Every time I sit down to blog I want to write how busy we are and how fast time is flying by. Time is going so fast. I wish it would stop. I know I sound like a broken record on this blog of mine but that is the recurring theme of my life these days. There is not enough time in the day. Summer has flown by way to fast. I need time to slow down and nap and relax and catch up on everything and… I’m realizing that that time will probably never come – life seems to continually speed up.

Ben and I got back from our vacation Saturday morning and my parents and Kelsey and Brady were here at the house. They came from California Friday night and watched the kids that evening for us! Saturday morning we grabbed Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and Joel and Megan and we all went up to Ogden to spend time with Ryan and Tara and see their new home. Ben stayed behind to make sure that we were ready for the Baptism that night. We ate lunch and swam and played spoons and then grabbed a Taco Bell Freeze for the drive home. We came home to Ben’s homemade pizza and we all showered and got dressed to go to Benji’s baptism! The Baptism was great! We had so much family and we loved having everyone over afterwards and it was a memorable day for Benji. On Sunday we went to church and entertained family the rest of the day. Mom’s family came over throughout the evening. Grandma and Grandpa hung with us through dinner. ROOK was the game of the night. On Monday my parents had to head back to California for work but Kelsey and Brady stayed to play. They were our little teenagers for a few days 🙂 We got a few pre-mission things done and played more ROOK. That night they went to play with friends and we went to Grandpa Nettesheim’s birthday party! Tuesday was another day with Kelsey and Brady and me trying to get some rest. That night we had Joel and Megan over to say goodbye to Kelsey, …Dinner and ROOK and we stayed up way to late giving Kelsey our missionary advice and council. Today we finished off the whirlwind. Kelsey got all packed up and we said our goodbye’s. I had cub scouts at our house and then Kelsey left. She was really excited. She will be a great missionary for the church. We kept telling her that we would make sure she gets to see baby Gertrude before she leaves for Taiwan! The baby is due in exactly one month and Kel is in the MTC for two months so that second month I told her I would drive by the MTC and hold the baby out the window until we happened to run into each other 🙂 So that’s the plan… or just emailing lots of pictures 🙂 Then tonight Ben came home from work with tickets to the RSL soccer game. We decided to have him take Benji to the game with him this time. I stayed home with the kids that are all still clinging to me after my trip and everyone is TIRED. Ben and Benji just got home and had a great time at the game. The free food helped but he is finally old enough to watch the game and appreciate being there. So that’s our story. School is around the corner, need to get ready for that. Summer is ending, want to send it out with a bang. And it is crunch time to try to do everything before the new baby comes because new baby mode tends to mean lots of staying at home and playing with baby, trying to get sleep and not being productive.