End of Summer & Start of School

We had a lot of fun at the end of the summer! I tried to squeeze in as much as possible such it had been a very different summer. Logan and Brooklyn both celebrated birthdays at the beginning of August. Logan turned 9 and Brooklyn turned 4. She is so proud she is a "big girl" now and tells everyone "I'm almost 5 now". Brooklyn has been obsessed with Elsa and Frozen, so many of her gifts were Frozen related. One of which was an Anna dress-up. She was so excited! She put it on and for the first time she exclaimed "I'm Anna, you be Elsa! My hair is the perfect color to be Anna!" She's had some major hair envy recently. She constantly will lament "I wish my hair was blond like Elsa!" But there's no way I was going to bleach a 3 year old's hair so wigs have been our placebo.

We also squeezed in my niece Rea's second sewing lesson. She wanted to make a skirt for her baby sister in the exact same pattern as hers, so we got to repeat that (hopefully) cementing those skills in place. For her next lesson she wants to do a pair of leggings. This will be more challenging because the material will be stretchy, but I'm sure she will do a great job.

The boys were so excited to go back to school a few weeks ago! They happily wear their masks to school if if means they get to see their friends. Brooklyn is so excited that she gets to do internet pre-school daily, although she is devastated that her brothers leave every day. If we run errands after dropping the boys off she will worriedly exclaim "Mom! I'm going to be late for internet pre-school!"

The Friday after school started we went on our late summer vacation with my parents. Dave's co-worker had a home outside of Flaming Gorge and he was kind enough to let us borrow it for a long weekend.

It was just the break we needed! The first day we explored the lake, paddled around, checked out some islands, talked to fishermen and just had a casual day of fun.

The second day we went river rafting. It was a BLAST! We wish we could have done it more than one day and decided we definitely need to do this again.

The temperature was perfect and the sky was overcast! We weren't too warm, and if we did get warm we just stuck a foot off the side of the raft. It was the perfect adventure! Not too rapid for the kids, but enough to keep us all excited.

If the water was "boring" for too long I would start bouncing up and down and exclaim "look out! rapids!" My mom christened those "White Girl Rapids". Eventually the kids caught on, but it was fun for them for a while.

Our roma and cherry tomatoes have been doing well this year. Brooklyn and Logan are tomato fiends and I will catch both of them sneaking tomatoes from the garden and chowing down. We love that they love fresh produce!

Lots of Sewing and Youth Conference

 

It's been such a busy summer! Well, the last few weeks have flown by and I can't believe it's almost time for school to start again. The kids are planning to go back to school in person in the fall. They will be required to wear masks and remain socially distant, but they are very excited to see their friends again. We're scrambling to get all the stuff they need to go back, plus extra sanitization supplies for their teachers.

Dustin created a picture in hopes that it will be chosen to be the yearbook cover this year. It's adorable and he's really hopeful. Brooklyn is super jealous that the boys get to go to school so I've been prepping some home pre-school stuff to keep her busy in the fall. She loves practicing and will tell you that's she's going to kindergarten this year (she's not). Logan's just excited to go back, learn, and see his friends. It's been a LONG 7 months at home.

Two weeks ago we met up with Logan's friend's family at a park and they played like crazy. The park had a merry go round which the kids begged me to push them around on. They all fell off at least once. At one point I was pushing them around and Brooklyn screamed so I knew she was going to fall. I whipped around mid-run and caught her. In the process I pulled or tore something in my calf and limped around for 1-2 weeks. It's still sore but doing a lot better. 

I've been squeezing in a lot of sewing for Brooklyn lately. She discovered my box of "beautiful material" ie things I've been collecting for dress ups. As soon as I'm done with one dress she is BEGGING me to make the next skirt out of the next beautiful material. It's exhausting because the material isn't easy to sew on, but she's so happy after, I can't help myself!

My friend Tenille also helped me learn how to design on my Cricut so I've gone a little crazy designing shirts for the kids and myself. I ordered some Heat Transfer Vynal off Amazon and as soon as it arrives Tuesday, we'll be in business! I'm so excited!

A few weeks ago we tried to pick up some Harry Potter crafts from the library but they were so popular that they "sold out" in an hour. We stopped by 3 branches before giving up. The last one promised they would make up more bags and call us to come pick them up. This helped appease three devastated kids and I promptly forgot about it. They called this week with make your own wand kits. The kids had a blast designing and bejeweling them. 

Last weekend we got to go to a picknic lunch to celebrate Sara's baptism. We couldn't attend because of corona, but we still got to enjoy family at the park. While we were there Rea asked if I would teach her how to sew clothes. I was excited to oblige her and this Thursday we had her first lesson. She was able to complete a skirt and was so proud of herself!

