End of Summer Fun

We squeezed a lot of fun activities into our last few days of summer! We had a fun Nana adventure to the Treehouse museum. The boys loved it there! We love Discovery Gateway, and the Treehouse has completely different stuff! It's a completely different experience and we had a great time. Afterwards Nana treated us to lunch at Blue Lemon, which made a big impression on the boys! Hudson has asked to go back to Blue Lemon several times since (we haven't).

Sometimes we go visit Papa when he's working at various farms on projects there. This particular Saturday we weren't doing much so we headed out to see what was going on, and hopefully the boys would get to ride a tractor. At one point, Ben (a younger farmer my dad works with frequently, who is super nice to the boys) rode over on a four-wheeler. Hudson questioned why Ben was using a four-wheeler and he replied "because I'm lazy and I didn't want to walk." Later that morning, Ben had Hudson with him on a tractor ride and they stopped in the onion field so Hudson could pick an onion. Hudson turned to the Mexicans working the field and said, "Hi guys! This is Ben. He's lazy." We all had a good laugh at that!

One day at playgroup another mom gave me this brilliant idea- freeze the boys little toy dinosaurs in ice! Then they can be little paleontologists and dig them out! We did this a few times and it's a hit! Ben traveled for work quite a bit in August, and some of the days didn't go super smoothly on my (and the boys) part. This activity saved us! 

We have met up with some neighbors at the park several times. I'm so thankful to have such wonderful neighbors with so many kids to play with! Chase loves running around with this little group- Luca, Adam and Jazmyn. They are all the same age and get along really well. 

Papa Ray came to visit! Ray came into town for a few days and we packed in a lot while he was here! He did swimming/BBQ night with us, came to church with us, and then the boys really wanted to show him the Union Station! So we went and saw the trains and the boys (and I think papa Ray) really loved it! They watched movies with him at night and they all ate Oreos together and just really had a great time! Ben and I did our best to convince Papa Ray to move out to Utah when he retires next year (and I think maybe succeeded?). His visit was great timing, right after Ben had been traveling for two weeks, and Ben's work schedule was a little lighter and more flexible, so Ben was able to spend a lot of time with his dad. 

 Nana wanted to take Chase on a little date to pick out a new back to school outfit. He loved having one on one time with her and apparently was very specific about his outfit choice. He has some clear preferences. Then they went to get ice cream at DQ- and Chase surprised her by asking for a very specific blizzard she hadn't heard of. Well we've been watching a LOT of Olympics at our house, and Dairy Queen has their commercials on frequently- Chase was clearly paying attention! (We normally just use netflix, so our boys aren't used to commercials) He had a great date with his Nana, when I asked him to take a picture with her he was just standing next to her, but he immediately pulled his little knees up and snuggled right up next to her. He loves her so much.

And really the rest of those last few weeks of summer was spent watching the Olympics. They are the best! We seriously turned them on almost every night and loved cheering on our amazing athletes and country! Chase was always thrilled when the USA won a medal. And Chase decided his favorite athlete is Katie Ledecky, after watching her completely crush the competition (and her own world record) in the 800 M swim. He kept talking about how she was the greatest swimmer ever and how she must have taken a lot of swimming lessons. (I guess we didn't fully explain to him the hype around Michael Phelps...) It might be good that the Olympics are over now, maybe we will actually get something done in our evenings and get the boys to bed at a good time?

I'm actually kind of exhausted when I look back at our summer. I had a lot of plans and goals and dreams for this summer and it absolutely lived up to all of it! We spent loads of time in the pool and outside, adventured and enjoyed the beauties of nature, got a few trips in (including our one without the boys!), spent a lot of time as a family, spent a lot of time with friends and loved ones, and played and played. It was a summer for the books!