Catching Up On Summer

• We got swim passes to the outdoor pool for the summer, and have been going at least once a week for the past month. The kids have loved it. We've gone with friends a lot, which has been so great. It's a nice, easy way to get out of the house.
• A few weeks ago, I invited Sarah and Gina to come to a summer kids movie at the theater. It was a fun little outing and the kids loved being with their friends. I love doing these easy little things with the kids over summer. It's so easy and relatively cheap, but it makes the summer feel so special when we do things like that.
• This summer we had late nights, game nights and movie days with our friends. We had an abundance of fun! 

• We went on a fun hike with Sarah and DeAnna and kids, called the Jungle Trail. It's this short little hiking trail in the hills above Draper, and it has these stumps and forts and logs that the kids can climb on. We took Daniel there on the morning of the 4th before he went in to work, and it was just so quick and fun.

• The girls have been so good about getting all their stuff done. For their family economy charts this summer, I have them doing their getting ready routine, 10 minutes of scripture study, 10-15 minutes of piano practice, 15 minutes of math, and 20 minutes of reading, and then a zone. It sounds like a lot, but all in, it only takes about an hour and a half of their entire day. Brooke also does some writing every week. She's doing it with Makai, because Julie and I both felt like our older students could use some practice in writing. The girls have been doing so well and earning some money. The month before girls camp, I took the kids into this local party supply shop to get things for camp. Camille fell in love with this cute little journal she saw there, and she was determined to earn the money and buy that little journal herself. About a week ago, we made a date for us all to go "shopping on Main Street", as Camille said, and she was able to buy herself that cute little journal. She was thrilled, and I was thrilled with her. They sure are motivated to earn all of their money. It's fun to see them progress and be motivated to improve. 

• One day a few weeks ago, we made a date to go to the Lindon Outdoor Pool with Clarissa Rich and her kids. We waited in line to get in, paid, got everyone ready and sunscreened. We watched storm clouds rolling in, and looked apprehensively at them, and before we could even get in the pool, they closed the pool due to storm. It was so disappointing. We waited in the tunnel near the entrance for maybe half an hour before we decided to leave. The little boys were really nervous about the storm. So we left, and the Rich kids came over to play for a while to make up for the disappointment. We did end up going back to that pool (they gave us free day passes to come back) the next week, and we had a great time. Although, it was a TON more busy the day we actually got to swim. And they kept closing parts of the park on us.
  
