July 2014 ~ Lake Cavanaugh

We just had the best week of our lives. All of our children and their families with us for a week on beautiful Lake Cavanaugh in Washington State. No cell phone service, no internet. Completely unplugged and nothing but fun.

We rented a house for the week. It used to be our house--we sold it in 2002. My daughter saw it for rent on VRBO and we jumped right on it. Of course we chose the week with the 4th of July because you've never seen more fun fireworks than on Lake Cavanaugh. Many people around the lake set fireworks off on the end of their docks. Surrounding you are fireworks lighting the night sky.  Our thanks this year especially to the house down the lake who must have spent thousands of dollars on fireworks. What a show!

Lake Cavanaugh is a little over an hour from Seattle. It is a small lake, about 4 miles long and maybe a mile wide at the widest. There is a public boat launch, but no other public places to moor a boat, or camp. Boats on the lake are almost all owned by homeowners there. So there are few boats around, and it is quiet and serene.

We loved the lakehouse when we owned it, and to tell the truth, we all cried when we sold it. It's a little scary to go back to a place you love so much--can it ever be as good? Yes, yes it can. This time we had the added joy of introducing all of our children's spouses and our grandchildren to the magic of being together as a family on Lake Cavanaugh. We relived all of our great memories of family and friends being there with us in the past and created so many new memories with our own family.

It couldn't have been better.

Here are a million (or so) pictures, in no particular order:

 

June 2014 Report

Since when did June become a month with only 5 days in it? I'm sure the other 25 are missing, floating around somewhere in the universe. This month went by so fast! Here's my report:

1. First Things First: same as ever. Working on eating better. I'm exercising regularly but might have to step up my efforts a notch while I'm exercising. Still trying hard to keep up on daily prayer and scripture reading.

2. Personal History: I have scanned hundreds and hundreds of slides this month. In truth, that's where June has gone.

3. Temples: see the last two months of reports: still no new temples.

4. Home Projects:
Cleaning for June: library and music room. Does vacuuming count? Yes, yes it does. I've spent a lot of time in the yard. Last Saturday Joseph and the boys helped me clean out all the mile high weeds in my vegetable planters and Joseph tilled it and dug the holes and planted my tomatoes and herbs. Ray and I cleared two trees and a large bush and several shrubs from a small side yard. We will be putting in grass there instead. It will look nicer, and can be groomed in 5 minutes instead of 5 hours of weeding.
Emergency binder update: almost done. Still working on it.

Goals for July: keep up on the yard. Clean the downstairs bathrooms. Actually that's a job that gets done pretty thoroughly pretty often. Especially when we have company, which is frequently.

Love's Banner by Holly C. Metcalf

I have no photo of this book. It is the story of Elaine Cannon's life. Elaine's daughter Holly wrote it, and gave the book to my daughter Debra. Debra passed it on to me.

Elaine Cannon was the General Young Women's President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) from 1978 to 1984. It was a time of a lot of structural changes. For example that was when the church went to the consolidated schedule.

Elaine was a woman with boundless energy and ideas. It was fun to learn more about her.