Summer Haps

I don't know what happened to the lazy days of summer, life has been flying by and we are trying to soak up every minute we can. Marcus had a piano recital where he played, Families Can Be Together Forever and Hedwigs Theme. He worked so hard and did so well. I was proud of him. Lila and I took him to ice cream after visiting with the residents at the assisted living place for a while (Steve and Andrew were at mountain biking practice). 

I ordered a Crunchlab set for the boys to work on over the summer. They were so excited and did 3 in one weekend (going to have to slow that down).

Lila started working at Culvers. The first day was rough, it was  busy evening and she didn't get trained real well and was left to work a register by herself. Proud of her for going back the next day which went better.

 

Marcus has been good about helping me with big projects around the house like cleaning off the patio, cleaning out the garage, organizing the pantry and then finding creative things to do like making a giant gameboard. I was really impressed with some of his drawings

 

Lila, Marcus, and I did a little tie-dye project while Steve and Andrew were at mountain biking practice one evening. They turned out really cute and Marcus likes to wear his hat, shirt, and socks all together. He even wore his tie-dye socks to church. 😂 I've been trying to do something special with Marcus every Monday night while Steve and Andrew are gone and Lila was around this one too so it was fun to include her on the project.

Andrew and Marcus have been attending a VEX workshop that a parent is hosting at their house and I find them drawing ideas and discussing things on whiteboards.

Andrew working on his online PE class.

 

The kids love seeing Ellie and Kodiak for Sunday dinner.

Ellie and Lila attended the WSU Alumni meeting and got free frazils on their way home.

 

Just a relaxing afternoon enjoying some coloring, knitting and some days we find ourselves in the pool. Lila is also good about reading to the boys at night once in a while still which they just love and she enjoys it too. 💗

  

As you can see from all of my comments like "Steve and Andrew were at mountain biking" they have been busy with the mountain biking team. They practice Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Seriously probably close to 20 hours away from the house with travel time and everything. The last two weekends they have had to travel to the race courses to practice. Last weekend they stayed in Logan because they were biking Beaver and were able to attend the Logan Temple together.

 

Most recently they went to Moab to do the race course. Andrew really enjoyed that course even though it was 100 degrees when they started. Then Saturday morning they biked Bar M trails and had a good ride. Andrew even went around for a third lap with a group. I hope they are truly enjoying this time together and developing their relationship more. 

There you have some of our happenings. Steve and I are both prepping today for next Sunday, he speaks and I teach Relief Society (Happy Father's Day preparing a talk, don't worry I'm smoking some ribs and have cheesecake for a yummy celebration and break). Life is good! We truly enjoy the time we get to spend with the kids and pray that they know of our love for them and our Heavenly Parents as we navigate this life together.
 

6-7

I noticed June 7th or 6-7 was coming and told the boys about it. Saturday they were brainstorming ways they could bear their testimonies and say 6-7. Steve told them they had to be sly about it . . . then if you can believe it a gentleman in our ward bore his testimony and said "I was reading verses 6&7" and the boys did the infamous hand gesture and smiled. Guess I should just be glad they were paying attention. 😉😂 The boys came home and started working on their knitting kits again while I was at choir. Andrew was being so patient and showing Marcus how to do it that I had to take a picture because most of the time he's just annoyed with him.

 

Steve was a trooper and printed 67 miniature ducks we could hide around the house. I had been trying to think of something fun to do all weekend but couldn't come up with anything until Sunday morning and wouldn't you know our internet went down so we had to wait until after church to start printing. I feel like there just seems to be enough little things going wrong that our complicating life right now; like some of the soffit on our patio started falling, we had two sprinklers the landscaper broke and had to come fix (not too happy with their work on the last project, loved them with the xeroscape in the front, thus is life), then another sprinkler broke, there is a slow leak in the valve system of the sprinklers, work has been crazy for Steve, and we tripped a circuit which caused the deep freezer to go down but thankfully we noticed fairly quickly to get it back up. I feel bad all these little things piling up. Anyway, internet got back up Steve printed and then we gave the kids this card:

They had fun searching all over the house for them. At one point they had 6 left downstairs and 7 upstairs. . .HAHA 6-7. It took them almost an hour to find them all. We also fasted and talked about ways we can draw closer to the Savior this summer and each set a goal to do that.

