August started off with some of our favorite friends passing through!
This fun family lives in Ladera Ranch. They're in our ward and our kids were in classes together for school, but they really bonded over daily bootcamp playdates at the park. Working out outside with a park for kiddos is the most ideal way to do it! Mackayla still does "bootcamp workouts" on occasion.
We chatted with them and got to see their newest addition to their family. Such a good family!
It worked out to have Cody at a basketball camp in our next door neighbors' basketball court. He always feels like the odd man out surrounded by girls. Although, he does pretty good being always surrounded by them - it seems like he perpetually is.
Sewing class:
Enough extra material to make Mackayla a pair too:)
Macey had a activity days girls day at Camp Kiesel. This was perfect since she has always wanted to do girl scouts. She loved it!
We went to the airplane museum at Hill Air Force Base.
The kids all wore their heelies. It stressed some of the volunteers right out, but the kids all did great and only couldn't use them in one room with a grumpy gus. The floors are perfect for those shoes!
This was the ideal activity for Logan. I just love little boys' love of all things with motors at this age, it's one of the my favorite little boy things.
We did swim lessons and quickly realized the kids' are past the "swim lesson" levels of swim. But it's always good to practice lap swimming and it was overall good for them and super cheap, so it was a win. Mackayla got some good learning in, too.
I just laughed at the kids she was with in class, they were all giants next to her!
Macey did a singing class this summer. In her performance she sang "Morning Person" from Shrek the musical and I played an arrangement of "I'm Trying to be like Jesus" she sang to. She was a little nervous before and said she would be fine as long as she didn't have to go first.
Of course, she was first! But to her credit, she didn't complain or whine, just got up and did an amazing job. She was super animated in her broadway song and sang beautifully. I really hope at least one of my kids wants to sing, and really practice and learn. I stink at singing, but it's one of my favorite things ever.
We stuck her hair in "camping hair" and headed to Lava Hot Springs right after her performance.
We went with Luke and Amy's ward. They were all super fun and sweet. The kids spent hours floating down a small section of the river. They would run to the top, float down, hop out and go back. We camped right next to this river. The only hitch was that trains came through at all hours of the night and had to honk at the crossing next to our camping spot, sometimes 15 times in a row. This is not unlike Chinese torture at 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the morning. But, it was all worth it because the trip was super fun!
We spent a day at the water park. I had gone years before and remembered the platform diving boards. Cody and I went off the middle one right as they closed the pool due to lightning, so we didn't make it to the top one. Darn! Next time!
They did a men's tube and a women's tube down the river.
Ben and I tucked our kids in the last night and snuck off to the hot pools in town. They are so much fun!! I would go back in the winter just for those!!
We spent many, many days at Cherry Hill this summer.
One day while Carly was in town we quick ran to Cecret Lake up by Alta Ski Resort.
It's a beautiful hike with wild flowers all over the place, and they were in full bloom.
We actually did run, too. We ran up to meet them at the lake, and then had to run down to get the kids to their next activities (which ironically was a hike for Cody with the scouts).
We were late getting Cody to scouts so decided to meet them at the trail head. We totally couldn't find it and got so turned around and lost in a random neighborhood that I decided to call it a loss and head home. Suddenly we ran right into the scout troop hiking. They had made a wrong turn and come to the place on the trail by where we were driving. It worked!
Lunch for Carly's birthday was a Plates and Palates, and is yummy.
Before school started I took Cody and Macey on a little one on one time. Cody and I decided to go on a hike up Deuel Canyon. It goes to a rope swing and a little waterfall. The swing was quite a hit!
We chatted on our hike. I told Cody this year not to apologize for being good.
I feel like Utah has so much grey and that might be a little confusing coming from outside of Utah. All the members everywhere else we've lived have just naturally stood out. Not that they're better than other people, but just known for being good people. Here, everyone is kind of the same, and if someone is making bad choices, they are usually members. I just wanted him to remember to be who he is and not be ashamed, he is such a genuinely good person!
We decided trail running is the funnest kind of running by far.
We watched the eclipse.
The lighting was different for a couple hours for sure. In the North where the full eclipse was the sky was noticably darker than looking south. It's hard to tell but this is a panoramic of the sky south to north (top to bottom). I'm a little bummed we didn't go to the full eclipse, but hear in 45 years there's another one coming:)
The kids were dying to sleep on the tramp again so we snuck one more sleepover in for the kids (not us:)!)
We got King of the Hill passes for a day at Cherry Hill just to try out some of the other things they have. The kids were pure entertained. I'm glad we just did it the once, it was just enough to be perfectly entertaining for the day.
It's cracks me up that Mackayla always gets her swimsuits on wrong...
Look closely and you'll see a tag sticking out of the bum side of her suit.
"No wonder the waist is so tight". Yep:)
For Macey's one on one date I took her to the Baked Bear at Farmington Station.
She wasn't too sure about it at first (she's a bit of a skeptic) but as soon as she discovered what it was all about she was pretty dang excited. Also a Macey trait: agonizing decision making. I loved watching her deliberate over her choices. Usually when we're with others I rush her along, but I just got to sit and let her go back and forth trying to get the perfect combination.
She was happy with her choice. She was very grateful and pure delightful. I think it's a tad hard for her to be the middle child, so this was a good outing.
Mackayla is usually alone with me during the day, so we'll do something fun one of these days just us, just because!
All good things come to an end, and school starting marked the end of one of the busiest best summers we've had.
Cody and Macey leave at 8:45 and Mackayla goes to school at 12:50 - a late, late start.
Even though they went to school here for two months, this was really like starting a new school for all of us. (Side note, this school severely lacks effective communication. I didn't even know what time Mackayla went to school at first.) As I dropped them off Macey quickly made a friend.
Bright sun:)
The kids all have great teachers, and we hope it's a good year.
Labor day weekend we decided to head to some hot pots we had heard about a fair amount.
They are in the middle of nowhere about 2 1/2 hours away.
It was kind of a spontaneous trip and I'm so glad we went.
There are three pools out in the nowhere land. My favorite was the last pool. There aren't fish in the other ones, but this was the least warm, but still warm, with tons of tiny fish. They nibble on your feet. People pay money to have this done, and I've always wondered if it worked! We stuck our feet in for a really, really long time hoping to exfoliate them to perfection. It really tickles at first and was so much fun!!
I'm so glad we decided to go out there, worth the drive for sure. On our way home we stopped at 180 tacos in Provo for dinner. LOVED it!
One thing I love about living in my parents house:
fresh berries every morning.
Yes, please.
Also, one of the highlights of the summer for me was finishing the Book of Mormon. It took us 2 1/2 years. We kind of worked it out so we all read two verses in order and then Mackayla repeats one verse, and we read about a half to a full chapter depending on their length and our time. Mackayla and I diligently colored in our little chapter squares every time we finished a chapter. It seemed like we would never finish, but we finally did.
My parents were able to baptize their next door neighbor on their mission. That must be such a highlight for them.
They asked me to send them a new set of scriptures for him and I thought it would be a good opportunity for my kids to share their testimony after finishing reading. I snapped a pic before we tucked these little notes in. Of course, they're upside down, but here's documentation anyway.
Such a great month.
September has flown by quickly and cold weather just blasted in from nowhere.
I'm super unprepared for this coldness, but determined to figure out a way to like it.
At the current moment the only thing I can think of is warm drinks and slippers. Ah, Crio Bru, I'm so glad I discovered you.
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