June

We officially started our summer on Monday, June 1st.  I admit, I had been feeling overwhelmed with the prospect of another 3 months of entertaining the kids after just having nearly 3 months with them home.  I'm usually more motivated and excited for summer.  I decided that Sunday evening to do away with Instagram and focus on having fun and making memories with the kids and I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to accomplish that.  We made our traditional bucket list and wasted no time in checking things off (I'm a list person).  Our first activity?  Aggie Ice Cream from the Midway Dairy.  We met up with Jenny Webb and her boys.

 

After having no baseball all spring, the league felt safe enough to start with games beginning June 1st.  Stockton was excited.  I had mixed feelings-I was glad that he was able to get out and play but I was not looking forward to baseball every Monday night all summer.  It kind of cramped our schedule.  But we managed.  The girls mostly stayed home, minus a few times when grandparents came, but Ivy did choose to come with me that first week.  As for the team, it was a rough start but slowly started to get better.  Their last game was their best.

 

on the pitcher's mound

 

June was when masks became the new normal.  I think this was the first time these girls had been to a store since early March. 

One morning we picked up donuts, chocolate milk, and bananas from Lee's and found a park that was empty.  We stayed for an hour.  Molly and Stockton played lawn darts (brought from home) and ran through the sprinklers.  Stockton tried bottle flipping his almost-empty milk bottle.  Brynn and Ivy loved the fireman pole.  When it warmed up they went back to the sprinklers, Brynn and Ivy tagging along this time.  They ran over to the skate park even though they didn't have scooters or bikes.  They climbed a tree and ate their bananas like monkeys.  We went through the "volcano car wash" on the way home and they thought that was quite funny.

 

We had a campfire that night and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.  John, Jenny, and Kelton Webb came over and we had a relaxing night around the fire with friends while the kids played night games.

Ali came up with her kids for an afternoon.  We took them to Memorial Hill for a little hike.  Molly and Gavin raced up to the top and then spent some time making a movie on the way down.  The views at the top are worth the climb.  When Ali found out that the Midway Dairy was just down the street and that they sold Aggie Ice Cream she insisted that we go there.  It was our second time that week but we were okay with that.

Stockton, Grant, Brynn going down; Gavin and Molly climbing up

Ivy and Lucy

Lucy, Ivy, Brynn, Grant, Stockton

Gavin and Molly

Gav with the photo bomb of the day, Ivy and Lucy

 When we got back home, we made a water blob for the kids.  They got about 20 minutes of play time on it before it started to get holes in it but they continued to play and have fun anyway.

the anticipation-Brynn, Stockton, Seth, Grant, Lucy, Ivy in the back

Brynn, Ivy, Lucy, Molly, Grant, Stockton

Gavin, Brynn (behind Gav), Grant, Stockton, Seth, Molly, Ivy, Lucy

Gavin and Molly

 

 

These were the outfits that Brynn and Ivy wore for a "Princess in Black" movie directed by Stockton.  Princess in Black (Ivy) and the Goat Boy (Brynn).

 

I kept the water blob because I wanted to see if I could turn it into a slip 'n slide.  I cut off the top, which was riddled with holes, and used just the bottom.  I staked down the 4 corners and put a sprinkler right next to it-and it worked fabulously!  So good that I threw away our old slip 'n slide that never worked that well and decided that if we wanted a slip 'n slide, this was the way to do it.  (A roll of plastic sheeting from Home Depot will make a lot of slip 'n slides!)

We also blew up the pool this afternoon and had some friends over to play in the water.

Molly braided Brynn's and Ivy's hair into lots of little braids one night while we were watching a movie.  The little girls loved having their hair like that for a few days.  They also loved their cute, crimped hair when we took them out.  She ended up doing it two times that first week.

 

Remember the Harry Potter board game Molly made a few years ago?  It was based on the first book in the series?  Well, her and Gavin put their brains together again to create a board game for the second book.  Also full of creativity and fun!  We played it one night as a test run to see if it needed any kinks worked out.  It has all the major elements from the book incorporated into the game:  the flying car, The Burrow, the Floo-Network, Diagon Alley, the Whomping Willow, the Forbidden Forest and spiders, the Chamber of Secrets, the basilisk, and every flavor beans (to name a few).  The drawings were all done by Molly.

