Hopping in the Heat

Many parents worry how everyone will cope with summer vacation-it just seems so long. But, the fact of the matter is, it flies by every year.  We are getting the back to school emails, and running around this way and that with activities, there have been very few boring times around these parts! 

Right after we returned from Yellowstone, Katelee and I got to see Newsies!  Paige and my mom joined us and it was pretty much the greatest thing ever! 

Katelee played on a volleyball team for the first time, and apparently has fallen in love with that.  So, for now, she is quitting diving and moving on to team sports.  No pictures of her grass volleyball team-but I will take some in the fall.  We arranged to have a cousin swap this summer-our girls would stay down in Arizona with their cousin Karly and we would have her brother, Max, here to hang out with Grant. The kids were so excited to do this, and I dare say it lived up to their dreams-except Max got sick and ended up in the Instacare with strep throat.  Before the strep hit, we did do some fun things.  They went to Seven Peaks and got burned to a crisp, we went to Snowbird, to the Salt Lake Arts Festival-

where we channeled our inner artists,

did crafts, and partied!

Dave took Grant and Max to the air show at the air force base that is 45 min away from us.  The traffic was so crazy, they were in the car for 3 1/2 hrs before they parked, but they said it was awesome.  

The girls tried to not melt on the surface of the sun aka Arizona.  They were in heaven with Karly having a pool in backyard.  It was a full week of swim, swim, swim.  

We have had some water time at home this summer, as well.  Brenna did swimming lessons, we just went to Cowabunga Bay last night.

We've hit the splash park, and our community pool with the fun aquaballs...

When we went a couple of weeks ago, we were driving home and Brenna turned to Grant's friend and said, "My dad is so strong, he is not squishy at all."  Then, she went on to say, "My sister is a little more squishy than me, but my mom she is the QUEEN of squishy." Bwahaha!  Guess mom in a swimsuit is pretty much the queen of squishy on display!  Dad, on the other hand, is holding up nicely as you can see from his birthday pic from last month...

Right after Dave's was the 4th of July.  Our silly city decided to do fireworks on the Saturday before the holiday-bug.  But, we got an extra day to celebrate, I guess.  We had a festive meal and then went to the park for the firework display.  Once the terrible band finished, we had a great time.  It's so fun to go with little kids and see their reactions.  Harrison was hilarious.  

He kept yelling, "DANG!"  "Oh my gosh!" The actual 4th of July, we went to our street's annual pancake breakfast, where Dave busted out his signature dance moves.  

We went to dinner at Amy's 

and made it back to our neighborhood for quite the street displays.  People went all out.  Way to celebrate America! 

The kids have been busy playing-night games are a regular occurrence and a summer necessity.  Grant has been volunteering at the special needs school a couple of the weeks and really enjoyed that.  Katelee had a week long theatre camp at Hale Center Theatre and once the tears stopped about the early wake up calls, she was in heaven.  

We've gone to movies and museums.  We love the children's museum downtown.  We spent nearly 4 hours there.  Harry was obsessed with the helicopter.  I can't blame him.  It's spiffy.  He is all about superheroes these days.  Although, Star Wars still has a small piece of his heart, as he displays his choke hold on a regular basis.  He uses the force to choke us and when we do it in return, he grabs his neck, struggles for air and falls over dead.  It is so funny.  

Other yearly events we always look forward to are the community health fair with the best face painting in town...

and the 24th of July float preview party.  We got to go with Grandma, Grandpa, Paige, Jason, Caleb and Grace.  

Grant has had a couple of camp outs and he got to go on a date with Dave to the shooting range.  I dare say it was the best day of his life.  

The boys got out of the house while the girls celebrated Paige and baby boy Sohm who will be here in less than 2 months! 

Shannon did a spectacular job with the decorating and the wild animal/jungle theme.  We had a lot of fun putting it together. 

Katelee won the baby food tasting game, not too shocking when one of the other players (Emmalee) guesses banana cucumber as a flavor! 

 We all are anxiously anticipating this baby's arrival-even Harrison talks about asking Paige to hold her baby.  Brenna just jolts Paige's stomach, so that will be nice when she doesn't assault a pregnant person anymore.  

