Week Nine Was Mighty Fine

Another week under our belts. What I really need to do is fix my camera, because I am mighty tired of using my phone for everything. To be clear, the camera still works, the LCD screen still does NOT work, and I might need to get used to taking pictures I can't see. I mean, isn't that how it always worked in the old days? One would take pictures, drop off film, and see the final products a week later. As it is now, I would only have to wait until I got home to plug the card into my computer. Seriously, why am I being so dumb? Resolution in place. Better pictures starting today. (Well...tomorrow.)

This last week was fun. On Monday, Robyn and I went to a play together. It is the third play we have attended in the Youth Season at the Hale Center Theater. I think this one was my favorite so far. It was Cinderella. They had an epic slow motion chase scene. At the end, we got a picture with the princess.

Our field trip this week was simple. We went miles away to the BYU Creamery. Always love a trip out for ice cream.

And a selfie every now and then.

The coolest part of my time at the Creamery was running into a friend from the old hood. I grew up with her and her sister and admired them both. June was nice enough to take a picture of me with Makell.

The rest of the week held great adventures for us. Tyler's brother, J.R., was nice enough to bring the boat down for a youth activity. But since he was going to be down here....with a boat....we figured we should introduce the kids to some water fun. (I'm thinking that June and Robyn may have been boating before, but if so, they were young enough that they don't remember.)

The weather was less than ideal. It was windy, a little rainy, and the water was pretty choppy. But that didn't stop us. If you are boating, you are already planning to get a little wet.

J.R. was our designated driver. Look, he is almost as handsome as his brother.

I think we are all ready to go. Can you see the monster tube we are pulling back there?

I have never seen one quite like it. It is made for three people. You can lie down and hang on, or there are hand holds up top and you can stand and try your luck that way. I found it is easier to remain on the craft if you are lying down. But I wasn't the first to test it out. Here are our first three victims volunteers.

They actually did quite well. Look at them out there having a frolickingly good time.

They made it look so easy that even Pearl thought she would give it a go. The next three up were me, June, and Pearl. I was concerned that Pearl would not be able to hold on and she would slip off the back. Ironically, we had the opposite problem. The nose of the tube and the rope were a bit underwater and as the boat started off, water flowed over the top and pulled us down. Three bodies slid forward into the drink. Pearl was not ecstatic about her first tubing experience. I hoisted her back on the tube and shivering she pointed to the boat and said, "I want to go back on there." And so ended her foray into the water. (There is always next time.)

Everyone took turns on the tube. Daisy finally decided to take a turn. (I'm thinking that she was hesitant after watching Pearl's adventure.) Tyler was driving and he took it nice and slow for her and she never fell off. She decided that she was the BOSS of tubing.

Everyone else got dunked at least once. The girls took a tumble or two.

Robyn was super brave going with J.R. alone. He tends to bounce around quite a bit. (I think his ultimate goal is to end up in the water.)

And if he doesn't fall off, he just jumps right in.

I got to drive the boat once, and I dumped both Tyler and J.R., but I'm pretty sure that had nothing to do with my driving.

June was freaking amazing at holding on. One trip, I was half in the water, and June must have been more than half submerged, but somehow she managed to hold on. Every time I thought she was gone for sure, I would look back to see her clinging to something. She was quite determined to remain onboard.

The last run, no one fell off. I was frozen since the weather never got all that sunny. After two people disembarked, J.R. thought he would toss me in the water by turning the tube on its end. However, my icicle grip hadn't released, and I just held on as he lifted the tube. It was funny to see his head pop over the side and his quizzical look that I was still clinging to the tube, and was not in fact, in the water.

It was great fun. I was a little nervous taking pictures at high speeds. I was forever worried my phone was going to go flying overboard, but it survived in one piece. I even had time to take a selfie.

And Pearl, despite her first abysmal take-off, was pretty chipper the rest of the time.

(That is, as long as she had a blanket.) Thank you so much J.R., for taking us boating.

Thursday, I skipped making a treat, because I was saving up to make fudge on Sunday. When finally made, it looked really good, but I didn't like it as well because I used milk chocolate chips. It was just too sweet. Note to self...stick to the Semi-sweet chips.