Molly chose a book called "Small Spaces" for me to read to her.  We finished it sometime around the end of May.  We got through it fast since we were home every night-usually we have to work around her busy schedule.  She already has a book picked out when it's her turn again.

I always try to take the kids to Plain City that first or second week of summer.  We had dentist appointments with Jeff early in June and decided to make the drive worthwhile by spending a couple of days playing.  We did our appointments (no cavities!) and then got to Plain City later that afternoon.  The kids spent the rest of the day playing with cousins.  Molly, Tessa, Chloe, and Abby took some cute photos in front of the old gas station.

Chloe and Molly

Molly and Chloe

Tessa and Molly

Abby, Tessa, Molly

Abby, Tessa, Molly

Ivy and Lucy-Lucy is wearing an old dance costume of mine

Wednesday was a swim day.  I told the kids they could start after breakfast and swim as long as they wanted to.  That's pretty much what they did, with a break for lunch.  We went to some baseball and softball games that night, had dinner, and then got in some night swimming.

Ivy and Lucy

the whole group!

we were there on Lucy's birthday and got to celebrate with her-Josie, Lucy, Ivy

Abby, Molly, Tessa

Brynn, Lucy, Harper

night swimming for the big kids

bedtime for the younger ones-Harper, Josie, Brynn

We had made some appointments for Thursday to go to the zoo.  My mom had a grandma pass that she still wanted to get some use out of.  It worked out for my crew to go the zoo and then continue on to home when we had seen everything there was to see.  We loved seeing the brand new baby monkey that reminded us of a small beanie boo.

Lucy loves when I comb her hair, especially if I make it matching with Ivy

Ben, Grace, Spencer, Chloe, Molly, Abby, Josie, Ivy, Brynn, Harper, Stockton, Tessa, Grant

I had some awesome helpers step in and get the wagon all the way up the hill! Ivy got a ride, that lucky girl.

 

Brynn and Harper

The kids had a surprise waiting for them when we got home.  Actually three surprises.  The week before, Justin and I were out in the pasture moving sprinklers and noticing how overgrown it already was.  We were planning on building a sheep barn and getting sheep next year but it looked like we were going to be needing them even sooner (as our lawnmowers 😉).  Justin called his lamb buddy and had him deliver three ewes while we were in Plain City.  A mom and two lambs just born in the spring.  We named them Darla, Lola, and Luna.  Darla as a nod to a favorite character in a family favorite movie, Lola after my great-grandma (I've been dying to name one of our animals Lola for a while) and Luna because it went well with Lola-I guess it could be for another favorite character, Luna Lovegood.  They have been great at keeping our pasture under control and we also feed them some corn each day.  We plan on breeding them each fall and selling the babies each spring (as a way to bulk up mission and college funds for the kids).  We will probably get to the point where we keep six in the pasture. Darla was already really tame and lets anyone pet her.  The two babies were more wary but Brynn has been working on them all summer and they are coming around.  Brynn has loved them the most, Molly and Ivy next, and Stockton is wary of them.  I grew up with lambs so I love having them and love that they are so low-maintenance.

Snow cones are a summer staple and one of my favorite parts of summer so I was excited to check this one off our list so early.  Blackberry has become my favorite flavor-and I think I've got Ivy won over as well.  Stockton invited Kelton to go with us and Molly's friends, Sadie and Sloane, met us there.

 

Kelton and Stockton

Stockton spent a whole day working on an obstacle course in the yard.  That night he had all of us go through the course while he timed us.  Hanging out in our yard at night is one of our very favorite things to do.

 

Brynn loves peas so much that a few years ago, Justin dubbed her "pea lady."  This nickname has a double connotation which can also be "pee lady" due to her small bladder and always needing to go.  Needless to say, she is not a fan of the nickname.