First Week of Summer at Home

It feels like a month since our trip to Hawaii. We came back and hit the ground running and are still trying to adjust back to our time zone (I'm so tired and I try to go to bed around 10:30/11 but I lay there awake until 1am, UGH!). Anyway, Andrew started Weber State Prep on Monday June 1st so we were up at 7am making him breakfast, packing a lunch, and getting him ready for the carpool. I'm so excited for the carpool this year, it's 3 boys all going to Shoreline who share interests like VEX and Orchestra. The carpool is always nice and the girls are still in touch with some of the kids but we've never had a group from the same school or all the same gender. After we got Andrew off I received a notification that the volcano was erupting so we watched it on and off throughout the day. 

 

Then Steve and I worked out. After which I ran Ellie to get her car, she had left at the dealership to have some recall work done on it while we were gone. Then I took Lila to her follow-up doctor's appointment. Then Andrew was home and said the first day was a bunch of pretesting and he felt like logic was the hardest and I said good that will be something you can improve on then. Then I ran him to a summer VEX open house and then took Marcus to pickleball. Finished making dinner to send with Steve and Andrew on their way to mountain biking practice. Andrew is going to have a full summer because he is also doing PE online (had to to fit in all the classes he wants to take) but he is excited about all the opportunities so hopefully he won't burn out and we can manage things.

Tuesday, June 2nd, Lila had parade practice with LHS Dance Company and a summer swim party. She had fun getting to know all the girls (there are twice as many this year) and is excited to have a friend on the team this year. I had pickleball league then came home and de-cluttered the kitchen because the end of school always has so much stuff coming home and then our trip. It took hours but needed to be done and felt so good to have clean counters again and I had to let Marcus watch a show so he wouldn't see the things I was throwing away (shhh!). Then I let Marcus get out a puzzle because there was space for it which he has loved doing! He misses Andrew while he is gone to WSU Prep all day. He then went down to a friends house to ask if he could play for a bit and they had just returned from Hawaii which was funny neither of us knew the other was going so we talked about our trips for a bit. It was also BOGO Fiiz day so we all got a little special drink for fun. And I went to the chiropractor while Andrew was at pickleball (needed to get everything lined back up after our trip). Then Steve went to his pickleball league and Lila went to hangout with friends so the boys played together for a bit before bedtime. We waited for Lila to come home because she wanted to talk with us and as we were chatting I received another notification that Kona had experienced another earthquake which made me grateful to be home.

Wednesday, June 3rd was my day to drive the WSU Carpool it was fun to visit with the boys for a bit. They are a little quiet but I hope as they get to know each other they will open up more. Lila had a hair trim scheduled at 11am it looked so cute and then that evening was a swimming activity at Classic Slides (if I had known that earlier I would have made her appointment for Thursday but alas I think everyone is on summer schedule and information is coming a little later). I decided to have lunch with my friend Janet who's birthday is on Sunday and when I texted her this morning to schedule something today was the best day for both of us. So I picked up Kneaders dropped of my families orders and then went and ate at Janet's house while she is watching her great granddaughter. It was a lovely visit! I truly do love her and am grateful for the chance to catch up with her and say Happy Birthday. I even bought us cookies because it's not a birthday without a little dessert. Then after carpool I quickly made dinner because Andrew had violin lessons then I would have to run him to the activity because they were meeting earlier and he wouldn't be back from his lessons in time to meet up with the group. I also whipped up a giant heart cookie for a friend who just dropped her oldest daughter off at the MTC, she had been on my mind and I wanted to let her know I was thinking of her. Andrew and Lila had fun at the water slide activity and Marcus was able to bike with his activity day group to Fiiz. Steve practiced with him for a bit before and he was excited to get a Fiiz drink two days in a row. He enjoyed it so much he has been biking up and down the neighborhood all week. I need to take him on a big bike ride.

