August

**Last couple days of July (forgot to get posted on July's post)-

I was out mowing the lawn one night and saw two hummingbirds in my petunias.  They were so neat and I stopped and watched them for a while.  As a side note, my petunias turned out beautiful this year!  I think I'll do the same thing next summer, with something taller in the back.

You can barely see the blurry mass in the middle, on a purple flower.  I later learned that these are actually called hummingbird moths.

So pretty!

Brynn and Ivy had a sleepover in the living room.  I think originally Stockton was going to join them but he backed out (I don't remember now, but I'm sure there was plenty of drama involved).  I took this picture at 8:57 in the morning.  My kids get so good at sleeping in in the summer and I miss that during the rest of the year.

I took the kids for a school shopping date.  I would love to be able to take them all individually but who has time for that?  Not me.  I did this last year and it didn't go great but I was willing to try again.  We had a much better time.  I took them to Old Navy and we were very successful there-Ivy, Brynn, and Stockton got almost all of their stuff there, if not all.  Molly only found a hoodie.  We went to Ross after that where Molly found a bit more and Brynn found a romper/jumper that she fell in love with.  We made one last trip to the mall were we found some slim skinny jeans for Stockton and Molly found another pair of jeans.  They had all been so good and so patient so I treated them to lunch at the food court.  I might be crazy to do this, but I always loved school shopping when I was a kid and I still do as an adult.  It's so exciting and makes everyone start to anticipate going back to school.

August-

We met Heidi at Seven Peaks on the first day of August.  This ended up being the last time we went and, to be honest, I had to drag some of my kids there.  Once there, they had fun.  They had been begging me to stop at The Creamery on Ninth so I did that on this trip-good thing too since we never made it back.  They had kiddie scoops which were the perfect size.

Ivy and Brynn loved this area of turf because it was always so warm.  They had to stop and lay down on it every time we walked past.

It's been kind of a tradition for moms and kids to go to the cabin for Raspberry Days the first weekend of August-just whoever is available that weekend.  We haven't been for a couple of years but we were free this year so I took the kids up on Friday morning.  I missed Ali and her kids but Erin Walker was there with her girls.  I met them at the lake that afternoon.  Grandpa had the jet skis and there was lots of playing in the sand.  Stockton didn't even mind being the only boy.  We had dinner and played outside that night.  I taught my kids how to play croquet.

Ivy and Josie

Chloe, Molly, Tessa

Josie, Harper, Brynn, Ivy

Tessa and Molly

Stockton, Harper, Tessa, Ivy, Brynn, Molly

Erin had to leave Friday night so it was only the five of us with my parents and that is always fun for a change.  The kids went on a Rhino ride with Grandpa while my mom and I cleaned up breakfast and got ready then we went down to the Raspberry Days booths to look around.  My mom bought each of the kids a prize-Ivy got a crown, Brynn a fan, Stockton got a wooden Chinese game, and Molly a bird whistle.  We went to Zipz for lunch and slushies. We were so hot but didn't feel like trying to fight the crowds at the beach so the kids decided they just wanted to go to Blue Water and swim for an hour.  My parents have a membership so they can access the private beach but we don't usually go just for the pool so that was a fun thing to do to fill our afternoon.  We met Ali that night and did a swap-Stockton with them and Gavin with us-and then headed home.

The Allen's came up for Sunday dinner the next day.  Their girls were babies when we were all living in Logan and now they are so grown-up!  Also, they were cat whisperers and got the kittens to go to sleep in the funniest positions.

Gavin, Brynn, Molly

We didn't have as long with Gavin as we would have liked-just Sunday and Monday morning.  We couldn't really go out and do something fun on Sunday so that left us with Monday morning.  I had been hearing people around town talk about floating the canal for a while and I wanted to try it.  We bought some tubes on Amazon and I thought we should try it out that morning.  Justin had to work but he was nice to drop us off at the put-in spot and then leave the truck for us where we would get out.  Ivy shared a tube with me and the other three had their own.  We had a lot of fun and it's definitely something we will be adding to our summer bucket list.  Stockton (who was having fun at the Broadbent's) and Justin (at work) were bummed to have missed out and we never made it back so we for sure need to take them next year.

me and Ivy, Brynn, Molly, Gavin

Molly and Gav

Brynn, Molly, Gavin

Molly, Gavin, Brynn

Molly, Gavin, Brynn

Brynn, Molly, Ivy, Gavin

Molly requested pizza bagels for lunch and Gavin wanted shakes from Granny's so I made both of those things happen before we headed up to Plain City.  The kids and I had dentist appointments with Jeff the following day and we were going early so we could play.

