Waning Days of Summer

                                Here's what we've been up to in our final days of summer break.....

Tanner and I went to Camden Yards when the Cubs were in town!  Thanks to a family friend who is also a season ticket holder and knows we're die hard Cubs fan, he hooked us up with seats in the 21st row right behind the dugout!  

I've now lived here for as long as I lived in Chicago.  And I'm a firm believer that you can have an NL team and an AL team since they so rarely play each other.  So the Cubs is our NL team and the O's are our AL team.  Tanner really wanted a ball/autograph (sadly that didn't end up happening this game) and thought he'd have a better chance with an O's player wearing O's gear and a Cubs player wearing Cubs gear (we have both due to previous explanation) so here he is with a removable blue jacket that has an O's shirt underneath. 😂  However, he never ended up exposing his O's shirt because really, when push comes to shove..... Go Cubs!

It was an exciting game!  The Cubs won 3-2 and got 3 homers!!

But now that they won't meet up again for the rest of the season, we'll go back to rooting for BOTH the Cubs and the O's! ⚾

Riley, Ella and I did an 11 mile bike ride.  There was a Froyo at the half-way point, so we treated ourselves!

There was also a Rita's and we couldn't decide between the two, so in a very rare Kerry-form, we decided to indulge in both 😄🍦 I figured we earned it!

Lacey got invited to go with her friend Katie to HersheyPark!

Hersheypark is one of my favorite places!  It's so much fun!  Clean, family-friendly, etc.  Love it!  So I loved getting the picture and text updates throughout the day of my first born soaking it up!

Speaking of soaking it up..... The Bishop in our ward invited the Young Women (middle school and HS age) out on his boat for dinner and tubing.  

Lucky girls!  Lacey and Riley and the other girls all had a blast!

Side note.... Riley has been the ONLY girl her age in our ward for as long as I can remember.  Then, in just the last few months, a family moved in with a girl her exact same age named Kylie and another family moved in last week with a girl her exact age named Briley.  So..... now we have a Riley, Kylie and Briley all within a few weeks of each other  (all pictured here) who all get along great and it makes me so happy! We all affectionately refer to them as "The -iley's"  

And last but not lease, Ella had her Sneak a peak/back to school night last night.  She's so excited about her teacher (Mr. L) and to have so many friends in her class and she's looking forward to going back to school next week!

It is now Friday, so we have one final Summer weekend before everyone heads back to school on Monday!

Back from Boundary Waters!

 

We just got home from the airport after picking up Tanner from a 9-day adventure to the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota for a High Adventure Boy Scout trip.  

Here he is (on the left) with three of his crew-mates.

One of his campsites. 

Sunset....

Sunrise.

Tanner and his good buddy Owen at Eddie Falls.

Time to get back in the canoe at the end of one of many portages. 

Tanner's turn to carry the canoe across the portage.

Friends for life after a major bonding experience!

Tanner and Matthew (the guide).

Their third campsite.  They canoed ~10 miles every day and camped at a different site every night.

Dinner time!

The start of another beautiful day!

Thunder point.  Off to the right is Canada.  Off to the left is USA. 

Crew selfie (Tanner is in the back) at Thunder Point.

The territory they covered in their week-long adventure.

I asked Tanner what he wanted to say/what he wanted me to record and this is what he said:

"If you ever have a chance to do this, I think you should because it's a very unique experience and you won't find it anywhere else.  And also, bring bug spray!"

Tanner is lucky that he has now been here twice, since he and I did this together (along with my brother Ryan and his two sons) two years ago.  It's a pretty amazing experience and I'm so glad he got to do this for a longer period of time with his Scout Troop.  He absolutely loved it and it was the perfect way to cap off a pretty awesome summer!

Washington DC Temple Re-dedication

 

The Washington DC LDS Temple was dedicated on Nov. 19, 1974 by President Spencer W. Kimball.  In March 2018, it was closed for renovations and was scheduled to re-open two years later in 2020.  But then.... Covid.  So it has remained closed for another 2.5 years.  So, it has now been 4.5 years since we have been within the walls of the only temple we have within a two hour distance (aside from the Open House that we were able to do a few months ago when my parents were in town).  But alas the day has arrived for the Re-dedication!

We missed Tanner on this special day (he is flying home from his Boundary Waters High Adventure trip with the Boy Scouts which will be my next post!) but we are so grateful the rest of us got to experience this together.  This is the first Temple Dedication Dave and I have been able to do together, the first for any of my kids and the first for me in over 20 years (the others I've been to were Chicago (Aug. 9, 1985), Mt. Timpanogos (Oct. 13, 1996) and Nauvoo (June 27, 2002) in that order).  

At today's session, President Russel M. Nelson was there and gave a talk followed by the dedicatory prayer.  Other speakers included Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the 12, Amy A. Wright (1st Counselor in the General Presidency), both Marriott brothers (Bill and Richard) and the Foulgers (Temple President and Matron).  Here are some thoughts I wrote down from their talks.  The Foulgers talked about how everything we do in the Temple is based on the Atonement.  Bill Marriott spoke of his 67 year long marriage to his wife Donna and spoke of how he has come to the temple over the years to seek inspiration.  He spoke of an experience when the company was young and on the brink of bankruptcy and he went to the Celestial room in the temple and heard in his mind "Be still; I am the Lord."  And he knew everything would work out.  His brother Dick spoke of just returning from being with the extended family at Lake Winnipesaukee and how that family time they spend together every summer is such a reminder of the importance of family.  Elder Cook mentioned that he escorted five Supreme Court Justices through the Open House and what a deep appreciation he has for the Constitution.  President Nelson mentioned that he was at the original dedication.  He also said that he lived in the area from 1951-1953 when he worked at Walter Reed Medical Center and was called to be a counselor in the Bishopbric during that time and was extended that call by the Stake Preisdent JW Marriott (Bill and Dick's father).  He also said that there 51 temples under construction right now and more are coming.  

So those are my musings and the thoughts I wrote down and remembered from this special day.  Glad we got to be a part of this special temple's re-dedication and grateful to have our temple open again after so long!

The kids all loved doing the Hosanna shout and Ella is still holding on to her white handkerchief in the picture.  

And, after speaking with my Mom today, we made a cool realization.  She was 9 when she attended the Los Angelas temple dedication, I was 9 when I attended the Chicago Temple dedication and Ella was 9 when she attended the DC Temple re-dedication. 💗💗💗

Germany Photo Recap

Dave just got home from spending a week in Germany on a work trip.  He flew in/out of Munich, stayed in Garmisch and took a side trip to Nurnberg. I'm hoping he gets on the blog at some point and adds captions to all these pictures he took while he was there!

Dave went to Kindergarten in Nurnberg when he lived here with his family from the ages of 3-6.  

Visiting his old Kindergarten where he became fluent in German (sadly he lost it after he moved back to America!). 

The home where he lived with his parents, Heidi and Mike.

He face-timed his parents from their old house and they all got a kick out of that!