• I had a girls movie night with DeAnna and Sarah. We've made a list of movies we need to see ... most of them ones I added; old classics and such. We watched Charade that night, and they liked it. It was fun to get together. Daniel was out of town so it was the perfect thing to distract me. 
• Daniel and I went to his company's Moonshot Festival. Their parties are always huge and so fun and expensive. They brought in food trucks and had climbing wall and other activities. The entertainment that night was Flo-Rida, which was definitely not our style, but still fun. 
• The girls and I have had a couple of girls nights. We watched The Princess Frog one night, and for another one we made bracelets while watching a show. We've been watching Just Add Magic together, which they've been LOVING. It's kind of been our thing, we watch it a couple times a week. It's cheesy and fun, and they love it. 
• The girls have been carrying on with art lessons with Tenille this summer, and loving it. They come home with the best little projects. The girls also started up piano lessons with Sarah this summer, which feels like a load off . I was trying to teach Brooke myself, and it wasn't going well. I'm glad to let someone else do it. Brooke has also been doing cheer this summer through the city, and I signed Camille up at a gymnastics studio. They're loving their current activities. 
• Brooke Camille and Jack have been doing summer camp days at the Kimball's house. Bristal has been hosting it this year, and they have the time of their lives every day they go. They love it, and it's nice for me to have some time with Sawyer, and to get some things done around the house while they're gone. 😊
• We made a summer fun list again this year, and each of us picked one of the things on the list that were "must-dos". My "must-do" was taking each of the kids on one-on-one dates. Jack and I biked to the park one Saturday morning, and then biked all the way to the maverick past our neighborhood for ice cream. I was so surprised and proud that he made it the whole way (he WAS highly motivated ... ice cream). Daniel came to pick him up, because I didn't think he could bike all the way home too. I took Brooke on a dinner date to Cubby's. We talked and ate and laughed together. She's quite a delightful person, and very fun to be with. We went to zupas to pick up a little piece of pie to share for dessert. I took Sawyer to the park one Saturday morning as well. We just walked. And we only lasted at the park about 20 minutes before we left. It was hot. We went home and had some ice cream from the freezer together. I have yet to take Camille on a date. 
• I feel like all of my kids had a bunch of birthday parties this summer. They've loved it. One party we all went to was Pepper's birthday party. The Smiths had it at an indoor jungle gym place, and it was so fun to play there together. I climbed and played around with the boys for a while, while the girls went around with their friends. 
• We went to visit Gramma Mitchell the first Sunday of July. She's been slowing down quite a lot, she can't remember things, and it's hard for her to hear. It makes for a difficult visit. But it's been a summer tradition since we moved here, to visit her and/ or take her to Silver Lake. I'm glad my kids have been able to get to know her. 
• Daniel had to work 4th of July, which was lame. But we did get to go to David's house for the annual BBQ and fireworks night. We always love it. My kids love being with their cousins, and they get so excited about the fireworks. 
• We had lunch at Daniel's office one day. Mostly we just ate snacks that they have at the office, and the little lunch that Daniel ordered in -- fries and Mac and cheese from Cubby's. It was fun to visit him at work, though. We should do it more often. 
• I ran a 5k with DeAnna and Sarah one Saturday in July. I hadn't trained much, so I wasn't expecting to run the whole thing or to do that well. Mostly, we were just running it to support Sarah in her goal of running a race. The race was in Springville, and I thought it was very well done, and a fun race. I ran most of it, though! I only walked after quite a big uphill. Sarah finished first, then me, and DeAnna sometime after. It was fun to run it with them. After the race, we chatted for a while and enjoyed the after- race things; and then we went to some cute place in Springville... can't remember the name of it. 

• Brian and Sammy had their baby at the end of June! I got to visit them in the hospital, which was so fun. I didn't even consider that I might be able to visit, if they hadn't called and invited me to. She was such a sweet tiny little baby, it was heavenly holding her. And Brian and Sammy seemed to be going well. A few weeks later, I picked up pizza and zupas for dinner and took it to eat with them at their house. Daniel joined us after work, and we had a nice visit. It was fun to invite ourselves over for dinner ... and also bring the dinner. 😄
• Brooke and Camille and Jack had been planning to do a summer show for their friends for most of the school year... at least 5 months. So we finally planned it for the 15th of July, a Friday. They made invitations and left them in all their friends mailboxes. We made some treats and some popcorn, we created a summer show playlist, and they practiced days before. Our friends came, and my kids performed their show for their friends. The friends were very supportive and cute about the whole thing, clapping and cheering for them, even though there was a good possibility that they were more than a little bored. 😆🥰
• Daniel and I had a date night at the temple. A much needed date night at the temple. Daniel has been working like crazy this summer. We were both tired and a little down in the dumps that day. It felt so nice and peaceful to be at the temple. 
• We had one exciting day with both our family water fight AND a picnic up the canyon. Two of our summer traditions in one day! It was such fun. We bought a pack of water balloons, and, unbeknownst to us, it also contained a mini slip'n'slide in it! The kids were thrilled. That and our newly acquired water table made for a more interesting water fight than years past. Sawyer and Camille both got more into this water fight than years past. And Jack basically didn't participate. I'm hoping someday he gets into it and has fun with us. Our picnic up the canyon was so great. We built a fire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and ate fruit. I brought my guitar and played a little. And after dinner, we played for a while by the river. A perfect summer evening. 