Half way through she decided she only wanted two tiers rather than the 3 the pattern called for because that was the length she prefered her skirts. So we finished with a little material to spare (she plans to make a dress for her American Girl doll out of the leftovers). Next week she requested sewing a skirt for Elizabeth. So I've pulled out some pink floral material to make a skirt with the same pattern.

The last week and a half have been very busy for me. I headed up an electronic Youth Conference with the Teenagers in our church congregation. The youth got to participate in a socially distant water fight for the whole conference. Each day they could earn a new life in the game by doing a spiritual activity (read a scripture, do a service, take a selfie with the temple, do some family history, etc). They had a blast and had some spiritual experiences too. 

We ended with a Testimony meeting on the front lawn of the church and it was a fabulous experience. The spirit was strong and we all walked away uplifted and ready to take on more tough times. I hope we can keep the momentum going because life has just been so tough lately! But I know God loves us and is just itching to bless us if we turn to him. I hope the Youth were able to see the blessings of remembering him daily.

July Flies By!

July has just passed us by in the blink of an eye! With how slow the year has moved so far, that's a great thing. The boys rediscovered their legos over the past two weeks. When the lockdown hit in March Grandma Sheila & Papa Mike bought the kids a Legos kid that had bags of all colored legos that they could make anything with. So they've been creating and creating all kinds of cool things! They love coming up with their own designs.

Brooklyn has really embraced her inner girly-ness lately! She's obsessed with unicorns and princesses. She loves to dress up. She will even put a skirt on over her shorts every day. Since I'm not a girly girl this is new territory for us, but she sure makes it fun!

Along with her love of Princesses she is neck deep in a love for Elsa and Frozen. She dresses up like her daily. She pretends she's Elsa and I'm Anna constantly. She has spent months lamenting that her hair isn't blond like Elsa's "I'm so tired of looking like Anna! When will my hair be blond like Elsa's?!?" She was so excited when last week a surprise blond wig arrived in the mail for her from Papa Mike. She wears it daily and if she can get away with it, she sneaks it out of the house and to the park or to the library to pick up books. The boys have told her several times that although her wig is pretty, they like her better just the way she is (what amazing brothers they are!).

We received information last week on what School should look like next year. The governor is requiring masks, and since our district is planning to allow kids back in the classrooms, that means I've been sewing masks like crazy. I want the boys to have a mask for each day they're in school, one for church on Sunday (which is canceled right now, but eventually it will probably be back), and an extra just incase we need one more. That's 7 masks per boy and a few more for Brooklyn, Dave and I. The pattern I'm using right now isn't hard or time consuming, so they go fast.

I've also started collecting supplies to send the boys back to school with. I've been able to find 4 packs of Chlorox wipes, 2 cans of disinfecting spray, two bottles of hand sanitizer and tissues. Plus the basic markers, notebooks, crayons, glue, etc. I've never spent so much on school supplies, and we haven't even received lists from the school of what they want us to bring. But I want the kids to be able to go back to school in a safe environment. They learn far better in a classroom, so I'll do whatever I can to help facilitate the process.

Dustin and Brooklyn have dove head first into cooking with me! They love to help out in the kitchen and have been fighting over who gets to add what ingredient and who gets to stand by me. When the fighting is at a minimum it's fun to teach them to cook.

We got to have a picnic dinner at our favorite park last Sunday with my brother Mike and his family along with Alison's sister Becky and her family. The kids loved playing together and the adults enjoyed sitting in the shade and talking. It was HOT out, but we still managed to have a good time. Corona has been so hard on all of us because we miss our socialization. It's a strange summer not having people over for BBQs and family dinners but I think meeting up at a park is a nice compromise.

Thursday of this week Dave's friend Darren invited us to go camping with him and his daughter. So we threw together a last minute trip to the mountains! We had so much fun hiking and enjoying the outdoors. Thursday amid the hurricane of preparation, we drove up Big Cottonwood canyon to a few campsites in hopes to get a walk up campsite for the weekend. I've been trying to reserve a campsite since January and things have been completely full.

With everyone trying to get out in nature it's been a completely booked year. Unfortunately we weren't able to get one close by, but we got a great hike in and got to explore Moss Ledge Waterfall for our efforts.

It was a difficult hike for the kids, but they had fun. Dustin was a little daredevil, as always. He wanted to climb to the top of every mountain and see everything he could.  Brooklyn always wants to be right with him, and it was hard for her to learn she can't keep up with him all the time.

By the end of the hike we were worn out, scratched up, and ready to head home! I was glad we had dinner waiting for us in the Crock Pot when we got there.

Friday morning the kids and I headed over to our Bishop's house to cut down some tree stumps for them. The kids helpfully enjoyed someone else's yard while I cut the stumps as close to the ground as I could and talked with Anna (Bishop's wife). It was nice to catch up, since I haven't seen her in a while. Gave me a good workout too, with sore arms to prove it.

