Robertsons & Daughters: Family Time + Utah Trip!

The day after Shanna and Nate's wedding reception we got up really early to go to Smith Mountain Lake. Crazy, yes! We had to stop in Harrisonburg first to help my parents a little. They left their luggage at my house the night before and didn't have anything. So we had to leave even earlier. It was a beautiful day at the lake. We rented two boats and on our boat it was mainly the older kids which was really fun and relaxing. We rented a wave runner too.

I don't normally do this, but gave all of the kids some money to buy something at Bridgewater Marina. Nate decided to not get this, but he and Shanna picked out matching sweatshirts.

We also fed the fish at the marina which is really fun!

We also had some peanut butter to put on our toes for the fish to suck off. It's a weird sensation!

We decided to just come back to the house and eat leftover reception food. There was lots of yummy dip left! Again...ordered too much. Ugh.

Everyone was going to be at church on Sunday (thank you Cal for changing your plans!!!) and we sang "How Great Thou Art" for the special musical number. It was a highlight for me!

Funny enough, the Bartholome girls sang the same song in their sacrament meeting that same day! I think some ancestors orchestrated this!

The sweatshirts they ended up with! Love these two!

Lois gave me a gift card and we had fun using it one night. Shanna and Nate left Sunday afternoon for their cruise to the Bahamas!

Cal took off Sunday and is doing an East Coast tour with his good friend Kim.

Throw back!

A night with some drone time.

Time by the office firepit.

It was really sweet of Clark and Elden to put together this bathroom cabinet for me. After they put it together I realized it's super cheap. Hmmm.... It looks okay so we'll see how it holds up.

Why not be a little fancy for chicken fajitas?

After the wedding reception Clark and Chloe stayed another week. It's been so fun having them here. Mr. J's for breakfast for the first day of school!

And wow, just like that Elden is a senior! Wow, time is slipping away fast!

Elden's off for his last first day of high school!

Time to drop off Clark and Chloe too. Going to miss having them around!

That weekend we went to Philadelphia. We had a special time in the temple with Jessie and Lisa as they received their own endowment!

Lots of fun gets you tired out!

After Shanna and Nate's cruise they were able to spend a few days with us as well before heading back! We were going to do an overnight backpacking trip up Boone's Run and stay at the shelter there. Then plans morphed into just having dinner there. In the end we went to Sherando Lake for dinner and hanging out.

On the way home is started raining quite heavily. We went through a low point on the road....going down the hill. And before going back up it, drove through a TON of water. Well over 6 inches deep. Thankfully the Subaru automatically slowed itself down. A piece that covers some under parts, ripped off and was dragging. But with the noise of the rain, we didn't notice till we arrive back in town. Lee thankfully found another piece online and installed it. It's like a pressed felt cover. They are in the garage inspecting what happened.

Haley had a pass to go mountain biking at Massanutten. Fun afternoon!

Haley is getting ready to head back to BYU! It was so sweet, Dana gave her a going away basket.

Another going away event....we have a new temple presidency. Our shift coordinator, Debbie Dalton, organzied a beautiful evening to say goodbye to the first Richmond Temple Presidency. Lee and I arrived late because of Lee's work. But they were totally surprised! There was a beautiful devotional/testimony meeting, then yummy food.

A wonderful choir too! People started getting up from the audience, going up front. It was really special. They sang "The Spirit of God".

Then we were all invited to join in on the last verse.

That night Lee and I were in such a rush that we didn't see Haley's text till we were about an hour into our drive! She sent a screenshot saying she received her mission call!!! She opened it while we were gone, then we all got on together for her to read it to us. AHHH! We're so excited for her. She's going to the St. George Utah mission and also the visitors' center! Starting in February!!!

Such a special night!!!

WOO HOO!

We brought mint brownies to the temple devotional and stuck them in the freezer. They hadn't been pulled out when we left so we took them home. We ate them to celebrate Haley's call!

Haley went up to PA for a couple of days to see Jessie and Lisa and everyone. She told them about her mission call and Grandma and Grandpa. She said she'd never seen Grandma so excited about anything like that before! Right now her plan is to wait to Thanksgiving to tell anyone. But spoiler it's actually October as I'm writing this and she already did a fun, big announcement.

Cal stopped at home briefly with Kim and they headed on to Utah and Idaho right away. Cal was excited to get out there to see friends and go hiking. Clark and Cal are at Roger's basement play Magic with Sheldon. Sheldon is living there temporarily.

So sad...our neighbor's brother died unexpectedly.

I'm back at the school making copies! Most of the school under went renovations the past couple years. Now the copier is in the new teacher's workroom.

Went out to lunch at a Greek place with Diane and Tara. Super fun!

Early birthday meal for Lee. We celebrated with Haley before we drove out to Utah. Lee picked meatloaf for his birthday dinner.

Haley froze these banana slices, but also spray cream. Very fun!

Fun birthday night!

Brother time in Utah!

Time for our road trip to Utah in Haley's car!!! We had to come back twice because we kept forgetting things.

We stopped at the school to get something out of the car, can't remember. But the seniors can paint their parking spots. I love what Elden and Cal did one morning super quick. Haha.

The crazy thing with this trip was get Haley's car registered. The trip to Utah was great! Haley bought this car in Maryland with a damaged title. Virginia requires you to send any title for a damaged car to their office in Richmond. You can't stop by either...you have to mail it in. They said it takes 4-6 weeks. We couldn't drive out to Utah unless her car was registered because that's how we would get the plates. We prayed a lot!!! Her title came I think the day before we left. Whew! She was able to get it inspected. Then the title came and our last stop before leaving town was stopping at the Harrisonburg DMV to get plates. YAY! I was never so glad to see license plates before!!!

On the road! Great trip and great car. We stopped at Steph's but got there late and left super early. We weren't able to see them at all. We then met up with Deb, Matt and Hyrum in Nauvoo to go to the temple, see the new temple visitors' center, had lunch and left.

Actual pieces they found from the old temple. So cool!

Our friend Carmin owns this place. It was closed though! It was going to open in ten minutes, but we had to get going....

We stopped a a place across the street that Deb's been to before. Very fun!

We stayed at a hotel in Nebraska I think....We got up early and went to church in Wyoming, then continued on to Utah.

That Saturday while we were driving in Iowa and Nebraska Lee, Elden and the youth did a DC Temple trip and also went to the National Mall!

Haha, the Licoln head in Nebraska that I grew up thinking was made out of pennies sent in by little children all over the USA....

On our drive we got to listen to Sister Lorimer's farewell!!! She's going to Japan!!!

Haha, Cal's awesome stick shift topper. Once in Utah I actually borrowed Cal's car and went to Salt Lake City. I met Sheldon up there and his girlfriend BG. She is the head person in the missionary department that is paid and we got to see her office and office area at the church office building. It was so cool! She works with all the mission presidents and with the apostles. It's so cool. She also showed us where some apostles have their offices and told us some fun stories. Like going over to President Oaks apartment to chat with Kristen Oaks about how to best help single adults. So fun meeting her!

Monday we moved Haley in to her apartment and went shopping! So fun! She has great roommates. She's at the Riviera.

We went to Provo Burger for lunch where the Phone Call was filmed. Kim came with us too. Haley and Kim have been hanging out during the semester which is really neat.

Haha, the Phone Call scenes! If you haven't seen it you GOTTA! Search YouTube, 1977 BYU the Phone Call with Marc McClure. Only 24 minutes and FREE.

Shopping! This fall I told all the college kids they had a budget of $100 to spend on groceries. Cal doesn't start school for two more weeks, so I just transfered the money to him.