End of Summer of '12

I must blog about the summer before I forget it all!

This was a very interesting summer! So good. And bad to be away from each other. 

Bobby and I had a couple of weeks of summer together at the beginning. All I really remember about it is celebrating our anniversary, which I already blogged about. 

Bobby left for boot camp in early June. He didn't hate it, didn't love it. He complained of waiting in lines, the heat, and getting up so early. He got yelled at that he needed to shave. However, he DID like the food, shooting guns (He got 1st place in his platoon of 50 people!), MRE's, and he made some new friends.

With Captain Proctor

They gave him new glasses...

At the San Antonio temple with Cedric, Brian and Richard

While Bobby was at boot camp, I spent a month with my family. Funny story- The morning that Chelsea was supposed to fly in my mom and I went on a walk in the morning. My mom randomly got a message on her phone from Chelsea saying, "Hey mom, I'm supposed to land at 9:30. Can't wait to see you guys!" It was like 8:30 in the morning! My mom freaked. She wasn't supposed to land until like 3:00 in the afternoon. She had me listen to the message- I told my mom that Chelsea sounded tired. Anyway, we ran home, my mom called my dad, they both called the travel office, my mom ran to go shower. While she was in the shower, Chelsea called again and left a message saying "Hey I'm out of money so I probably won't call anymore. See you soon!" We were so frantic! Well, we got a hold of the travel office, and talked to her again- turns out that the message we thought was from Chelsea saying "I'll be there at 9:30" was actually MY voicemail! I had left it the night before and for some reason it didn't get to my mom until the morning. I listen to the voicemail and everything and never thought about it being MY voice! Very funny. 

Anyway, we were SO excited to see Chelsea. Kylee especially couldn't contain herself! My dad wanted to go to the gate to see her first and ended up missing her entrance. But it was SO great to see her. She looked so muy bueno.

After the homecoming, we hung out as a family. 

Went to the temple- 5/7 members of the family!

Went to a Rockies game

BFF

Ashley is getting so adult-like! And she is so hip. We didn't mean to match :) We were at Kylee's summer play- she was the star! Princess Pat

Then we went to Lake Powell with the Bowens and Drapers. We had a great time! Wakeboarding, wake surfing, cliff diving, playing games off the houseboat, floating, horseshoes, watching fireworks, letting off fireworks, mafia, reading, fishin'...it was a great time.

Sweet Kylee and Bronwin

JB dance party on the car ride

Mike and Cole <3

We had the BEST camping spot. Michael and the Chambers hiked the rock on the right!

Ash Wakeboarding

Chelsea Wakeboarding

Me Wakeboarding

And Spencer schooling us

Siblings

Future lovebirds I hope

Love him

We got home for Chelsea's homecoming and Michael's farewell the same Sunday. My little brother and sister are such spiritual giants. Both of their talks were some of the best talks I have ever heard. I wish I could have recorded them. I remember Michael inspiring me to stand strong in the gospel. He is such a modern-day member of the Army of Helaman. He was honored to serve the Lord and excited to change people's lives. And Chelsea had such a burning testimony of our Heavenly Father, and such a great love for Him and Jesus Christ, and for people in general. I felt the spirit so strongly. I love these two so much, and I am so proud to be siblings. I have such big shoes to fill. 

Said goodbye to sibling #2 for his mission to Costa Rica. He will be the greatest missionary. Costa Rica is one lucky country! 

Extended fam

Chelsea came to visit me in Arizona, which I was so grateful for her keeping me company in my empty house! She got a lot of gym time and pool time in, and we had fun while I tried to show her AZ. We went to the botanical gardens, the temple, floated down the Salt River, tandem bike rides, went hiking, racquetball lessons, and hung out. I love her and want her to visit again!!!! The day she flew out Bobby had a layover in Phoenix on his way to Oregon, so Chelsea met my husband for the first time for just a couple hours! We played cards at a airport club thanks to our military man, and luckily Chelsea approved of him! :)

So hot when I got home...