 

Justin bought a couple of backpacks in anticipation of a backpacking trip.  Brynn and Ivy hopped in to see if they would hold the 35-40 pounds of weight.  We teased Brynn that instead of hiking up the trail, she could just be packed in by Justin.

  

Another night spent outside.  Stockton is practicing his pitching. 

Brynn and Ivy were both excited to sign up for swimming lessons this summer.  I didn't even check to see if the aquatic center was doing them this year and ended up going to a family that does them out of their personal, backyard pool.  This meant that Ivy and Brynn both got their teacher to themselves.  They both did great and had a great time!  The last day was a free day for an hour and that was extra fun for them.

 

 

We made soap clouds.  We did this a couple of years ago and it. was. a. mess.  I was determined to make it not so messy.  I used parchment paper (duh) and I was the only one allowed to get it out of the microwave.  And then, after the pictures I took, they had to take them straight out to the trampoline.  It worked out very well and made no mess at all.  We were even able to do this more than once this summer.

they tried combining their two bars of soap to make a bigger cloud

During the month of June, each of the older kids were able to take a turn to go to Gene and April's and have a sleepover with the other Goodrich cousin(s) their age.  Stockton was first.  He spent time with Luke and Jake.  His favorite was going to the temple quarry where they cut all the stone for the Salt Lake Temple.  He was able to bring some of the granite home.  He has really wanted to go back but we haven't made it happen yet.

Jake, Stockton, Luke, Grandpa

Stockton, Luke, Jake

Stockton and Jake

Ivy brought this purple velvet dress-up home from Grandma April's house after a Sunday afternoon spent with them, with the expectation that she would return it on our next visit.  She wore it every possible minute for a few days.
 

Once I figured out how easy it was to blow up the pool with the air compressor, it made an appearance a lot more.  A lot of afternoons when we had nothing else planned, Brynn and Ivy would ask for it to come out.  And most of the time I was happy to oblige since it was so entertaining for them and would fill an entire afternoon.

 

Molly got her turn next at Gene and April's.  It was her and Tiana.  They went to the movie theater, got their nails done, and Tiana dyed the tips of Molly's hair.  They made dinner for Grandma, Grandpa, and Brett.  Tiana slept in so Molly got some alone time with Grandma on a morning walk.  April is the best listener so the one-on-one time with her is so good for Molly.

Brett and Molly

Molly and Tiana

Ivy and Brynn painted rocks.  There are plenty of rocks to be found in our pasture!

 

We hadn't gone to the lake yet and I was wanting to get the kids there.  We had a few hours on a Friday morning/early afternoon and decided to take advantage of it.  We picked up Kelton Webb on our way, found a decent spot for a busy Friday, and had a fun few hours.  Stockton had a well-check that afternoon so when I finally started loading up, the kids did not want to leave.  They had started a game of paddleboard wars and were having too much fun!

Kelton, Stockton, Ivy, Brynn

Stockton and Kelton

Ivy, Kelton, Stockton, Brynn

Brynn was the last kid to get her turn at Grandma and Grandpa's at the end of the month.  (I didn't think that Ivy needed one and our July was packed.) She got to spend her days with Evie.  They got to go to the dollar store and pick out three items.  They got to go to the grocery store with Grandma and pick out one thing to take back and eat-Brynn picked a container of strawberries and ate the whole thing when she got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  They made sugar scrub for all the girls in their families.

trying out Brett's airsoft gun

Brynn and Evie

While she was at Grandma's, Justin and I took Stockton to his baseball game while Molly and Ivy got a girls night at home.  Molly is the best big sister and always does fun things.  They made s'mores over the gas range.

leading off on first base

 

We got a summer downpour for about 10 minutes one night and then a beautiful rainbow.  Both Molly and Stockton happened to be at their practices during the storm and one of Stockton's coaches took this picture.  A summer rainstorm is the best and I wish we would have had more this summer.

Stockton is to the left of the red-shirted boy, kind of in the back

This was a fort and sleepover night in the living room.  Brynn was still at Grandma's.