Summer Adventures

We are doing summer right so far. Now that the week of trauma is over with at least.  We have been swimming, going to the kids museum, art camp, car building classes, swimming, sleepovers and lot's of family play time. We have the best neighbors who let us come swimming whenever we want, even if they aren't home. excuse the fuzzy picture.

  Porter finally got to have his sleepover at our house. We swam, played in the yard, and stayed up late to catch frogs.

This is what 50 frogs looks like in a bucket.

We spent one morning out at Pioneer Village and at kids city and they all had a great time.

Peter has discovered a love of playdough. He'll even pull it out when he's supposed to be napping and smash it in to the carpet in his room. I think I'm giving up on naps. 

 

And we always build "car houses" when we play blocks. 

 And this is his attempt at making a fishy face. I hope that's not what I look like when I do it.

The kids loved their week of camps. Andi seems to have a talent for art and painted a beautiful flower on silk. I'd post a picture, but we're still waiting for it to be stretched and mounted so we can bring it home. Sammy went to a learning camp where they built 8 different car kits with hundreds of lego and k'nex type pieces. He loved it, and loved bringing home new cars every day.

We had a girls lunch one afternoon at village grill. It's becoming our traditional spot I think. 

And I had a new adventure. Thad helped me take the YW paintballing. Ya, I went paintballing, and I hope the girls feel loved because I would never go of my own accord. It hurts, and it was ridiculously hot. But everyone had a great time and the girls enjoyed comparing bruises at church the next day.

Yesterday we were supposed to go to the temple with my family, but Dad wasn't feeling up to it, so we kept our babysitters anyway and just had a kid free hang out day. We went to lunch, hung some stuff for mom, and just enjoyed 6 hours with no kids around. 

We also managed to squeeze in taking family pictures and going to Rosemary's. Sammy story from that night. . . I was helping him get ready and he was admiring the necklace I was wearing.

Sam: "Mom, where did you get that necklace?"

Me: "The store." 

S:"Ya, but do you know where in the store?"

M: "Yes"

S:" When I get older, like when I'm going to get married, can you show me where to get the neckalce? You know, so I can get it for her for a surprise."

I was so proud of myself for not laughing till I got out of the room. That kid plans ahead.

Springtime Shenanigans

The highly anticipated father & sons camp out happened a few weekends ago. And by highly anticipated, I mean Sammy had been counting down for weeks. He just loves the "boys camp", and this year was extra special because he got to take Porter along with them. They caught more salamanders than they could count, ate kettle corn, and came back filthy.

When this happens on the drive home, you know if was a success. 

 

Memorial Day was a small gathering this year, but fun as always. With no big cousins around Andi & Sammy got to clean the headstones at the cemetery and arrange the flowers and finally realized why we do that every year. 

And the weather has been so great we've been spending a lot of time out back. The kids have been getting in some target practice with the bow & pellet gun.

School wrapped up last week after a full week of non stop parties. Andi made presidents list or honor roll every quarter this year, and I got this picture of her with her two besties at the assembly.

Thad has been working on tree house additions the last couple weekends as well. 

Unfortunately we had an accident yesterday before the safety nets were in place. Poor Porter fell off the bridge and broke his collar bone. We were supposed to be watching him all week while Kelsie went to Virginia, but her flight hadn't even left before I had to call her to get a medical release emailed. It was a very scary day, two hospitals and my first ambulance ride later. The boys are bummed though that their week long slumber party was cancelled. The good news is the net was delivered yesterday as well and now the bridge is safe, just a few hours too late.

And this is from mutual a couple weeks ago. I'm really enjoying being in YW, and I love when we win games at mutual.

Here's hoping the rest of our summer goes a bit smoother than the first day!