August (end of) Summer Activities

This summer FLEW by. I know, I know people say that all the time - but this summer really felt like it was only getting started and then suddenly it was over. The combination of June being filled with cloudy days/sickness and July being filled with preparing for our two big events(Grandma's Birthday Celebration and the Temple Celebration) made for a different-feeling summer. It was a little slower, a little more home-centered. It was nice, but I needed another solid month of summer before school started! Unfortunately, the world's calendar doesn't revolve around my personal wishes, so we squeezed as much summer as we could into the first two weeks of August and now we are saying goodbye to summer. Hopefully we will still be able to enjoy the warm weather, but it is a little different once our school responsibilities start. 

Manilla Pond

We didn't get as much kayaking done as I had hoped this summer, so we made sure to go one last time. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. The sun was shining, we went with friends and they made elaborate creations in the sand and played really well together, I sat by my friend and we visited for hours. 

It was such a nice afternoon and was really filling up my summer bucket. At one point we saw a news anchor and camera walking around filming some things, and thought that maybe they were doing a news piece about different local pond/lakes. But no - after we got home and looked it up we realized they were doing a piece about THE ECOLI IN THE WATER (and the poor sinage). I felt so foolish. Here we were, having the best day ever, and the whole time our kids were swimming in contaminated water - popping in and out, eating snacks with their wet hands, etc... We have to agree that the sinage was poor because neither of us saw any of the signs (that were posted as 8.5x11 on the back of the signs when you come in). We are definitely in the video clip that they put online and the article says things like, 

"Manila Creek Pond is now one of two ponds in the area not safe to swim in, yet families are still flocking there for summer fun unaware of the dangers. That's because the few signs posted are in hard-to-see spots that most people are passing by without seeing." and "Many parents also had snacks sitting out in their picnic areas, ready for when the kids took breaks in the shade." 

 

I felt foolish, but thankfully none of us got sick. I'm still so grateful for that beautiful day in the sunshine, and extra grateful that our bodies were protected from the illness. Ecoli has been a hard thing this summer, contaminating our irrigation water (used for our lawn and our garden) and contaminating our favorite kayaking spot (Highland glen-which is one reason why we didn't go much this summer). But it has also made us grateful for clean water and the blessing it is to us regularly. 


Primary Ice Cream Truck

Our Primary is so fun, and they do an excellent job at hosting fun activities for the kids and making them feel welcomed and loved. 



Garden

Our sad little garden. After all of our hard work this spring, our garden barely grew at all. The seeds sprouted and haven't grown much since then. The plants haven't died, they just haven't grown, and they haven't produced a single thing - other than our strawberries, which we planted as full plants and have gotten a whole handful of strawberries from. I think something must be a little off with the soil. Even though the garden didn't produce a whole lot, we have loved having it finished (or almost finished). It's such a pretty little spot and next year we will be able to give more attention to helping our things grow. 

*Update: after I took these pictures in August, the garden took off! Within one week, the plants were huge and I had three zucchini, a handful of tomatoes, and two honeydew on the vine. The plants stayed the same size for almost two months, then just started producing like crazy! I feel like we got a bountiful harvest after all, yay!


Swimming with Grandma and Grandpa Peaden

I mentioned to Cal and Sue how much my kids were loving the pool this summer and they said that they would like to come with us one day. We made an event out of it and invited Jacob and Aubrey to come with us, too. Sue stayed in the shade to watch, but Cal came in his swimsuit and swam with the kids for a while. We had a great time together. 






Zachary's Birthday Party

We drove out to West Valley to celebrate Zachary's birthday with him. I haven't blogged much about Michael, Melissa, and Zachary- because mostly it's not our story to tell. But they have had a really rough life over the past 15 years that I have known them. Through all the circumstances, Melissa and I have developed a true friendship and I have appreciated all she has done to keep Zachary connected to us and the Peaden Family. Michael and Melissa got divorced earlier this year, but she still invited us all to his party. Cal, Sue, Amy, Lydia, and I were able to come and it was a nice day celebrating Zachary and we were grateful to be included, and glad we were able to show our love and support. 


End of Summer Library Pool Party

 And now the end, our last summer hurrah! We went as a family to the Lehi Outdoor Pool with the tickets that we earned from doing the summer reading program at the library. This is another of our favorite summer traditions and it was fun to have all the kids old enough to really, really enjoy it (and that all 6 of us were able to come together). Yay summer! 

This summer may have been a little slower than a typical summer might be, but in a lot of ways it was more fun and more free. Our kids are getting older and that brings changes in our schedule and our activities - but I am loving this stage with my family. I love the ages of each of my kids. I love having an 11 year old as the oldest. I love having a 4 year old as the youngest. I love how well they love each other and how we don't need any other people to adventure with (although we often have them), because these kids just love being together, too. It has been a good summer for us, and although we wish we had a few more weeks - time stops for no summer-loving-family. Onward we go! 

July Summer Activities

June was so rainy, that once July hit - it was as if summer was finally here. Even so, it's been a busy month. David was out of town 3 of the 4 weeks in July and I've been prepping for two big events (Grandma's 90th and a Temple Celebration). Even so, we had some fun summer things going on - and it was a good month. Slower than usual, maybe, but nice. 

Here are a few highlights: 

-Our kids have really been enjoying slurpees at 7-11 this summer. They saved some of our family money to buy slurpees.  (have we talked about family money/buckets on the blog yet? If we haven't - it's a slight adjustment to our family economy system and it's really working for us right now.) However, we realized that the day we had picked to go with David to get them just happened to be July 11. You know, 7/11. Free Slurpee Day. So that worked well for us! We saved our money and got slurpees and came home and at them on the porch. Joy. Pictured below is one of the funniest things that our kids do. It's called "A taste for a taste." It's when you share what you have at the same moment that they share with you. The kids do this with lots of different things and it's equal parts gross and sweet. 

-Lucy still loves chickens and we decided to go to the farm to see the chickens and other animals. It was a success. 

-Lucy and Sadie are the most darling friends right now. For a long time Sadie and Caleb were the best of buddies, but it's fun to see Lucy getting old enough to be the playmate for Sade. #cousinsmakethebestfriends



-We hit up the pool several times, both our neighborhood pool and also the Provo Rec Center (another activity the kids chose to spend our family money on). Summer at it's finest. 

-I took the boys to the Classic Fun Center in Sandy. They had a great time and I was able to work on some things on my computer while they played. Jenna had Lucy with her in Perry, and Lydia was in Wyoming helping my Dad with haying, so it was just me and the boys. Lest this picture look like we were having too much fun, the only reason that we were there is because our van was getting repaired at a nearby shop. What was supposed to be a 2-3 hour fix took 6 hours, and ended up costing over $1,000 and didn't fix the problem. So it was a painful car-repair-day. But at least we were at the fun center instead of sitting in their waiting room. 

We celebrated my Grandma's 90th birthday, and as part of those celebrations we went on a sunrise hike up the M. I try to hike the M at least once a year and I'm glad we squeezed it into this summer. We woke up early and made it to the top as the sun was rising over the east mountains. It was beautiful although I'm always surprised at what a steep hike the M is. It was a small group: Jenna, Melissa, Lydia, David, and I. It was perfect though.  (More details about Grandma's 90th Celebration in a separate post, but I wanted to post all of these hike pictures without taking away from the Grandma pictures.)