July

We love it when our good friends, the Phillips, come to Utah. We love it more when they take time away from family to spend time with us and the Wood's. They came up to our house for a barbecue one night and it was so good to see everyone and to re-unite all the kids. It was much too short of a visit though!

Elsie Wood, Brynn, Peyton Phillips

Stockton, Corbyn Phillips, Alleah Wood, Molly, Peyton, Elsie, Brynn, Ivy, Logan Phillips, Mikki Wood

Shauna Phillips, me, Kelli Wood

The 3rd was a busy, busy day for me and we were planning on heading to Plain City that night so we could be there for the morning festivities. That meant the kids were on their own for decorating their bikes. I didn't even buy any new decorations this year but they rummaged through all the old stuff and were happy with the end results.

Here is picture of these blocks again. They have been so much fun and I love the creative play that it inspires in them.

Our school district offers a free summer lunch program at Heber Valley Elementary. It is free for anyone, regardless of income. I have never taken the kids but decided to try it this year. I was pleasantly surprised at how good and filling the meal actually was. There was a main course (like a sandwich, cheeseburger, pizza, etc), a side (chips, breadstick, etc.), a vegetable, a fruit, a cookie, and a milk. We only made it over there twice this summer because I have the kids make lunch for each other as one of their summer chores but it was fun both times and I let them play at the park the second time we went (we went bowling after the first time).

(missing Molly the second time because she stayed at the Walker's after the 4th.)

Justin has been spending every spare minute out in that greenhouse. It is a much bigger project than we expected-ever the perfectionist, Justin is doing his very best work and making sure everything is done just right. Sometimes the kids and I go out to help, when there is actually something for us to do. Molly wasn't home this particular night, but she has probably spent the most time out there with Justin.

The Dollar Ridge Fire near Strawberry was at it's peak this week-it created some gorgeous sunsets but it was devastating to a lot people in that area.

Lake day. Since Molly was still gone, it was just Stockton, Brynn, and Ivy. We didn't stay too long. Brynn swam in her mermaid tail the majority of the time and I alternated between swimming out with Ivy and paddling her on the kayak while Brynn swam. Stockton came out too but not as much and I found this picture on my phone that I thought was cute.

Stockton wanted to have a family sports night. He was thinking we would play baseball like we did last year but Justin had a different idea. Stockton resisted at first but it was too fun not to join the rest of us. Justin made different "challenges" that we all had to do. He would give a score for each challenge and we declared a winner at the end, although I can't remember who won. We did golfing, football throwing, football catching, football moves, soccer shooting, goalie, soccer dribbling, and a slam dunk contest on the tramp.

I woke up one morning and walked downstairs to see Ivy sound asleep on the living room floor. She had been up that night around 5:00 but I thought I had successfully tucked her back into bed. I guess not!

I took the kids up to the Zermatt in Midway to ride the carousel and play some mini golf. It was funny to see the different personalities of my kids come through as they were golfing. Molly tried her very best at every single hole. Stockton quit halfway through because it was too hard and he wasn't doing as well as Molly. Brynn didn't care what anyone thought of her and really didn't care how many times it took her to get the ball in the hole. Ivy marched her ball right up the hole and hit it in from inches away. We stopped at the Midway Bakery and got a brownie and a huge cinnamon roll that we divided up after lunch.

Sprinklers + soccer = a great way to cool off on a hot afternoon!

Stockton, Easton and Corbin Anderson, Molly

Stockton got to go to day camp at Camp Jeremiah Johnson again this year. He looks forward to it so much that he doesn't even mind the 5:30 am wake up call. This picture was taken at 6. Aren't they the cutest?

Logan Cunningham, Stockton, Kelton Webb, Dylan Starks, Easton Anderson

(Molly also got to do to day camp at Jeremiah Johnson. I didn't go with her but she had a blast as well.)

I took the kids to 7-11 on free Slurpee day. We were going to make a night of it-Slurpees and then to Wasatch State Park to feed the ducks. (Justin was at Young Men's.) It was a fun night but we got to 7-11 too late-the free Slurpee's end at 7 and we got there about 10 minutes after that. That was a bummer but they still got the Slurpee's they wanted. None for me since they're not my favorite.

