July

Rocket (the one that thinks he's a dog) has some great little shenanigans up his sleeve.  I was folding laundry one day and had to stop to capture him playing with a toy through the door.  He couldn't reach it at first, so he came out from behind the door, pushed it a little closer, then went back behind the door and pulled it through, and ran off with it in his chops.  Keo (the fat one) was happy to sit and watch. 

Running this summer has been a little tricky and very inconsistent, and I haven't run .  I've never had issues in the past--I'm really self-disciplined and stick to my own schedule once I set it--but this summer it's been a combination of factors.  First: Pace is on a bike, and is a speed demon.  If it were just him and me, it'd be fantastic, and I'd be pushed to my limit trying to keep up with him.  But, there are two other kiddos...Max, who is on his balance bike, or being pushed in the stroller (both options which are very slow), and Kayla, on her razor scooter (who is even slower than Max, if you can believe it).  This is the one day I made him ride his bike.  We made it halfway around the park and he just stopped, crying, "I'm reawwy, reawwy tired; I reawwy am!" 

Second: David is training for HooDoo 300, which means Saturdays are his.  For 7+ hour bikes rides.  Which means I'm not doing long runs, no trail runs...Third: I'm in grad school.  And the RS presidency.  And managing kids on summer break.  And David working 50+ hour weeks this month.  It didn't hit me until I was out on a little run the other day that I am simply burned out.  I have too many #1 priorities...it'll be nice to have some plates disappear in the next few weeks when the boys go back to school.

The fourth of July festivities involved cookie making and two cul-de-sac parties with fireworks. 

My current summer class is a lot more manageable than my last summer class; I can get through my work by Thursday, and so we've turned Friday into our play day.  We've been hitting up the pool Friday afternoons.  The boys are getting braver and happier in the water this year!--Pace even jumping off the side of the pool at me, and then on his own!

Chick-Fila day and 7-11 day are cause to take a break from studying and get lunch!  We picked up lunch, ate at the park, played, then cooled off with slurpees.

Another Friday we hiked up to the grotto with a friend.  It was a super busy trial that morning!  We were done pretty early, so we thought we'd try another adventure after dropping my friend off.  We went to check out Utah lake, but thanks to David's warning about the toxic algal bloom, quickly left and scrubbed feet, shoes, and hands. 

The boys had been asking all week to talk more about baptism, so we planned this Family Night lesson and used the baptism covenant game Bishka sent us.  The boys loved it!

One week the kiddos did a sports camp in the mornings.  Football, Baseball, Basketball, and a water party at the end.

Just because some days are super hero days.

David rode two bike events, a 100 miler and a 150 miler, two weekends apart.  He's doing great!

And then work turned into peak.  David had about two straight weeks of working until 10-1030pm.  Multiple factors on this one:  new center manager, corporate numskulls, bad pre-load management (some morning the trucks weren't finished being loaded and the drivers didn't leave until 10 or 1030, bad for the 1030 air commit time), amazon prime day...Boo.

I had to remember this one:  Max asked me to make him a nutella sandwich snack.  I was finishing up reading a chapter, or something, and he came walking in saying, "Mommy?  Are you making my snack?"  "Yup, getting there."  "Well, it doesn't look like it."  Cutie.  Demanding, but a cutie.

Aside from work, school, entertaining kids, and trying to run, I've finished up our work in the front of the house.  Hydrangeas (limelight, pinkie winkie, and ruby slipper--that one's blossoms are finally starting to change!), lilacs, hostas, weeping pussy willow trees, royal petticoat maples, strawberries, replacing a maple someone ran over in our cup-de-sac, rock and pea gravel areas under the hoses, etc.  

The annual Fiesta Days festivities:  the childrens parade, festival in the library field, carnival at night. I love that the boys say this is our tradition, "We do the parade every year!" Pace said.  This year Max wanted to try out the hamster bubbles.  I was shocked he wanted to try it, and we just had to see what it was all about!  They were ok until the worker started spinning them around in their bubbles.  Max started screaming (although we couldn't hear him), so we asked the workers to get him out; Pace hung out a little longer.

Max freaking out one morning when I asked him to clear his plate.  We'll laugh about this one day.  Max also finished his summer workbook!

Lots of sword and ninja practice going on this summer...

Swim lessons!  Pace has just blossomed this summer!  His personality is shining through--he spends his time practicing holding his breath under water, submerging his entire face, blowing bubbles, etc.  When we played at the pool last week, he spent his time jumping off the side of the pool, first little hops with me holding his hands, and eventually worked up to jumping off all by himself.  Max didn't scream once this year during lessons!  He tried and did everything the teachers asked, and practiced every skill they did during each lesson.  Smiles every day!

We finished up July going an adventure scavenger hunt!  Good friends of ours joined us on Questival exploring Salt Lake and Utah Counties, checking off adventures.  Questival sent out a list of nearly 400 adventures, and we officially finished 150-something adventures and accrued 460-something points.  Not enough to win anything (how in the world did some teams accrue 800+ points??!!), but a great way to hang out with good friends and get some fun adventures in!  Some highlights:  finding cool street art, the world's first KFC, do-gooding, llama-ing, yoga-ing, centipede-push-upping (what?!), telephone boothing, freaking out on a glass elevator, and having so many good laughs...the best was laughing when the realization hit us that we were all 15-20 years older than the other 700+ teams participating...haha!

I got a hole in one on this one!