July

This summer has been both busy and not very busy. Brooke and Camille play almost every day with kids in the neighborhood. (They're out at someone's house right now, as I'm writing.) And we haven't gone anywhere this summer, really. But each week tends to bring some new adventure or activity. We've gone to splash pads with friends. We've visited museums at Thanksgiving point. We've had dinners and game nights with family members and new friends.

Last weekend, I went to my good friends, Viktoria Johnson's wedding, which was both uncomfortable and also really special. I love Viktoria, she was one of my best friends in High School, and it was awesome to be there in the temple and at her luncheon. But also uncomfortable because I saw a lot of people I haven't seen in many years, many of whom I couldn't remember their names. Plus, I ended up sitting at a table with no one I knew. But it was all good.

On Monday, Kathryn and her boyfriend, Jared, came over for dinner and games, which was really fun. We haven't hung out in a really long time, so it's nice that we have the chance again. We played a new game that they brought, called Wingspan, and really liked it.

For the 4th of July, we spent all day with Brian and Sammy. They came to Provo's Freedom Festival parade that morning, and saved us a really good spot for the parade, bringing chairs and all. Then afterward, we went to their house for lunch (hotdogs and fruit and junk food) and did some fireworks. We joined them for swimming at Sammy's sister's house, and then went back to their house to put the babies down for short naps, while we played games. We joined them for barbecue dinner at her mom's house next door. And we finished up the day back at our house, where we shot off fireworks in the street with our neighbors. It was a really full and fun day! It's been so nice living close to family thus far. We've really liked it!

A couple of Saturdays ago, we drove out to Silver Lake and met Mom Holbrook and Gramma Mitchell there to spend some time at the lake. We had a picnic lunch, and then we started a walk around the lake. Gramma kept saying how she wouldn't be able to make it all the way around, and that she'd have to turn back soon. But she just kept going, and we took long breaks, because the kids kept wanting to stop and look at things. And every time we asked her if she wanted to turn back, she said she was okay. It took us a long time to get all the way around, with the kids stopping a lot, and with Gramma stopping to rest a bunch. We were pretty slow going. But we had a good time. And it was nice to be out in nature, away from all the buildings and traffic and people. I just hope we didn't wear Gramma out too much, and that she had a good time.

We've been slowly getting things from our Summer List done. We had our water fight a few weeks ago, and it was epic! The kids and I filled buckets with water and water balloons, and we left the hose on and got out the super soakers. We left a swimsuit and a water gun on the stairs from the garage, with a sign for Daniel that read, "Prepare Yourself" and an arrow pointing to the gear. We hid in the backyard with our water guns and balloons, and once he came out to the back, we squirted him as much as possible, and the water fight was on! It was so fun! We ran around the backyard, squirting each other and throwing water balloons. Camille was mostly concerned about saving the little water balloons that were duds; Jack was running around, trying not to get too wet, but also trying to get learn how to get everyone else wet; and Brooke was very concerned about having teams and working with a team. She decided that she and I were a team against Dad and Camille; which would have been great, if Camille was really INTO the water fight. It was so much fun, and I think it'll now be a yearly tradition. Hopefully in years to come, we'll have more people actually participating...

We also had our sprinklerfest, which lasted all of 10 minutes before the kids were done. And Camille hardly even got wet. But at least Brooke and I were out there running around in the sprinklers and getting all wet. Jack didn't even want to come outside. And after 10 minutes, both Brooke and Camille said they were done. Maybe we'll try that one again next year, too.

On Sunday, we made our strawberry pie, which was delicious. But if we decide to bake a pie next year, I think we'll do a different variety.

A couple of weeks ago, Aleah was here with her family. They invited us to Harrison's baptism on a Saturday, with a luncheon afterwards at Bart's parent's house. And the Sunday after, we went to Mom and Dad's for dinner with everyone to celebrate Summer's birthday. And the Monday after that, Aleah and her kids, Jennie, Mom and Emily came over. Aleah, Jennie, Emily, and I worked out in the late morning; and then Mom came to watch the little napping kids while Aleah, Jennie and I took the olders to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. They all came back when it closed, and stayed for dinner. It was a fun and busy day with them.