Thursday, June 4th after getting Andrew ready for carpool I picked up my friend who had also just gotten back from Hawaii to go do intiatories at the temple. We wanted to catch up a little and I have been wanting to get into the temple so that was nice to do both and even saw our other friend who works there on Thursday it really was a lovely way to start the day. Then I was subbing a new private league in Mountain Green (I'm dropping one league for the summer too much to juggle but pickleball really is good for me mentally and physically and the ladies are so much fun). When I got back Marcus wanted to see if Max could come swim and 2 other boys happened to be at Max's house so they all came over and it was a party. I'm hoping to setup a regular afternoon for a group of boys to come swim with Marcus but the weather next week looks a little cold so we'll eventually get that setup. The pool was still a lit on the cooler side (cannot complain that it isn't super hot yet) so they would hop out and warm up on the cement for a bit and I was in the process of making cookies so they all enjoyed a little treat.

 

Then we I made dinner so we could get Andrew off to mountain biking practice with the neighbor because we had tickets to take the girls to see My Fair Lady at Hale Center. To be honest I was a little burned out and I knew the play would be 3 hours long but I really did enjoy it. I never know how much to prep the girls for shows or to just let them enjoy it. . .I think they all had hard time with the first part but enjoyed all the music and the costumes were amazing!! We snapped this picture as I was trying to login to the app to access our tickets (the app is a bit finicky). After we took this pic we saw the next group take hats from the side to wear and thought we would go back to take another picture with hats but never made it back.

 

Friday, June 5th, Andrew does not have prep on Friday so today was a day for him to crank out some PE assignments. I also schedule all the cars tires to be rotated. I took Andrew to the bank to open a savings account and do Lila's last pays for A's then we dropped the van off and picked up the Tesla at the tire rotation store. Then we ate some lunch, the boys practiced their instruments while Lila applied for several jobs. Then we went to Lagoon for a couple of hours and had a blast. Marcus insisted on Bombora as his first ride every season, then he was brave and did the old white Roller Coaster with us. He chose the very front seat with Lila and screamed loudly in his pitched tone every time we started going down. Lila kept hugging him it was so cute but he said it was fun and he would do it again. Andrew really wanted to do the new ride Nutcracker again with everyone (he did it with his friends on 6th grade Lagoon day) but when we got over there it was closed so we did Spider always a great ride. Then Nutcracker was just opening, there was a line already formed so they hopped in, I didn't really want to do it and neither did Marcus so we walked over to Primordial and did that. Lila texted me when they got off of Nutcracker, "it was fun, a bit terrifying, but fun". I told her we were just getting on Primordial and when we walked over we saw the line to Cannibal wasn't too long so they ran over to do that. Marcus and I hit Tilt a Whirl and then we were both done at the same time. We did 5 rides in a couple of hours. Lila was a little whoozy from two big rides in a row but they had a blast. 

 

We dropped the boys off at the VEX open house thing on our way home. Then I switched out another car for tire rotation and started making a slushy for everyone to enjoy. After dinner everyone helped in the yard for 30 minutes which was great and made me so happy that everyone pitched in. Then Andrew and I went for an hour walk to finish one of his assignments and get in his 5th exercise activity for the week. I asked him about his friends and he listed the guys from VEX then a couple of more from his quorum then said he really likes the guys at WSU Prep which made me happy that he is enjoying the program and I think he will really enjoy DEEP next year. He told me about playing chess at lunch time with some kids (he loves chess and is looking forward to chess club next year also).

Andrew with the program director Bre. Ellie worked of her last year so they were texting and Ellie asked if she had met  her brother, Andrew so she snagged Andrew for a picture and didn't even tell him why. 😂

 

Today, Saturday June 6th, Andrew and Steve were off at 5:40am to head to Park City for Mountain Biking practice. Ellie is also going mountain biking with Isaac, she stopped by last night to have Steve help her put the rack on her car. Marcus has been biking outside. I was hoping to play pickleball with the neighborhood group but it is really windy so alas here I am working on the blog and doing a few odds and ends around the house. Today should be more chill. Andrew needs to do a few assignments for PE, I told Lila I'd help her clean her room for a bit, and a couple of other odds and ends. I told the kids we would have an afternoon swim party and maybe start a movie series we can watch over the summer so everyone can go to bed early. Really I'm hoping next week will be a little more chill as we get into the swing of things this summer.