Summer Shorts

Here are some short and sweet summer moments I want to remember:

Taking the kids to Chuck E Cheese one evening to celebrating Siena's birthday. The kids had a blast. It was a little crazy because I was shuffling Ellie & Lila to and from tennis in between the crazy play time. Andrew and Siena ran around playing together and even took a cute picture together.

Ellie going to the temple with her Beehive class and having a good experience. That night I also drove around to get her to and from that and tennis class.

Andrew waiting with Ellie for the last morning carpool of the summer for WSU Prep.

Steve taking Ellie to the closing celebration and enjoying all the engineer talk with her. She managed to get all As and her Logic score was 99.8% before the final. Steve also said she was a coding Ɣ gamma. It was a good experience for her and we're so glad we did it.

Taking tennis with Steve on Monday & Wednesdays has been a good night out and fun. Steve took Ellie in my place last night since I was not feeling well. Which was a fun experience for them.

We took the kids bowling today at Boondocks with their free coupons and got a pizza since it was $10 Tuesday, they thought it was the best. And the pizza was a good thing to have to help Marcus wait his turn. :) The kids have reading trackers they've been filling out and coloring in and our weekly library trips almost don't seem like enough. We finished reading Wonder out loud as a family and are having another summer movie club this Friday to watch the movie with some friends. We've begun reading The Candymakers and hope to finish it before school begins. ;)

The summer is winding down and I'm in total denial of all the back-to-school ads I see. Almost every day Andrew asks, "Is it still summer break?" I'm dreading the day when the answer to that is a no. I'm trying to hold on to every moment I have, every crazy and even hair pulling moments of summer with my kids and hope they have good memories!

Oh and Marcus walking around in fhip-fhops (flip-flops) that are a little too big for him, but he insisted on wearing Andrew's because they didn't have the strap on the back. Fortunately, I had bought another pair for $1 a size up and pulled those out for Andrew so everyone was happy with their upgraded fhip-fhops and they wear them everywhere they can.

Two Teeth

Steve, Ellie, and I went to the dentist today for our cleanings. I had to move Ellie's from the kids time slot to ours because of her WSU schedule. She has some weird stuff happening in her mouth with her teeth, like permanent ones growing on top of baby ones and there is no room. She says her gums are tender which I don't doubt. So I went into her room when I was done to talk to the dentist about it to see if I needed to move up our orthodontist appointment that is scheduled for October. He said these two baby teeth should come out, I can pull them right now and Ellie said no. He said go home and wiggle them real good and if you can't get them out give me a call. I asked how long we should give her and he said one week. Well when she got out of the shower this evening I decided to try the wrap the floss around the tooth and pull. The first tooth was a little tricky because the permanent tooth was hanging right over and I was having a difficult time getting the floss wrapped around. The second tooth came right out. Andrew was my floss dispenser, he loves the string floss (we usually use floss picks) ever since going to the dentist last month. As soon as I said we got them, he quickly pulled another string and said, "great, now let's get some of Lila's." 😂 He was excited for the fairy tooth lady to come visit Ellie.

Pantomime Time

Lila got a little head cold last weekend while we were in Idaho. Towards the end of the trip Andrew was a little cranky and I wondered if he might be getting the cold. Then during the last 30 minutes of our drive he said there's something stuck in my throat and was coughing. I told him to get a drink and take deep breaths. He has the easiest gag reflex and sure enough just as we were getting off the freeway he threw-up. . .5 minutes away from home. It was a little ironic since on the way to Idaho we talked about how nice it has been that no one has thrown up with all the trips we've been making back and forth. Thus is life.

We took his and Marcus's carseats out and washed them up and cleaned the van (I think the WSU Prep carpool kids loved the extra room Monday morning--not be squished by two carseats). Then we put the seats back together the right way (Andrew has been annoyed ever since we washed them last time because we accidentally put the wrong bottom buckle on his seat). And we've been taking it easy all week dealing with sick kids trying to get some extra rest. Wednesday morning Marcus started running a little fever, but it didn't seem to bother him. Lila and Andrew were doing pretty good by then but we just kept chilling. Friday morning Marcus woke up with red cheeks and he was toasty, his fever was 103.1 and it took over an hour for the Motrin to start to reduce it. It was a crazy day, I was trying to figure out how to juggle a sick baby, the activity day swim party, and get Steve to the scout campout. We had also invited our family to come swimming at Grandma Sue's after the activity day girls. Ellie had the really long field trip with the Prep program and I wanted to just crawl back in bed, but we managed to have a fabulous time swimming with everyone.

I didn't get any sleep that night. I had gotten Marcus down and he slept great, but for some reason Andrew had the runs that evening/night and was up every 15-20 minutes. He came down at 11pm and used my bathroom and when he turned on the faucet on Steve's side is spurted with air because Steve had worked on the plumbing for the wetbar so that scared him because he was still half asleep. I finally got him settled again only for him to come in yet again at 2am with a bad dream--I finally just told him to sleep on the couch in our room. Where he rested until the sun woke him up at 6am. Steve was awoke about the same time by a deer outside his tent.