Then, the next day, I took my kids to Mom's house so that she could watch them and they could play with their cousins, because I ... had a cake class! With Courtney, from Cake by Courtney. It was so fun, I loved it. I learned some awesome skills, and got to share a delicious cake with everyone (actually, I thought the cake was only so-so ... it was peach cobbler inspired. No chocolate, so, ya know...). It was Daniel's anniversary gift to me, which was perfect! I loved it!

We went to 7-11 for free slurpie day with Harvey and Gina.

The girls and I went to a summer kids club movie, How to Train Your Dragon, one day, and left Jack in the hands of a babysitter.

Daniel and I went to a game night with people in our ward.

We had visitors from California! The Thompsons came one Sunday after church, and the Erdmanns came for tin foil dinners last weekend. The kids stayed up super late that night, and didn't get to bed until 10pm! Summer has been too fun.

We did our backyard campout after the Erdmanns left. But only Camille and Daniel slept in the tent outside. Jack was in his bed, which meant one of us had to sleep in the house (me). And Brooke claimed it was too hot in the tent to sleep outside, and she slept in her bed. It was a bit of a weird night, with the visitors and the camping and all.

Snow cones and otter pops galore! Almost every day.

Selling and buying snow cones to/from other kids.

Movie days. One day, a couple of weeks ago, Brooke and Camille made plans to have a Lion King movie day on that Friday, because Jack had never seen Lion King. So after chores were done, Brooke went to get Harvey for the movie, I popped some popcorn, and we watched Lion King together. Jack must've thought it was pretty cool, because he's been asking to watch it again ever since.

This summer has been so fun. And it's weird to think that it's soon coming to a close. Next week, we're at Westgate for the family reunion, which will be amazing. And then there are 2 weeks left until school starts, which will be filled up with preparing for school, getting the rest of our list done, having a birthday party for Brooke, and other fun things. How did school sneak up on us so fast?

June

The kids play with friends in the neighborhood every single day. The last day of school, there was a party on the corner by where we live, and all the kids in the neighborhood close by were there, playing outside all. day. long. One little girl has this little car, and she took Camille and Jack for rides in it one day. Jack was in HEAVEN.

Brooke and Harvey play together every day. And they've been especially loving selling snow cones out on our driveway. We have a little ice shaver, and we bought snow cones supplies and syrups, and they have gone out to sell snow cones at least 3 times already this summer. One day, they took the big lawn mower box and set up shop like it was a little food truck. They made quite a bit of money on that day. I just sat in a lawn chair on the driveway and hung out with neighbors and watched their little business endeavor. It was such a fun day.

At the beginning of the summer, we had a family meeting and put together our Summer Live List. It's a pretty good list. And we've done a couple of things: we went to see Aladdin one night -- Brooke liked it, Camille was a little distracted for much of it and didn't have the patience to watch the whole thing; we did an overnight campout in the mountains -- Jack really struggled sleeping that night + it was freezing, so it was quite a rough night, but we had fun; we had a fried cheese hunt (think Easter egg hunt inside the house with fried cheese instead of colored eggs. *shrug* It was Camille's idea, so I did the best I could to interpret that).

We also had a pizza and movie night one Friday and watched 'Ralph Breaks the Internet'. Jack didn't stay for the whole movie; he went to bed about halfway through. But they all loved eating pizza in the living room, and the girls loved watching the movie. We had fun! It was also a fun night because Daniel came home before 5 pm that day; so we got pizza, had dinner and watched a movie, and put the kids to bed, all before 7:30pm! What a different life we're living now!!

Sammy and Brian invited us to spend a Saturday with them going to the Orem Summerfest (Orem's version of summer celebrations, like a fair). They had food and booths, fair rides and entertainment. We liked the reptile exhibit and Jack loved looking at the fire truck and police cars. Sammy, Brian and I walked around and looked at the booths and the things people were selling, and Camille and Brooke loved going on a handful of the fair rides. We had a fun time with them!