Last weekend, Dave and I went to the Piano Guys with Amy, Mark and Lauren.  It was phenomenal!   

Memories in the making going on over here!  I sometimes reflect as my kids are all gathered outside, barefoot, riding carelessly (and dangerously) around the hood and I think of how they will remember their childhood.  How they will look back at their summers and activities.  I know I am living the days I will miss.  I can feel (even with the tantrums and lack of sleep and sunburns and arguing and sleep deprivation from late nights) that these are the  best days.  Hopefully I still feel that way in about 4 weeks when summer is officially over! 

Experiences with a Super Volcano

While that title may suggest I am going to do an entire post about our terrible two year old (or our sassy pants 6 year old), it actually a travel report of our vacation to Yellowstone!  Just a couple days after school wrapped up, we packed up our car and headed to Jackson Hole.  

We always have a bit of reservations taking road trips with Miss B, who asks how long it is going to take us to get to any destination we have to go to-the grocery store, the library, school etc.  So, spending hours in the car was a bit daunting, but everyone survived.  Can I say how grateful I am for modern technology? Ipads for the win! We did feel a bit out of place sneaking into a church in our grubbies to use the bathroom, but that was necessary to prevent a toddler accident!

We stayed in a really nice hotel that was larger than our townhome we used to live in.  Pretty spoiled.  We felt pretty fancy.  We loved walking around the city, running through their main park, going to dinner and enjoying the sights.  

The next day, we went to Jenny Lake.  We took the ferry across and Harrison talked about 'the green boat' for the duration of the trip...apparently a highlight.  

The Tetons are gorgeous!  We did an easy and fabulous hike to Hidden Falls

and since we had plenty of time, we thought we'd try another short-ish hike.  Well, turned out it was a bit more than we were prepared for, but still we conquered.  Harrison became dead weight as he fell asleep in our arms, the kids (one small girl) in particular may have thought we were torturing her with the walking, but we survived.  

The next morning, we took our small circus to Yellowstone.  Chris and Co. were having a vacation in Yellowstone the same week, so we met up the first day at none other but Old Faithful.  All of us were impressed with the geysers and hot pots and that smell is just something you can't replicate!

One of the prettiest sites in Yellowstone is the Grand Prismatic Spring.  The colors are amazing! 

After we separated from the Petrick bunch, we went to dinner and drove around the lake to our hotel.  The Yellowstone hotel had buffalo wandering all over, sat on the edge of the calm water, and NO tv or wifi!  This caused a mild heart attack for certain members of the family.  But, we ended up loving it.  We played games and walked around.  It was camping in a nice hot room with a bathroom and shower.  

The next day we really explored everything we could.  There was a sad situation with someone passing away at Norris Geyser Basin the previous day, so we had an interesting perspective as we walked around observing the thermal area.

 

 We met up with the extended familia again and Dave loved hearing about how great their cabin was compared with our hotel!  ha ha!  Dave entertained everyone with plank challenges.

We traveled to the Canyon area to view the falls.  Seriously, this part of the world is breathtaking

We finished up our time with Chris and Leslee and family in Mammoth.   We walked up the terrace ourselves after we said goodbye.  

It's nice to have big kid helpers and it's the best when siblings are kind to each other.  I have to document the momentous occasions...

 We went to some hot pots and mud pots after Mammoth and finished up the West Thumb area the following morning.  It had been a good 18 years or so since I had visited Yellowstone and it is so incredible. It is just a place like no other in the world.   Dave and the kids loved their first visit, well, all except the smell!

We saw lots of wildlife, but no bears in their natural habitat, so we cheated and stopped at Bear World in Idaho on the long drive home.  It is pretty unreal to just drive the little path and have bears walking along your car.  Some bears were dancing (must have been circus performers before!), some rolling around, lots sleeping.  Our trip was overall, fantabulous and we hope these little critters of ours remember our time in the wild!

