It's a week an a half left before the kids start school and the summer is going fast. We have hung out at home most of the summer doing things around town and close by. There have been lots of days of sleeping in for the kids and time for me to walk with a friend (getting up at 6:30). Some days are boring but I'm trying to remember how much I'll miss them when school is back in again and life gets busy! Some highlights from the last few weeks...
Jacob got his Life award in Boy scouts along with 7 merit badges.
The night of the court of honor he was complaining about going and said he'd just pick up the awards later.
I told him it had been a year since they had a court of honor and I had spent months badgering leaders and merit badge counselors and getting him to finish partial merit badges and tracking down blue cards...he was going! He was fine after that ;)
Ashley got to go to a sewing camp for girls for a week.
Lots of her friends signed up and they made some really cute projects including these bags, pillowcases with their name on them, pajama pants, aprons and more.
They went for 6 hours every day and even got to keep their sewing machines. We had quite the carpool from Riverside going. Since the class Ashley has been making pillows and even made a skirt.
This was the 24th of July celebration and Jeff celebrated by hanging out with Zander...
Vanessa and Jared were there and the rest of Steve and Tahna's family. It was fun to sit on the grass and hang out as a family eating Barbeque. I think a favorite was the onion rings freshly fried in oil heated in dutch ovens, seeing the kids running around together and admiring the outfits of those who dressed up. Way to go Vanessa.
Before Angela had to start back at work she headed out to Riverside and spent one night with us and then did a trip to Sea World. The boys decided not to go so it was just Ashley and me and Ian and Angela.
We tried out the kiddy rides which probably wouldn't have happened if Ashley was with the boys. Ian liked having a partner to ride with him and to stand in the lines with him. (It's hard to tell a 2 year old why you have to wait to go on a ride)
We watched some of the shows that we hadn't watched before (the new dolphin show was impressive) and hung out together.
After lunch Cheri met us at the park with Olive and Violet. It was fun to bring them to parts of the park that they hadn't seen before. I guess Cheri reads them a Beluga the Whale book and they finally got to see a real Beluga whale.
With one mom and two little ones Ashley and I got to help hold Violet. I think that was one of my favorite parts of the day.
Since Angela had to head back to Camarillo we didn't stay very late in the afternoon but we sure enjoyed the time we did have together. I found out how hard it was trying to take a picture of multiple little ones....pretty impossible to all get them looking at you at the same time!
We've had a few trips to Newport for the day. When we can we bring Jenae and Jolene and that's been a lot of fun to have them with us.
My kids love the smash ball games with them, watching Psych in the car, and the big blanket they bring with them. I've found it helps if I bring some money so they can walk down and get some ice-cream while we're there too. I'll be sad when our beach days are done.
We've discovered the skating rink again too and had fun making a trip out there with the kids one afternoon. Kate knew how to skate but this was her first time at a rink. She did great and had fun.
The boys had fun bringing Cody with them.
I got to help for two days at girls camp. On Monday I helped with the dutch oven cooking for lunch. Well I didn't help much...
Pretty much brother Williamson did all the work but I helped get the dutch ovens and help direct people and clean up...he did all the rest ;)
I got up to camp just as all the girls were getting there too. I stayed one night and got to deliver a healthy stack of letters to the girls in our ward from some of the boys in our ward.
Allie having to sing for her letters (Jacob was one of the ones that wrote her)
And Kelzey having to sing for her letter from Taylor... He wrote her every day so she had to sing for her letter every day. When she got back she wrote letters to the boys that wrote her at camp and gave it to the Sunday School teacher and said that if the boys wanted them they had to sing for them.
So Taylor sang so he could get his letter.
I asked him if it was worth it. He said "NO all it said was "Thanks for singing"
Ha ha. Looks like she got him back.
On Tuesday I helped with some of the rotations for certification.
After lunch I raced down the mountain because the boys were leaving for their High Adventure activity the next day and I had to get them packed.
I wanted to get a picture of them as they were leaving for their Lake Mead trip. This is all I could get before they made a hasty exit.
They told me I could gave a hug OR a picture, I said I wanted both. They didn't agree.
They ended up having a great time on their trip. Taylor ended up being the oldest boy there and was referred to as the 4th leader.
While the boys were gone Ashley and I had 2 children from the ward over for the day while their dad worked and their mom was at girls camp. A friend of mine was going to try and bring 7 kids to the beach by herself so we decided to join them.
Kaulin and Rose were dropped off at 5 in the morning so dad could get to work. I really didn't want to have to wake up that early so I put them in Jacob's bunk bed since he was gone and said I'd come back and check on them in an hour. I figured if they were bored they could be bored for an hour and then I would entertain them. They ended up sleeping for almost another 3 hours!
Kaulin said our house must be magic because he NEVER goes back to sleep when he wakes up. Magic or not having sleep helped us all have a better day.
They had fun at the beach
It worked out perfect. We had a fun activity for the kids and my friend Amy had another adult to help out with her seven kids (2 were out of town guests staying with her).
Not that I felt like I was much help.
Her baby seemed to want to eat sand no matter what we did. Ha ha!
