The Ups and Downs of Summer

 Another summer is gone and it has been one full of memories, so many that I felt it was time for another post in order to record as many of them as I can. As with my last post (and life in general) there have been some pretty great things to happen these past months and some also not so great things. So here is a few of the Happenin's of Hailey for the summer:

Spring semester of school went well, I enjoyed my classes, especially ASL and am happy with how my grades turned out. Following finals week I got to enjoy a week with my best friend visiting. Our adventures included hiking, volunteering at the Special Olympics, going to the Phoenix Temple and just treating ourselves. 

The first week of June was spent at Roosevelt Lake with the Persons family as is our yearly tradition. I love this time of getting to ski and tube, play canasta, and hang out with family. 

The next week of summer was spent at the MDA Summer Camp where I got to become best friends with my camper Maddie and build friendships with many other of the wonderful campers and awesome councilors. This was my second year with the camp and I LOVED it. It is so great to work with these kids and help them have a fun time and I look forward to more years of being able to volunteer and recommend this opportunity to everyone. It is a truly rewarding (and exhausting) experience spending the week focusing primarily on the needs of others and am grateful for the things I learned from this opportunity. 

After getting back from camp my family and my bestie took a drive down to Tuscan for the Temple Open House. I love these opportunities to see inside the House of the Lord and all of the blessings that temples bring into my life.

On July 2nd my Grandpa Persons left this world and it was difficult to have to say goodbye to a man who made such an impact on my life.

These photos represent just a few of the great memories I have of my grandpa. Some of my favorite include:

• going to Kids Club and my grandpa buying me a McDonald's hash brown every time
• his insistence that I was always out "looking for some boy"
• him answering the phone in a high voice saying "this is grandma"
• trying to come up with a decent answer to his standard question "did you learn anything today" to  prove to him that I could be smarter than him (as he claimed no one was as smart as him)
• sending him countless emails of pictures that he would turn into collages or put in the newspaper
• his standard goodbye of "I'll see you in the funny papers"

My grandpa ALWAYS had a camera and was there to document every special occasion or family gathering. I often would make faces at him and was always curious to see if any photos of me made it into the newspaper. But, often times I would steal the camera from him and take photos of him so that there were some of him too. 

I really never expect many people to read my blog, but I knew I could always count on my grandpa to view it. 

I miss a lot of things about my grandpa.

I miss him claiming that I am going to school to "become a water boy" and that he won't be here to see me prove him wrong. I miss hearing his stories (even if I'd heard it several times before). I  miss telling him about my life and the interest he always showed. And I miss his teasing and our banter that would ensue. 

But, it just shows what a great person he was for his absence to be felt so acutely. I am so grateful for the memories I have to cherish and the legacy that he left behind.

To conclude the summer adventures, I took a trip to Idaho!

I was fortunate to be able to tag along with the Cammack family on a trip to Oregon and Washington. We made a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and I got to taste the most heavenly cheese and ice cream on the planet. It was basically a dream come true. 

We got to explore the Oregon coast and spend time in Vancouver which were both so beautiful and the weather was fantastic.

To end the trip we were able to sneak in a trip to the Boise Idaho Temple. There were a lot of things standing in our way to be able to attend the temple, the biggest fact being that it was technically closed and I had a flight to catch, but thanks to many wonderful miracles everything fell into place and we had a wonderful experience doing baptisms. 

This summer was memorable and I think in years to come it will stand out in my memory. When I wasn't on trips, I spent my time working, reading, shadowing at two PT clinics (where I learned A LOT!), reading, watching movies and reading. I completed 31 books this summer and learned quite a bit. This summer was similar in some ways to summers past, but also fairly different. I can count on one hand the amount of times I stayed up past midnight or slept in past eight. I had to get sinus surgery and the first few days were pretty brutal, but I am looking forward to actually being able to breath and smell like a normal human being. 

I enjoyed my summer, I grew, I made friendships, I gave service, I tried new things, I traveled, I spent time with family and friends and I experienced the ups and downs of life. I look forward to what the rest of the year has in store for me, I am sure there will be more trials and triumphs to come and I will just have to see what I am meant to learn from each.

Until next time,
Hailey