Another Year in the Books

And just like that our school year is over!  Grant not only finished up his 5th grade year, but his entire elementary school career.  I try not to think about it.  He is a growing pre-teen boy!  He has his first job cutting our neighbor's grass...

 He is loving this responsibility and he gets a little side kick assistance.  Really, he gets more than one.  Dave is helping him with the edging, but Grant is the head honcho on this project.  Not only has Grant entered the work force recently, he has gone from this...

to this...

Phase one of braces complete!  Bring on the popcorn!  Of course the winding down days of the school year was full of excitement. There was the school carnival, where I had a ball watching our two big kids play bubble soccer.  

My favorite was when they would bounce off other players and flip upside down.  I think I need to invest in this for my own benefit.  It looks fantastic.  There was "laser tag" and a couple of inflatables, but the kids were not so impressed with the carnival this year.  Good thing field day did not disappoint.  I helped at the school, but didn't snap a pic of the inflatable water slides, water balloons, games, just dance, party galore.  It is my favorite day to drop the kids off because they are welcomed to the school with teachers on the roof of the school chucking marshmallows at the incoming students.  Another idea I should incorporate at home!

Katelee was awarded High Honor Roll and Grant Honor Roll and both of them had glowing reviews from their teachers.  We definitely lucked out with teachers this year.  Miss Spence was Katelee's kinder teacher, so we were thrilled when Brenna got her too!  She is the best!  

 I can't believe Brenna is a kindergarten graduate! 

She passed with flying colors, there was no question, of course!  I'm going to pretend like first grade isn't happening soon.  It causes a pit to grow in my stomach.  Brenna had school all day Tuesday, all day Thursdays and every other Friday.  She is a smart cookie full of life! 

Just before school got out was Memorial Day.  Why we go back to school after Memorial Day is unfortunate, but that is the case.  We had our annual breakfast at the park.  It was great weather this year and really fun to have Rachel back from her mission!! We welcomed her at the airport a few weeks ago and were able to witness Emmalee falling into her arms in sobbing heaps.  It was great.  

 We had our delicious breakfast, played games where many injuries were incurred (Jason smacked Brenna straight in the face with a soccer ball as he tried to score a kickball home run, Grandma kicked off her shoes and tripped making her toe a swollen bruised mess, Shannon also fell, Katelee had her wrist whipped back in a dangerous Red Rover game.  Good thing boccie ball is safe! 

Other fun May events included our overflowing window well:

 Luckily, we realized our rain gutter was clogged and we didn't need to install a pump.  The rains kept coming and coming and they were there for a freezing last soccer game.  These peeps were troopers...

 Our family went to the Bountiful Food Pantry and put together food kits for kids in need.  We loved it and will definitely return.  You make cards to place in the bags and assemble the packs, the kids really enjoyed it.

 We were able to witness the beautiful balletic moves of this tiny dancer.

 This little lady oozes feeling as she dances.  I can't wait to see her continue with what she loves. Its especially nice because Brenna gets to dance with one of her favorite pals, Kinley.

Tomorrow we leave for Jackson Hole and Yellowstone-a maiden voyage for all but me in our family.  Hence, the quick blog post to update quick before we have another adventure.  Truly everyday is an adventure here.  Every minute we survive the terrible two tantrums, that give the Hulk some serious competition, I feel is a success!  On to summer!  Yeehaw!

Spring Break Surprise

This post is way past due.  I'm not sure how it is May already.  I have no doubt that time is literally flying by.  We are enjoying the beginnings of warm weather-the ups and downs of the temperature that spring in Utah notoriously brings.  While I am no green thumb, I have really enjoyed our flowers this year.  We had a good couple of weeks of full bloom tulips, crocus, hyacinth, daffodils.  So, now my yard can go back to looking pretty dismal for the other 11 months!  A true gardener, tree and flower keeper would have beauty year round, I guess.  

