The Johnston Journal: June and July

Sorry this is a little late, but it's here! The blog post you've all been waiting for! Ha. Okay here are updates from June and July from everyone.

Grandma and Grandpa went on a trip to Alaska and had their first experience with a cruise and it sounded like a ton of fun! Panning for gold, eating buffets, and riding buses through gorgeous landscapes.

From Lisa:

"Hey there family! Summer is winding down and the kids are getting so excited to get back to school!! I know I'm excited for school to start, for more reasons than just to get some structure and routines back up and running. I'm hoping to get hired on full time starting this Fall, but will at least be subbing again. I've taken the CSET and RICA teacher exams this month and still trying to keep up with my credential program. I really do like learning and challenging myself, but I also like naps and watching a movie occasionally...someday...

Ani and Tessa are so looking forward to hitting the books again, Ani starting her junior year and Tessa her sophomore year. Tessa will be involved in her choir again, hoping to sing in the combined choir this year. Ani will be getting a job in addition to babysitting for several families in the ward whose kids love her! Noah and Mason will be in fourth and fifth grades, respectively, and are looking forward to seeing their friends again and finding out what teachers they will have for the new school year. Noah is interested in art and creates these interesting comics about social situations and things he's learning about in school. Mason will be playing the trumpet in the orchestra and starting soccer next month as well.

It's been a great summer with lots of new things happening! We got to know the King family better by spending the week with them in Park City, we enjoyed cousins and Shaver lake and added a wedding to the mix, the kids went on lots of boating trips with their dad, and spent a lot of time with friends in and out of the pool. We're most excited to welcome Kai home on October 2nd!! I can't wait to give him a big squeeze and then send him out into the world to see what amazing things he'll accomplish! We're looking forward to seeing everyone in October for Grandma Great's 95th bday, and then again at Shaver Lake for Thanksgiving. Love you all!! "

Next up, Michele's peeps:

June and July have come and gone but luckily we've had some fun memories to take away.

June was spent anticipating our trip to Shaver Lake. We decided to take a chance on standby and fly part of the way and it worked...for the most part. Meaning we did eventually make it home. We always love our time in Shaver. Some of the best memories we have are made there.

Happy Independence Day! The 4th of July is a holiday we all look forward to (not including Kona of course! Poor thing!) We love going to watch the fireworks at Thanksgiving Point with family and friends and the sparklers always conclude our festivities while we patiently wait for a million cars to leave the parking lot. This year we spent that evening with our friends and neighbors, the Burrs, the Herberts, and the Condies, Lauren's mom and her sister's cute family, Sarah's brother Ryan, and Shane and Morgan and their two cuties.

The rest of July went on without a hitch with Larissa doing cheer everyday, going to cheer camp, girls camp, youth conference, and working at the car wash. Ali kept busy working a produce stand at various locations around Utah as well as trying to keep her sanity keeping all the kids happy while working at the Natural Curiosity Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

Larissa and I got to make a day trip to Park City while Lisa, Jeremy and kids were there for a King family reunion do some shopping with the girls! And of course we stole Ani for a night. Gotta get that cousin time in whenever possible! We even got to see Madi when she came for BYU Volleyball camp. We took her and her friend to a concert in the park and got rained out...the first rain those Vegas girls had seen in a while!

Tanner, Lauren, Derik, and Sarah spent some time in Costa Rica and obviously had a blast. They also decided to try the standby approach which was definitely an adventure. They ended up spending the night in Fort Lauderdale as part of their unplanned adventure. But they made it home thankfully in one piece.

While they were away, Joe and I and the girls were sitting around on a lazy Sunday afternoon and as we were talking we realized that none of us had obligations the following day so we took a look at the flight loads to Long Beach and hopped on a plane early Monday morning thinking we would make a day trip to the beach. We laid out on the beach and watched construction crews create a hot spot for the Vans US Open complete with a beach stadium for skateboarding and bmx as well as a makeshift Vans clothing store. We missed it by a couple days but it was fun to see it all coming to life. We didn't make it on our flight home that evening so we found a nice little hotel, spent the night, and made it on a flight the next day.

Because Ali is leaving Monday July 31 to go back to school and Tanner and Lauren are leaving the end of August, we decided to take a family pic. Try as we may, Kona did not want any part of it but I think it turned out just fine without him thanks to our photo specialists Sarah, Lauren, and the tripod.

Love you all!!

Thanks Michele!

On to the Texas gang:

Have you heard this joke?

Q: What do you get when you play a country song backward?

A: You get your dog back, you get your wife back, you get your truck back, you get your house back…

If May and June were our sad country song, then July has been the exact opposite - and we are so grateful!! Brian has his health back, we have our dad and husband back, new jobs, a new-to-us car (the truck finally died after 16 years). Instead of a huge summary, here are some of our high points and pictures.

Jack turned 8 in June! He’s such a kind and helpful soul - and a man of few words and simple tastes. We love him so much!

We spent some time collecting tadpoles and crawfish. Nothing survived terribly long, but the memory is there and it was fun! The kids remember doing this for the past few summers, so now it’s tradition.

Julia learned to swim! And decided she likes her boots better than her flip flops…she’s a native Texan, after all.

We’ve been learning how to fish… with mixed results.

We had a fun weekend in July celebrating Jack’s baptism!

Our town does outdoor movie nights once a month in the summer with free In’ n’ Out for dinner… which is another awesome perk of living in a small town!

Ella is a little bit of a Shawn Mendes groupie, and I picked up some tickets in November for his concert in July. She loved it!

We’re so grateful for this little family and thankful for the simple adventures we share.

Thanks Tanya!

Here are some updates from Kathryn's Instagram:

Kathryn, Collin and Luke took a trip to Canada for some epic mountain biking while Grandma and Grandpa hung with the girls.

Madi had volleyball camp and Cambrie celebrated a birthday!

Kathryn's family all got together in Washington for a big family reunion.

Hadley, Kal, and Sally:

Kal was at Advanced Camp in Ft. Knox all of June and I am not looking forward to him being away for that long again any time soon. This July I have been working still for VIPkid and Kal just got hired to be security at the Utah Valley Hospital. He get's to be tasered so that's exciting.

Recently we went on a road trip to California for my cousin Michaella's wedding. I got to film it and we had a blast visiting with family. On the way we stopped and saw Grandma Davis, hiked at Zion's National Park (which we got into for free thanks to Kal's military ID), and stayed the night at Hotel de la Johnston.

At Michaella's sealing we saw Grandma and Grandpa working at the temple and we decided to take a trip for a night up to Shaver Lake. We drove the jeep, ate Huckleberry shakes, and saw the plans for the mini cabins Grandpa is building.

Provo has been beautiful this summer and we have spent many days at the Rec Center pool where we follow Sally around as she crawls through the kiddy pool and tries to avoid getting trampled by big kids. Sally is SO close to walking and we are working on the feeding herself thing.