Something I have been really grateful that I started was our temple trips. I think they not only give my children added strength from being in the house of the Lord but I feel like there are people on the other side of the veil helping me through this sometimes crazy life. I think my kids are going to need that added strength even more than I have.
This summer we have done a lot of cooking in the kitchen, I love to see how well some of them are getting at making things.
Michael and I had a little get away to San Antonio to go pick up Alden from his week of Cyber security camp. We had to pick him up Saturday morning so we decided to go Friday evening. We first went to the temple and then went to the riverwalk, rode the boat tour and got some ice cream. We then walked back to our bed and breakfast right there on the riverwalk. In the morning we had a nice breakfast, she even made me my own gluten free one. It was lovely to have some time like that together.
One of our morning projects was cleaning up the front and trimming these grasses. We love them but sometimes they get so big that they start taking up most of the walkway. The kids liked climbing in them pretending to make a place to sleep.
Above was Calvin and my trip to Home Depot where we bought a bunch of boards for him to finish building the second story of the shed. I asked the kids about picking their own project and that is what he wanted to do so we went and got the wood for it. Below is my two little swimmers, they swim every day for long periods of time. Especially Roslyn loves to swim and can spend hours upon hours in the pool.
Above was us playing the great dowmudy...I really don't know how to spell it. It was a Sunday afternoon when Michael was gone because he had taken Alden to Cyber security camp so I joined in on the weekly Sunday afternoon game, it made me think how I should join in more often. I am not a big game player but I do love being with my family and doing things with them so I think it will be something I join in more often...maybe not on the long intense games but these nice short ones.
Below someone from our ward made us this beautiful flag garland to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. It was very nice of her. It is beautiful.
One random day I hadn't seen the girls for a bit but came in to find a very clean room. They even went through toys in their closets and found ones that they no longer use and gave them to me to donate. I was especially impressed with Roslyn's bed which looked amazing. I had told her I wanted to get her picture with it...which made Maebryn sad, so I definitely had to get a picture of our sweet Maebryn.
I finally remembered to get a picture of the boys with their rabbits. It's been fun, sometimes when we watch a movie upstairs we will get the bunnies out and just have them snuggle with us all as we watch the movie.
Above Maebryn was doing a funny dance and said, "take a picture of me" below is Roslyn I found one day outside reading a book. She has read a number of books this summer, she seems to fly through them. I think this one might have been "The Little Princess".
We had a week of summer camp which I think the kids enjoyed especially Maebryn really enjoyed it.
These are good friends of ours and it was such a joy to see them be baptized and to be there with them.
We have missed a number of Calvin's track practices and there was one up in Fort Worth that I was determined that we were going to get to, we went but never found any of his teammates. We are not sure if we had the location off or what happened but I did get to take everyone to the Water Garden's which I think was neat for them to be able to see.
Once a week I try to do something fun with the kids. This week we used the kids bowl free coupons and went bowling. Everyone did great. I did end up having to have us leave a little early as Amanda had called and I went to go meet the new Spanish teacher but it worked out because Calvin had a lesson coming that I had forgotten about.
We are back to our regular summer days of a work project in the morning, then we go for a swim and then we spend the afternoon getting things done inside and usually watching a movie at some point. We have been putting up a rock wall on the side of the slide, it's been quite the project but we are close to getting it all done.
I totally forgot to get a picture of the rabbits the day we got them which was the Monday after we got back. July 6th. They are both very cute little cuddly ones. I had this picture because I needed to make sure that I got the correct food.
Maebryn got into the spa that the cousins did while we were at the reunion so she tried to re-create it for me. I really am spoiled by all of my children but the girls have really been spoiling me lately with cards on my bed almost nightly and massages and praise. I don't know what I would do without them.
The fourth of July at our house the very next day! We left Utah July 3rd in the afternoon and were able to make it home by about 11:00. Alden, Michael and I took turns driving through the night. It actually worked out really well. Yes maybe we were a little more tired but we were able to have the next day to relax and to sleep. It was a great trip but as always we were glad to be home.
This was a wonderful experience. We had lots of cousins all together doing baptisms at the temple. This was the last thing we did before we started our drive home.
Roslyn and Maebryn love their older cousins, they look forward to every time that they get to be with them.
You can't go to Bear Lake without picking up a raspberry shake. We went to both la beaus and the hometown place next door, both were great!
Our traditional game of let's make a deal. I used to think this was the craziest thing. In my opinion they were getting something for nothing, I really didn't like it and it just seemed strange, but now I find that it is something the kids really look forward to and I like that it gives them some one on one time with one of their uncles, so I am all for it now.
This is at night watching the rest of the variety show. It was fun to see all that everyone was doing.
The beginning of July we were still at the reunion. We enjoyed spending a day at Bear Lake where we got to try out the jet skies and ride on the boat. We also had a pretty amazing talent show.
