June

I cannot believe a whole month of our summer break has already flown by! It has been a really wonderful, really exhausting month. I've had to remind myself over and over again that summer is long- we don't have to do ALL THE THINGS- and to slow down a little to enjoy. Mostly- I have really really enjoyed this summer break and the boys are all having a blast!

 June wrapped up baseball season. Both boys really love playing baseball. Hudson surprised us with being really calm and chill about it, but he always looked forward to games and sent us the cutest little thumbs up from each base as he ran around.

 The biggest challenge of baseball was definitely wrangling Davis at games. He's so cute, but doesn't have a whole lot of interest in sitting in our laps to watch the games for an hour straight.

 We've had some really nice mornings just playing outside in our front yard. Davis would play in his water table, the big kids would ride bikes, play basketball, or we'd have chalk competitions. I'd give the boys a theme to follow and then we'd all do a chalk drawing with the theme and score them. This particular day we did avengers. Hudson always put a lot of thought and care into his masterpieces.

 Chase's baseball season was awesome. The competition is a lot more intense now that he's in pitch-machine and he did really well with it. He rarely struck out and learned a lot about fielding the ball too. There were so many of his cute friends on his team, which made it extra fun. They lost in the 2nd round of the tournament (against an undefeated team) and it was a hard loss for Chase- but even in losses we can learn good lessons about character building and sportsmanship. We want our kids to play sports so that they can have fun and learn life lessons.

 We had a fun morning running errands at station park and then playing on the playground. I love taking all three of them places!

 We hiked Adams canyon one morning with my mom. We went to the lower falls, which is maybe a mile each way. Davis hiked the entire thing! He kept saying under his breath "i....doing....awesome!" - which he was. The waterfall was beautiful and it was fun to be out in nature with my kids. I was thankful my mom came along, it would have been a little crazy on my own.

 Davis has regularly insisted on wearing his snow boots when we play outside. Also, can I just say I love my neighborhood. We've had so many fun memories this summer just playing outside with whatever neighbor kids happen to wander over. Spontaneous water fights, pick up basketball games, and a whole lot of imagination happening right on our street!

 We've swam as much as we can! It's been a weirdly cold month, but every day that was warm enough we found time to swim! This picture is from the first week when Hudson didn't believe he could jump off the board and swim on his own. He's now back to jumping off and swimming all over the place without assistance. Chase is completely a fish and swims so well. Davis is still rocking the puddle jumper and loves to jump off the board "the jumping board" as he calls it!

 A momentous occasion happened- Hudson finally lost a tooth! Ben and I were getting Davis ready for bed one night and overheard Chase saying "Hold still Huds, I'm a tooth pulling expert!" He was helping him get it out! It took a little more help from Ben and then out it popped! Hudson was squealing with glee and Chase immediately wrapped him up in the sweetest hug, which turned into him picking Huds up and carrying him on a victory lap around the upstairs!

 I love this note he wrote the tooth fairy: Dear Tooth Fairy, I have lost my first tooth. It is small. I know it is small. PS Let me know if you see it. From Hudson.

 Chase got to go to day camp with the cub scouts. He was so excited to go that day he was awake at like 5:30. He actually slept in this outfit the night before because he was too excited to go. He got to climb a rock wall, zipline, shoot air soft guns and BB guns, do bow and arrow archery, rid BMX bikes and a bunch of other things. He came home exhausted and exhilarated.

 We tried to do the splash pad with a bunch of neighbors while Chase was at day camp. It started well enough while we played at the park waiting for the splash pad to turn on. Then once it did Davis was randomly terrified of it. Hudson and the neighbor kids played and ran and had a blast though. Davis mostly ran around the perimeter and cuddled in my arms.

 We made eclairs with the Hickmans one morning. It was so fun and I'm so excited to make them again and again. We brought about 10 home and they were all gone by the next day.

 Hudson here is working in his "office". He spends hours downstairs playing and creating and it's all WORK to him. While Davis naps every day the boys have quiet time- they can read, play in the basement or watch TV and they do great with it (although Chase has let me know he'd rather be playing with friends).

Also of note, I've added extra jobs for the big boys to do every day during the summer and they are doing awesome! It's nice to have kids that can be so helpful! Chase cleans bathrooms and tidies and vacuums our family room (3x a week). Hudson organizes our shoe rack (a constant source of clutter and messiness), cleans baseboards, dusts and vacuums. It's been awesome! Love these little helpers!