Alice and Peter finished their swim lessons last week. Alice passed off all of her needed skills to pass her preschool swim class. She gained a lot of confidence in the water and improved overall. Peter is already really good at swimming so this year was more adding to his stroke skills, and treading skills. His favorite was the last couple of days that they focused on dives and being in the deep pool.
We headed down to Utah on the 5th. We were going for Andy's surprise 40th birthday on Saturday and decided to add a day down there to add some more fun to the kids' summer. We met Katherine, Andy, and Campbell at City Creek for lunch, then we went over to the family history center with the kids. They liked the interactive things around the center. Their favorite thing was a station that compared your face to others. So those of us connected to our family history accounts had faces of family. We did each other and it also pulled up random people we looked like. After that we all met up with David, Anica, and their boys to go to Hogle Zoo. We haven't been since Pete was two so it was fun to take our kids. It drizzled off and on the whole afternoon, but that didn't deter us much. We couldn't ride the train because of the rain, however the kids did get to go on the Carousel. Alice adored anything that was or looked like a baby animal. She was hoping to see a Cheetah, but decided the baby zebra and turtles were a good second. Kendal enjoyed all of the animals (but talked of the zebra and gorillas the most). Peter liked the bears and bigger animals as well as the small reptile area. When we finished at the zoo we ate dinner at a busy Costa Vida and bid farewell to everyone for the night. We made our way to our hotel and took the kids swimming for a while. Casey grabbed some ice cream at a Freddy's (that shared a parking lot with our hotel) and we ate our treat before going to bed for the night.
Saturday morning we packed up after breakfast and took the kids back into Salt Lake to the Planetarium / Science center. We went last year, and the kids had just as much fun this year going around and enjoying all of the interactive games and stations. We spent just under 2 hours there then headed down to Centerville to Andy's surprise party. We met at a park and had lunch together with family and Andy's friends. Afterwards we went over to Andy's house to spend the afternoon together. The kids played all around and watched a movie together. We had a delicious dinner and headed to my parents house to spend the night.
Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting with my parents and Katherine and then headed over to visit with Nana. I'm grateful for the moments we get with her knowing her time has its limits. We spent the rest of the day at my parents the kids played and we went over house details with my dad. (He's been our life savor and is gathering people, info, and all of the things we'll need to build. It's been a lot of work for him so far with more to go, but we are forever grateful for all that he is doing for us.) David, Anica, and the boys came over for desert and we let the kids play a bit before we headed home Sunday evening.
Kendal had volleyball tryouts Monday through Wednesday this past week. There were 32 girls trying out and they told the girls there would be 10 cut. Kendal put her all in but didn't end up making the cut. The coach praised her overall skills, attitude, and work ethic, but in the end her serves let her down. Kendal anticipated being cut based on the fact that her grade has a lot of talent and she knows her serving limits. She shed a tear or two and handled being cut with a lot of grace. We are proud of her for putting herself out there and trying out for the team. Kendal has decided to join Cross Country. She has a few friends on the team and is looking forward to this new adventure! Kendal helped out on the 4th and the 8th giving new middle school kids tours of the school. She loved doing it and is looking forward to continuing to work on the Sources of Strength (SOS) committee this school year.
We had a more laid back week. The kids played with friends, and we enjoyed some lazy days before the school and hopefully house consume our time in the coming months. Casey and Kendal got to got with the youth to the Stedman Slides on Tuesday afternoon. Alice, Peter and I had an easy night and had a fun dinner and show. We met with the bank to get things rolling financial wise for the house, only to find out the same day that they still anticipate lots not being available for another 45 days (we were promised July initially). (Apparently it's been Idaho Power that's held things up for weeks.) We feel like were running an uphill race and our hill has turned into a mountain we can't seem to make any progress on. It's discouraging on many levels, but as with many things we hope and we wait. Casey made some sourdough bread this week because we had to have some with my Mom's amazing jam that she sent home with us. I decided to make an apple pie with the sourdough discard. It was so yummy; I've been wanting to make one since pioneer day! Alice got to go spend an afternoon out in Filer on Tuesday for Jemma's birthday party. Apparently the two were best buddies the whole time and loved being together. Alice also got to have a play date with her preschool friends on Wednesday. Clara, Ava, and McCall. She had a great time and had missed her buddies this summer. I took Kendal and Hope to the mall Friday morning to shop. They ogled over the cute things around the mall, and bought birthday presents for Netta and some jewelry and hair clips for school. That night Kendal went to Netta's birthday party to watch a movie and spend time with friends!
(We were excited to see some sidewalk going down in the subdivision; just didn't know yet that we still have a ways to go to buy it. . . progress is progress I guess. Nevertheless we like to drive by "our dirt" a couple times a week and just hope and see how things are going.)
We decided to end our week with a mini adventure and we took the kids to the Shoshone and Mammoth Caves. First we went to the Shoshone Ice caves.The little shop and museum weren't anything special, but the kids liked finding rocks around from people who had crushed geode rocks. The ice cave was neat. We got a tour from a little high school gal that gave us a history of the caves and it's ice and even sang us Amazing Grace to showcase the acoustics in the cave. We were 150 feet below the surface and there was about 20 feet of solid ice bellow the walkway we were on. Afterwards we went over to see the Mammoth Cave. First we did a tour of their Bird and Wildlife museum. It was a building turned maze packed full of taxidermied animals, birds, and a lot of artifacts, fossils, and historical items. To put it mildly it was creepy being surrounded by a maze of dead / stuffed creatures. Casey was the most interested (especially with fossils, bones, and historical stuff; but it was just so overwhelmingly packed even he didn't enjoy it after a bit. After the "museum" we went down into the cave. The kids weren't as happy with this cave because there were no lights in the cave (just lanterns we got for the tour) and we were on our own to wander around. It was only half a mile in and then another half mile out, but the kids were more anxious in that cave then the other. We ended our trip with some ice cream in Shoshone. Casey, Kendal, and Peter got "small" ice cream cones (small meaning the ice cream was as tall as Alice's head). Alice and I got junior cones that were taller than any ice cream you'll find anywhere.
(Over 90 degrees and she insisted on wearing her cold things around before we went into the ice cave.)
This week were back to work (Casey tomorrow, me Wednesday) Kendal starts Cross Country tomorrow, and the kids have back to school night on Thursday! Our Summer days are drifting away and school is fast approaching.
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