July

July was full- mostly of swimming! Also, a few of my kids discovered that if they put goggles on before I spray them in sunscreen then none gets in their eyes and everyone is happier. 

We had our 14th wedding anniversary and this was the only picture I got of the day! This little daddy-daughter nap was darling though!

Hudson had a really great day with his BFF Richie. They had an old TV waiting to go to the dump and asked his mom if they could take it apart. If you know Hudson, you can imagine this was heaven to him! We still have part of the circuit board down in his room. This kid loves technology and most of the conversations this summer have been his *long* opinions and thoughts about all kinds of technology and things he’d like to invent. 

My girly-girl likes to always have a purse with her when she leaves the house. Even if it’s just to the back yard.

The FDA officially approved the Covid vaccine for kids older than 6 months, which means they unblinded the study Lila and Davis are in. Davis was already unblinded when he turned 5, so we knew he’d gotten the real shot. Lila was then unblinded and we found out she got placebo. I wasn’t too surprised, since she had zero reaction to the shot whatsoever, I had been suspecting this news. That meant that we could either pull her from the study, or keep her in and get her the real Moderna shot. I opted to keep her in, so we were back at the doctors office this particular day for her real shot. She knows the drill now, poor thing has had so many shots this past year! She was nervous, but she kept talking about how it all works and how she’d get a sucker after. She was a champ and only cried for a minute and held so still for the shot. Also, she had no reaction at all to the real shot either!

The deck- oh the deck. This thing has taken over so much of our summer! When we moved in we knew we needed to do major work to the existing deck which was so old and rickety. After living her for a bit we quickly decided it wasn’t worth repairing and would need a full reconstruction. And then life got in the way and the expense and effort put this on the back burner year after year until this year we finally committed! 

My parents generously gifted us some money to help with the cost and we saved up a bunch and finally we were ready to pull the trigger. Ben hired someone he knew from growing up in Virginia. His name is Nick and he’d done some work for Ben’s parents and had done a good job. Nick was starting a business and Ben wanted to help him out. So we did. Ben demoed our old deck mid-April with Nick supposedly starting our building late April/early May. That ended up getting pushed to mid-May before Nick actually started and immediately it became clear that things were going SLOW. His initial time table of “2 weeks” came and went with almost nothing done. Then his helper quit on him, so Ben volunteered to help out to discount the price a little.

It’s been the slowest process, especially since our builder would frequently go a whole week or more between actually coming to work, working for a few hours and then not showing up at all for another week. I was super frustrated. Ben stayed really calm and continued to work on it whenever he could. Almost every free moment was spent out there working. To be fair, Nick did a lot of the initial framing that Ben was very nervous to do on his own, so we were thankful for that. But it turned into “Nick helping Ben build the deck sometimes” instead of “Nick building the deck because we hired him”. You can tell, I’m still pretty frustrated about this.

We got the project about 80% done when Nick pretty much quit. He said he was too overwhelmed to finish the project. So then it was mostly up to me and Ben to finish it up. Between a lot of YouTube tutorials, a lot of thinking and trying to figure stuff out, a few phone calls to others who might be able to lend some expertise, by the end of July we finally have a totally finished deck! And it turned out beautiful. And now we can kind of laugh at the hilarious (read frustrating) moments we had, like when Ben and I were trying to cut railings at 10 pm in the dark and totally ruined the railing and had to buy more. Or how I helped Ben build the stairs for hours in the hot sun in a dress (because I just came out to help for a minute and ended up staying for hours). Ben learned a lot about construction through the process and kind of enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed mostly none of it, but we did save thousands of dollars compared to what the more experienced deck companies quoted. 

 

Evenings while working on the deck- Lila usually wanted to be out there with us. She’d clap her little hands and cheer for us when we finally got something put in correctly which was adorable. I went to check on Hudson and Davis one night because we hadn’t heard them for awhile and I found them in the driveway, spinning their bike wheels like crazy, running a bike shop apparently!

We rarely visit splash pads, but we did this one time and for about forty minutes it was a blast!

On the last day of July, we celebrated Harry’s birthday. Chase went through our entire Harry Potter cookbook and marked a bunch of recipes and we made them all together. We had my mom and dad and Nate and Halie down for dinner and watched the 5th movie together. It was a fun day! 

Fourth of July and Bear Lake

 

My favorite holiday! I love the Fourth of July! We had a very calm day- mostly working in the yard and on our deck (more on that later). We did our little “red, white and blue breakfast” which was minus the blue this year since I couldn’t find any blueberries! We did crepes with strawberries and whipped cream and it was so delicious! We just hung out together as a family that day. Later we joined the rest of the family up at my parents house for my favorite night of the year- swimming, BBQ and fireworks from the deck!

