October

We packed a lot in this month! 

We started with a trip up to the mountains to watch General Conference. We don’t have internet service at our apartment and our phone signal is pretty weak, so we decided to go up to Green’s peak where the cell signal is phenomenal! We plugged our TV into a battery powered inverter and then connected my phone to the TV! It worked like a charm! We got to squeeze in a buggy ride between sessions too! We call that a win!

The following Weekend we went down to the valley to help my brother Ben put new shingles on his roof. When we arrived at my moms house I was surprised to see decorations up for a birthday party! Adam had arranged for everyone to come to my mom’s to celebrate my birthday and enjoy some pizza together! It was such a fun surprise!

Re-roofing Ben’s home took almost the entire day, but it was fun to work together with the extended family!

Eliza and Sarah had many soccer games this month. They are such awesome players.

Adam and the kids broke out the repelling gear that we’ve just had sitting in storage for the last few years and went to this cliff just outside of Snowflake. They had a great time and thankfully, were all safe and protected while they had fun together.

On Friday the 22nd,  Caleb ran in his last cross country race. He has worked so hard and has improved so much over the past few years. We couldn’t be more proud of his determination and dedication. His coaches were SO uplifting and motivating. We are grateful for them and this sport. It  has not only helped Caleb grow physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually as well!

Near the end of the month, We took a Sunday drive out to Woodruff. In all our 14+ years of living here, we’ve never bothered to check it out. Along the way we came to a neat area where silver creek and the little Colorado come together. 

We had fun exploring this new (to us) territory. 

The girls had “Senior night” with their soccer team on the 26th.  We were so proud to walk with both of our girls, as they were being recognized. They are strong, amazing athletes and proved it out on the field! They beat Showlow in one of the most exciting games I’ve seen! What an awesome night!

Caleb built an RC airplane out of an old motor that a friend in the ward had given him. It flies wonderfully! We’ll done Caleb!  

 

September

We got some Senior pictures of the kids taken this month. They all turned out so good! Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

The Girls and I were able to cheer on Caleb at his CC meet in Flagstaff on the 4th. He did awesome, and we enjoyed a fun day together. 

The following Saturday, September 11, Caleb had a cross country meet at Fountain Hills, in the valley. 

That same day, the girls had a soccer tournament in Showlow. I decided I’d go support Caleb, since I am usually able to go to the girls games during the week. Caleb had an awesome run. He Got a personal record, and earned a medal!! GO Caleb! I had plans to get a haircut and stop at Costco while I was in the valley so after Caleb‘s run, I let him stay at the meet to support and travel home with his team while I left to go run my errands. 

No sooner had I gotten to my car then I received a call from one of the other soccer moms from the girls team. She told me that Eliza was injured during the game and that they would be taking her to the emergency room at the hospital. So, of course I canceled my hair appointment and forgot about going to Costco, and immediately drove up to ShowLow. My friend, Christy Solomon was kind enough to wait at the hospital with Eliza until I could get there. They did an x-ray on her shoulder and thankfully there were no broken or dislocated bones. It turns out, it was just a very painful sprain.

That same evening, the girls had their homecoming dance to attend. Eliza was so excited to go, that she wasn’t about to let her injury keep her from having fun at the dance. She had a great time with her date Andrew.

Sarah went to homecoming with Jacob (a friend of a friend).

And also enjoyed her time at the dance. 

Caleb Didn’t plan on going to homecoming, which was a good thing, since his bus broke down just outside of Payson on the way home from his cross country meet. What should have been a 2 to 3 hour delay, turned in to being stuck on a bus for over eight hours. His team had been up since 2 o’clock in the morning, and didn’t arrive home until after 8 o’clock that night. Poor Caleb! 

Our lawn started growing this month it’s so nice to look outside and see green again!

Sarah received a special gift from her grandpa Burk this month. She was given my grandma’s KitchenAid mixer! It’s well over 50 years old, but still works perfectly. She uses it for making her amazing chocolate chip cookies, and is excited to have a mixer of her own to take with her when she’s ready to leave the nest. 

 

August

It was the last “first day of school” together for these three. Taking this picture was really hard for me. First, because I miss the trees and beauty of our old back yard where I used to take their “first day” pics. And second, because I knew it would be the last first day of school picture that they’d take together. Next year, Caleb will be on his mission and the girls may be going to college in two separate locations. It’s hard for me to think about the kids growing up and leaving the nest. 

Other than the typical “Back to school” hoopla that we had in August, the girls started another season of soccer and Caleb began running cross country again. 

We also spent quite a bit of time and effort on some home improvement projects. 

Adam and Richard and Caleb installed this awesome concrete wall at the edge of our property on Papermill rd.

We planted several trees!!!!

We had a sprinkler system installed and had hydroseed grass sprayed out on a big area of the yard.

Adam built a flagpole. I’ve wanted one for years! I’m so glad to finally be able to show our patriotic pride! I think it looks awesome. 

July

 July was the busiest month of all time!!! It started with More building and cleaning and Moving!! 

On the 3rd, we took a break from working and Adam did this…

While trying to do this..

Thankfully, other than a goose egg on Adam’s head no one was hurt. And, other than a broken axle, the buggy was just fine too.

We managed to get everything moved into our new place. 

We had to sell and give away a lot of things and put some things in storage, but we finally got settled in. 

I also spent a great deal of time getting my new preschool room all put together. I am so happy with it.

The girls and I we’re pretty emotional as we finished cleaning the old house and said “Goodbye”. I loved our home so much. I hope the new owners are as happy there as we were.

Adam and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this month!! We had a nice dinner date at Charlie Clark’s in Pinetop. 

The Ray Quist Family was in charge of the big Quist-Johnson family reunion this year. We arranged for it to be held at the Diamond W Ranch in Pinetop, AZ. 

Over 125 people came and It was a total blast!! We all had a wonderful time enjoying each other and all the fun activities. 

Grandpa Quist rode the zip-line!

    Caleb went on several bike rides. 

I love this picture of my dad and most of his siblings. 

After the reunion, we went camping at Green’s peak for a couple days. Braunsen came and went biking with Adam and Caleb. 

We got some major rain this month! Thankfully, we didn’t have any flooding in our home, but our property sure got soaked. Adam dug a big trench to channel the rain water from our property and our neighbors property  back towards the wash. Our state was in a pretty bad drought, so we aren’t complaining one bit! We love the rain and will take all we can around here. 

I wanted to take one last little trip with the kids before school starts and they get super busy with their studies and extra curricular activities. At the last minute, Caleb decided he should stay and work, so it ended up being a girls trip. The girls invited their friend Ashley Dees. We went to mission beach in San Diego and had a wonderful time. We played at Belmont park, and went to Sea World. But, our favorite part was just playing in the ocean waves! We got some boogie boards and had a total blast with them.  I love the beach and ocean so much! We missed Adam and Caleb, but we are glad Ashley could come!

Well, that pretty much wraps up our crazy summer! I wish I could say things will settle down a bit when school starts next month, but I have a feeling things are only going to get busier!!