July Happenings

Time for our random events from this month!  Bryan and I were delighted to take Tess to the Ogden Temple after she turned 12.  It was a special experience for us.  We had family names and Bryan was able to baptize and confirm both Tess and me.  A lovely morning!

Bree has become a biking maniac!  (She learned to ride and balance her bike back in March, but she has been struggling with some of the finer aspects of bike riding, mainly turning, stopping, and especially starting out.  She could balance really well when we gave her a little push, and she got turning figured out next.  Braking was the next thing to learn, but starting out has been really tricky.)  Finally this month, something clicked and she can start from anywhere--uphill, downhill, and on flat ground.  And man, oh, man, is she loving it now!  She will bike anytime, anywhere!  She and I go on bike rides every day and she cannot wait to ride to 1st grade!  Here she is all decked out for the ride, complete with elbow pads, knee pads, pants she threw on because she was wearing a dress, and the dress tucked in so it didn't get caught on the seat.  Ha!

Tess's orthodontist gives a customer appreciation day at Roy Aquatic center each summer. It's so much fun.  They have a yummy dinner for everyone and lots of treats (donuts, cotton candy, sno-cones) and balloon animals, along with the fun of swimming and water-slides. Bryan snapped this picture as we were leaving when it got over.  The picture turned out so pretty, with the sunset and the calm water after everyone got out.

For the drinks that night, they had cans of soda on ice in kiddie swimming pools.  They had dumped the ice out at the end and Bryan told Miles he'd give him a dollar if he laid down on the ice for 10 seconds.  He did it!  Brrr!  Not worth a buck if you ask me!

Bree has started trying to climb the tetherball pole in the backyard.  Tetherball is quite the big thing at Freedom Elementary in 1st grade, so we'll see if she gets hooked like the other two kids did...

Miles joined his buddy Cristian for "Science in the Park."

Miles loves to make this goofy face.  The boy cracks me up!

And lastly, Tess climbed way up high in this big sycamore tree at the park.  She is a little monkey!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Well, I had the birthday that I haven't really been looking forward to...40!  I don't know why I've been dreading it (30 didn't bother me), but I just feel like 40 sounds old.  When the kids have asked in the past about different ages ("how old are you when you are a tween?  how old are you when you're officially grown up?  what does middle-aged mean?  when are you actually old?" etc...) I have always said that once you hit 40 you are considered "middle-aged."  So, on the morning of my birthday Miles slid this note under my door:

Gee, thanks, buddy.

Bryan gave my a new Kindle and an Instant Pot for my gifts, so I am very excited to try out new recipes.  I've heard that Instant Pots are pretty awesome...we'll see if I can make some good stuff.

We did go camping on my birthday, so that was a lovely way to spend the day.  Then after our trip, we had Papa and sweet Gramma J over for dinner and cake.  Bryan thankfully did not actually put 40 candles in the cake, but he did use the candles to write out "40."  

Happy birthday to me!  I didn't make a wish because I already have everything I've ever hoped for in life.  I am a blessed lady for sure!

Blacksmith Fork Canyon 2017

It's not summer if we don't spend a weekend up Blacksmith Fork Canyon!  We happened to take our trip this year on my birthday!  The secret is out and it is getting harder and harder to find a spot to camp, dang it.  Each year, we creep up a little bit higher into the canyon before we find a spot.  But, it is such a beautiful place that almost every spot is a good spot.  This spot was nice and quiet with not a lot of four-wheeler traffic but unfortunately it was not a good spot for the zipline.  Bryan could never quite get it set up in a way that was fun and safe.  We did, however, bring our new hammocks and they were a hit.  Of course we spent plenty of time riding, playing games, and sitting by the fire too.  

Tess and Adrienne figured out how to wrap up tight in the hammocks and flip upside down without falling out.  They would spin around and around.

Sweet Bree had to be like the big girls too.

Another great camping trip in the books!

Redneck Swimming Pool

I love Bryan.  He never ceases to amaze me.  He is always coming up with genius ways to solve problems.  He also comes up with clever ways to have fun.  He has been asking me lately (on these hot, hot summer days) if he thought we could make a "swimming pool" out of a tarp in the trailer.  I didn't think it would work, because I just thought the tarp would squish out the sides of the trailer and all the water would leak out.  But he, of course, knew he could make it work and he did!

It wasn't a super big or deep pool, but man, it felt so good to sit out there when we were all dying of heat.  Ha ha!  I loved it!

Even Parker cooled off with us in the pool.

Go Bryan!

