She doesn't have a phone, but we've been following her adventures on Instagram. We do know that she has a bacterial skin infection bc they aked permission to give her antibiotics AND she wrote us a letter (which I assume was done at gunpoint since writing letters isn't her thing) in which she said she hasn't eaten nor pooped in a few days, and that she hopes that "your other children made Father's Day bearable without me."

Sybil is taking advantage of the swimming season and forces us to rate all of her dives. 

She often tells me that she's my boss.

Iris went to Zion's Youth last week which is an orchestra camp. She's also been working on algebra for summer school. And this is a flare-up of vitiligo that she wears with pride: 

Sybil is currently trying to dye her hair with a marker; Zoe doesn't approve:

Today we went to Grace's farewell. It was so beautiful--the spirit was strong.

We went to our ward after and I spoke with a woman whose 18 year old daughter is investigating the church. I talked to her about the transformative power of the missionary work. 

 

Happy Father's Day

David's best Father's Day present is that Iris got home last night from HXP. Maybe tied for first is something that will happen at church today, but I can't spoil the surprise since he's my only avid blog follower. 2 other presents include biscuits baking in the oven from a recipe he pulled off of NY Times and an amazon package upstairs.

 Happenings from this week include 2 sets of friends from out of town: Javier and Betel from Mexico and Jacob and Harmony driving through. We had a spectacular dinner on Friday and then bingsu, of course, because David is addicted. 

I had a cute lunch date this week with these 2. We've been soaing up out time with Grace a good amount since she's getting set apart today as a missionary. Yesterday, Sybil and I went to her house to make jewelry out of the shells she collected in Hawaii. 

And here are some HXP pics, screen-shotted from Instagram.

Iris hard at work:

Claire

Claire is on the ight side, cut off

Sybil was hard at work on Tuesday with David. Her work included listening to Harry Patter audiobook (which she has been passionately involved in) while coloring.

AND

As much time as possible with her BFFs, Masha and Mila.

Unfortunately, they had a viscous 2 pound dog:

Craft: painting a frame for the poster she got from France at Spring Break.

And my boy finally sent some pictures:

Update: this is the msg that Elder Garcia sent David for Fathers' Day and it was read over the pulpit:

Hi Dad,

Espero que estas teniendo un dia increible! Te queria agredecer por todo lo que haz hecho por mi! Especialmente en estos últimos años en preparación para mí mision! Hay muchos tiempos aqui donde la gente dicen cosas como "este misionero tiene padres increibles" y cosas asi y es verdad porque se que mucho de quien soy es debido a ti y tus grandes habilidades como padre! 

Me haz enseñado como ser una persona espiritual, amable y trabajadora! Se que muchas veces no era facil pero te agradezco tanto por todo lo que me haz empujado a hacer! Realmente haz sido mi soporte desde el principio y me haz guiado aun cuando estaba muy perdido! 

Me haz dado la oportunidad de aprender cosas que no podria haber aprendido de cualquiera otro! Haz sido mi compañero en todas las adventuras de la vida desde ir de camping hasta haciendo caminatas grandes! 

Te doy gracias por amarme tanto para correjirme y ayudarme a tener los atributos de cristo! Realmente no podria pedir un padre mejor y te agradezco y te agredecere por el resto de mi vida! Te amo un monton!! 

 

Into the thick of summer

Iris is in West Virginia, Claire is flying to Cambodia tomorrow, and of course I didn't look at my calendar  when I was scheduling Sybil's camp, so she's at home next week to "help" me study for my 2 first tests of the summer semester. Sybil: my little velcro child (which I love). She's really into Harry Potter audiobooks, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep her busy.

Iris making new friends in Wes Virginia. They don't allow phones so these are photos from Instagram. She's gone hiking, white water rafting, and will start the service project soon.

Making new friends; she didn't know anyone before going.

And my boy Elijah who won't send me pictures anymore. Sarah sent me this picture of him:

He's now a zone leader and training for the third time. 

David, Sybil and I went to Joseph and the Technicolor Coat at an outdoor theater in Red Rock. The setting was beautiful and we loved the play. This has been a bucket-list item for me.

Claire was at Girl's Camp in St George. This girl has a busy summer! When she is in Vegas, we rarely see her. She told me this week: 

"I'll be with my family forever, so I'm going to be with my friends now."

Iris was only able to go one day of Girl's Camp before she left for her HXP trip.

Usually I wouldn't post a picture of me looking like this, but it was Grace's first time to the temple! After dropping Iris at the airport before 6am and then working 10 hours at the health district (which I have absolutely loved), we headed over this epic event.

Summer vibes for Sybil: She had a day at Cowabunga Bay again (she got a season pass for her birthday).

Pics from Claire and Esie's weekend together last week:

with Grandma

And this was David's date last night.

We went to Dazzle Prom (a Prom for people with special abilities) which was spectacular! Claire's date was an older man who got a plaque for initiating the event. My dates were a bunch of teenaged boys who were incredible dancers and had endless energy. I danced non-stop for 3 hours!!

Summer Begins!

 Dang, I don't think I took any new pictures this week other than screenshots of homework. With Memorial Day, 2 days of clinic, and 2 days on campus, followed by a Saturday full of church service project, soccer tryout, and studying, it's been a bit of a whirlwind.  So here are some pictures that David and Claire took in Hawaii:

They went on 2 hikes, went surfing 3 times:

Claire said her favorite part of the trip was swimming with sharks, 

which was surprising due to her fish phobia: ichthyophobia.

They also hung out with our good friends: Cuzy, Rich, and family:

Hang-gliding

I didn't get to hear too much of a recap of her birthday trip bc she was only home for 1 day, which she mainly spent with friends (pickle balling, hot-tubbing, etc). Now she's in AZ with Esie and my mom. I spoke to them yesterday. Claire and Esie had just come back from pilates with my mom. They said, "She smoked us, but she often does!"

On Memorial Day, I had a wonderful lunch with Grace and her Mom, Lisa. Grace will be going on her mission to Colorado in a few weeks. 

Sybil has started her first week of camp at the community center where a 6-year-old proposed to her with a diamond wedding ring. He told her that he had stolen it from his mom while she was asleep!

Iris is trying to power through Algebra 1 summer school. She wanted to retake it for a better grade, but will have only about 2 weeks in Vegas to get it all done.