My kids have been in the craziest movie kick I've ever seen in my life. I bought How to Train Your Dragon in Sawyer's birthday and watched it with him, and since then, they've wanted to watch it every day. I think they have probably watched it every other day or so I'm the past 2 weeks. 😂 One day last week, they decided to each contribute a little money so that they could rent and watch the 2nd movie as well. They didn't want to spend the money to buy that one. 

Daniel and I wrapped up our May spending freeze. I think it went well. We did make some exceptions for Sawyer's birthday, our anniversary and when mom and dad were here for Jack's baptism. But I feel like I've gotten out of the mode of just buying things and more in the mode of saying, "I don't need that right now," which is what I wanted out of the spending freeze anyway. 

Our first couple weeks of summer have been super underwhelming... the weekend that everyone got out of school, Sawyer started throwing up, and has thrown up on and off basically since then. He'll seem fine for several days, and then throw up in the middle of the night. Jack also had a day when he wasn't feeling good, but I think his upset tummy wasn't as bad - he never threw up. I got sick with a nasty stomach bug on Saturday of last week, and then Camille started throwing up today. I just want everyone to be well so we can go play!! It's summertime! We had to skip out on some activities and I canceled Sawyer's birthday party tomorrow. Last Saturday when I was sick, we had a bunch of neighbors come over for a potluck that I had to miss. I was quite bummed out. I basically spent the day watching How to Train Your Dragon with the kids and then in my room reading books and watching movies. I missed church the next day, just to be safe, but I was feeling much better, almost back to normal. 

The other thing that's made our first week of summer underwhelming is that I had a bunch of meetings and visits for Relief society. I had to leave the kids with Brooke a bunch last week for these things, and I felt so bad to be leaving my kids so much the first week of summer. 

Sawyer has been begging to go to the pool since school got put a week and a half ago, but there hasn't been a good time, plus, so many of us have been sick and not been able to go swimming (or are at risk of still being contagious). I would love to take him! This week is almost too cool to go to the pool. And then there's the throwing up kids. Hoping against hope that next week works. 

We did have Daniel's yearly summer work party at the aquarium, though, and we always have a great time at that. We ate treats and food, the kids did crafts and games and had their faces painted. It was great, like usual. 

We have a nest of birds in our tree this year, which we are loving. We've seen the mommy and daddy bird flying into the tree a lot, and we seem to know where the nest is located, but haven't really seen it. One of the babies appears to have fallen out of the nest at one point last week, and Brooke was very concerned about it, and kept wanting to bring it in and nurse it to full health before letting it go. She was especially concerned with Tucker, and kept a close eye on him whenever he was in the yard. It makes for lovely bird noises, though, whenever we are outside. So many happy little tweets and songs. 🥰

A cool, yet simple experience with the Holy Ghost: when I was sick last Saturday, and getting ready for bed, my belly was cramping pretty badly, but I was tired. So I just went to bed, hoping the cramping would subside enough to let me rest. It did not, and eventually, I just got up to go to the bathroom, hoping to relieve some pressure. 😬 When I stood up to wash my hands, I started feeling very lightheaded and faint, and I said a quick prayer in my head, "Please, Heavenly Father, don't let me faint tonight. That would make this silly little sickness so much worse, and it doesn't need to be." I got back in bed successfully, and this thought popped into my head: "You have Gatorade in the car. If you get up and go drink one, it'll help." I'm certain it was a prompting from the Spirit. I was getting back in bed thinking about how I'm probably dehydrated, and thinking back to the last time I was dehydrated and actually did pass out when the thought came. I tried to reason it away: "I just need rest. If I get up now, it might make things worse." But the thought persisted, and I was struggling to sleep anyway. So I got out of bed and grabbed my pillow and phone and kindle and went downstairs, got the Gatorade out of the back of the car and filled my water bottle with it and ice, cut myself an apple (which I did not end up eating much of), and settled in to watch Twisters. While slowly sipping away at my Gatorade. When I was about halfway their the movie and halfway their my drink, I felt noticeably better. Not much stomach cramps, no faintness. It was quite the treatment. And I feel very much like the Holy Ghost was leading me and helping me to feel better. 🥰 One of those little evidences of God's love. 

Here's to better health all around. So we can hike. And go see movies. And play with friends. And have parties. And go to the aquarium. And go to the pool. And play outside. And build forts. And kayak with our friends...