Little things

 We went to Dirkies lake on Monday for FHE. We hit mid afternoon so the beach wasn't to busy and the sun was in and out of the clouds making for a nice time. We worked on swim skills with Kendal and she impressed us. She and is improving a lot and is floating on her own for longer periods of time. Peter freaks out when we try floating so we just watched Kendal with Casey and played in the shallow parts. We made sand castles and dug big holes on the shore. We went for a walk around the boardwalk and spotted dozens of fish swimming around. We went to Shoshone falls on our way out. I expected a decent amount of water with all of the rain fall we've had this month but the falls were really low. On our way out Kendal grabbed a stranger and pulled her to the edge to see the cliff full of pennies and point out the island in the water. (Kendal surprises us sometimes with how open she is with people in general.)

I gave haircuts this week. Casey needed one before school started, and Peter's was long. Kendal wanted me to cut her hair so she could be like Dad and Peter. I gave in but only cut an inch or so off to appease her and not loose a lot of lovely locks like last fall.
Kendal and Peter got imaginative this week with the diaper boxes. At different times during the week they were boats, trains, and airplanes. It's nice to see them play together cohesively. It doesn't happen often around here because sharing toys and not trying to control our siblings is near impossible.
 For the third week in a row we've had a wave of storms hit the area. The cool down has been a nice welcome for it being August.Casey returned to work this past week. Peter had a hard time for the first couple of days understanding that Daddy was gone for longer than a few hours.
 We finally decided to give up on our garden this week. Peter went out and plucked our growing peppers this week. The other tiny shrivel of a thing in my hand is supposed to be a carrot and our tomato plants have been starved, wind beaten, and drenched this summer so they are looking pitiful with no hope of producing anything.

Just Peachy

 Since our vacations have ended for the summer we've gotten back into our routine these past couple of weeks. We make homemade popsicle's, have library time, go to the park, and enjoy our leisurely days at home.  We've had a lot of rain the past couple of weeks also. We had a nice 6 inch pond going on in front of our driveway last week and again this week for a bit. We've enjoyed the rain and the cool it's brought the area. (Our plants are probably drowning since we've practically starved them all summer.)

On Tuesday of this past week Casey went on an overnight fishing trip with Brett to Hailey. Thankfully they avoided the major rain storms and got to fish.  Casey wasn't lucky enough to catch any fish and Brett only caught two; they also popped a tire during their trip on the rocky roads in the mountains.

 While Casey was gone the kids and I had a movie night together Tuesday night. We popped some popcorn and enjoyed the movie Toy Story. Wednesday's are my laundry days and unfortunately our laundry is downstairs in the garage. The kids usually do well when I leave for a couple of minutes to change loads and I do my best to make sure their occupied during those few minutes.  Well I went out to change a load and as I'm exiting the garage I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Kendal had rushed to put her and her brothers shoes on to come out. I ushered them back up the stairs because the basket I was carrying needed to be folded and we were heading out soon to go to the library. I reach the door only to find it locked. It's usual for us to lock the door upon leaving the house so Kendal made no second thought about it; however I did not have my key and my husband was three hours away out of cell phone range. I ended up having to bug my neighbor for our landlords phone number and wait around with the kids to be saved. (luckily we were only locked out less than an hour.)
On Thursday I took the kids to the dollar movies. We watched puss n boots. Kendal loves the movie but always wants to know what's happening next or has to cling to you at "scary parts". Peter does well enough for a two year old. With a baggy of goldfish in his lap he lasted for a good part of the movie until his seat started to swallow him and his fish were gone, then he was climbing around and on and off my lap the rest of the show. 
On Friday we went and picked peaches at a local orchard. The kids loved stuffing their faces with peaches. Peter had a peach in each hand and devoured about four while we were picking. Kendal would take bites loose her peach or get distracted and find more to take bites out of. We intended on getting apples too, but the ones we want won't be on for a few weeks so we'll return then. We took our bounty home and decided to freeze, can, and jam our peaches. After the kids went to bed Friday Casey and I had a date night of making freezer jam and freezer peaches. On Saturday I canned the remaining peaches. I'm super grateful for the wisdom and skills that have been taught to me about freezing, and canning. I'm looking forward to these delicious peaches in the winter months!