This little group of cousins is so cute together and this year their relationship has just grown! We’ve had many dinners where the adults get to just sit and relax and talk because the kids are all just playing so well! Chase bemoans the fact that there isn’t a boy cousin or anyone his age- but he’s finding his spot in the cool older cousin that Anna loves to play with. The little girls have been so cute and just totally bonded this summer. And Huds and Nora are always off in their own little world together!

This year fireworks from the deck were my favorite. Everyone could stay up this year and Lila was SO HAPPY we let her stay! She exclaimed “FIREWORKS!” the whole time and just loved every second of it. I played some patriotic music from my phone and all the kids had ideas of songs to add. Davis wanted “Kristoff’s song” and although I knew which song he was talking about, I couldn’t quite place the name to type in. Of course, Will knew exactly what it’s called “Lost in the woods”.

As we were chatting in the pool, Dad mentioned we could use the old family cabin at Bear Lake a few days later if we wanted (my dad’s aunt and uncle own it and let my grandma and her family use it a few days each summer). We jumped at the chance and a few days later we were all at the lake together!

We didn’t spend the night- just drove up early in the morning and came home that night and it was such a wonderful day- including the beautiful drive! We went up through Monte Cristo and home through Logan canyon and both drives were just gorgeous!

We set up shade on the beach and dad brought four wheelers, so we could easily run back up to the cabin to use the bathroom. Other than that, we were on the beach all day! The kids could not have been happier playing in the sand and water. The water is so shallow for quite a while. We let the kids go out to the second buoy- which was quite far out that- and they were still only waist deep on Chase.

Lila and Rose mostly played in the sand, although Lila did brave the water a few times. Davis ran and ran and ran into the water over and over again. In fact, I don’t think he stopped moving the whole time we were there. Including while eating his lunch, he just kept walking around with his sandwich in one hand. He’s been praying to go to the beach for a whole year, so happy we could make this happen for him.

Hudson dug this humongous hole and thought it was hilarious. He enjoyed the water too. Ben grabbed a boogie board from his parents house and we loved having it even though there aren’t waves big enough to really use it on. Hudson and Chase would put the smaller kids on it and pull them around in the water, delighting everyone.

The water was so beautiful and blue, so was the sky. It was a really delightful day. Also, this picture below made me laugh because Kate had been photographing the baby girls and went to take a picture of Hudson and Nora together, and the baby girls ran and hopped right into it. We take so many pictures of them and they know how cute they are. I think they assume we want them in all photos. 

We stopped for burgers and raspberry shakes on the way home in Garden City, then drove home through Logan Canyon for another beautiful drive. We were all sandy and exhausted and so happy. This may have been my favorite day of the whole summer! 

Out of the Mouth of Davis

 Opening a hamburger: This is AWESOME!

Davis: Mom can we please go to Disneyland tomorrow?

Me: No buddy, we have to save up money first.

Davis: No! No mom! Don’t say those words. They hurt people’s feelings!

Dad says I can play on the google. But…don’t talk to him about it, okay?

After hitting the diving board in a back flip attempt gone wrong “That was just a very, very bad trick!”

Every morning he asks me “What are we having for dinner tonight?” Pretty much right away, first thing out of his mouth. And then he’s mad if the answer isn’t pizza. He proceeds to ask me the same question about 5 more times every day. And then “Then what’s for dinner tomorrow?”

I was helping Davis put on his jeans (skinny jeans) after swimming one day, and it was difficult to put on jeans and a still damp, wiggly child. He looked at me, with a totally sweet face and said, “Jesus Christ wants you to help me. Right mom? Jesus Christ wants moms and dads to help their kids put on jeans.”

After family prayer one night, he said with a furrowed brow as if really contemplating “So, God made our whole world right? So….he wouldn’t send aliens to destroy it? So…..we don’t need the autobots right?”

He got stung by a bee, which was so sad. As he was crying in my arms he kept saying “That was a bad, bad bee! That was a meanie bee! I was just trying to shoo it!”

He’s really into tattling on Lila. I hear frequently “Lila said soap words!” (What he calls bad words that equals him getting soap in his mouth, mostly hate or stupid) or “Lila is being rude-y”

He can’t wait for school to start. After buying school shirts he asked if he could start TOMORROW. I explained it was about a month away. He looked at me with a straight face and his wide open eyes and said, “So….Tomorrow?”