When we got home I packed up the car with everything I thought we would need for a two night camping trip. We didn't know where we would end up, so I packed for a HOT weekend. We tried a few sites and were turned away before we found Redbanks Campground. It was exactly what we needed! It had huge trees for shade and wasn't far away from Tony Lake.

We hiked around Tony Lake Friday before returning to camp to make foil dinners and s'mores. It was stressful not knowing if we would find a camping site, but very restful once we got settled in. My favorite part of the area were the alpine wildflowers. They were everywhere! Brooklyn had a hay day collecting them and is hoping if she plants them in our yard, flowers will grow. The kids said their favorite part was the water and having friends with us.

The weather was perfect. It was in the 80's during the day and probably down to 50 at night. Nobody was overly hot or cold, although there were many mosquitoes to deal with. Saturday we made a big breakfast and headed out to Bear Lake for a day of swimming. We picnicked on the beach and had milkshakes for a late afternoon snack.

We tried two beaches. One we christened the Mud Beach and the other the Rock Beach. The kids LOVED the Mud Beach! They sunk into the mud up to their knees and the mud dyed their legs orange. Dave and I liked the Rock beach better. The water was clear and the swimming at Rock Beach was perfect. We were worn out from swimming all day and Brooklyn fell asleep on the ride back to camp. We roasted hotdogs over the fire and again had s'mores after dinner.

Saturday was our night of injury. It started with Darren cutting his finger open with a knife. It was pretty deep but we were able to patch it up pretty well with alcohol wipes, gauze, Neosporin, butterfly closure and duct tape.

Then Dustin tripped and sliced his head open on the corner of the picnic table. He has a huge, swolen bruise and got a pretty deep cut. He begged me not to take him in to get stitches while still crying from the initial pain. I promised if he could stop bleeding quickly I would not take him in. It did stop very quickly so we cleaned up his wound, bandaged it with the same supplies we used to clean up Darren earlier (glad we already knew exactly where everything was), and he asked if he could go to sleep for the night.

This experience made me realize how much my car first aid kit is lacking, so we'll be updating that as soon as possible.

Sunday morning we woke up, ate, packed up and headed to a hike. It lead us to Polygamist Cave which was used to house the Polygamists hiding from the law back in the late 1800's. It was a fun cave to explore.

We got about halfway in and you had to climb down a narrow tunnel into the next cavern when Brooklyn decided she had enough. She is scared of the dark and wanted nothing to do with climbing in a dark hole in the ground at the bottom of the cave! Logan decided to head back with us, so we slowly headed out while Dave, Dustin, Darren and Amree climbed deeper to get to see the cave bacon and other Stalactites.

As we were climbing out Logan and Brooklyn decided to hide in a small offshoot cave and surprise everyone else when they came out of the cave. They were so well hidden Dave and Dustin couldn't find them. I had to point out the cave to them.

The hiking in was long and strenuous, but the hiking out/down was a nightmare! The trail was pretty steep and by the last decent Dave carried Brooklyn, Dustin and I just slid down on feet while squatting and Logan slid down on his butt, crying the whole way from pain of hitting the rocks. Fortunately that last decent was just feet from the edge of the lake, so we stopped for a swimming break and picnic lunch. Logan discovered if you stood really still in the lake the fish would nibble/tickle your feet. The boys were fascinated with this.

By this point we were exhausted and decided to head home. The kids were asleep within minutes of leaving the parking lot, and slept the whole 2 hour drive home. We ate dinner, showered and everyone went to bed early.

This morning it was hard to get up, but with 4 loads of laundry, unpacking to do, dishes to wash and a house to clean we did and got to work. It's always busy getting back from a trip, but we needed the break so it was worth it.

In Which We Are Outside. A Lot

This weekend was the 4th of July! We had all kinds of fun and especially enjoyed Dave being home Friday and Monday! Sunday we got to go on a hike around Silver Lake. It was 95+ degrees at home and we just needed to get OUT! So we decided to enjoy the 78 degree weather up in the mountains instead. With Covid still holding strong in Utah, all the hikes are crazy crowded, but it was still fun to get out in nature. Even if we got a few mosquito bites to show for it. We hiked around the lake and on the drive home all the kids passed out from exhaustion. Because the night before was an epic firework night!

To celebrate the 4th we had Dave's parents and my brother Mike's family over for fireworks and ice cream. The kids had a blast! They always enjoy the fireworks, but I think this was their best year yet. 

It was a pain trying to purchase fire works. Dave went to 3 stores in search of our favorites, couldn't find a lot of what we were looking for, and what we did find was overpriced. But eventually we found most of what we were looking for and had fun.

Just when we were cleaning up our fireworks the neighbors across the street gave the kids a huge pack of fireworks to light, so we ended up letting the kids stay up until 10 when everything was gone. 