We've been having so much fun this summer, it has Camille all wiped out. Also, we've been having some serious bedtime struggles. When we moved here, we decided that we needed to start putting the girls to bed at the same time. It wasn't working well, staggering their bedtime anymore. Camille kept taking longer and longer to fall asleep, so Brooke wasn't getting to bed until 9:30, 10, 10:30 at night. And my sanity was suffering as well. I NEED a few hours a day without kids needing something from me all the time (meaning, I need them to be in bed so that I can feel like a real person). So we started putting them to bed together at 7:30pm -- it was a good bedtime, enough time to have dinner, scripture study and prayer, do some after dinner chores, and get ready for bed. BUT, they never did learn how to go to sleep together, and they made messes and destroyed things and took stuff of the walls, etc. Now, we have someone sleeping in the extra room in the basement every night. I sure hope they learn how to sleep someday. Or else, we're in trouble FOREVER.

The girls planned and (mostly by themselves) set up a tea party one day. They invited their friends to come over and have "tea" (root beer) and snacks. It was so fun to have all these kids here, and they stayed literally all afternoon. I loved it! I love having kids in my house and that kids feel comfortable staying and playing in my house. Later that afternoon, we got out our perler bead craft and they all did crafts together.

One day, I took the girls to see "How to Train Your Dragon". It was one of the movies for the summer movie club, where you get to see an old movie in the theater for a dollar. We left Jack with a babysitter, and went on a just girls date. Brooke liked the movie, and Camille had a hard time sitting through the whole thing ... like I expected. But it was still fun.

Daniel and I went on a date last weekend to see the Rodeo. Every city in Utah County has their own week of summer celebrations, and the Lehi Roundup was last week. They had a rodeo as part of Roundup week, and we got tickets for the Saturday night rodeo. It was so fun! We had a great time.

May

We finally got Brooke registered and in school sometime the beginning of May, and she only had about 2 or 3 weeks of school left. I felt a little silly putting her in school with such little time left, but I'm glad I did. She got to make friends, she went on a field trip with her class, and she got to participate in the end of school activities and graduation. Her teacher for the last few weeks of school was Ms. Pope. Brooke loved her!

 We got memberships to Thanksgiving Point (because we live 2 seconds away from it), and we went to the Butterfly Biosphere as a family one day. It was so cool! There were so many butterflies, and it was so fun to see them. We have since done the Biosphere again and the Dino Museum. It's nice to live so close, so that we can go do these fun things whenever we want. 

Daniel and I celebrated our 10TH ANNIVERSARY in May. We had Jennie come watch the kids for us, so that we could go on a little date. It was nothing too exciting; I mean, we already did our big celebration for our 10th, in Hawaii. But it was still pretty cool, nonetheless. I also gave Daniel a (very late) anniversary gift, a book of our pictures from Hawaii. I hope we get to do another trip together some time.

April Events

TRIP TO IDAHO

In mid-April, Daniel's parents went to Idaho for Anna's baptism and invited us to go with them. I wasn't going to go, but then decided to just do it. Daniel had to stay home for work, so I just went with the kids. I drove up and stayed with my aunts in Rexburg for a night. It was nice to be able to break up the trip in that way, plus I got to see some of my relatives that I haven't seen in a while. 

The baptism was fun, and my kids LOVED playing with their cousins. Anna and Brooke were, like, besties, and Camille and Jack loved their cousins too. We hung out, went to the park, played games, and ate together. The kids and I stayed in a hotel while we were there, and I very heavily relied on Melatonin and TV to get me through the trip on my own. I am glad that we went, though. We had a good time with our family.

 EASTER

 We had Easter at my in-laws, obviously (because we were still living there), and it was kind of fun. The Friday before, we dyed eggs, and Saturday before, the kids got their Easter baskets and we did our Easter Egg Hunt out in Grampa and Gramma's backyard. It was so fun.

