Bit of July

Our Summer at home is filled with simple days. The kids love to play outside with neighbors. We do "lesson" time every day. We do activities, library time, lunches at the park, and lots of bike time. We wanted to beat the heat a couple of weeks ago so we took the kids to the park / splash pad. They split their time between the park and getting wet.

We went out to Raft River for Cheryl's birthday on the 17th. Everyone made it (except for Cody who was in Europe). We had a good afternoon / evening with everyone and the kids enjoyed playing.
Monday the 18th was Casey and my tenth anniversary. Casey watched the kids plus Brett and Vanessa's kids while I was in town and cleaning the church in the morning. After lunch Brett and Vanessa's took the kids and Casey and I went on a date. I wanted to do something we've never done together so we chose to kayak along the Snake river. We had a good time going up the river and just enjoying time together. We stopped for a treat after than picked up the kids. We took the kids to dinner at a Chinese buffet that evening.

I told Casey as significant as ten years is, it's feels like just a marker in a bigger picture. A marker that says we've come this far, done this much, grown so much, and love each other more than ever.  Casey has been in my life for eleven years and we have an eternity to look forward to. It's full of hopes, dreams, and wonderful times come. I'm so happy to have Casey as my best friend, my eternal companion, the man of my dreams, and my heart.

Casey took the kids out for a bike ride last week. It turned into a long trek and they made stops at the middle school and elementary school asking the way. He was proud of the kids willingness to go fast and how well they did with him.

We headed to Logan last Wednesday. Casey went to help on David's house and we got in some good family time over the holiday weekend. Thursday was spent playing at my parents house. We got to have Elliot join us for a dinner that night. Friday morning the kids and I had a park play date with my high school friend Tamra. The kids had fun at the park, and I got to catch up with a sweet friend and love on her sweet baby girl.

Saturday we took lunch out to the boys and got to see the progress on David's house. That evening Andy, his girlfriend and their kids joined us for a pizza picnic. The kids got to do bottle rockets and run through sprinklers. Andy brought some awesome fireworks that we all got to enjoy that night. Peter did step on a sparkler; thankfully it was a tiny burn. All is well and he was running and playing the next morning.

Sunday we had a relaxing morning at my parents and then went to church. Nana joined all of us for dinner that night. Our attempt at an annual cousin photo.

Monday was the 24th celebrations in the area. We headed up to the North Logan parade. I caught up with Aunt Bonnie for a bit then we enjoyed the parade. After the parade we went to the church park. Kendal and Peter got to do some bounce slides and runs, then they played some mini carnival type games. When we were done with the heat headed back to my parents. We enjoyed a picnic with everyone. The kids got to make epic bubbles and play the afternoon away in my parents yard.

 

Tuesday we had a relaxing morning. We took the kids to the castle playground by the temple. After lunch we headed home.

We're back home to our typical Wednesday. Laundry, library time, outside play, lessons. Summer is winding down. Casey has three weeks before he's back to work then coaching. Then the kids will have school at the end of August. Kendal is already begging to buy school supplies.

Our 4th, Bruneau Sand Dunes

On the Fourth this year we went to Ihop for some pancakes for breakfast. After we headed out to Raft River. Peter and Daddy went out with Grandpa to move a swather. We set up our kiddie pool in the backyard, however the kids only had mild interest in getting wet. We flew kites later. The kids flew them for a bit, but it ended up being Casey and I who finished flying the kites. Nicole, Jordan, and their trio joined us and we joined Grandma at the community dinner and fun activities. The kids got to ride swings, get temperary tattoes, have snow cones, and run in races. Kendal and Peter did a three leg race, some sack races, and a couple of general races. We headed back towards Casey's parents home for fireworks. Kendal watched the fireworks with Grandma and Grandpa from their yard, while the rest of us viewed them from the sod field.

Our week held our typical summer days. Playing outside, going to school lunch a couple of times, library time, and beating the heat with popsicles.

