Rocks, Pie, Watermelon

Uncle Jon Erik sent the boys rocks from Afghanistan!  He emailed me to let me know he was sending them rocks, and I thought he meant he'd gone for a hike in the mountains and picked up some rocks along the way.  Nope!  These were amazing, polished, shiny rocks and crystals!  The boys took turns opening one rock at a time.  

Max finding his treasures.

Pace being so serious.

we  hosted a Neighborhood Pie Nite that was a pretty fun success!  We invited a bunch of neighbors over, everyone had to bring their favorite pie/pie topping, and we ate pie, chatted, and the kids played Pie Face (a fun game where you may or may not get splatted with whipped cream in the face), and had a pie eating contest.  So much fun!

It was actually only 90 degrees the other day a friend and I went running together!  It felt really great, compared to the 100+ degree weather we've been having!  The kids loved their watermelon snack and stopping at the playground to play before heading home.  The big kids rode their bikes and the little kids rode in joggers.  

Yup, That's a Golf Club in my Gas Tank

Busy day of running errands, picking up a lot of materials to work on the yard, and I'm driving on my last stop, to go from one nursery to another, to try and find two shade plants we wanted.  There was some debris in the road, and I thought it would be better if I went over top of it instead of driving on it with my tires.  That was the wrong choice.  The debris made a thump on my car, and based on the noise I thought I'd gotten a flat tire.  I pulled into the nursery and checked out the tires, expecting to see a flat, but they were both just fine.  Then Pace pointed out under the car and said, "Mommy, what's that?"  I looked and saw a golf club sticking out of a tank with a clear substance water-falling down and making a huge puddle under the car.  I thought maybe it was water from the air conditioner thing, and stuck my finger under the gushing liquid, and smelled it, discovering it was gasoline.  I quickly shuttled both boys over to a shaded area about 50 feet or so away from the car and called the insurance.  Knowing we'd be needing a rental, at least, I needed to brave going back to the car, getting the car seats out, and not exploding.  It took some time, but the insurance got everything straightened out, the tow truck came, and the rental came to pick us up.  We had to transfer all the stuff from our car to the rental car, and then we went out for lunch and headed home.  What a long day!

And then, a week later, the very same day I got my car back from the shop, David's went in.  He was driving home from a work in a thunderstorm and a huge microburst went across I-15.  A huge construction sign flew off its hinges and flew right at David, driving 75mph.  It ducked last minute and instead of flying through the windshield, it hit the bottom right headlight and bumper.  Then flew under the car and exploded behind him.  "Exploded?"  Yup, exploded.

Bits and Pieces

Pace made roller skates for Max's horse.

The boys love playing with goggles outside of water, practicing their jumps, bubble blowing, and carpet-swimming

We've instituted a chore chart at home, and we're practicing for two weeks before I'll start paying them an allowance.  There are a potential 66 boxes on the chart to check off in a week, and if they get 55 check marks, they get 50 whole cents!  

Land Lubbers

This was the summer to throw my little land lubbers into the pool for swim lessons.  They actually touched water this year and didn't try to climb out like cats, so I got them floats and signed them up for a week-long Beginner Swim Lesson Course.  Pace was into the lessons, and Max cried nearly every day, but we stuck with it, and I coached Max every day telling him we could do hard things.  He still cried, but at least we got him blowing bubbles by the week's end!  And Pace turned into a little fish!