August

The kids were dying to go school shopping so I told them I would take them on August 1st. We went to Ross, where I was ambitiously hopeful that I would get everything we needed. We didn't. It was a little chaotic but we got through it and when we were done, I took the kids to the new splash park in Orem at the bottom of Provo Canyon. They had been good all summer to have fun with each other but they really needed some friends this day. We only lasted about an hour and that was a stretch.

Justin was at Young Men's that night so we grabbed a pizza, found a park in Heber we'd never been to, and had a picnic. They were much better about playing together at the park. Those spinny things are the best!

We packed in a lot this day because that night was the outdoor movie at the fairgrounds. We love those! Justin met us there after YM's and we watched Ferdinand. Molly did have her friend, Lydia, with her this time because Lydia had invited Molly for a late night. Instead of doing that, we brought her with us.

Lydia Fredericks, Molly, Brynn

Stockton and Brynn finished up their second week of swimming lessons. Molly and Ivy tagged along most days and swam on their own. After the last day they all wanted to swim in the big pool so I let them swim laps for a little while. Stockton started out his life terrified of water. Now he can freestyle and backstroke a full length of the pool. That is a big deal for him.

We met up with Heidi that afternoon at the same splash pad that we had visited two days earlier. It was a spontaneous meeting-the best kind and makes me so grateful I have the flexibility to do that. We were making a cousin swap-Stockton was staying at their house and Evie was coming to ours for the night. Evie and Brynn decided they wanted to watch The Greatest Showman and they acted out the parts while they watched. They also alternated between watching the show and running outside to play capture the flag with Molly and a few of her friends that were over.

Ivy, Tiana, Molly

Brynn and Evie

My parent's were hosting a family reunion for my great grandparents. They got married 100 years ago! They also lived next door to me growing up. Well, my great-grandma did-Great-grandpa died when I was three months old so I never really knew him. I remember getting Grandma's mail and taking it to her house where she would give us a treat or let us play with her myriad of battery-powered stuffed animals. Elbert and Edna Moyes had three sons-Carl, Vernal, and Lewis. Vernal was my Grandpa. More than 100 people came and it was fun to see some familiar faces and meet a few unfamiliar ones. Aunt Holly had rented a water blow up toy and we opened the pool as well.

Justin, Stockton, Jeff, Grant-this picture makes Stockton look like Spiderman!

Ivy

upside down Ivy

I won't even attempt to name everyone in this group!

Lewis is the only son that is still living-sitting in the front with his wife who he married after his first wife, Beverly, died; my dad and his siblings starting from the right are Gene, Drew, Lynn (my dad), Craig, and Holly. The other's on the back row are my dad's cousin's.

These are the cousins I was closest with, my immediate girl cousins: Jessie Hollingsworth, Erin (sister), Dani Peek, Ali (sister), me, Caitlin Hamilton, Amy Woolsey-we are just missing Cami Jensen and Sabra Moyes.

Molly had a soccer tournament in Orem in the middle of August. The first game was played at 7:30 at night so it wasn't bad but the other games were played smack-dab in the middle of the day. It was pushing 100 degrees that week and it. was. hot. I was miserable and all I did was watch the girls under a tree. They won their first game and lost their next three. I was secretly relieved when they lost that last game because it meant they didn't play again later that afternoon and we could go home.

Molly is hard to see-she is in the black, kicking the ball.

Stockton would have preferred to stay home but I didn't feel comfortable leaving him home since we were going to be down in Orem. He was a good kid despite the heat (and considering that it's boring for him to be there) and helped keep his sisters entertained. He can often be extra vocal when we are doing something he doesn't want but he dealt with it great.

My mom enjoys taking the kids school shopping and I'm grateful for her generosity. She buys an outfit and shoes for all the kids. She met us before one of Molly's afternoon games at University Mall to do some shopping and then came to the game after. My dad wanted to watch a game as well so he took Frontrunner down and met my mom. They should win a grandparents award-they do their best to be so supportive of our kids in their different activities. We did a little bit more school shopping after the game and were completely ready for school.

We went to the skate park. My kids love it there. Molly was bummed because her bike tire was flat but Stockton was nice enough to share his. Ivy went out there on her trike with no fear and went down a ramp before I could help her. She crashed then took it much easier after that.

Molly got her schedule for middle school and was anxious to walk around the school and find all her classes. I think we went twice before school started and then once at back-to-school night. She was definitely still nervous about getting lost but she has had no trouble and has loved the change of pace from elementary school!

We met Ali for one last summer fling. She found a paved trail in Kaysville/Layton so we packed our scooters. Again, it was hot. There was supposed to be a place where we could access the river and we thought that would be a great way to cool off but we walked/rode the whole path and never found it. It didn't take long and we were so hot so we found a splash park that was fairly close and drove over there for a couple of hours. I had thrown in my kids' suits just in case but Ali hadn't. Good thing her boys and Lucy didn't mind getting their clothes wet!

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

Lucy and Ivy

Gavin and Molly

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

Ali and I had three meet-ups this summer and none of them went the way we had originally planned. Good thing we can roll with the flow and good thing these kids are such good friends!

We made it work so that Molly could go home with Ali for a couple of days and Grant could come home with us. Molly and Gavin had been planning it for a while and were so, so excited. I've said it before, but I love the relationship those two have. They have a lot in common and they have a lot of fun together. When my family is all together, Gavin usually pairs off with Ben and the girls hang out so it's nice when when we can get just the two of them together. Jeff took them mountain biking, they went to Toads, Ali took them bowling, they had a Pirates of the Caribbean movie-thon (Molly had never seen them and Gavin was dying to have her watch them with him), and they just hung out for a couple of days. They are already planning when they can do it next!