We had Molly's friend, Faith Hendrickson, with us.

We raided the freezer and ended up with lots of leftover hamburger and hot dog buns, old rolls, and individually wrapped slices of pumpkin bread (Stockton likes them in his lunches). My freezer really needed cleaned out and organized! The ducks were not picky about what we fed them. It had rained earlier that night but had stopped and ended up being a beautiful night. When the bread was gone the little girls played at the park and the older kids played with the big frisbee and tried to see how many catches in a row they could get. They were going forever so I stopped them at 100 when it was time to go home.

Faith and Molly

Molly, Faith, Stockton. Brynn is crying into her legs because she was playing at the park when they started and they didn't want to break their streak to let her in to play.

Molly had been dying to go mountain biking with Tiana, who is on the American Fork mountain biking team. I took the kids down to Heidi's one afternoon and Tiana took Molly on some of her favorite beginner trails-they can access them right from Eric and Heidi's house. The rest of the kids played while Heidi and I talked.

Molly, Stockton, Luke, Jake, Evie, Brynn, Ivy, Eli, Tiana

Ivy, Brynn, Evie

I have tried to take the kids to the lake once a week-sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't-but we love it most when Justin can go with us. We went to Jordanelle this time to scout out a good spot for my whole family to come up for a day the following week.

Brynn learned a little trick that night!

rock throwing contest

Molly and Justin pushed Brynn back and forth on the paddleboard and she loved doing that.

We found these goggles at the lake. Justin is definitely the goofy one out of the two of us! This made me laugh so hard!

The kids wanted to do doughnuts and chocolate milk at the park. We went on the day I had planned but it ended up being lunch rather than breakfast since Stockton slept until 11 that morning. He wins the sleep-in record so far this summer! Molly and Stockton were bored after a few minutes at the park but I told them they had to stay for an hour and they eventually got up and worked on an obstacle course and were able to have fun the entire time we were there.

Stockton, Brynn, and Ivy set up this "movie theater" one quiet afternoon.

A couple of days later, Molly set up these forts for them and they slept in them that night. Ivy didn't do so great and she had to get moved to her bed but the three others stayed in them all night.

Stockton had an altercation with Brynn's blinds...he was actually trying to open them all the way and they fell down on him. This was the result.

Justin left us for a few days to go on High Adventure with the priests and teachers. They went backpacking in the Uintahs. It took him a whole day to get everything in his pack just how he liked it and at the weight that he wanted it. Then he made the kids try it on to see if they could carry it.

Here are some of the pictures of the trip. He had a lot of fun. They got rained on a little on the hike in but stayed dry the rest of the time. He won the fishing contest by catching the most fish. He enjoyed being with the boys and the other leaders.

We did miss him while he was gone but we filled our days with fun things so it went by quickly. The Brown's came to town for a couple of weeks so we met up with all the Goodrich's at Highland Pond. We had lunch, swam, kayaked and paddleboarded, and every single one of us jumped off the dock (even Grandma!).

Cameron, Stockton, Sam

Brynn, Evie, Micah, Elizabeth (Camille's babysitting charge), Kai

Brynn, Camille, Kai

Brynn and Andrew

Lizzy, Molly, Tiana

The next day, we met up with Ali at Rockport State Park. I had looked it up on Alltrails and it said there was an easy hike around the lake and, from what I could tell, it was going to be shady. Well, it was less of a hike and more of a little trail and it was not shady! I thought it was going to be a bust but the kids always have so much fun together so that is never really the case. We hiked for a bit but the kids really just wanted to get down to the water and cool off so we eventually ended up there. And then we stayed there for hours. I didn't have anything I needed to get home for and Jeff had meetings that night so neither did Ali and we were able to let them play as long as they wanted. It ended up being so much fun and I was glad I thought to throw in some lifejackets last minute!

Seth, Brynn, Lucy, Gavin, Molly, Stockton, Grant

I carried Ivy in the hiking backpack and it was hard! It made me appreciate Justin even more for being the one who always packs the babies.

