Payne Family Fun: Summer for the teens

Mark got to go one his first week long scout trip, and boy did I miss him! He was so excited! He was a really good worker and finished up 6 merit badges while he was there. He also got to build his own shelter on an island he canoed out to and sleep in it one night. And don’t tell anyone but he forgot to take any changes of undies and socks…..hope he doesn’t make that mistake again. :-)Abbie showed Spencer how to make “name explosions.” A fun thing she had done at school. They made several including ones for Ken and I – that are hanging on our bedroom door and two more Grandma and Grandpa.Isaac got his first major bonk on the side of the bathtub – learning to walk well sure seems to take a while sometimes.

Playing outside with the kids one day Jessie and I tried weaving together the cover buds in our front yard. I braided mine and put them around Jessie’s bun. Pretty cute. The flowers even stuck around long enough for her to wear them to YW that evening. A butterfly landed on Jessie’s finger.

Ken drove down with the bishop to check out where the girls would be having camp this summer. They did some of there activities inside this old abandoned house that had been flooded out and there were a ton of thistle plants…go figure (it was in the town of Thistle).

Ken and Jessie got to go to Youth Conference together. They did some stuff up on Temple Square and got to hear Elder Clayton speak. And also a picture of some falcons nesting on the Joseph Smith Memorial building.

Neil found Larry the cucumber, from Veggie Tales, in a toy box upstairs thought he was a great toy. He came to tell me about his new find and said… “This is the green bean.” It made me laugh.For some unknown reason Isaac was obsessed with this pot one morning after breakfast. He kept pulling it out of the pantry and taking it into the front room and standing in it…..silly boy.

While Mark was at camp and Ken and Jessie were at Youth Conference the other kids and I made pudding pops! Oh yeah!And went to the park to play with Quinn.And went bowling with Rachel and then to Red Robin for dinner. (Dinner was a mad house; they put us at a table that was too small for 6 people, right in the traffic area of the waiters and we kept having to ask for more fries.) One cool thing at dinner was an electric train that entertained Neil for most of the time and the french fry that was as long as his forearm.

David and Lisa and Rachel came down on Sunday so David could tell us about his army trip to Lithuania. He gave each of the kids a coin. It was really interesting and fun to hear his stories. Then we played a little Hit or Miss.We saved the treats he shared with us to try for FHE.

One thing on our bucket list this summer was making a balancing plank. We ended up making two and the kids aren’t to bad on them….I tired and nearly killed myself.Ken has a new mowing buddy. (Side note: Ken’s van died this summer and we test drove a number of little cars to replace it and nothing had worked out so Ken’s family kindly let us borrow some vehicles while we tried to figure out what to do.)For a priest activity this summer they bucked hay! That gave the phrase “Idaho farmboy” a whole new meaning and appreciation.Ken playing baseball with the boys in the backyard. Why is Neil in a dress….I can’t remember, but he was insistent on using the stick he found for his bat….then of course Isaac copied him and wanted to use it too.Jessie left for girls camp the week after Mark’s scout camp. Jessie’s “nice” prank at camp. Jessie loves to think up silly pranks, but she is not good at being mean, thank goodness! So she and some of her friends pranked the YCL’s and toilet papered their tent, but to make it a nice prank they wrote kind notes and thoughts all over the toilet paper. She said writing all that stuff took forever. :-)