We opted to not put Molly in swimming lessons this year. She is pretty comfortable in the water and so we weren't sure how much more she could learn from public lessons. We told her she could choose tennis or gymnastics and she opted for tennis. She's always enjoyed playing and was able to learn a few more skills.
I think overall she had a good time, although I don't think we'll do it again. She didn't have any friends with her and so she was a little timid and held back. Plus, she just really loves the water and it was hard for her to sit through Stockton's swim lessons and not be in the water. We might have to rethink for next summer. But tennis was a nice change for her and I was glad she got to try something else.
(Bucket List Activity) We had a movie night with popcorn and let the kids sleep downstairs. We watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. It was extra special because Justin hauled all of the kids' mattresses downstairs and they got to sleep on them. Justin and I wizened up this year and slept in our room upstairs.
We had one get-together with the Goodrich side and not a single family member was missing (Aaron had made it to Sandy from Texas and they hadn't moved to Seattle just yet). The first time in two years that we had all been together. Here are all the grandkids, oldest to youngest with their most awesome grandma and grandpa.
 |
| April, Lizzy, Tiana, Andrew, Molly, Luke, Stockton, Jake, Sam, Cam, Brynn, Riley, Evie, Grayson, Micah, Gene |
More wrestling.
 |
| Cam, Stockton, Andrew, Grandpa |
 |
| Sam, Luke, Stockton, Andrew, and Tiana on Grandpa |
And a group shot that Eric took with his camera that turned out pretty great. I love this family!!
We had Lizzy stay over that night. I told the girls they could choose anything they wanted to do for the day so they chose swimming. We went to the Payson pool which is awesome and a little bit smaller so I could keep track of all the kids. They had a blast just going on their own...the lazy river and the slides especially.
We went back to the zoo with my mom and Ali so that my mom could get her money's worth out of the grandma pass she bought earlier in the summer. I thought it might be miserably hot but it was really so much fun. It was much less crowded than when we went in June and the animals seemed to be much more active.
 |
| Molly, Gavin, Stockton, Grant |
We had a great time...mom had to take off a little early to get home for something but Ali and I had no schedule so we just took our time and let the kids explore a little more.
 |
| Stockton and Grant consulting their maps |
It's a must that Stockton takes swimming lessons. He's a pretty big chicken around water until swim lessons. After that, he's a fish...well, a fish for him.
Something just works for him in the water when he has someone else telling him to get in, to go under, to not be afraid. It's very relieving to watch him not be so scared. And from that point on through the rest of the summer, he relaxed a lot in the water, which was so great.
He was a little nervous on the last day to go down the slide and jump off the diving board but he did it anyway.
This cute group of girls like to play Legos.
 |
| Molly, Lily and Maggie Stephenson, Jade Boynton, Elise Jones |
Justin made me a table. Just one for my entryway. I've been asking for one for a couple years now and he finally made it happen. He's pretty awesome. The best part (well, other than having a really great piece of furniture) is that he made it from his parent's old hardwood floor so it virtually cost nothing. (They had a leak in their kitchen sink and it destroyed some wood. The rest was too hard to match so they had to tear it all up. Justin took the planks and has been saving them ever since. This was the perfect project to use them on.) Here are a few pictures of the work, although it's just a glimpse because it was a bigger, more involved project.
 |
| May: all those wooden floor boards getting glued together to make the table legs |
 |
| July: those legs getting a coat of spray paint |
Justin still wants to do a little sanding on the black to match the frame around the temple picture. Also, I will probably decorate it a little more, although I'm not sure how yet and I really want to keep it simple and let the table shine on it's own.
{Bucket List Activity} This kids really wanted to ride Frontrunner. A trip to Salt Lake and back is kinda pricey so instead we just did a short ride. We drove into Orem, caught the train there, and rode to Provo. It was a total of 8 minutes there and 8 back but they didn't know any different and were super excited to be there.
I thought our chances for finding some sort of treat was better in Provo, which was why we started out in Orem. We had about 40 minutes before the train headed back to Orem which gave us just enough time to walk a couple blocks to a 7-Eleven and get slurpees before catching the train back.
They wanted to ride up on the top floor on the way back..there were even tables for them to sit and enjoy their Slurpees.
Brynn likes to wear her swimming suits all day. She must be hopeful that I'll pull out the sprinklers or something. Which we do, often. This particular night she wanted to sleep in her suit and I let her.
Stockton put on a glow-in-the-dark show for us with his light saber. The lights were out but the camera wasn't taking good pictures without a flash. He really got into character, though, with sound effects and everything.
Another friend of Molly's moved. Jade has been her friend the longest-we met her and her family shortly after we moved in a few months before Molly's 3rd birthday and they've been the best of friends ever since. It was sad to see her go, but not as hard since she just moved about 30 minutes away.
Our normal tradition for the 24th is to go barbecue at Eric and Heidi's but this year was different. The whole fam headed south for an extended weekend in Zion's but Justin couldn't take work off so we had to find something different. We ended up going to a movie at the dollar theater (Madagascar 3-also a Bucket List Activity), running in the sprinklers and then just having a good old game of family baseball that night.
We had Creamies for the occasion too.
And then, a week after Jade moved, Elise moved. Those three were like the 3 Musketeers. They played together every chance they could. They had their issues occasionally, but those worked themselves out fairly quickly. It was a sad day to see the last of Molly's close friends to head out. She had the hardest time with this one, probably because she felt like she was the only one still here.
So fun! The table is beautiful. Justin did a great job.
ReplyDelete