The Randalls

August 3rd finally came.  Calista had been looking forward to this day for a long time.  Turning 8 is a big deal and we are so glad Calista wanted to get baptized.  Here are the proud parents.

Mark and Calista in their jumpsuits.  I find it so funny that the only jumpsuits they have that are long enough for Mark are about as wide as they are tall.  The picture doesn’t show how huge it is.

Calista was baptized the same day as Tucker, whom she has grown up with.  They met each other when they were like 4 months old. 

One big, happy family.

Darron flew in with Alex the day before the baptism.  Calista was super excited to see her cousin again.  That’s three times in five months they’ve seen each other.  So glad they could come out and support Calista.

And I’m so glad I have awesome nieces on the Randall side who love each other and know how to have fun.  We love them, even though they are weird.

Calista and Alex.  I’d like to say that Alex’s heeled shoes are the reason she’s so much taller than Calista but Darron’s kids sprout like weeds.  They are all so tall.  And I thought my kids were the tall ones.

Everyone was hanging around waiting to do pictures after but I never really gathered them all together.  This was the best I got.  Jared and Leslie’s family came, as well as Jeff and Alison’s family.  Bruce and Beverley drove up that morning from Beaver and my uncle Ross came, too.  Such a fun day.

Group hug!  All the girl cousins together.  I think Piper is in their somewhere.

After the baptism everyone came over to our house for food and games, of course.  Calista wrote in her journal a few days afterwards about all the feeling she had during that day.  I haven’t read but I at least hope she will remember all the family that came to support her and what an important decision she made by being baptized.  Two kids down, one to go.

Back-blog alert…June was a great month.  Mark and I celebrated 12 years of marriage.  Yes, 12!  Can you believe it’s been that long?  I remember this day like it was yesterday…

The best day of my life happened on June 22, 2001.  I’ll spare you all the mushy, lovey-dovey feelings and all but I have to mention that there were never any doubts on that day.  No questions about who I was marrying and where we were being married.  I’ve never felt so at peace with a decision in my life.  Except for maybe the birth of each of our kids.  Those all come in at a close second.  Being married to my best friend in the whole world has made the last dozen years fly by.  So, Mark, thanks for putting up with me and all my OCD tendencies and moods.  I love you.

Darron is quickly making a habit of taking a trip to Mesquite every June.  We are loving it!  This year we missed having VaLynn and Grant visit, though.  Maybe next year?  Darron flew out with his three oldest kiddos and the cousins had some great cousin-bonding time.  Can you guess what we did every day?

Yup, lots of pool time.

After two days Calista showed tons of improvement with her swimming.  She finally felt comfortable swimming back and forth across the deep end without any floatation device. 

Mark and Téa started some chicken fights.

Here’s our attempt at a family picture.  That one is definitely not making it on the Christmas card.

Alex and Calista.  They had so much fun together.

Téa and Isaac playing dead. 

I was able to catch Piper in the act of terrorizing Papa.  She would sneak up behind him and try to strangle him with a noodle.  Can you see the look of pure joy on her face?

She sure dished out the abuse on my dad.  But, Papa doesn’t play fair so she got it right back.  Mark did way more swimming than I did.  The kids wore him out every single day.

All smiles in the pool, all the time.  The best way to get the kids to behave at my parents is to threaten them with no pool time.  Works like a charm. 

My parents took us all to the Tuacahn Theater in St. George to see Mary Poppins.  Tuacahn is an awesome outdoor theater with the beautiful red cliffs of Southern Utah right behind the stage.  It was amazing.  The kids loved it and it even kept Piper’s attention for most of the play.  They were even able to use cables and such to have Mary Poppins fly in and out. 

Anna and Piper killed some time while waiting to be seated. 

This is what happens when my dad asks Darron to hold his jacket for him. 

The whole gang a few minutes before curtain time. 

Seriously, I want to make this a yearly tradition.  We had a great time!  We had all the kiddos in one row and then the adults behind.  Piper may or may not have gone back and forth between her seat and my lap during the whole production.

My husband.  So photogenic, right? 

The day after seeing the play at the Tuacahn it was our anniversary.  Darron and my parents offered to watch the kids so we could go out and celebrate.  We headed to St. George for some Red Lobster so I could eat all kinds of shrimp.  So tasty. 

After dinner we headed to a movie.  Shortly after the movie started I was cursed with the worst case of heartburn I have ever had in my entire life!  I thought I was going to die.  Thankfully the movie was good and it helped distract me but as soon as the credits hit I told Mark to get me to a store stat.  After pumping my body full of Tums and liquid antacid I was happy.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end and the next day was Sunday and Darron and the kids had to go home.  We had a great time.  Can’t wait to do it again. 

*Guest blog post by Mark. Yes, occasionally I let/make Mark post on here.  

After promising her that I’d take her camping this summer, Téa and I decided to go on a short overnight campout up American Fork canyon.  I wanted to get away from the crowded campgrounds in the lower part of the canyon, so we headed up towards the Silver Lake area.  Téa got a little nervous on the way up as we climbed the switchbacks and she could see down the steep slopes to Tibble Fork reservoir.  She, like me, isn’t overly fond of heights and so she wasn’t too keen on being so close to the shoulder on those narrow, dusty back roads.

We reached Silver Lake after a long climb and I decided to camp in an area I used to take scouts.  To get there, there is a small river channel that feeds into the lake.  I had forgotten that in year’s past, I drove up to the area with our old Jeep Cherokee and so crossing the river was a cinch.  Well, a Dodge Caravan is not really the ideal vehicle for off road travel.  I saw the river, stopped briefly to determine our likelihood of success, and drove through it.  The car had barely enough clearance to make it through.  I could hear the jostling of river rocks skimming underneath against the chassis.  Once we had made it across, the road became significantly more difficult to navigate with the van so I decided to choose one of the first campground areas we encountered.

We found a nice little spot next to the river with a good fire pit and flat ground for the tent.  Téa was uber-excited once we arrived.  We had grabbed some food from Wendy’s on the way there so we first set up the chairs to eat.  After eating, we set up the tent and then went to explore the area. 

One of my favorite things about camping is just wandering around the wilderness.  Téa, it turns out, shares that same fondness with me.  She was giddy as we walked around the river’s edge and explored the forest and rocks in the area.  She also got to experience going to the bathroom in the forest for the first time.  It’s like a rite of passage.

I taught her what types of wood to collect for firewood and how to start a fire.  She had fun making the little kindling teepee and got it going with minimal help.  We got the fire going and were hanging out when our lovely tranquil evening got interrupted by several scout troops that decided to camp all around us.  There are literally dozens of areas along the road to camp in and they choose spots not 50 feet away from us.  Grrrr…  We made the best of it though and they ended up being rather quiet (surprising for scouts).  We enjoyed the evening whittling sticks and chatting. 

Once it got really dark, we crashed for the night.  It was a peaceful night’s sleep until Téa woke me up because a grasshopper was in the tent.  Well, it turns out the grasshopper was actually on the outside of the tent, but she just saw a huge shadow and assumed it was on the inside.  After that crisis was over, we fell back asleep.

I ended up waking up early and started making breakfast.  Téa woke up rested and we ate a nice camp breakfast before heading back out.  We made it through the river crossing again and headed back for home.  It was a very successful first campout for Téa and I’m guessing she’ll be wanting to do it again soon.