Our Summer

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Independence Day 2013

 What a weekend! We partied for four days until I, personally, had enough! I was an awesome celebration, though, and we had lots of fun and even learned a few things about our nation's roots.
We started with the Freedom Festival parade on July 4th. Brett went out the day before to set out a blanket just outside his work. It was a mad house! People are zealous about parade spots, and partying all night long! We just left a blanket and slept in our nice comfy beds and came back to see the parade in the morning. It was pretty funny that some of those people that partied all night while holding their parade spot--dozed through the parade and left early!!

 Rowdy parade go-ers!

 Also on July 4th, we all went to see the movie Epic. Just last week we saw Croods and Ellie did great. Apparently Epic isn't so captivating for a two-year-old. We hit 7 Peaks on Friday afternoon. We had time to play in the kiddie pool and go down the tube slides about 4 times before we fled before the coming storm. We got home and changed clothes just as an AWESOME storm broke open over Provo. I didn't take pictures, but we sat under our carport for an hour watching tons of lightening and down-pouring rain. The thunder and lightening was so great, but it unnerved the girls a bit. Ellie still reminded us days later how she heard the thunder and saw the lightening (and her eyes are the size of saucers as she's recounting the experience).  We drove downtown for dinner at Los Hermanos. Lots of other people were ducking into the restaurants from the rained out carnival downtown. It seemed to wreak havoc on the outdoor festival!

 We tried to time things so we didn't have early mornings following late nights. We went on Saturday morning to see the hot air balloon launch--but from continuing effects from last night's storm meant the launch was cancelled. Boohoo! I wish we'd known that before we woke our kids up for the sunrise launch! Smokey the Bear tried to salvage the event by giving out free Frisbee and there was tons of Frisbee play for about 30 minutes, and then the field cleared in an instant when it started to rain!  Ellie was terrified of Smokey. She clung to me and when Smokey put his arm around me, she about lept out of my arms to be sure he didn't touch her!

 We spent all day Saturday at the Walk of Freedom in Orem. We each got to choose a name of an immigrant (given to us or created by us if we were familiar with our ancestors) and we went through 10 educational stations to learn about experiences of early immigrants and core principles of our government, etc. It culminated with a mock oath of citizenship. We also watched a musical program that depicted some events surrounding the creation of the United States. I can't help but feel again how blessed we are to live in this nation, how grateful I am to so many who have sacrificed to preserve it, and how mighty the hand of the Lord is in guiding the events of our history. We have much to be grateful for and much to protect.

 It was pretty cool, but lasted longer than we anticipated so we were pretty tired and hot and ready for a break.

 We got lunch at Wendy's, then I took Ellie home for a nap while the other's continued on to the Colonial Festival at the other end of Scera park.

 This is the best time out ever! :)  I guess that depends on your perspective!

 Boston immigrants--they made rope, washed clothes on a board, hauled water in a wooden yoke, watched a candle making demonstration, and more. So much to do and so little time!

I don't have pictures, but we also watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks while eating sno-cones. This was my first time having a sno-cone with ice cream in it. Pretty good!

It's HOT! June Update

We had such a temperate and nice May and June. I missed most of May working too much and end of school activities. June was fun and went fast. Now we're melting and trying to stay cool. I miss being outside but how can you cope with temps over 100 degrees? My kids are hot and red faced after half an hour. We're now hibernating during those hot afternoons and just trying to play in the morning and evening.

 Duckling races at the Utah Lake Festival

 Fish wind socks and fishing for coupons.

 Hay ride

 Someone learned to ride her bike without training wheels!  Great Job Amanda!

 Visiting the Provo City Center Temple site.

 Slip N Slide! We haven't taken the camera to 7 Peaks yet. . .

Here's how we tried to stave off boredom in June. We've also been to ONE HOT Owlz game and the Dollar Movies to see Crood. It was FUNNY!  :)  

PS-In the time it took to write this post (minus the pics) my two-year-old snuck into the storage room and grabbed a handful of un-frozen otter pops. I'm sure she knew she was naughty because she hid under the table in the family room table to bite open the red one. . . you can imagine how it went from there.

Where did the summer go??

Brigham City Temple Open House

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

I have been a horrible poster, barely keeping my head above water by organizing my pictures.  We've had a fun summer and I hope we can remember some highlights.

•  Started out summer with DisneyLand in June.  Super fun, but being the third time in a year, I was getting tired of it.  Thankfully, we flew so we didn't top it off with two days on the road.

•  Much more moderate in our visits to 7 Peaks.  Whereas we used to go 2-3 times a week, we probably only went a dozen times this summer.  And that's okay by me!  I only went 3-4 times without Brett.  Katie was great and a pretty good swimmer.   Amanda thinks she's as good as Katie, which terrifies me.  Ellie is clingy and I can't do or see or help anyone else!  The first time on my own, I lost Amanda (she left the pool "looking for Mom") within 5 minutes, Ellie fell of the crocodile (I caught her but she freaked out anyway) and while I'm frantically searching for Amanda and starting to panic, Katie is desperate to go to the bathroom.  I didn't dare leave the pool, but I also didn't dare send Katie to the bathroom alone.  I vowed to never do this alone again (even though I did).