Ivy, Brynn, Molly, Gavin

I didn't get pictures from Ali but I'm pretty sure they went to Lagoon on Monday.

We drove past Plain City and straight to Willard Bay for a night of  boating with granparents and the Broadbents.  I love going to Willard Bay because the water is so warm and calm but we hadn't been there since before Ivy was born.  The kids loved the new tube that granpda got and they were super impressed at my slalom skiing abilities.  I was pretty proud that I could still do it with no trouble at all.  We had dinner and paddleboarded and it was a great night.

Gavin, Stockton, Molly-these three got dumped and Stockton was not a fan.  I don't think we got him back out there that night.

Harper, Grandpa, Stockton, Grant-this never happens in Bear Lake where the water is much colder!

Lucy and Ivy

Brynn, Lucy, Ivy, Grace

that is Brynn out there being held up by Jeff

We had our dentist appointments at 2:00 on Tuesday so I let the kids swim for a couple of hours that morning before making them get out, get ready, and have lunch.  I try to make it work so that they can swim in grandma's pool in June, July, and August so I was glad we fit in that morning's swim.

Lucy and Ivy

Molly had her second soccer tournament of the summer, this time in Orem.  I usually feel okay leaving Stockton home with the little girls if I am in Heber and it's not more than a couple of hours but this was in Orem and she had a morning game and an afternoon game so everyone had to come with me.  Luckily, the first field had a super fun park.  In between games, we did some more shopping.  The three youngest were done but Molly was still in search of jeans.  Stockton was a good sport about it, although it wasn't exactly his idea of fun.  Ivy loved watching herself dance in the mirror and Brynn was looking at the jewelry.  I posted these two pictures of Stockton on Instagram because I just thought they were so funny!  His facial expressions say it all!

The second game was at Palisade Park where there is a splash pad.  I had packed swim suits for the kids so they were able to do that while Molly played.

Ivy snuggled Justin like this for a while one night.  She is usually such a momma's girl so this doesn't normally happen.

We only made it to Lagoon one time in August.  We met the Broadbent's there and did the water rides first.  This was also Stockton's night to ride Cannibal-after mulling it over all summer and waiting until the very end of the night. Uncle Jeff took him and he loved it-just like I knew he would.  Ali and I also took my mom and dad on Wicked which was a little crazy.  We both got a little nervous for them when we got close to boarding but they did great.  Don't think I'll see them do it again any time soon but they deserve credit for trying it!

Gavin, Brynn, Molly

Lucy and Brynn

Stockton, Grant, Grandma, Molly, Gavin, Grandpa

Gavin, Stockton, Molly-steps away from boarding Cannibal

Justin spent one Saturday trimming trees around the yard-a big job with all our trees.  We would rake the branches into piles and he would drive the truck around to pick them up.  It was often a pain to go back and forth from the truck to the pile that he had Molly driving around a little bit.

My parents gave me this flower, along with several others, for Mother's Day to plant in a pot.  This one was my favorite.  It started as a pink bud but had a deep purple middle when it bloomed.  They didn't know what it was called and neither do I but I'd love to find out and plant them again!

We went on a family bike ride.  Down our street, a little bit on the highway (with a huge shoulder and a trail through the weeds), and down Little Sweden Road.  Such a beautiful night-I love the sight of fields and sprinklers and sunlight and the mountains make a stunning backdrop to it all.  We did a big loop and stopped at Brother Larsen's (an elderly man from church) on our way home.

The kids love to watch funny videos that Justin shows them from Twitter.  They will do it forever and he likes showing them as much as they like watching.  I think this night they stayed up so long that I went to bed and had Justin do bedtime.

We had been wanting to go to the lake with the Webb's all summer and finally made it on one of the last Monday's before school started.  They have all boys-their two youngest are Molly and Stockton's ages-but the kids get along well, Kelton and Stockton especially.  We wish we would have had longer to play-it got dark and cold too soon for us!

hard to tell who's who, but doesn't it look so peaceful??

Justin went on high adventure with the priests and teachers in August, while we were at Grandkid Camp.  They had a couple of things that fell through earlier in the summer so they threw this together and, as it often happens, those other things fell through for a reason and this activity fell together for a reason.  It was an amazing, spiritual weekend for Justin.  They called it "high on the mountain top" adventure camp because they literally spent 2 days in different temples along the northern Wasatch front. I don't know all the details but I think they hit 8 temples in the two days and ended with a testimony meeting in the mountains on the last night.  Justin has the stats but they did something like 450 baptisms in those two days.  We have some amazing youth in our ward and I know Justin really enjoys the time he spends with them.

this turned into a meme

It has been Justin's dream to own a pop-up tent trailer for many, many years and he has probably spent several hours on KSL looking for one over the years-with not much luck.  One of the high councilmen in our stake went into his work wanting to get a loan on a new trailer since his family had grown out of the old one.  There were a couple of things that needed repaired on the old trailer and he was not wanting to fix them and then go through the hassle of listing it on KSL.  He made Justin an offer he couldn't resist that we could pay for (we will never do a loan on a "toy") and we brought it home a couple of weeks later and it is perfect for our family.  It folds out with two king-sized beds and the table turns into a bed.  The kids tried it out in the back yard that night and everyone is super excited to use it next summer.

