My Foreign Sky

It's time!! As always--books that my kids haven't read that I think they will love (some significant tailoring based on children's interests and what they've read so far). I love taking notes all...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2024/04/summer-reading-2024.html

On our way to Thanksgiving in Provo, we stopped in Capitol Reef for a few days (pictured above--I'm standing on Cassidy Arch). It was so beautiful!! My dad met us there with my niece Evelyn an...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/12/capitol-reef-national-park.html

Shenandoah!!! On our first day, we had permits to hike Old Rag, so we got up bright and early to get to the trailhead in time to get good parking. This was SUCH a fun hike and our kids absolut...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/10/shenandoah-national-park.html

This was the first year that our school had a week-long fall break, which was super exciting! We were originally planning to camp at Babcock State Park in West Virginia and at Shenandoah in Vi...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/10/new-river-gorge-national-park.html

Lucky Juliet, she got to start her first day of junior year on her 16th birthday! (Rough, right? We had her celebrations beforehand.)  Jules and Isaac are together at the high school in ...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/back-to-school-2023-and-juliets-birthday.html

We haven't been to Dinosaur since the summer Nathan was born, so we were well overdue for another visit! We decided at the last second to turn right instead of left as we were leaving Orem so ...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/dinosaur-national-monument.html

This year we had our first whole-family reunion since 2019!! We've gotten together in chunks here and there, and we've had two times where all the sisters and my parents were together, but thi...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/decker-family-reunion.html

For the camping part of our family reunion, Elise booked the group campsite at Redman Campground like...a year in advance. And gosh was it worth it!! This is truly one of the most beautiful ca...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/camping-at-solitude.html

After we got our tents set up, Neil and I walked over to Solitude (like 100 yards through the trees) and wandered around the base of the Sunrise and Apex lifts.  I've skied down Sensatio...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/silver-lake.html

During our family reunion, we decided to go for a hike up towards Lake Solitude through the ski resort. It was so fun (and weird!) hiking through the summer terrain when I'm so used to seeing ...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/hiking-at-solitude.html

The last time we did this hike, it landed itself a place on our very best hikes list (the bighorn sheep pretty much solidified it!).  Sadly, this time we had very different weather (absolut...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/mount-ida.html

After hiking Black Lake and Chasm Lake back to back, our legs were pretty trashed, so we opted for an easier day and started out at the Alluvial Fan. The trick with this one is you have to cli...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/alluvial-fan-alpine-visitors-center-and.html

The hike to Chasm Lake via the Longs Peak trail is one we have wanted to do for years; we've just been waiting for everyone's legs to be big enough to do it (read: not carrying any babies). An...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/chasm-lake-longs-peak.html

After leaving Great Sand Dunes, we drove north towards Rocky Mountain National Park. I think we've been here at least a dozen times and it never gets old. So gorgeous. We set up camp and then ...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/rockies-bear-lake-black-lake.html

We had two weekends in a row where we got to go hang out with friends at the beaches along Lake Michigan--so fun! I'm just going to combine all the photos into one post, but we FINALLY made it...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/indiana-dunes-national-park-lake.html

Our first stop on this year's summer road trip was Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado (this was our year to hit all the Colorado parks!). It's pretty cool to drive towards the park...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/great-sand-dunes.html

One of the things we were most excited for on this trip--Mesa Verde!! We'd planned a trip in 2020, then postponed since they weren't holding tours during the pandemic, then postponed again whe...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/mesa-verde.html

The kids went back to school today, and my goal is to catch up on blog posts--I'm giving myself 15 minutes a day, so we will see how far I get.  This summer we visited all four of th...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/08/black-canyon-of-gunnison.html

Way back in October my dear friend Melissa took Abigail's senior photos. Here are a few... It was an insanely windy day! And bitterly cold. Abigail and Melissa were total troopers about i...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/06/senior-pics-for-abigail.html

The day after graduation, we packed up and headed out for our traditional end-of-school camping trip with friends. There were Sasquatch sightings, outdoor movies, early morning trail runs, lot...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/06/first-week-of-summer.html

Feels like the second picture was just yesterday.  I took this pic on the last day of school--Juliet wasn't home yet (I think she was biking home or riding with a friend, can't remember)...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/06/graduation.html

Without further ado, this year's lists, since my kids have been asking for these for weeks! I went back this year and had the kids read some books that I was surprised to realize they hadn't rea...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/05/summer-reading-2023.html

A lot of big stuff happened in April!! Like Abigail turning 18!! (This was maybe my favorite celebration ever, we invited all of her friends in the stake back to our house after "Mormon Pr...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/06/prom-and-soccer.html

Our second (and last full day in London) started with all three of us trying out the full English. We made a pretty valiant effort, all of us tried the black pudding and all of us decided nope...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/06/last-day-in-london.html

After we got back from our run and woke up Abigail, the three of us set out to walk to the Tower of London. I want to say it was a good 3 miles or so but we got to see a lot of London along th...

http://theirchronicles.blogspot.com/2023/06/first-day-in-london.html