June 2024

 

Summer is officially underway with picnics with friends at the lake! (plus candy salad)

Annika and some of her teammates were chosen to be ball girls for the USWNT game against South Korea.

While they were learning the ropes, the rest of us got to tailgate with friends. 

Sarah and her team were all in for the US of A.

And we brought Timothy along for the ride!

If you squint hard enough, you may even see Alex Morgan in the background of this selfie.

Annika had a better view than we did. :)

She's on the right hand side holding the Korean flag before the game

Annika and her soccer BFF Eve were ball girls together.

And because they were on the field, they got to walk around by the players after the game finished, including Trinity Rodman. Annika's the one in braids.

Better yet, they got to take a pic with Lindsay Horan!

This is a screenshot of Annika on TV waiting for action.

From June 3-9, I went on a mission trip to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic to distribute water filters to people living in villages there that don't have any clean tap water. Before we left, the Boulder team got in front of the congregation to share what we would be doing and how they could be praying for us. 

McKenna and I were all smiles right before we went off to the airport!

Meanwhile, Sarah got a taste of middle school with the four week Project Launch program. She took some classes, got to meet her teachers for the upcoming school year, and learned the bike route she'll be taking to school in the fall.

We could see the northern lights for a few nights. It wasn't super clear in-person, but on camera with slow exposure it was really pretty.

While Naomi was in the DR, we went to the Farmer's Cabin for a weekend. 

We waded in the river...

 ... and took our annual hike to The Meadow. 

The next day we took a more difficult hike before we left. This picture is taken at Lover's Leap.

It had beautiful views. 

Until next time, Mr. and Mrs. Farmer! We always love our time with you here!

Once I got back, we celebrated Mom and Dad's 18th anniversary of their engagement at the place where they got engaged.

Skies amaze me. 

I went off to an overnight CU soccer camp again this year. I stayed in a dorm with a buddy from my soccer team, Kaia.

Our other friend, Eden, was across the hall. 

Luna is always trying to take the wheel when we hit the road

Mom and Dad spent the night at the Hartemink's Cabin to unwind from all that is our month of May.

Sarah was finally old enough to come to Maranatha (our middle school church camp) this year! And I was a camp counselor again. 

After Maranatha, we took our big family trip for the summer -- to DC and NYC. Here we're on our way to DC lugging around this 40 pound suitcase that does not have wheels. 😁

Our house was within walking distance of this cool African American Civil War monument. 

Woah. 

We visited Arlington National Cemetery and saw JFK's eternal flame.

And stopped by Ruth Bader Ginsburg's grave.

#girlboss

There's a really cool view of the city looking across the cemetery. In this picture you can see the Washington monument, Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol building.

The changing of the guard ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier! I was sweating buckets and I was not even wearing a full suit like this guy.

This selfie was taken from the highet point in the cemetery looking out over the city.

And after we walked around the entire cemetery, we kicked back on the tram tour to get all the extra fun facts.

We swung by the Pentagon to see the 9/11 memorial there...

...which was very well done. It was cool to hear about all the symbolism and planning that went into establishing the memorial.

And of course we had to stop by the best metro stop in DC!

Since it was so stinking hot we grabbed some slurpees for the road.

This is us being very secretive spies sneaking into the Watergate hotel. iykyk.

JFK really slayed with this quote that got engraved on his performing arts center. And he also slayed with putting air conditioning in his performing arts center which we walked through to get a moment of relief from the ridiculous heat.

Unfortunately, the Lincoln memorial had some construction going on on the outside when we visited, but it was still super cool to see!

Ta da!

This is the view of the Washington Memorial from the Lincoln Memorial.

We stopped by the Vietnam War memorial, too.

The wall was very powerful.

We found Grandma Clyde's brother's name on the wall. It was super impactful to be able to find the name of a person that we could recognize.

The Korean war memorial was also very well done

We were total tourists, these were all taken in one day. This is the WWII memorial.

You're allowed to cool your dogs in the water at the WWII memorial which was amazing.

After that we hit MLK memorial.

We also visited the FDR memorial. 

And the Jefferson Memorial!

Work!

*We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, and when I meet Thomas Jefferson I'm 'a compel him to include women in the sequel!*

**More Hamilton to come in the July post ;)**

Day 1 in DC: check!

We hit Arlington, the Pentagon, and all the monuments 

22,000 steps!

TO BE CONTINUED...