I'm feeling a bit behind and so am going to try and quickly "catch up"! These last three months have been super busy! These won't be as detailed as normal but wanted to document just the same! So here's a rundown of what we've been up to!
* I took the girls out to do a "14th Birthday Photoshoot" and the results were just beautiful! We went to the Train Depot in Boise and after 4 outfit changes, we figured we'd had enough fun for one evening. Have to admit that dad and I were a little saddened by the pictures as it showed us how grown up (and beautiful!) the girls are becoming!
* Mothers Day - The girls always spearhead a good "bamboozle" so I wake up to a super clean home and don't have to lift a finger all day! They also help remind the boys and take them all shopping. One thing I always request on Mothers Day is some pictures of all of us after church dressed in our "Sunday Best". Ben wasn't feeling well on this day and so he's absent from the photos. I was gifted many thoughtful things like socks, scented wax cubes, flowers, yummy snacks and even a bag of Sonic Ice (yum!)
* The Rugby season finished up! We played in the Championship game and our D2 team took 1st and our D1 team (that both of the girls play on) finished in 2nd. Grandma and Grandpa Vogt even made it out for it and it's always a thrill watching the girls play. They then took a 2 week break and then practices started back up for the NAI7's tournament. Below are some pictures from the Championships. Also at the end of the season banquet - Aubrie was awarded the "Grizzley Award" which is given to the player on the team exemplifies the "heart and soul" of the team! Way to Go, Aubrie!
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* Dad took a 10 day vacation to Switzerland with Grandma Vogt and Aunt Donna Vogt on May 21st - June 1st. Originally, the girls and I were going to go with him but we had to use the Vacation money we'd saved to pay for Nathan's surgery and medical bills. However, we really thought it was important for dad to get there and meet up with "Cousin" Lottie and get our family history so we had him go on without us. He has sooo much to share about his trip that we will dedicate an entire post just to his travels and findings. But in the meantime, here's a couple of pictures...
* We celebrated Seth's 24th Birthday on June 14th. He's not one for much fanfare and so it was a small celebration with the family. Aubrie made him a cookie-cake and dinner was his requested One-Pot Pasta. Can't believe our 2nd son is 24!
* The day after Seth's birthday, the girls and mom left for 4 days to Girls Camp. It was a Stake camp this year and was held up at Camp Glenwood outside of Garden Valley. Mom was the Camp Director for their Ward and had been doing lots to get ready! Overall everyone had a really fun time. Our theme was "Ohana" and was a "Island" theme. Each ward was assigned an Island (ours were the Cook Islands). We had 2 cabins (that held 12 girls each) and then we also had 2 additional tents (with 6 girls each) and then a Leaders tent. Aubrie and Lexi were both in tents and really enjoyed the week! Lexi said her favorite things were the Testimony meeting, Singing and the Hike. (Not) Surpringly Aubrie said her favorites were those exact same things, too! They also said that meal times were some of their favorites. The days were filled with skits, singing, eating, campfires, classes, games, water activities, hiking and even a luau!
* After camp, we were home for a week and then Aubrie, Lexi and Nathan boarded a bus and headed off to FSY held at the Utah State Campus. They left at 6:30am on Monday (June 24th) and returned on Saturday (July 2nd). All 3 kids raved about how WONDERFUL and AWESOME the whole week was! There were classes, daily gospel study, devotionals, dances, games, free time, hanging out at the dorms and lots of new friendships made! It was hard for them to tell me what their favorite part of the week was (since it was ALL their favorite) but gospel study, dances and their group bonding time. Nathan told mom that his testimony grew so much while he was there (melted my heart!). They are all excited to go again in two years!
* While the kids were gone for the week, Mom flew up to Anacortes to be with Aunt Kathryn and Grandma Carlson. Aunt Kat had been down in Florida getting a back procedure done and grandma didn't want her to be alone and travel solo so she was out in FL with her. When they found out that the kids would all be gone, they talked mom into meeting up with them at the Seattle airport and traveling back home with them for the week! So mom flew out Sunday evening and came back home the following week. While there, mom and grandma spent most of the week decluttering and organizing Kathryn's home. That might not sound fun, but they enjoyed themselves (and especially just being together and visiting!) Unfortunately, dad found himself back at home afflicted with the COVID-19! and mom wasn't there to take care of him! Luckily, it wasn't a severe case and he suffered mostly from "cold like" symptoms. He stayed home and quarantined for the week and by the time mom and the kids returned back home, he was feeling much better!
* Grandpa Vogt's 75th Birthday happened to fall on Father's Day this year! What a milestone birth year! and we were all so happy to be able to help him celebrate! Dad brought home a genuine brick from the Vogt homestead from Switzerland to gift to him! And of course all of the kids surprised dad with his favorite treats (his big gift was going to Switzerland!) We are all so blessed to have both dad and grandpa in our lives!