Friday, we watched some movie. Oh yeah, it was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. I never saw the first one, but I did enjoy all the food puns in the second one. My favorite were the Flamangoes. (Made from mangoes, of course.) A close second was the Tacodile, and I really liked the hippos that looked like big baked potatoes, but I don't know what they were called. Maybe a Baked Hippotato?

Saturday, I took June with me to give blood. I need moral support, in case I get lightheaded. June is not old enough to donate yet, but she did spell my name with pretzels. (That is also useful.)

And another selfie. (I guess this was the week for them. Too bad we managed to center our picture around someone's caboose.)

Finally, we had a small celebration for Foot's birthday. He is still the most beloved bear in the universe. Happy birthday Foot!

Goodbye week nine. I can hear school in the distance, its heralding trumpet bleating the cry of home lunch and backpacks full of papers I haven't checked. I need to get my school goals in order. This year I'm bringing my 'A' game. I have to. Have I mentioned that we will have TWO science fair projects this year? That is what I should have done this summer. Maybe it's not too late...

Oh the Lessons of Swimming

Usually we do swim lessons earlier in the season. It makes sense to have them relearn and rehearse what swim strokes they know BEFORE they get in the water a lot. But the earlier sessions didn't work in with our vacation schedule. And in the end, I really enjoyed having this time in July to chill by the pool and watch the kids.

Yep, we have finally reached the age where EVERYONE is in swim lessons. Last year I did the 'mom and me' class with Pearl and naturally I got no pictures because I was in the water every day. This year, I relaxed on the sidelines and set aside one day to take pictures. (And it wasn't the last day because I already know how that works from previous years.)

The girls are doing very well. June and Robyn were in the same level. It was nice for them to go to their designated area of the pool each day together. They are both swimming. It still isn't the prettiest thing to watch, but I am so proud of them both. I'm not sure how well they are doing on treading water. I watched June the other day and timed her for 30 seconds. It looked a little frantic out there, but she seemed to pass everything she needed to in class.

Their teacher was super sweet. She gave them the "Cutest Sisters Award" and wrote really nice comments on the back. I was especially proud of the comment she gave June. It said, "Very good swimmer. Next level here we come! June is very eager and obedient and kind to her sister. She's awesome!" (I love that is said she was kind to her sister. Those kind of things make my heart happy.)

Ivory was loving all her time in the water. She is getting better at swimming all the time. I think she still sinks like a brick when she isn't actively swimming in one direction, but that may be because she is all muscle. (Although I think her floats are pretty good.)

Daisy made the most improvement as far as I can tell. Last year, in Level 1, she wasn't even putting her face in the water. This year, she was brave enough to go under often and she was even floating by herself. Her teacher was fantastic.

And Pearl...well...it was something else. The first day she had fun, until the end, when the instructor asked her to put her face in the water. She came out crying.

The second day, she cried the entire time. I wasn't sure it was her at first, but even when I figured it out, I didn't want to go get her and have her think she could get out of swim lessons. (Kudos to her very patient teaher.)

Third day, there was a bit of threatening used to get her in the water. It worked and she had a good time. Each day, she would explain very nicely that she didn't like swim lessons. But she would go out and seemingly have a good time. I love her pigtails this day.

She was a champ. At the end, she was even dipping her chin in the water. That is leaps away from crying for half an hour. I will take it.

Love all my little ducks, no matter how well they swim.

Week Eight, Checkmate

Summer is winning. I am running out of energy. We are sleeping in and getting stations done on a haphazard schedule. I am split about it. One third of me is too tired to care. One third of me is shocked that I'm not running a tighter ship. And one third of me is glad I'm flexible enough to let things slide. The last third (just kidding) realizes that summer is almost over. June got homework this week, and is there really only two weeks until school starts??

Week eight was fun, but we did hardly any scheduled activities.

Monday, Robyn played with a friend most of the day and I took Daisy to the doctor for a UTI. I spent most of that day running to the bathroom and holding Daisy's hand while she peed. Poor thing.

Tuesday, we had friends in from out of town. (Totally forgot to take pictures again.) It was great to see Kari and her kids and she taught us a new game that we are hooked on. Love Letter. Check it out. Not too expensive and very fun. Only for four people, but I think it makes my top ten list.