We also had fun with Grant. I don't cancel my piano lessons unless we are out of town so the kids had to fend for themselves in the mornings while I was doing that. They got good at getting their own breakfast and staying out of the way until I was finished. Or watching movies in the garage...you can see that by the end of the summer the garage was in a sad state. It was a mess! I did take a morning just a couple of days after this to clean and organize it so we could actually park inside of it.

Brynn, Grant, Stockton, Ivy

I took the kids to the lake one day and to the skate park the next day. They also played house with the kittens (Grant loved the kittens so much that he convinced his mom that they needed to take one home-and they did a few weeks later!) and ran around outside doing whatever they wanted. We made soap clouds right before we were leaving to meet Ali and I let them put them on the tramp with the sprinklers underneath-it got super slippery for them! They requested mac and cheese for dinner one night and crepes the other night and then had the leftover crepes the next day for lunch. They were so nice to include Brynn and Ivy on all the fun and we are all anxious to do another cousin swap!

Brynn, Grant, Stockton, Ivy

Brynn, Stockton, Grant

Grant and Stockton

Ivy, Brynn, Stockton, Grant

Brynn was tuckered out after all that playing! She had a sucker hanging out of her mouth but Molly was too slow to get the camera out and ready so it had fallen out by the time the picture was taken. You can see the drool dripping down her arm.

We did a read-a-thon but just with us at home. We read for 20 minutes, played a game, then read for 20 more minutes. We played UNO.

Gene and April gave us Hale Theatre tickets for Christmas and we were able to choose any show we wanted throughout the year. I really wanted to see Newsies and Jusitn was nice enough to agree to that. Our reservations came up in August and we took the kids to Sandy while we went with Brett. The show was awesome, as everything there is. The kids were able to go visit Grandpa at the church farm where he works as one of his callings. They were fascinated by everything he grew and were wishing they could have stayed longer. Molly and Stockton really wanted to go back and work with him for a few hours but we weren't able to make it work this year. Next year!

Gene, Brynn, Molly, Riley, Stockton, Cameron, Camille, Ivy, Micah, April, Kai

Justin did a ton of work on the greenhouse and when the rest of us had spare time, we would get out and work on it as a family. I was actually impressed with the work the kids were able to do.

Justin, Gene, Brynn-we had help from family throughout the summer as well but Gene helped out the most.

Molly missed the soap clouds and wanted to do them. The Anderson's joined this time as well.

Easton and Corbin Anderson, Stockton, Molly

The Tanner's moved to Atlanta. I still have a hard time believing they are so far away. It kind of stinks but we wish them the best. We got together one last time before they headed out. Saying good-bye was hard, especially for my sweet and sensitive Molly. We have missed them.

Molly and Kai

Brynn had a hard time lifting that chubby guy!

Ivy, Molly, Tiana, Eli, Jake, Cam, Stockton, Luke, Riley, Micah, Brynn, Evie

Brett, Eric, Gene, Justin, Matt-oh, the awkwardness; they did that on purpose!

Molly and Camille

Ivy, Camille, Brynn, Stockton, Riley, Cam

Brynn and Riley

Stockton and Cam

I wanted to do something special on the last day before school started but I was also too tired to do anything big. I ended up surprising the kids with some Aggie Ice Cream...it is sold by the scoop at the Midway Dairy. When we got home, I told the kids they could each pick a game and I would sit and play with them. It was a perfect, low-key ending to a fun and busy summer.

If you know Brynn well, you can probably guess why she is plugging her nose!

Stockton chose to build with his blocks.

Molly's official soccer season began the night before school started. It was late, all the way in Salt Lake by the airport, and ended up being called before the game was over due to lightning. So that was a pain and we had to go back a few weeks later to make it up. She had a game in Orem the last Saturday of August in Orem and conditions were complete opposite. It was hot! It was right by the splash pad (that we'd been to twice already in August) so some of the girls cooled off in the water at the end of the game.

Brigitte Ferreyra, Caroline Turner, Molly, Sarah Cope, Hannah Risto

Hannah, Brigitte, Caroline, Sarah, Molly

After many, many hours on that greenhouse, it is finished! It is big and we will focus on planting next year but, for now, we are so glad to have it finished. It was a huge weight lifted off Justin's shoulders. It's pretty incredible that he built that thing, start to finish!

America First's Lagoon Night is a much-anticipated event for my kids. Stockton even missed a baseball game this year but he didn't mind. Brett had been staying with us for a few days...we aren't technically supposed to get him a ticket because it's for immediate family only but Justin had a teller who wasn't going to use her ticket so we took Brett despite the rule. I'm not sure the last time he had ever been there! He was able to ride the log flume and Rattlesnake Rapids with the kids-they did both twice-and some of the rides with Ivy and Brynn, like Bombora and the tea cups. It was great to see him having so much fun. Molly still loves Cannibal while Stockton's favorites are Wild Mouse, Colossus, Wicked, and Spider-he wasn't ready for Cannibal yet. This was the first year Brynn was wanting to ride on rides that she wasn't tall enough for. She really wanted to ride Wild Mouse but was a good 3.5 inches too short. She was disappointed for a while but forgot about being sad when Justin took her over to Bombora and The Bat, which are her two favorites. Ivy did not like the Ladybug Drop but she did like Bombora and some of the other kiddie rides. Meeting up with the other Goodrich's is a tradition now and the kids look forward to seeing their cousins.