I was trying to get him to bed and he said he couldn’t go “because my tummy is feeling real showy!” When I asked for clarification he told me “My tummy just needs a show so it can be happy.”

June

 

I love June! The beginning of summer where everything is so exciting and we are just loving the warm weather and the freedom that summer break gives us! We started off our summer fast and furious. We have been playing all summer and have had so much fun! It’s been full of lots of swimming, playing with friends, spending time outside, and just hanging out together!

One of the sweetest parts of our summer have been our cousin swim days. We always look forward to our Saturday swim night we’ve been doing for years at my parents house. This year Kate and I decide that Wednesday would also be cousin swim morning. We pack a lunch and hang out at the pool all morning together. We’ve also included the Newbolds, which has been so fun (and also sad since they are moving far away later this summer!). Lila and Rose have really bonded this summer. They are the sweetest together and their friendship is reaching new heights! We’ve all been gushing over how cute these two are together this summer!

Chase had a great baseball season! Ben signed up to be his coach and they had so much fun together. Their team didn’t win very many games, but it didn’t seem to matter. The boys all had so much fun together and they all learned so much! After they lost in the first round of the tournament, we had all the boys over for a swim party later that week. It made me so happy to see this group of boys having an absolute ball in the pool together! It didn’t matter anymore that they didn’t win. Sign of a successful season for sure!

Hudson’s creativity never ceases to amaze me. He got this frame randomly from school because his teacher was getting rid of it. He’s been filling it with important things to him. He also has not stopped talking about technology all summer. Specifically, which technology he would like to invent in the future. Mostly features he’d add to phones, tablets and computers. Look out world, this kid has some ideas!

I’ve spent so much time at the pool with my kids this summer and I regret none of it! I decided not to teach swim lessons this summer and I’m so glad. It’s been nice to just soak in my kids. Lila is good for about 45 minutes in the pool and then she mostly wants to sit poolside and snack. I have to be wherever she is- if she’s in, than I am too.  If she’s out, I am too. And it’s always a plus if I can get her to sit poolside wearing SOMETHING. She loves to just be naked after swimming for a good hour.

Davis found this little rolie polie the other day and he was so cute with it. Let’s face it, I think everything this charming child does is so cute. He’s just the best. 

This was a Sunday evening we spent in the backyard. We are having our deck rebuilt this summer, which has made a huge mess of our yard. But we are having fun seeing it come together and dreaming and planning about other things we’d like to still do back there!

We went to Salt Lake one night to see the Hickman’s perform a fun Disney concert at a park downtown. It was mostly the adults, but they put their kids in a few songs and my kids were so excited to support their buddy Will! The kids all loved the concert, and I have to admit I was smiling ear to ear watching them. Our friends are so talented! 

I’m actually enjoying having all the kids home for lunch! Chase likes to play with a friend as soon as his jobs are done and he hops on his bike to go find one right away. But he knows he has to be home at 12:30 for lunch and it’s been fun to be together in the middle of the day. Also, how is Lila this gorgeous even with a face smeared with yogurt?!

The big kids are officially babysitting for us! On my birthday, my mom took me shopping and to lunch. Chase and Hudson watched the littles for three hours and did great! I’m loving the freedom! We haven’t left them to babysit after bedtime yet, but during the day they can handle it for a few hours.

Davis graduated from Upstart! I do love this program. Even though Davis didn’t love doing it most of the time, it really did teach him a lot! He’ll be going into kindergarten knowing all his sounds and letters and is beginning to read! 

Davis has been having “nightmares” (I’m not sure if he really is, or if he just wakes up and wants to join us). He used to climb into our bed but we’ve settled pretty well into a bed on the floor. In fact, now I set a blanket and pillow on the floor next to me and most nights he ends up there. 

Another Saturday swim night where we had so much fun as a family, and only took pictures of the baby girls. These girls love to “play rocks” which mostly means climbing up and down the stairs and collecting tiny rocks along the way. 

We had a free night in a Marriott hotel expiring at the end of the month. So we made the last minute decision for Ben and the boys to go on a little getaway! Davis especially was so stoked, that kid LOVES a hotel! Ben was able to leave work early on a Tuesday and took the boys to the planetarium, out to dinner, swimming at the hotel pool and then watched a Transformers movie in the hotel. In the morning they stopped at the best donut place for breakfast before heading back home. I’m glad he got the chance to do this with the boys. They loved their little boys night! (Lila and I stayed home, played with Rosie at Nana’s, went out to ice cream and I’m not sure she even knew she got left behind!)

That was June! What a great month!