 They had a lot of fun and were good to the end. And they realized fireworks are more fun after dark. go figure.

Brooklyn was able to fall asleep by herself for 15 nights!!! Ever sense the earthquake and aftershocks 3? 4? months ago she has been scared to be alone. So for the past month we've been working on going to sleep and to the bathroom alone. She's doing great on both! She put herself to sleep last night while the rest of the family was in the living room reading a bedtime book. When she reached 15 nights she earned the above Elsa Nightgown. She is so proud and LOVES Elsa right now.

The kids have been playing on the tramp a lot. We purchased a sprinkler system that hooks up to the top of the tramp and they've loved how cool it keeps them in the heat!

We've also enjoyed playing with friends about once a week. We try to keep it outside, so to share as little germs as possible, but we really need social interaction!!! We had a fun time painting rocks with Dustn's friend Dimitri's family, and jumping on the tramp in the water.

One Sunday we met the Northrup's at the neighborhood park and played for 2 hours. They have a kid each of our kids age and everyone had fun!

We're so glad to be able to get out and that the parks are finally open again! It was a long 3 months without the park.

All last week the kids and I worked on pruning the trees. We have a ton of trees, so it was a ton of work and exhausting. We filled up an entire dumpster with out branches. I used the chain saw, we purchased an extendible pruning tool, and the kids helped pick up all the  branches that I cut down.

By the time we were done Saturday I was beyond ready to call it quits. But hopefully if we prune a little each year it won't get this bad again... Hopefully. We've only pruned our trees twice since we moved in 11 years ago. The first time we paid a company and I figured I could learn to prune and save us $1,000. So hopefully nothing dies from my lack of skill.

Monday Dave also took the day off of work and we were able to relax a little. We made an appointment to go swimming at the Taylorsville city outdoor pool. I have to say, I love social distance swimming! Everyone stays far away from you, and they only allow 75 people in at a time! And at the 2 hour mark they send you all home. Sorry kids, we have to head home! The pool is closing! It's pretty much the best part about all this chaos in the world right now.

The Month Long Celebration!

Just because I'm too cute not to share

This month started off with my Birthday!!! Even though we're social distancing it was a pretty good one. The day of we celebrated with presents from the kids and a lemon meringue pie. I had Young Womens at a park that night and we ate ice cream and visited in person. It was great to get to see everyone together for the first time in a while. Several people dropped of presents and cards. It was nice to feel so loved by so many people!

the start to my quilt

my Pinterest Inspiration

The Day of my birthday we had a lot going on, so I took the day off the following day (I feel you should have a work free day on your birthday). I ate leftover pie for breakfast, ice cream for lunch, and spent the majority of the day creating a new quilt to use up some of my brighter colored scraps. I've decided I need to start using up what I have or pass it on to someone that does, and I've been given a ton of scraps! I'll make as many squares as I can out of these colors, and hopefully have enough to make a lap quilt.

That night we had a primary activity at the church. It was probably the kids favorite activity ever. It was a drive through ice cream truck. I drove the kids over to the church and they got out and played with their friends for at least an hour and a half while eating ice cream. It was the highlight of their week.

We've had some cold and super hot weather lately. The kids have been loving the hot but I love the cold days. I bought a mister that goes on the top of our trampoline and the kids love it! They tell me it lets them jump even when it's 100 out! And surprisingly it doesn't use up too much water.

We've gotten into a good groove for the summer. We're still missing playing with friends but try to plan one playdate a week with someone. I have a job chart that needs to be completed before they can have any electronic time. The boys have learned if they clean their rooms every day then it's easier to clean and they have more fun playing in it (I was cheering inside when I heard Logan tell Dustin this). Brooklyn has learned to push all her toys under her bed and present a clean front.

 The kids have been making a ton of perler bead patterns that they've found on Google. Logan and Dustin are really into the 3D patterns and Brooklyn has loved making princesses. They've also been video messaging to show off their creations to my friend Tenille. The first time they did this I swear it was an hour of "look at this Tenille!" and she ooed and aahed about them all.

We spent two days putting together an 1,000 piece candy wrapper puzzle. When we got to the last piece we discovered we were missing 8 pieces. They magically appeared back in the puzzle, except one that took 3 days to find. The kids had fun and I enjoyed helping them.

 We've been going to the park a lot lately. The kids wanted to meet up their cousins (Mike's kids) so we did, and discovered some horses that were happy to feed grass and weeds for about an hour. They had a blast!

This Saturday we had a fire with s'mores and a campout in the back yard. Dave the kids have been begging for a campout for weeks and we finally had a cool enough night to sleep outside. It was a great, relaxing night.

Sunday was our first day back at church. We had to wear masks and it was only a 30  minute meeting (one speaker). We enjoyed seeing our ward family, but it was a really strange experience