Summer (remember that?)

I have one summer decoration:  wooden blocks spelling out the word "Summer" and it's still out (but then again, so is my valentine decoration). My kids keep telling me that I should put it away since it's not summer anymore. I tell them that summer does not actually end until Sept. 22, the first day of autumn. As long as I am still within that window, I can rationalize posting pictures about summer. So here are some things we did...

The 4th of July:  We had a neighborhood breakfast in the cul-de-sac. Hot, but delicious. That night we went down the street for another neighbor's great fireworks show. Nice to have neighbors that are so festive, since we can never justify spending that much on fireworks. Once it got super dark we sat on our front lawn for a great view of the Thanksgiving Point fireworks show. It was so nice to not have to fight traffic. Next year there will be a house in the way. It's being framed right now. We may have to convince them to let us watch them on their back deck.

The next Saturday we had a ward breakfast where the kids got their faces painted and had a bike parade with their decorated bikes. I did not follow along due to it being super hot and me being super lazy. Connor kept up on his scooter with all the other kids on their bikes. The kids loved it.

 Popsicles to cool everyone off

Seven Eleven:  That's right. On 7/11 we got our free slurpees. Love the free stuff!

Dress Like a Cow Day:  We dressed like cows and got tons of free food from Chic-fil-a. I think it was something like $30 worth of food. Connor refused to put on the felt spots I had carefully cut out for his costume, but they still gave him free food (he was wearing the ears, after all). And this tradition wouldn't have been complete without Cheryl, who is the person I do all this kind of embarrassing stuff with. Thanks for coming and making a fool of yourself again! See you next year.

Foam Day:  We went to foam day again this year and it was about as fun as last year. Connor hated it. Marissa disliked it and didn't last very long either. Alex and Erin got to go to the big kid area and had fun. Alex was done after a short time but Erin wanted to go back for more.

I took the other kids over to the blow up water slides. Can you tell that this part was a hit (even if the line was horrendous)? Crazy Lehi people.

Marissa's such a brave child. That slide was so steep!

Visitors:  We had lots of visitors come to see us and loved it! No pictures of any of them, except for Clara who you can see had a great time with Erin in the mud. There's never a dull moment when Clara is around.

The rest of the Penrods came to see us from Florida and it was so great to see them! My old roommate Krisanne came for a visit which was awesome because I hadn't seen her since our oldest girls were babies. Around the same time in July, our sister-in-law Robin and her kids also drove up from Arizona to visit. In August we had a couple other Florida friends come see us, the Potts family and Myra. I love our Florida friends. The same week, my sister Katie and her kids drove out from Maryland for a surprise visit. So many kids and cousins to play with! We loved seeing everyone. It made our summer so great!

Games:  near the end of the summer, when there were no visitors here, I could tell my kids were getting a little bored. I pulled out the dominoes one day and they played for a good 2 or 3 weeks straight. Even Marissa could play with no help. After a while, I decided to teach them Rummikub, which is slightly more complicated. I didn't really think they caught on at first, but then I found them playing it for another couple of weeks on their own, so I guess they did.

Family Reunions:  the week before school started, we had a family party for my mom's side of the family and then that weekend we had a reunion with my dad's side of the family at the Five Star Ranch. It was a HUGE 20,000 sq. ft. home that seemed to go on forever. I was surprised that everyone got a bed to sleep in, but there were plenty with room to spare. You can see the huge house in the distance in this picture. It was a beautiful valley as well with horses, canoeing in the pond, two trampolines, etc.

My parents got the kids license plates with their names on them for their bikes 

(just to explain this picture).

We took some family pictures. Here are all the cousins on the Evans side. Four kids in each family (until our next baby comes and ruins all that good symmetry). We hadn't seen each other for about 2 1/2 years.

 Goofy Cousins

 

And one of the whole family (minus Katie's husband, Walter and my brother Joe and his wife Mari)

Labor Day:  we had a great barbeque with my family and pool party on the last day our community pool was open. A perfect day for swimming.

That pretty much sums up summer. There was a lot of playing with friends around the neighborhood, lots of swimming, activities as Thanksgiving Point, story time at the library and just enjoying not having a strict schedule. It was a good summer! We will see you next year.