Kayla's 16th Summer

Your 16th summer should be memorable and amazing.  This probably won't go down as Kayla's best summer, but it has been memorable and amazing at times.

Summer is usually a very busy time for her, with volleyball and basketball camps and practices.  However, at the first basketball camp of the summer, she was going up for a jump shot and came down on someone's else's foot (she made the shot :-).  The athletic trainer at the college where she was at told her she'd sprained her ankle and needed ice and rest and would be back playing basketball in 2 weeks.

She iced it diligently.  She stayed off it and kept it wrapped.  It was really hard for her, who is so used to being busy and active, to sit.  She actually wanted to run errands with me just to get out of the house!

Two weeks later, it still hurt, so she continued summer league volleyball, just not jumping or running much.

She went to youth conference!  This was her first time, and she was very glad she went.  It was stake youth conference, and they went to Nauvoo, Illinois.  She wasn't so sure about it at first.  She was in Jen and Val's "family" but she didn't know any of the other youth at all.

Now she knows them and loves them all.

 She came home spiritually lifted and with her testimony strengthened, and new friendships formed.

Before our vacation, we decided we better get her in to an orthopedic doctor.  This was 6 weeks after her injury, and it still hurt to run and jump.  The diagnosis was a  high ankle sprain.  Not a big deal, but it takes longer to heal.  They gave her a walking boot and instructions not to hike, waterski, tube, etc. while on vacation.  Poor girl!

  

It was her birthday week too!  16 years old!  We would be traveling to Lake Powell on her birthday, so we gave her presents on family night.

 She's not a greedy girl at all.  The only things we could drag out of her for a wishlist were a new basketball and a photo collage of youth conference.  So we got her those.

And some $$$

 Kayla was bummed that we'd be traveling on her birthday- it had been that way several times the last few years.  The night before her birthday, her fabulous cousins and aunt Jen brought over this huge bag of gifts: one for each daylight hour of her birthday.  How sweet is that!

 We weren't sure if we'd be traveling together, but with a 5 hour trailer tire delay in Manhatten, Kansas, we met up with them the 2nd day of our travels at the Giant Sand Dunes in Colorado.

 It made her day brighter that she got to ride with them in their car. We even put the boys in our car so the girls could just be girls.  Of course, we stopped at Subway, her favorite, for lunch.

 The 2nd day of our houseboat vacation, we celebrated there.  I'm a terrible party planner, so I never came up with grand plans like I had hoped, but she got to be with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and have cupcakes.  It can't get much better than that, right?

 How I love this girl and the amazing individual she has become and continues to become.

I forgot to video the first song, so we re-sang it, and Kayla hid under the table-- that's why you don't see her :)

Oh, and she did take her driver's test this week upon returning from vacation and passed!  Also, just today Jason took her on her first date as a 16 year old. Sweet!