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• Amanda (and by extension Ellie and Katie) took tumbling tots.  Once again, I'm amazed at how strong, flexible, agile, and balanced these girls are!  It only took Ellie watching Amanda once for her to try and do all that the big girls do.  Katie's love for tumbling was rekindled and I wish we had time/money to chase that dream more.
• Katie begged me to teach her to play "I am a Child of God" on the piano.  She's memorized the first 3 bars or so.  I want to start her in lessons, but she's got a big school year ahead, so we're trying to pace the addition of new things all at once.

  

  Thanksgiving Point Gardens

  
  

• Amanda spent the summer talking and singing constantly!  She makes up songs, she narrates her play stories.  At one point, Brett and I worried that she didn't talk at much/early as Katie.  She's making up lost time.  She still doesn't always speak terribly clearly, and tends to get emotional easily, but she's got a lot to say!  (Like calling hand sanitizer "hanitizer" and belt loops are "Belt pockets".)
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Amanda's birthday build a bunny-Rapunzel

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• Ellie has grown a passion for climbing over the summer.  She climbs up on the table and drinks everyone's drinks.  She climbs up on the counter from the bar and terrorizes whatever she can get to while I run to get her!  She has also started an independent streak.  About 3 weeks ago, she refused to be fed or helped feed.  If she's not feeding herself, she's starving and throwing a serious fit!  Meals times just got a lot messier (and they weren't that neat to begin with!)



Katie's Chinese Teacher: Tong Lao Shi




• Katie went to Chinese Immersion Summer camp.  She had a week of Chinese and learned so much!  She had a program at the end of the week and those kids had learned songs, colors, numbers, enough to present to the parents.  I'm impressed.  Where I worried it would be too much for her, I wonder now if she hadn't been in the program, she'd be bored!

  

  Rodeo!

• Katie solidified reading over the summer!  She ended school with mid-level readers, and she's now reading a chapter book and similar!  I'm so impressed.  She is really a brilliant girl and I'm so proud of her!  (in more ways than one!)

  

  Farm Country Pony Ride



Car show at the Utah County Fair




• Amanda started preschool and loves it!  She wakes up early with Katie and is so excited to put on school clothes and get her backpack. I've never seen her so compliant with getting dressed, coming for hair styles, etc.  I'm so glad my girls love school.
• Ellie is such a tag along. She does whatever Amanda does.  She wants to play trains with Katie (but still destroys a fair amount).  She wants to ride bikes with Amanda.  She wants to read with Katie.  Last night, Ellie woke up at one a.m. (very unusual) and was frantic to find Katie.  She struggled to get out of my arms and ran down to the kitchen, then family room.  Finally, I had to take her into Katie's room and show her that Katie was in bed asleep before she'd calm down.  Then she had to find Dad (again, family room, then bed).  I wondered if she was spooked somehow.  Anyway, Ellie loves Katie.  Katie loves to cart around Ellie (and Amanda tries too as well---argh!) 



County Fair




• Ellie has also lately grown a love for a certain baby doll.  The very same, Katie's first doll (that I got at a thrift store!)  The funny thing: Katie loves that doll and is usually very protective of it. She won't share it with Amanda or friends-which is often a source of contention.  But, Katie hasn't tried once to take it from Ellie or limit Ellie with it!  I can almost see the sibling love!  Amanda, on the other hand, steals the doll from Ellie all day long!
• We went as a family to the Thanksgiving Point gardens (always so lovely) and the Dinosaur Museum (such a crowded zoo!).  I took the girls to Farm Country and stood in line for almost two hours for pony rides.  Ellie was terrified of the horse, so I basically held her at arms length, over the horse, for a couple of laps around the coral.  The things I do. . . . . :)  Amanda and Katie loved it, but they were ready to melt by that point.  We all loved the mini goats, the sheep, the horses.  We took a tractor-drawn wagon ride (the horse-drawn had a crazy line).  The girls then made friends with the driver, who let them sit in the tractor seat.
• Brett spent a lot more of the summer working that we've been used to.  That was definitely a benefit of the student status--summers were either lighter or had intermittent breaks in between things.  We missed him on a few of our adventures, but we're glad he could come on some.
• Amanda had her first "friend" birthday party.  It was a princess dress-up party and it was a hit!  We had all Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel.  They had fun making crowns, pinning the kiss on the frog prince, and dancing the "musical chairs ball".  I'm glad we had a no gift policy, and we almost at an entire cake this time.  Almost!
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• We took the girls to see an outdoor play of "Wizard of Oz" and "All Shook Up".  They loved dancing at All Shook Up, but not too impressed.  Wizard of Oz, however, was a huge hit!  They loved it and recreated it for weeks after.

  

  Car Show at the Fair

• Brett and I also went to the outdoor showing of "Fiddler on the Roof".  It was great-complete with rain and packed crowd.  I'm glad it was just the two of us and we enjoyed it.  Brett and I also went to Capitol Theater to see "Wicked" (thanks Lauretta!).  It was amazing!  I loved it and wondered how soon we can see it again (or when they'll make a movie!).  Really, so great!

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Farm Country

In between that, we had picnics, play-dates, go-gurts, water guns, bike rides, county fair and rodeo, baseball games, walks, and duck feeding. It's been a busy summer and I was excited to have the structure of fall come, with a naturally enforced bedtime (everyone is tired by 7:30 pm now, not just Mom!)

We love Hootz the Owl!

Jedi battles.

7 Peaks

Anyway, I hope it's been fun and memorable for the girls.  We're on to becoming big now!
PS-Please forgive the horrible layout--I've had issues for the past 2 hours trying to get pictures to upload properly, and now I'm giving up!