 

Peter is starting to scale my cupboards to get up to things. The other day we were in one room with Kendal then we hear the water running in the kitchen. The below picture is what we walked in to find. (Love this mischievous little bug : )

Casey starts teacher training this next week, football starts on the twenty fifth and school begins on the second of September. This summer has flown by and we spent a month of it away from home (no joke I counted the days). We're hoping to squeeze in another trip to dirkies and maybe a date night before school starts. Sad to see our summer holiday wrapping up but that's how it goes.

Darrington Reunion and more

Our last big summer getaway was this past weekend. We headed down to Utah for the Darrington reunion at the Heber Valley Girls Camp.

We stayed at Casey’s parents on Thursday so we could set out early Friday morning and visit the Hogle Zoo before the reunion started. Casey’s parents along with Nicole and her kids joined us for our visit to the zoo. The kids enjoyed the animals. Kendal’s favorite animal was the sea lions because we got to see them dive off of the rocks and swim around in the tank. Peter enjoyed everything, he liked the monkeys most of all. We passed one cage where one monkey was swinging and doing tricks off of the ropes which fascinated Peter. It was fun to visit the zoo. Kendal doesn’t remember when we went three years ago so it was nice to visit again. (Peter has been looking at our pictures with me and making animal noises to them. : )

 After we ate lunch in SLC we headed to the girls camp in Heber. Casey and I look forward to this reunion. He’s got some wonderful family that we enjoy seeing and catching up with every year. Friday afternoon some of the group decided to do a challenge course at the camp. We went and watched parts of it and let the kids play in the sand box that was near. The kids had fun running around the pavilion with their cousins. They found the dolly’s and table carts to roll each other around on and had a blast with those. They also enjoyed going around and playing in the grass nearby. At on point the kids found a bush full of butterflies. One landed and stayed on Kendal’s head so the older kids piled butterflies onto her hair until she had at least a dozen butterflies. Kendal loved every second of it and was chasing / catching butterflies the rest of the reunion. Peter quickly warmed up to our extended family. He became everyone’s buddy (especially if they had food to give him.). He would go up to random family and sit on their lap and pull their finger to lead them somewhere fun. Casey’s cousin brought up a screen / projector for a movie after dinner. We had a group watching the movie, one at a fire pit, and the older kids were playing night games. Peter got grumpy (lack of nap) so we headed to the yurt we were sharing with some family and called it a night.  Kendal enjoyed sleeping on the top bunk. Peter woke up during the night with another scream fit (like Yellowstone). Once I got him to open his eyes and realize where he was and that I had him he calmed down and slept the rest of  the night.

 

 Saturday morning we ate breakfast and the kids played some more in the surrounding woods / pavilion. I joined Casey and his brothers in a horseshoe game. I played a very pathetic game of horseshoe, and lost both times, but no one was injured so I feel good about that.  We joined a bunch of family and went for a hike. The camp missionary we talked to said it was an easy hike. We didn’t consider an uphill hike with kids easy, but we all made it and the kids did well. Kendal made a boon companion with her second cousin Lilly during the reunion. They spent all of our stay Saturday playing together and enjoying each others company. After lunch the kids played musical chairs, just dance and had fun again on the table carts and the surrounding woods.  We cleaned up camp said our goodbyes. (Which for Kendal meant hugging the entire group that was still there, and crying as we headed to the car because she was going to miss her new best friend Lilly.)

After camp we headed towards draper to see my brother Andy, Carly and their sweet kids. They were awesome and took us to the new aquarium. We enjoyed the aquarium and the animals. Kendal loved the otter’s that were wrestling and the sharks. Peter was happy to see everything and wanted to climb and be everywhere. Andy and Carly fed us a delicious dinner and then we went and spent the night at Vanessa’s parents house.

 Sunday morning we went back to Andy’s house. They fed us a yummy breakfast, the kids played and we watched the choir broadcast. Kendal loves temples and we’ve had fun spotting temples on our trips this summer. We decided to visit temple square on our way home. We went to the North visitors center and watched part of a Joseph Smith movie. We showed the kids the art about Jesus’ life and the Christ statue. We walked around the temple and then headed over to the Conference Center for a tour. Peter was being grumpy so we asked the nice missionary to give us a simplified tour. He took us to the roof and  talked about the building and the pioneer connections.  It was a nice visit to the Temple and it made for a good end to a wonderful weekend. After we headed home, visited with Casey’s parents for a bit, stole some of their garden happiness, and finally made it home to our beds and home comforts.
We feel like we’ve been away from home for half of this summer break. (Our plants are definitely stressed out and not loving being watered then neglected for days and even weeks on end.) We’re looking forward to a few more weeks of summer together before Casey starts football and school.