July (and a little bit of August) Happenings

Man I hate it when I get behind on blogging. I've started trying to convert my blog over into a book and that has occupied all my computer time. But now since I've been doing that I feel like I need to document every little event and thought. So here it goes....

We went camping at Willow Flats in Idaho with the Reeds. This was a really fun, yet not so fun thing. It was fun to get out with friends doing the whole camping thing. You know...fishing, smores, campfires, tents, hiking, late night chats, scary stories about the Master King Buffalo, etc, etc. The not so fun part? Camping with a two year old and a baby! Maya wants to do what she wants when she wants. So there were a few temper tantrums and a few times that we just let her do her nonsense. Plus, it's never fun having a toddler around a campfire. Rocky wasn't that bad. It's just tough accommodating nap times and a baby that can only do the army crawl. Other than that, we had a blast. We even had a few momentous things happen. For one thing, Luke lost his front tooth! That thing had been dangling for a really long time, so I was more than happy to have it come out. For another thing, Maya FINALLY got rid of her binky!!! (Not of her own free will of course). Matt was pretending to throw her in the river and she had her binky in her mouth. As she screamed it came flying out and floated away down the river. Of course I had a back up binks but we took this opportunity to see if she'd go without it. She was actually fine with it. We just told her that the fish had her binks now. Every once in a while she'd go to the river and yell, "Pish, give Maya binks back!" The real test was later that night. She's attached to that thing to go to bed. But she was definitely ok. To this day she mentions EVERY day the fish has Maya's binks, but then she'll immediately say, "Oh, that's okay. Pish can have Maya's binks." So there you have it. This camping trip was a success in my eyes just because of that.

Maya came downstairs with this stylish hair-do and an armful of hair accessories, lip gloss, and hair brushes. I love my girly girl!

We went to the Weber State Fireworks with a bunch of friends in the neighborhood. I'm so mad though because my camera was on some funky setting and a lot of the pictures didn't come out good. I had some really good pictures of when it rained and every one ran for cover under their blankets. Oh well, here's a few that did turn out okay.

Me & Jaclyn

Hallie and Rocky

The kids decided to tackle all the dads and put ice down their shirts.

Maya found a surrogate family in the Reeds this night. Here she is with her new sister Riley.

Isaac and Sophie got into a really deep discussion about movies and video games.

Travis had his surgery on Monday (it went really well!!!-if you need more details check out Mandy's blog) so I didn't want to really sign up for much during So. Weber Days just in case the outcome were bad. But of course my kids couldn't go without the Kid K. They love this. Isaac has won a medal every year since he's been doing it, with this year being the same. He won 3rd place in his age group. Luke on the other hand hasn't won a medal at all. But I tell you, that kid has the best attitude about things. Of course that would be cool if he did, but he was so excited about the soda that he won from the raffle you'd have thought he won the race. (a soda, by the way, that he didn't technically win. It started pouring during the middle of the medal ceremony so they had to stop giving out prizes. It was mass chaos, so Matt just walked up to the prize table grabbed a soda and told Luke that's what he won).

Most of this month was consumed by swimming lessons. I was determined to get my kids to swim this year. Both of them are little scaredy cats when it comes to water. First we took swimming lessons at Surf 'n Swim and they still were at the same level as they've always been. Then we signed up for lessons at the Ogden Athletic Club. I loved it there. Both Isaac and Luke's teachers had tough love, which is exactly what they needed. I am proud to say that Luke has finally advanced a level (he's been on level 1 for years now), and Isaac now dares to jump into the deep end of the pool.

This was the scene of most of Isaac's swim lessons. His teacher coaxing him to do various things out of his comfort zone.

Look at him now! I never thought I'd see the day that he jumped off of a diving board.

We went to the splash park in So. Ogden. My kids loved it. It was such the perfect place for a mother of 4 to go and not worry about her kids. You've got the water park, the baby park, and the big kid park all within seeing/hearing distance of the nice covered picnic tables where I sat.

I still have to blog about Luke's birthday and me and Matt's 10th Anniversary, but I feel they are deserving of their own posts, so stay tuned.