* Dad and the girls practiced all summer for the NAI 7's Rugby Tournament in Salt Lake City. We left for the big event on Thursday, July 21st and made it to SLC by about 2:30pm for Weigh in. We also set up all of our tents and gear and then had a mini practice at a nearby park. A few weeks before the tournament, the organizers sent out a message that a team from Canada was down a few girls and asked if any of the other attending tams might have some extra girls to lend them.... our team quickly volunteered and we "adopted" them for the entire tournament (even lending them room in our "tent city" we'd set up). After the practice, we got checked into our hotel and then went to dinner at The Olive Garden. Friday morning we had to be at the sports complex by 7:30am and we had our first game at 8:40am. We played an All-Star team made up from the whole western states and they were good! Needless to say, we lost! haha... Over the next two days the girls played 5 matches in 100 degree heat! We had a wonderful time and the whole team played so well! We "loaned" 3-4 girls to the Canadian team for each of their matches (Lexi played for them and even scored a Try! Way to Go Lexi!) We had a team dinner at a Pizza Buffet on Friday night and we visited for a few hours before heading back to the hotel where some of the girls had a Movie Night in one of the rooms. While the scoreboard didn't reflect how well the girls played (we did win 1 match and *should have* won a second one - but had several bad calls by the refs that were in the other teams favor) but we left the tournament with tons of great memories and mom even made some new friends with the other moms! Dad was beyond proud of (all) the girls and loved being their coach!
* We went to the Swiss Picnic on July 31st in Boise with all of the other Swiss Nationals here in the Treasure Valley. As always, it's fun to chat with the others and partake of the yummy Swiss cuisine! Dad smoked a pork tenderloin and some Kielbasa's that we took to share. The only downfall is that it was 107 degrees and sooooo hot!! There was talk about holding it in September next year so we won't be in such weather! They also do some auctions and sell Swiss items to raise money for the next years' Picnic and so we came home with a super cute Swiss Gnome that will look great with our Christmas Decor this year!
Spiritually Speaking...
In our Come Follow Me studies this week we discussed how God is in the very details of our lives and even things that seem (or truly are) inconsequential to our eternal salvation we learned that if it's important to us, it's important to our loving Heavenly Father! Whether that be helping find a missing set of keys to deciding to play Rugby for Meridian High or Rocky Mountain (both of which we were faced with recently). Here are 2 other times the Lord's hand was evident in our lives these past few months.
1). I had misplaced my bullet journal (where I put all of my important info - including our budget). Well, it was time to budget for the new month and I couldn't find it! I had looked everywhere that I thought it could possibly be but still came up empty-handed. Over the next couple of days I kept looking for it and Ben saw me searching and asked what I was doing. After telling him he asked, “Have you prayed yet? If you pray I bet you will find it within 30 seconds!"
2) This next story is an experience Grandma Carlson had on her way out to Florida to be with Kathryn. After she shared it with me - I knew I wanted to preserve it and here's what she wrote down for her posterity:
When I arrived at Ft Lauderdale, I got off the plane and I went to the restroom and then proceeded down to meet Kathryn outside the airport. Well, when I got outside I reached for my phone to text her I was there and to my horror, I didn't have my phone! I knew I had it going into the restroom so I thought I must've left it there. I didn't have any way of contacting Kathryn so I went back in and realized I didn't even know which gate I had got off at and the escalator I had just come down didn't have an up escalator to take me back to where I came down. So with a prayer in my heart, I picked an escalator that went up and went to a security checkpoint and told the lady there my situation hoping she would let me go look for my phone. Luckily, I had run off a copy of my ticket and had it in my backpack and was able to show it to her. She said she would have to talk to her supervisor and asked me if I would please step to the side so people could get checked in. As I did so, I heard someone shouting, "is there a Pam Carlson here?" I looked up and there was a police officer and he said he was talking to my daughter on the phone. So he gave me my phone and I talked to Kathryn and we were able to meet up outside. The whole way down to the car, I was Thanking Heavenly Father for helping me. Well when Kathryn told me her side of the story it was very evident that the Lord had been very gracious to me. She said she didn't hear from me for a while so she decided to call me. When she called a Spanish lady answered the phone and said "hola." She immediately knew that it wasn't me and tried talking to her. She was in the restroom and had answered my phone when it rang. The Spanish lady left the restroom with the phone and went and got in line because her flight was getting ready to board. She said she didn't speak enough English to understand what was going on and so she handed the phone to someone behind her name Jake. Kathryn talked to him for a minute and asked him if he would please take it to security because I had left my phone in the restroom. Jake said they were boarding in a minute but he would take the phone to security so he walked for about a minute and found someone , but they would not take the phone. They said he would have to give it to a police officer. So he found a police officer and gave him the phone. That was so nice of him! Kathryn talked to the police office for a minute and told him the situation and then all of a sudden Kathryn heard me talking to the security checkpoint lady asking her to help me. So she told the officer, "that's my mom I can hear her talking to a checkpoint lady." But then all of a sudden, she had lost contact with the police officer and couldn't hear him anymore. And so she just yelled, "mom, Pam." By this time I had move aside to let the people behind me get checked in. Then all of a sudden she could hear the police officer again and he asked, "What's your mother's name?" She said, "Pam Carlson." Then he started asking for Pam Carlson and I heard him so I turned around and waved my arm and said, "I'm Pam Carlson." So he asked me to come over and he gave me my phone and sure enough, Kathryn was on the line. I felt so relieved I immediately thanked Heavenly Father for being so gracious to me. I could feel His love for me and I knew He knew me and was watching out for me! The other thing that was amazing was that I had my Bluetooth headphones around my neck and hadn't turned them off so when the police officer got within range of my Bluetooth, my phone connected to my headphones. So that's how Kathryn heard me talking to the lady. The Police Officer must have heard me too. And that's why she lost contact with the police officer. But, when I stepped to the side to let the people get checked in, I lost connection with my phone's Bluetooth and so she could talk to the police officer and tell him that I was at the security checkpoint. Coincidence? NO WAY!What a tender mercy, and a complete miracle!
3). The girls were able to attend the Temple with the youth in our Ward. They had a wonderful experience and here's a picture of them outside of the Temple:
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