THE PARK POST

Sydney turned the big "10" this year.  She said goodbye to her barbies and has found a new love for  American Girl Dolls.  I've always been too cheap to buy my girls the real American Girl Dolls.  We've had plenty of  Target knock off dolls, (which I think look very similar and cost a quarter of the price), but Sydney has been persistent and saved up her money to buy her own real AGD.  So for her birthday we surprised her with an overnight trip to Atlanta where we stayed in an American Girl Hotel and then gave her money to shop at the store the next day.  She loved every minute of it!    The following weekend we let her have a sleepover with her two best friends from school, Lauren and Madison.  They brought their dolls, swam, watched an American Girl movie and created their own ice cream sundaes.   We are so happy Sydney joined our family 10 years ago at Madigan Hospital in Fort Lewis Washington.  She was our Army ...

    Lots of fun at the BYU game thanks to Grandma and Grandpa O!   BYU   VS HOUSTON  Mike shot his best round of golf ever at Hobble Creek!  He was in heaven all weekend doing the things he loves!     BRAXTON (he gets a lot of attention) and the Park family showed them a good time.  Paige came for a few hours to visit, but wanted to spend more time in Provo with her friends.  (We think a boy is involved???)    

 We put the house up for sale by owner, but switched to a realtor after 2 weeks.  We have only had one couple come look at the house so far.  This may take longer than we thought.  In Washington we sold our house in 5 days and had 2 buyers.  We had high expectations I think!  But hopefully things will work out soon.  They usually do.

   THE DAY BEFORE PAIGE AND I DROVE TO UTAH, MIKE AND I SPENT TIME WITH HER HIKING IN PINE MOUNTAIN.  IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!   After a 24 hour car delay, we were finally off for our 30 hour car journey across the country!   We saw mostly corn and wheat fields, and in Wyoming not much of anything, but we stopped in Independence and Liberty Jail and got a little taste of church history.       She got all settled in to her beautiful new dorm at Heritage Halls.  So much nicer than I remember. She loves her roommates so far, although it's hard to tell from this pic!!      I had fun watching Aerin come home from her mission to Canada.  I visited with my family and Mike's family and even ran into a few old friends from California and Missouri. 

  Jackson--7th Grade    SYDNEY--4th Grade McKell--10th Grade (Had to sneak a picture because she was not too happy or cooperative at 6:20 a.m.)

    Look who made the paper 3 times in June!  

    With all of the uncertainty in our life right now we decided it would be best to stay home in Georgia for the summer.  This is the first time since we've been married that we haven't gone back to Utah in the summertime.  No Bear Lake, no cabin, no family reunions.  Kind of weird.  So instead some of the family came to us this year.  First,  we had a great time with Katie, Nick, and Braxton.  They came on the 3rd of July and stayed for 10 days.  It was so fun having a baby around.  He's a little bit of a Mama's boy and waled for an hour straight the first time we watched him.  But because he's so cute we didn't mind at all.          VEGAS Mike and I had a mini get away to Las Vegas while Nick and Katie were here because Mike was interviewing with a company there.  We stayed in one of the nicest hotels we've ever been in. While he interviewed I relaxed....