• DeAnna, Sarah and I took our kids to a little pond for some swimming and kayaking. It was the cutest little park, with the pond and a playground. The kids loved using the Freis kayaks, and the water felt so good on that hot day. We stayed for a few hours and left just as it stayed raining. We loved it. 

• The last week of July and first week of August we went to Medford for a visit. We left the Saturday before and drove all day. Daniel only stayed for one week, during which time he worked every day, and he flew back home on Saturday, the 30th. Our two weeks in Medford consisted of: a lot of playing with the cousins at Gramma's house and Aunt Julie's house; having dinners mostly all together out under dad's gazebo; watching Crash Landing on You with the women of the family + Roman and Ares; helping mom with her last wedding (it was 112 degrees that day, we were all miserable with the heat; but they had the wedding reception behind tea pot in wheels and it was GORGEOUS); dad and I watching all of the kids while Julie and Schpuck worked a couple of days both weeks (not easy, let me tell you... especially the last day I helped watch, because dad was sick and stayed in his room all day, so it was basically just me and 10 kids) -- we took the kids to the park a few times and to the church to play in the cultural hall once, they watched quite a lot of TV and wreaked havoc in mom and dad's house; taking the kids to a splash pad one day and to the river another day; playing games; and sitting around chatting a lot, or making good and chatting a lot. It was a really good time, and we were glad we went. It was kind of a last minute trip -- we'd not planned to go anywhere this summer, and the plan to go just sort of popped up out of almost nowhere. 

• Mom and dad were both sick towards the end of our time there, but mom agreed to drive with me and the kids back to Utah. It was such a long day, we had to stop several times more than I wanted to, and mom didn't feel well at all. 
• The week that mom and dad were here visiting, they were sick for the first half. They had come to see Brian and Sammy's family and stay close to them. But they couldn't for the first part. I got pretty sick too, and some of the kids with me. It was a slightly miserable week when we got back. We didn't do many fun things. The kids loved the time they got to spend with Gramma and Grampa. And we did go to Ava and Bowen's blessings. We also had a picnic at a park with a splash pad with Brian and Scott's families and Gramma and Grampa. And we also met up with them at the BYU creamery for lunch one day and spent the rest of the day hanging out with them. Daniel went shooting with the men that day. So when though we were somewhat sick for a lot of that week, we still got to spend some good time with family. 

• Gramma Mitchell passed away while we were in Medford. Daniel really struggled dealing with family and things afterwards when he was home without us for that week. Her funeral was the day after we got back, and it was a really nice day. We got to be with a lot of family, and meet family we didn't know. The funeral was long (too long for the boys), but so good. Bowman got up and talked about the things he and the other grandkids remember about her, and it was so sweet and fun and funny. 
• The kids went to a week long summer camp that first week of August while Gramma and Grampa were here at Mary Jane's house. She held a 5 day summer camp, each afternoon for 3 hours. The kids came back having playing new games and learned new songs, and they came back with new books almost every day. They loved it and it was quite nice for me to have a few hours of quiet while they were gone. I was quite unhappy that I spent most of that time sick, and that mom and dad were here. Not that I don't enjoy them; but I had been looking forward to some solitude and the opportunity to get some things done around the house without people. Aw, well. Things don't always go how you want them to. 
• Brooke had her last cheer class on Monday the 8th, and she performed their cheer dance for the last 20 minutes of class. It was so cute and fun. 

• That week after getting back from Medford, when we were sick and Gramma and Grampa were staying with us for half of it, was our last week of summer. Such a bummer way to end summer! I had hoped to be able to do more fun things as a last hurrah before we started school. I was also not prepared in the least to say goodbye to summer. I was fully prepared to start school, and my kids were all really excited, actually, to be starting school. And I was too, in all honesty. But I just wanted a little more fun time, and free time with my kids. There were a lot of things we didn't get done on our summer bucket list. But I figure we still have a few more weeks of hot summer weather for us to get more things from our list done. 🙂

Family home evening picnic at a new park

Camille's creation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's house