Jacob's Visit, AZ Trip

 Jacob went to church with us while he was here.

 This is how we found Carly and Bella when we arrived at their house in AZ. The water is about 95 degrees, so not terribly refreshing, but nice!

 Carly took us to a city water park in Chandler one day, and the kids loved it!

 We stopped by to see the progress on the Gilbert Temple after the water park, and yes, the kids do look hot!

 Jacob was really sweet with Bella and Audra, and they liked it!

 Mother-Daughter

 Jacob and I stayed in a hotel, and had Evan spend one of the nights. The two of them really enjoyed being together. As you can see, they're playing a video game here!

 We went to the Science Center in Phoenix another day. Jacob loves cats, and was pretty interested in looking at the cat's brain!

 Here it is closer up, in case you're interested.

 These are giant cockroaches, and Jacob explained to me how some people in Africa eat them. Gross!

 When Evan stayed with us, he missed swim practice, so swam some laps in the hotel pool. He preferred the hot tub though!

 Here's the gang at the science center. 

 Audra was totally absorbed in some of the displays. Afterward, she said she loved it all! When we first got to AZ, Audra wasn't in the pool, so I went upstairs looking for her. She was relaxing in her air conditioned bedroom, reading past issues of The Friend. For a bedtime story one night, she got out a copy, went to the table of contents, and found an article she wanted me to read to her. KG won't know what hit them when school starts!

 This display powered a light bulb from pedaling a bike.

 Couldn't resist the cow! The display was about methane gas, and had fake cow manure to touch.

 This big telescope let you view your own eye in the display above. That is Bella's giant eye.

 Last night together for the cousins!

FAMILY GATHERINGS

 Father's Day with the Ellsworths is always fun. Adeline likes the chickens now!

 Abby got to spend some time with Evan when Carly visited Utah.

 Turtle-catching with the grandchildren.

Austin, Hunter, and Skylee did some crafts when they spent the night.

 Ethan and Kelsey made pizza and went swimming on their visit.

 Lexi is another chicken-lover in the family.

 Huntington had quite a current this day, but Megan and Lexi loved swimming in the ocean.

 It was wonderful having Jake and Katy's families together for a barbecue. 

 These two hadn't seen each other in quite a long time!

 Lilly

 More turtle-catching. 

 Lexi and Skylee are the same age, same size, and seem to like to do the same things. 

ABBY'S GRADUATION

Jackson is so sweet with his Dad!

We had dinner at Zupas with Suzanne and Gene.

We got to have lunch with Patrice, which was great. We hadn't been together in four years!

Abby's convocation in the DeJong theater.

Abby in her lovely graduation dress with her handsome brother.

Carly always manages to be at the important events in her siblings' lives, and this was no exception. She drove five hours with the girls from AZ to Las Vegas, where we met up and left our car in Henderson. We then drove the rest of the way together with a little girl who wasn't feeling well and threw up a number of times! Bella and Audra were very sweet little passengers other than that though! Carly wasn't feeling well herself on the way back, but got to rest until we got to Henderson, and then she had the five hour drive again!

I think Audra is going to want to go to BYU!

We got to meet Valerie Kendall in Salt Lake for lunch and a visit. She lives just above Temple Square and is going to the U.

We took a tour of the Church Office Building and rode to the top in the express elevator.

The flowers are beautiful this time of year.

Audra took this one.

We had Abby's celebration dinner at Las Glorias. Unfortunately, we had a long wait, but fortunately, it wasn't crowded, so there was room for the kids to play around. Unfortunately, we think some of the family may have gotten food poisoning while there! Carly and Abby were sick the next day. In fact, we didn't get to see much of Abby because she had to stay lying down in her apartment all day.

Bella and Audra enjoyed a tour of the Eyring Science Building.  For some reason, we thought it still had a big dinosaur skeleton in it, but that's probably been gone for decades!

They got to jam at Joey's work, where they have instruments for a band set up for employees to play on their breaks.