JACK'S 2ND BIRTHDAY

Jack turned 2 on April 23rd, so we had a little dinner for him at Gramma and Grampa's house. I made him a garbage truck cake, we had pizza and blueberries for dinner, and we watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse afterwards (because he turned 2, so now he can watch tv). He loved his cake, he loved the garbage truck that Gramma and Grampa gave him, and he LOVED watching Mickey Mouse! He danced to the songs and kept making funny exclamations about Mickey Mouse. It was a fun day. And I can't believe he's 2!!

 

Moving to Utah

The last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind. Daniel got 3 job offers in Lehi, and accepted one of them, and we spent the entire month of March tying up loose ends, packing and moving to Utah. We hadn't found a house yet at that point (though we'd put offers on 3!), so we moved in with Daniel's parents for the entire month of April and a little at the beginning of May. I continued house hunting in April and trying to get us settled in in May. We put an offer on a house at the beginning of April and it closed at the end of the month, so we could finally move into our own house at the beginning of May.

Living at my in-laws wasn't easy. It was difficult not having our own space. Plus, Zach and Summer were both living there while we were, and I always felt like either I or my children were encroaching on someone else's space and time. It was hard to know how to help them, what to do, how to clean, etc., because everyone's style of living is different. I was anxious to be in our own place, more than Daniel or the kids, so I was highly motivated to look for a house. Denise (Brian's mother-in-law) was such a huge help and so patient with us, looking at ALL the houses.

May was taken up moving in, unpacking, getting Brooke in school and finished up at school (kindergarten graduation, anyone??), and generally settling in. We got asked to speak in church the 2nd Sunday we were in our new ward, and we also got callings that day. They don't mess around here!! I'm doing singing time in primary, and Daniel is ward employment specialist (definitely an improvement from Scout Master!). I was nervous about being chorister, but I actually love it. I split the time with another chorister, and I did singing time for the month of June, and really loved it. I'm trying to learn all the kids' names (which isn't easy, because there are, like 80 kids in primary), and I'm really having fun with it.

Brooke really struggled that first month or so. We live right next door to a kid about her age, in her grade, and she was obsessed with him, and with a couple of other kids we met right at the beginning. She was super anxious to play with them, almost frantic about it, and would really throw a fit when I said she couldn't play. I think she was just having a hard time with the transition, and feeling like she had no friends, that it made her act up a lot. But, it was only that first month. She and Camille made more friends and are feeling more settled, and now they are doing better.

This neighborhood is so interesting. The houses are super close together; some of the houses barely have yards, even. There's only sidewalk on one side of the street, and parking is rather difficult, because cars can only park on one side of the street. It's weird how your neighbors are your friends are your fellow church members are the kids you go to school with. It's just kind of close quarters in here. BUT. There are a TON of kids everywhere, playing outside all the time or coming over to play. There's never a shortage of someone to play with, and everyone is so friendly and welcoming. We've adjusted better here than we did in California (or at least, I have). The kids and I have been invited to parties, we've gone to Thanksgiving point with people, and had friends come play a lot. I already like it here, despite missing some thing about California.

The weather is something special, too, and different, obviously. It's never predictable. You could start out with a hot, sunny day, and halfway through the day, it'll cloud over and you'll get storms instead. It rained for the better part of April and May and half of June, and finally cleared up and became summer.

It's nice living close to family. We've hung out with Daniel's family a little, and Brian and Sammy. Emily comes over weekly for fitness training (mostly we just workout together), and she's even helped me with some neck pain by giving me massages.

Daniel really likes his new job. He finds the company and product interesting, and he's been able to use his vast experience in his job. And we all like the fact that he's home more, that he doesn't have an hour and half commute, and that he doesn't have to work Saturdays. We actually have dinner together and scripture study in the evenings. We can do FHE together, instead of my just doing it last minute with the kids.

All in all, our move to Utah has been a success!

*We do miss our friends. Thankfully, some of them have been visiting us this summer.*

*Daniel's first day working at Divvy. Thankfully, I was there to take this picture. We drove up to Utah together, so he could start work and so I could look for a house. Mom flew in to watch the kids, so it was a trip just the two of us, which was kinda fun.*

*We're sad we didn't get to finish out the school year with Ms. Johnson. She was a wonderful teacher, and Brooke really loved her.*