WSU Prep

I've talked a little about Tess's summer program; she just finished up and had her closing ceremony, so I thought I'd blog about it.  It is called WSU Prep and it's a program focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) classes.  She was at Weber State University for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 6 1/2 weeks this summer.  The program goes for 3 summers (after 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.)  This summer her classes were:  Logic, Pre-engineering, and Problem Solving.  They also had visitors come each morning for a Career Awareness hour, where people in STEM industries would come and talk about what they do at their job.

 I think she really liked it!  She got to meet new friends (and hang out with her wonderful cousin Adrienne), she learned a lot, and she got to navigate a college campus on her own.  She also got to go on field trips every Friday.

I'm so glad she had the opportunity to go.  It was a great thing to do during the summer as well; she was occupied and busy each day.   No chance for boredom!

During the closing ceremony, there were some speakers followed by the Year 3 students' graduation.  Then they had refreshments and displays set up to explore.  Here is Bree trying out the Van de Graff generator (see her hair going crazy from the static electricity?)

I almost cropped Miles out of this picture because I wanted a nice picture of Tess dressed up for the ceremony, but it was just too funny with Miles in it...silly boy.

Way to go Tess!

Antelope Island

More Cub Scout fun...We decided to pass off a whole badge in one day so we made a trip out to Antelope Island to hike, look at plants, and search for signs of wildlife.  We did all that and more.  These boys are lots of fun.

First sign of wildlife we saw was spider webs...with huge spiders in them!  These spiders were everywhere around the visitors' center.  (This sign below is also the one the boys are standing by, above.)

Second sign we saw was birds' nests...  Also at the visitors' center, there were a whole bunch of birds' nests filled with chirping baby birds.  Cuter than the spiders!  (Can you see the 3 little beaks peeking up above the nest edge?)

On our hike we saw rabbits and lots of lizards.  No bison though.  No antelope either, but that's ok.

They tried to squish all 7 boys in this little cave, but could only get five in.  Five was still pretty impressive though because it was not big in there!

Cub Scout Day Camp

My calling right now in church is Bear Den Leader for Cub Scouts. I have some strong feelings about scouts and vowed I would never do scouts unless I could be in there with Miles.  Which I am!  So (even though I still have some issues) we are having lots of fun together.  

We got to go to Camp Kiesel for day camp.  We were with the Wolf scouts too, so there were 12 boys, plus leaders.  

Our first stop was craft-making.  The boys used mallets and shaped metal stamps to imprint a piece of leather, to hang on their backpacks or something.   

Then we headed over to the obstacle course where the boys walked across the rope bridge and raced over and around other obstacles.

Some of the favorite rotations are the bb gun shooting range...

...and the archery range!  Miles thought it was "hard but pretty fun" (his arrow didn't want to stay in place on the bow so he got a little frustrated.)

I took a few turns too.  Just call me Katniss Everdeen.

(look closely at this picture--the tip of my arrow is right in the yellow bulls-eye!  Yahoo!)

Our last rotation was the waterfront.  The boys enjoyed rowing the boats out and about.  I thought they would all end up soaked, but we were there after sundown so I think nobody wanted to get too wet and cold right before we got back into the cars.  (Originally our boys were supposed to go to Camp Fife but it was closed down for the summer, so Camp Kiesel was taking double-shifts to accommodate all the boys.  We were there until about 8:00 pm)

Here's the Wildwood Ward crew.  A great group of boys.

And our fearless leaders, me, Renee, and Melinda.

July 6th Trip

This year for our July 6th water-skiing trip we went to Hyrum.  We all had a great time.  Papa, Charlotte, Blake and family, Melanie and family, and bamatamb all enjoyed the sunny weather and beautiful water for skiing and tubing.  

Here are some photos of me,...

...Bryan,...

...and Tess skiing!  She did awesome!  She was able to pop right up and ski on two skis with no problem.  She tried to slalom and got pretty dang close, but couldn't quite get it this time.  Next time for sure!  She is a strong gal.

Here is Miles, Bree, and Aiden on the tube...

...and of course the best boat driver ever--Papa!  (with a little help from Bree.)

It was nice to just relax on the beach while the kids played in the sand too.  They all loved floating out on the inflatables.

Miles got so comfy that he fell asleep just like this.

I love this picture because it shows almost all of us: Miles and Bryan on the bottom left, with Aunt Mel right above.  Brooklyn swimming behind the boat, Bayli in the middle, Jared pushing Tess and Aiden on the tube, Emma on the whale with Sydnee by her, and then Charlotte and Papa paddling the kayak.  I love these people!

We even brought Parker dog out to the tube for a while.  He doesn't really love swimming; he seems to hate not feeling the ground below him (he'll stay in the water just fine as long as he can touch the ground.)

Back at camp, Bryan really enjoyed the hammock.  We all had a great time playing games, eating treats, and just being together.