At the airport

Bobby and I flew out to Oregon for a mini family reunion. I sure love Oregon and the Rampton family. We got to spend time with mom and dad- of course, the Egberts, the Halversons and the Fowlers. We played outside on a spinning rings that Mark built, on their new moped, we canoed down a river- so fun!, played games, then we packed up to spend some time at a resort at Black Butte- a Rampton tradition. It was my first time and I LOVED the scenery, the bike trails (and how everyone bikes to get to places- we brought bikes for everyone), the cabin we stayed at, the swimming pools, the spring, the small shops, watching the Opening Ceremonies, playing with the nieces and nephews (especially baby Will), and the night talks. A big thanks to the Ramptons for putting up such a party! We were so sad to leave.

Bobby finally got back to Arizona after almost 2 months of being away. We were so happy to be back together again. We went to Bobby's good friend Dave Reeder's wedding reception to his beautiful bride Chelsea, who we love and are excited that they are here in AZ with us. 

The Ormes on the way to the reception, and after

We went to Lake Powell again this time with the Goodmans, Bennions, Mark, Logan and CHELSEA got to come with Carly's siblings! That too was so fun we wish we would have taken more pictures and had more time there. We did a LOT of boogie-boarding, wakeboarding, a LOT of tubing, cliff diving (Chelsea schooled me in high dives as usual, but I did jump off holding hands with my love), bocce ball, sneaking up on Chelsea talking to her semi-bf, and swimmin'. A couple of hours before I needed to leave, the boat stopped mid-lake, long story we got towed back to camp but then no one would tow us back to the marina! Eventually the police drove us back. And I barely made my first day of nursing school the next morning!

Bobby jumping off

Claire Bennion's first tube ride!

Boogieboarding

More cliffs

Tube Wars for Hours

This is for our kids someday. Don't watch or you'll be bored.
But we're jumping off the cliff holding hands. It hurts your arms.

The best summer. Thanks to everyone that was a part of it. Next blog post- SCHOOL UPDATE! probably. Who knows what the next Rampton update will be?!?

When Dark Clouds of Trouble Hang O'er Us

I have a LOT of great things to write about! But I have to write chronologically. So you'll just have to wait to hear about my sister coming home(!), my brother leaving, our awesome trip to Black Butte, and our summer.

For my AZ friends who didn't know about it, Colorado Springs had a terrible fire right when I visited. It was so scary and so sad. Luckily, we were not threatened like our friends and neighbors were because we were across the freeway from the fire. But we could see it! And many people we know were evacuated, some even lost their homes. 

I first noticed the fire when it looked like this-

But I wasn't worried because 1, Colorado has a lot of fires that don't become that serious, or are controlled and 2, it was near the Air Force Academy so I wondered if it was a drill because they are always having fake-explosions that we can see the smoke from. 

But then it grew and grew and grew and grew...

Then the sky turned black, and all my pictures looked like it was stormy, but on the edge of the sky, you could see that it was smoke, not clouds! (Below)

That evening, the fire jumped the ridge, and came down onto the houses of Colorado Springs. We could see the flames! And we would watch houses catch on fire and a huge pillar of fire would mean another house lost. My parents had friends stay at our house who did not know if one of the pillars of fire was their home. Very scary!

My phone could even pick up the flames in the night, and it can never capture anything at night...

All the hotels, including my dad's, were full. My dad even had people sleeping on the floor in the conference center because they had no place to stay. It was crazy!

I am so grateful we were just a couple of miles away that our home was okay. But my heart hurts for those who were not as lucky. They are still in my prayers. 

Ashley blowing fire....

This was a picture of my beloved Garden of the Gods. Not so funny then, but my brother found this on facebook and commented, "We found love in a hopeless place" after the song. Hahaha.

 This was kind of funny too- this is what we felt like, especially since the Colorado Springs fire was only one of a couple in the state!

But in all seriousness, it was very traumatic for Colorado Springs. 1000 firefighters came to fight it. 347 homes burned. (The pictures above were ones I took. Here are some from the internet.)

God bless Colorado!!