Molly made coconut cream mini cupcakes.  She even toasted coconut to sprinkle on the top.  They were delicious.

On the last day before school, the kids wanted to have friends over for a pizza party.  Stockton had Kelton Webb and Brynn had Taylee Baird.  Molly didn't end up having anyone...I can't remember why-maybe no one could come.  It wasn't much of a party but I did get pizza for lunch.  The last night before school is always busy with back-to-school nights (two schools) but on top of that, Molly had practice and so did Stockton.  We made sure we did all the getting ready and blessings on Monday night that week (first day was Wednesday).

Brynn, Taylee, Ivy

The end of August started the biggest house project we will ever undertake...as least that we ever foresee we will take.  It's big enough that I will do a separate post for the entire thing but here is a sneak peak and consider this a heads up for future pictures and posts with a torn-apart house in the background.

Molly's soccer season started.  I can't remember what I've posted already about soccer but she has been playing for both teams again this season.  We said we weren't going to do it again but it has been so good with these new coaches.  She is having a lot of fun and rebuilding the confidence that she has lost over the last couple of years.  She had a handful of goals this season which was really fun to see.  With Molly playing on the two teams, she had a total of 24 games from the end of August to the first Saturday in November, with twice a week practices.  It has been busy.  She has loved all of it.

Team "ST"-Molly is third from the left on the bottom.

Team "KT"- Molly is in the back, right in the middle, the short one.

My mom and dad came up to help with the house and my mom brought Crumbl Cookies. (That's really how they are spelled.)  There is a Crumbl Cookies coming to Heber but we already have Suss cookies which are sooooo good.

Brynn's friend, Marianne Freeman, came over to give something to Brynn and Brynn was able to show her the kittens.  Mari's mom took a picture to try to talk her husband into letting them have one-it's a cute picture but it didn't work.  We sent the kittens home with someone else.

By the end of August, this is what my rows of tomatoes looked like.  You can barely see Brynn at the back.  They got so big pretty quick!  I had no idea what I was going to do with all that produce.  Unfortunately, as it turned out, we planted too late.  They grew fast but when we got a couple of cold nights in mid-October, they froze.  I was disappointed-I had spent so much time out in that greenhouse all summer.  We were able to harvest lots and lots of cucumber and squash and pumpkins and some tomatoes but some plants that ripen later were lost.   We were thinking the greenhouse would protect against the cold a little better. There will definitely be a learning curve with this greenhouse and lesson #1 was learned this year: plant early!

Back-to-school for the kids meant more Ivy-and-me time.  I love every minute of it.  She wore these fake glasses to the store one day-isn't she the cutest?

Both of our couches were pushed into the kitchen during the remodel.  Someone else took these photos and I'm not sure what Ivy was doing.  Warm blanket snuggles, I guess.  Grandma April taught the kids to put blankets in the dryer for a few minutes to make them warm.

I don't know how Ivy learned to write so many letters because it wasn't from me!  I was very impressed to see this on my chalkboard one morning.

Stockton has had some really amazing Scout leaders.  He's actually not supposed to be in their group since he turned 10 but the leaders for the older group have never held Scouts so he keeps going with the younger group.  One day when I picked him up, I saw that they had made a go-cart together and then each made their own flags to paint.

Kelton Webb, Riley McPhie, Easton Anderson, Stockton

Riley, Logan Cunningham, Stockton, Easton, Kelton

It takes a little while for Cash to warm up to kittens but then he won't leave them alone and pesters them incessantly.  Except at night.  We pulled them in one night and let them sleep in the laundry room and Cash snuggled right up!

The first part of Labor Day Weekend fell at the very end of August so that Saturday morning we had the Swiss Days parade to do.  We almost didn't do it this year because Justin didn't want to go through all the trouble of getting and returning the car but his management intern took care of all that.  Justin rode his unicycle (like always) and the kids threw out swag and looked for kids they knew from school and sports.  Ivy didn't even need the stroller this year-but she did latch on to one of Justin's tellers.  She never left her side and even got a shoulder ride at one point. 

Ivy and Lindsay