First half of July: a trip, a birthday, water and a bucket list project

Breakfast on vacation was a feast.  Fresh blueberries, strawberries, and pineapple were our healthy additions to oatmeal on our last morning.Packing up the car always takes longer than you think.  Jessie helped entertain the babies by doing their hair while we packed suitcases and checked the house over for random items.  Oh yeah for big sisters.

And Ken loved not shaving for a whole week. I love listening to the kids read stories to each other and since we were sharing our kids with the Alberston’s while we carpooled home everyone had enough room to just spread out.

Home sweet home.  We had a second ice cream sundae party with some of my family from SLC after Becca and Mom arrived for a fun get together.  Mom brought Becca and her stuff out so she could get all situated and find a job before starting at UVU in the fall.

Jessie tried out a new butterfly design on Abbie.  And made Neil into a cat.  When she was done Neil asked Jessie if she used any blue in her decorating and she hadn’t so she added some blue and green above the eyebrows and low and behold his face painting came alive.  It was amazing inspiration from a 3 year old.  Abbie wanted to try her hand at face painting and doodled on her arm to get a fill for things.

Next up was my birthday.  It was fun to have my mom out here for the celebration.  Not only did I get some fun birthday surprises…new stamps….a cute skirt….a couple of plates…..and Tupperware glasses….we had a little surprise for everyone else.  This was the last gift that I opened…. baby clothes for our new little one.  That was a fun birthday surprise.  Mark and Jessie were all over each other saying they had already guessed.  It was great.  So January will be an exciting month for us again.We enjoyed quite a few clown days again.  This sprinkler is everyone’s favorite.  Although this was as close as Neil and Isaac would get to it.  Just enough to feel the water.  But they loved it!

Abbie and I went up to the cub scout camp up in the mountains for one of our Activity Day activities.  The girls had a great time and it didn’t really start raining until the end which meant a cool overcast day.  We made bead animals and rockets that we launched, did BB guns and team building activities and raced to collect balls from the water on rafts.  It was a fun day.Mark loves having grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.  And while Abbie and I were at camp he shared his soup with Isaac.  Looks like a party to me.

The day after my birthday Ken left with Bishop Mortimer and two of his priests for a trip to Mesa Verde.  On the way down they stopped off again at Arches and hiked to delicate Arch.  They had some fun tours at Mesa Verde and ate like kings.  The bishop was a fabulous chef.

We enjoyed fresh corn several times this summer, but I wasn’t seemed to get a couple of ears to many.  Watching Isaac eat was just fun.This year we planted a couple of zinnias in the front and they were just gorgeous.  So colorful and fun.  We are definitely doing a lot more of those next year.

One day this summer we got to try a new to us treat… Jamba Juice.  Can’t remember where Mark was, but the rest of us loved it.  Especially the babies….

Afterwards we stopped by Home Depot to pick up 2x2’s and 2x4’s to make stilts, another bucket list item.  We had them cut the wood into lengths for us there at the store and the kids loved watching the big saw and riding on the cart.For a mutual activity the kids and Ken hiked to Stewart Falls.  Pretty.

Mom got to stay out with us for a whole month.  One day the kids helped her finish coloring some humanitarian books.We also met Ken at the park for lunch.We spent an entire hot afternoon out sanding the 2x2’s for our stilts so no one would get splinters.  Jessie had the great idea to decorate the top of hers and then of course we had to do everyone else’s also.  But they turned out so awesome!

After Ken got home from work he helped the kids each drill their holes and screw the pegs in.  Everyone was helping and having fun.  It was a great evening.  They were a little harder to use than they kids anticipated…..Mark ended up taking the most steps on his, but it was still fun.  We ended up adding higher pegs on both Jessie’s and Mark’s to make it a bit more challenging.  One trick we figured out was that you have to use your hands lift the stilts as you walk, not just move you feet forward.