The NC Big Macs: August

Grandma June Rabiger passes away.

August started out on a bit of a tender note. I almost said "sad" instead of "tender", but the truth is while we'll miss Grandma June dearly she lead the greatest life she possibly could have and it was not sad to see her return home. She spent her entire life serving her family, those around her and living the gospel, all with a song in her heart. She left a legacy.

Kristin and I had fun reminiscing funny things about grandma.

Happy coincidence. By chance I discovered my dear friend and former neighbor in Huntersville was in town from Texas also visiting family in Utah. I met up with her and her darling boys: Gavin, Ryan and Liam for some breakfast at Chick-fil-A.

FAMILY CAMP 2013

While I was finishing up my trip in Utah the rest of family headed up to, what we hope to be, the first annual Family Camp at Camp Wayfayer. I caught up with them on their 2nd day there. Sandy Abbott has been the stake girls camp director for 5 years and was chummy enough with the owner of the camp they use that he allowed Sandy to bring up several families to have our own camp experience. We had a wonderful time canoeing, jumping off the blob, swimming, catching critters, rock wall climbing and putting on family skits. Some of the families that went were the Abbotts, Smiths, Harts, Morrows,

Best Buddies: Alex and Josh with a salamander.

Isaac and Declan with snacks.

We celebrated 3 birthday while at family camp, including Addilyn's.

Breakfast in bed is always a tradition no matter where you are on your birthday.

Addilyn trying her skill at the rock wall. She almost made it and probably would have gone all the way if she had worn shoes.

Upon returning home from Family Camp, we proceeded to celebrate Addilyn's 10th birthday. We got a babysitter for the younger kids and took her out on the town. First stop: ear piercing. This was much anticipated. She had been begging to get her ears pierced since she was about 7, but my rule is you have to wait until 10. There are 2 reasons for this. One, I don't want them growing up too fast. The second, and probably the main reason, is I want them to be old enough to take care of the ear cleaning themselves. Addilyn was pretty nervous about getting her ears pierced. She's pretty fearful of pain and the anticipation of it is worse that the actual pain. First she read a letter of encouragement from her best friend, Ella. Then she nervously clutched dad's hand.