Friday we made our way out to the Bruneau Sand Dunes and joined up with our friends the Spears to camp for the night and have some fun. We made tin foil dinners (shocker the kids didn't love them ; ). After dinner we headed over to the dunes. The kids all scampered up the steep dune. Casey and Rhett followed. The kids were having a blast rolling around, sliding down, and playing in the sand. The wind started to pick up so we headed over to the observatory. The mosquitoes were out full force so we took refuge inside till the presentation started. We listened to a slide show on stars, constellations, planets, and other fun facts about space. The kids were enthralled with it all. Afterwards they had telescopes set up to view different planets, constellations, and the moon outside. It was neat to see all that we got to see and the kids enjoyed it.

After breakfast and clean up Saturday morning we headed back out to the sand dunes before the temperatures got to hot. Rhett and Casey went to find some fishing spots. One side of the dune was fine. I puffed my way behind the kids and Aria to reach the top. It was cool to see all of the lizard, scorpion, and other animal tracks along the dunes. As we were descending the other side though our feet were scorched by the hot sands that the morning sun had heated. Luckily the kids had the slide and didn't seem to mind. We made our way around the dune because Aria and I weren't climbing it again. Most of the kids made their way up again to slide and play some more. After the dunes we went over to a small lake where Rhett and Casey ended up. We fished there for the rest of the morning. Casey caught quite a few fish, however both Kendal and Peter were to impatient to let their lines stay put to catch a fish. After lunch we headed out.
On our way home we made our way to Hagerman to the Fossil Beds museum and the fish hatchery. We'd had enough fishing in the morning so we just observed and fed the fish at the hatchery. We ended our trip with a stop at a cremery in Bhul for some delicious ice cream. We've been counting our numerous mosquito bites since and will be finding sand for weeks to come, but it was a great little camping trip with good friends!

Logan Trip

We got to go to Logan this past week. We got there Tuesday around lunch and met Katherine and my Mom for Lunch at Chick-fil-a. After lunch we played at my parents house. Casey left for a couple of hours to help David on his house. Peter got to open his birthday presents from my family. Aunt Katherine got him some Pete the cat books and the movie Planes, My parents got him Police Lego's, and Anica, David, and Elliot gave him a baseball glove / ball. (Thank you everyone he loves them!)
Wednesday Casey worked for half a day on Davids house. We had a relaxed morning just playing at the house. Wednesday afternoon we decided to go for a hike up Logan Canyon. I wanted to hit up the Wind Caves. Unfortunately my recollection of how difficult the hike is was fuzzy. The hike is steep uphill for 1.8 miles both ways. We probably made it about a mile winding our way up a hot steep trail before we called it quits for the day. We ended our day by cooling off at David and Anica's apartment pool, and enjoying some Pizza.

 Thursday Casey was off helping my Dad at work. We took my Mom to her eye appointment and discovered Walmart had the Disney mini figure Lego's we've been trying to get for over a month. So I spent over an hour fingering packages trying to figure out which character was in which mystery bag. The kids were elated with the results and only had a couple of mishap buys (Thanks to two kids constantly grabbing bags from my hands and moving my piles around : / After lunch we went and visited with Nana for a few hours. The kids got out her neat retro toys and we got to catch up and enjoy the afternoon there. Nana came over for dinner and we had some fireworks at the end of the driveway to top off the evening.

Friday morning we took a mid-morning snack out to the boys working. The kids got to check out the job site, smooth some wet cement, and drive in the backhoe for a bit. After lunch we all headed out to Cub River for a hike. It was a beautiful hike (much better than our Wednesday attempt ; ).  On our way back we stopped at Peperage farm for some discount goodies. We ate at Juniper Take out for dinner. Uncle Tony happened to be there as well and bought the kids a cookie. They were overjoyed with their cookies. Later we headed over to watch the fireworks. The kids had fun with glow sticks while we waited for the show. The fireworks were amazing. Kendal got scared from the noise, and since we were very close thought the fireworks would come at us. Other than her nervous ramblings it was a great show.

Saturday the kids slept in and we had an easy morning at my parents. We headed out for a couple of errands in town. After lunch we took shakes to the boys at the job site. When we left there we got ourselves some delicious snow cones. We had a yummy dinner and left to come home Saturday evening.