I worked around the house trying to get a few little things done in a dazed state. When Steve got home we had lunch and decided on a movie for our 5th Summer Movie Club (we had invited all of my family again, but most had plans so we were excited Mimi and Panca could come). Then we went and worked in the yard while there were a few clouds and sprinkles. We managed to get a little project done and the kids got to ride their bikes for a bit. Then we had waffle ice cream cones with Mimi and Panca before starting the movie, "Ferdinand". Then we had a dinner of smoked chicken. It was a lovely evening even thought I didn't take any pictures to prove it.

Marcus was still not feeling too great and you could tell he was losing his voice so he decided to just stop talking. He would mouth words or whisper or even use gestures. He followed me downstairs to get something out of the fridge down there and when we turned the corner Andrew yelled, "BOO". Marcus not wanting to use is voice threw his hands in the air covered his mouth and jumped acting scared. It was so funny. He is so cute and it just melts your heart to hear him whisper or just nod yes and no to things so he doesn't have to talk. He is also our kid who has the strictest of bedtime routines. He insists on holding his stuffed Monkey in one arm and his stuffed Penguin Pongo in the other and then we have to sing Sunbeam if we try singing something else he protests until we sing Sunbeam and now when we finish that he asks for Child of God. How can we resist such a cute request?

Today Andrew and I took Mimi and Panca to the airport so they could go visit some friends serving a mission in the Tijuana temple

We're on our last week of Prep for Ellie and I have a few more activities scheduled which include swim lessons. I asked the kids today if they wanted to do two sessions like last summer or just one. Ellie and Lila said, 1. Andrew got all excited and said 2 I want to swim forever. But I think we will only do 1 session so we can have a couple of relaxing weeks before school starts up again (ahh--can you believe it, most stores are already advertising back-to-school stuff and I'm in total denial).

This Is My Country

. . . Land of my birth!
This is my country! Grandest on earth!
I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold. 

That song makes me think of Rupert. I love it, it is the land of my birth and it will always hold a special place in my heart. The boys have been much better travelers so it has been fun to spend more time there this summer, fishing, boating, rowing, and just playing. We managed to sneak away there a couple of weekends ago while Mimi was out of town to keep Panca company and we played on the river and at Jakey's and saw the new Incredibles 2 movie. Then we decided we would go to Idaho after our 4th activities since Ellie had a long weekend off from Prep.

Lila was in the Kaysville parade with her competition dance team and had a blast. Steve however said it was the worst parade ever because everyone crowds the streets so you are standing for the whole parade.

Ellie had her all star softball game at the exact same time so the plan was to divide and conquer, Steve take Andrew and Lila and do the parade and I'd take Ellie and Marcus and do the game, but last minute Steve decided to take both the boys to the parade. Then they called me when they were done and had picked up Lila and our game was still going (it was like the bottom of the 2nd and they were playing 6 innings with 3 strikes and 4 balls--all season it was timed with only 2 strikes and 3 balls). So they decided to come over and play in the splash pad and watch a bit of the game.

Then Steve took Andrew to get burgers while I took the rest of the kids home. It was nice to just grab lunch after spending 3 hours watching the softball game (we were there for over 4 hours because of warm-ups).

We decided to put Marcus down for a nap so we could run a few errands and then we headed out to Idaho again. When we got there I think we were all a little tired of being in the sun and Jake had a couple of his friends and their families out in the boat so we just stuck around the house playing spike ball, visiting and eating. It was nice and relaxing.

Jake introduced us to spike ball the weekend before when we were at his house. The girls love playing it with Steve.

That night the kids did sparklers and Pop its and that was our firework show.

Thursday Jake blew up this Fun Island and the kids all wanted to go in it so we loaded them up and stranded Jakey with all the kids. ;)

Steve and I rowed out to check on them and then took the boat to pick them up. When we got back Marcus was awake from his nap so I went with him to get him situated a bit while Andrew skied and then Marcus and I came out and he wanted to go in the tube so the girls went with him. He was a little nervous as we pulled away, but then you could see the smiles and laughter as we went.

Steve's been saying he wants to learn to surf so we finally got him out there. He did great. Honestly, it took him a little bit to get a feel for the board and Jake was giving him tips and pointers while driving and then asking me to steer for a bit, but he got up and was doing great for a while then he was tired.

I told him if he tried surfing I would wakeboard so I guess it was time to put my money where my mouth was. I was nervous. It was been almost 20 years since I've wakeboarded and with my ankle injury last year I was nervous, but I did it. Steve said, as soon as I popped out of the water Andrew said, "wow Mom's awesome!" I guess it was a good strategy to have Steve go first trying something new. ;)

We then spent the weekend helping with a reunion for my great grandparents descendants. It was fun and exhausting. We managed to spend more time in the river, go swimming in Oakley, play games, hot tub, and more. It was a nice long weekend to be away from home and our own responsibilities. I told Steve this is better than having a cabin because it doesn't cost us anything--he almost agrees (remember he's dealing with in-laws and 5 generations of family living in the area and he does it with grace and it is so helpful, but I think on occasion he would like to just get away completely).

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting and Andrew asked Panca to borrow a tie so Grandpa let him borrow one of Great Grandpa's sea shell bolo ties. It was cute. And Marcus wouldn't take these barbie, high heel light up shoes off his feet the whole weekend. ;)