Ivy, Grant, Brynn, Stockton

Grant and Stockton

Seth, Stockton, Grant, Brynn-they found some big logs that they took and used as their boats.

Molly took a turn carrying Lucy. I love the friendship that Molly and Gav have and hope they are always close.

Ivy and Lucy

Molly and Gavin

Ivy and Lucy

Seth, Brynn, Stockton, Grant

Molly and Stockton took a week of golf lessons at the Homestead. They both loved every minute of it and are really hoping to do it again next summer. The coach had lots of good things to say about Molly's game and I'm sure he would have about Stockton as well, but he didn't work with his group. They were both bummed when it was over and wish they could get out on the green more often.

Here is another pretty sunset from our street.

Justin wanted to take the kids to the Wasatch State Park one night and I suggested that we let them go fishing. Fishing with kids takes a lot of patience! I know Justin would love to just relax and fly fish but he's constantly untangling fishing line or doing something to help the kids. We caught one fish that night and then stopped for snow cones on the way home.

Good old Cash. The kids love him. I will admit that the first year was rough but it is not anymore. He is well-behaved, doesn't run off, doesn't chew on things anymore, and I am starting to warm up to him and enjoy having him around.

Ivy fell asleep sitting up in the shopping cart one day. I think it looks like she is meditating!

This is Ivy being a lion. Brynn was doing the same thing.

We spent as much time with the Brown's as we could while they were here. We met at Silver Lake one day and had a picnic and walked around the lake. It was so gorgeous!

This picture cracks me up! Sam and Brynn

Brynn and Grayson

Jake, Evie, Eli, Grayson, Stockton, Luke, Sam, Lizzy, Andrew, Molly, Brynn, Ivy, Tiana

Ivy and Grandpa, Grandma and Stockton. Ivy called Grandpa her hiking buddy and wouldn't leave his side!

Andrew, Brynn, Sam

Tiana, Lizzy, Molly

The next day, we went to Gene and April's for a barbecue and some water play in the backyard. We left Molly there to have a sleepover with Lizzy and Tiana and brought Sam home with us for a sleepover with Stockton and Brynn. They left the next morning to go back to Seattle. We love spending time with them and wish it was more often! There are always tears shed when it's time for goodbyes.

Grayson, Eli, Tiana, Ivy, Evie, Molly, Kai, Lizzy, Andrew, Brynn, Stockton, Cam, Sam, Jake, Luke, Riley, Micah

Andrew and Brynn

The grown-ups had a great time playing charades while the kids played. Heidi, Camille, Rachelle, Evie, Gene

Stockton, Sam, Brynn, Ivy

One of our kittens had her own litter of kittens! The funny thing is, we thought this particular cat was a boy and we had named "him" Hagrid. Towards the beginning of July, we started noticing some swollen nipples on the underside of his belly and thought that maybe we were wrong back in December when we declared him a boy. We were suspicious that Hagrid was really a she and that she was pregnant. One night we were in the kitchen, cleaning up from dinner, when Molly looked out the window and saw Hagrid carrying a kitten in her mouth. We ran outside and found two kittens that were definitely a few weeks old! It was quite the surprise! We think she must have nested somewhere-a wood pile, the barn, or somewhere similar, had her kittens, and then when they got big enough, was in the process of transferring them to the garage. The kids were thrilled! We had a hard time dragging the girls back in the house that night (Stockton is not an animal guy and was not super impressed) and then imagine our greater surprise when Justin went out later that night to check on them and found two more kittens for a total of four. Needless to say, it has been kitty heaven every day around here! Justin told the kids we could keep two and give away two. They picked the two they wanted and named them Chipper and Simba.

Ivy likes to hog all the scriptures when we do family scriptures. We have struggled getting this done this summer but will keep trying and adapt to changing schedules!

Stockton and Brynn both wanted to try the next levels in their swimming lessons so they took another round of lessons that last week of July. I didn't bother trying to keep Ivy out of the pool-she played in the kiddie area every day and thought she had her very own swim lessons. Stockton passed his level and Brynn passed hers as well but they recommended that she do the level again just because she's so small and would need to be taller to do the next level.