The kids had their annual spring break to kick off this promise of heat with a week off of school.  Dave and I had been planning a little get away for a half of the week, but we kept it under wraps from the kiddos.  We kept trying to throw them by planning potential activities and it totally worked.  I packed the night before our trip, we loaded up the car while they slept and at 6:15 we woke all the littles up.  We didn't tell them where we were going, but had them guess and they were loving the anticipation.  Katelee had a hand me down shirt from a neighbor that said SEA WORLD on it, so I told them there was a clue on Katelee's shirt.  When they saw Sea World, Katelee squealed as did Brenna, followed up with "What is Sea World?"

The highlight of the entire trip for Harrison was riding on an airplane.  He loved both legs.  Nearly everyday of the past month he has talked about going back.  He wants to get on an airplane and go to "San Diego Utah."  He sat in the window seat both ways and marveled at the scenery.  It was so cute.  

Right off the plane in Cali, we got our car and headed for Sea World.  It is the last year of the Shamu show.  Yes, I was slightly morally opposed after watching BlackFish, but it was really neat.  That's a discussion for another day!

We saw the Killer Whale show, the sea lion and otter show.  Harrison totally slept through the orcas, but I didn't feel like his life would be totally ruined enough to wake him.  

Brenna said the shows were so boring while we were there, but since we've been home, her tune has changed.  She just really wanted to ride the rides!  

I guess I didn't realize they had so many rides.  Fun stuff.  

Of course, we were amazed by many of the animals there.  The beluga whales were my favorite.  Some of the animals grossed me out.  I was not alone in my disgust.  I hesitate to swim in open water because sea creatures truthfully give me the willies.  So, the touch aquariums are not places I spend a lot of time.  Sea World has a large area of cleaner fish.  Brenna and I braved their nibbles for a minute (we counted). Dave tried to get Harrison to stick his hand in and you would have thought we were trying to murder the child.  His hand has yet to be touched by those aquatic life! Katelee, Dave and Grant let those little suckers chew away. It was kind of gross.  

The penguins were cute.  We walked in to their habitat and Brenna (not quietly, of course) said, "Mom, whenever I smell your butt.  This is what it smells like."  I guess penguins smell like roses.  Who knew?  Yea, it was slightly embarrassing...but pretty funny.  

The next day we went to the USS Midway museum.  It was really neat.  The kids put on their headsets, answered questions and earned their wings.  

We wandered the air craft carrier, read and learned a lot!  Most of the volunteers had served on the Midway, so it was neat to hear of their time.  We also saw a yacht crash into the dock as we left  That was crazy.  

After lunch, we went to Coronado to the beach. 

 It was a little chilly, but that certainly didn't stop the kids.

Beach days are awesome! Especially when you go straight from the cold water to the hotel pool to warm up!

Our last day we headed to Old Town and the Mormon Battalion Museum.  I wish we would have had time to meander Old Towne, but the Museum was stellar. 

 We panned for gold and had a great time.  

We had the urge to head to the beach for just a bit longer, so we rented a surrey and pedaled around. 

 I felt like we were quite the circus, but a good time and good workout was had by all.  Actually, no, a good workout was had just by the parents!!

On our way to the airport we stopped at the Corvette Diner.  They were out of the gluten free options that we had guranteed Katelee, so it was an emotional meal, until dessert was brought out...

That made up for everything.  

We seriously had the greatest time!!  It was a quick get away, but definitely memorable.  

Pulling off the surprise was really awesome! Seeing the kids happy and making memories is the best!!

It was a short and sweet trip and then back to real life! Grant had a huge capstone project with Providence Hall.  His exhibition was all about celiac disease.  He organized a Fun Run to educate the students at the school about the disease and then did a presentation on exhibition night.  We were so proud!! It was pretty heart warming that he picked celiac. He learned a lot about working with people and what to do when they aren't so reliable! Ha!

Spirit week brought us a couple of rockers.  

And, ADP (well, their wonder rep David McArthur) recruited these little ladies for CPA day. 

We've had lots of soccer, diving, and dance going on.  Grant and I went on a date to Peter and the Star Catcher (which was really fun), but I had to view it in my prescription sunglasses because I forgot my glasses.  My handsome date wasn't even humiliated that I was wearing sunglasses in the dark!  What a great family I have who loves me despite my penguin smell and tendency to wear dark glasses!