Wednesday, we packed it in. We went swimming in the afternoon with Becca. (And this with swim lessons going on all week. That's another post.) Also, we met Tricia up at Thanksgiving Point to visit the Museum of Natural Curiosity. I had heard a lot about it. And for the most part everything I heard was true. It was really fun, super crowded, and totally crazy. There are a million nooks and crannies. I was constantly losing the kids and searching for them. There is a main hub with different areas branching out from it. We would go explore one area at a time and this was the only thing keeping me sane. At least I knew I only had to find the kids in one area.

We went to Kidopolis first. (I think this was my favorite area.)

I can't even begin to explain all the things in there. I didn't even see it all. I did find these three monkeys robbing the bank.

Pearl and June were buddies and they did magic tricks for me.

We went and played with stop motion animation.

Pearl was very patient waiting as June and I put together this video. (Sorry it is sideways. I am not really very video savvy.)

I'm not even sure what this water piano thing does. Our time in Kidopolis was over and it was on to the next section.

We chose Water Works next.

We didn't stay here long. We took time to get in this strange mister/wind machine.

There was also a hurricane wind simulator, much like the one Tim tried at Point Defiance, but it had wind up to 85 mph. (I forgot to get a picture.)

The whole area was made to have water. The girls played at this trough, but often people would set it up so the water spilled directly on the floor.

We didn't stay there long, because the kids really wanted to go here.

The Rainforest was the favorite of the kids. There was a huge play area in which they could climb and slide. (This is where I lost everyone.)

Somewhere inside they found access to the rope bridge.

This area was where I got to talk to Tricia the longest. Although we entered the museum together, we didn't get to spend much time chatting. It was just too darn busy with the crowds and kids.

There were lots of fun things to try. The Chamber of Courage made me scream when I stuck my hand in a hole. Naturally I found the kids to make them jump too.

We tried to hug as hard as a python. (Three kids are not as strong as one mom, I discovered.)

They had a rope to see how long you could hang, and one area to see how high you could jump. I liked the area to see how fast you could pounce. With all six of us, we took down 16 prey in the allotted time.

The scale was broken. Either that or boot camp is really paying off. I don't think I have weighed that since Jr. High.

Eventually we tore ourselves away to see another area. Next up was the Discovery Garden.

This area takes you outside and there is a playground, or you can check out the children's gardens that used to be part of the main Thanksgiving Point gardens. This area was the least crowded because it was pretty hot outside. Pearl gave me a good pose before she went to find some shade.

Fun to see an old school teeter-totter.

We stayed outside long enough for everyone to wait in line for a turn on the zipline thingy. There goes Ivory.

Next up, Robyn.

And finally June. I love how June takes care of her sisters. She often makes sure they get a turn before she goes.

We came inside to find out we had ten minutes left to explore the motion area.

So we briefly pulled tablecloths out from under items. (I officially stink at this. NEVER ask me to try this at your house.)

We quickly watched smoke rings rise.

We rapidly played with spinning rope. (Hmm...the camera phone does not do too well in the motion area.)

And we were abruptly mesmerized by spinning objects.

Then out the small door we went.

I highly recommend going sometime. Especially if you have a friend that can get you in for half price. (Thank you Tricia!!)

Phew. Are you tired?? And that wasn't even the end of the week.

Thursday was Pioneer day, and we rested and played and appreciated that the pioneers worked so hard to get us here to our (eventually) air conditioned homes. We did make No-Bake Cookies, but I didn't take pictures and we took them to the evening festivities where they were devoured. (Not necessarily because they were fantastic....there were just a lot of people.)

The party was the Cul de Sac of fire. We went last year and it was fabulous and luckily our fabulous friends continued the tradition. Check out all the fireworks ready to go.

It was so nice to relax and enjoy the evening. We let the kids run free. We chatted with friends. There was too much sugar for the kids, but sometimes a small girl needs a HUGE snowcone.

We passed the time by playing some Zombie Fluxx. (Another new fun game, although I recommend Love Letter more.)

It was so nice to see friends. Thanks Sunny for snapping a picture. (I stole her montage from FB so there are a few kids you may not know. But you might recognize that small lady in the lower right corner.)

Sadly, right before show time, Daisy tripped on the wood board stabilizing the fireworks and she skinned both knees and an elbow. She was one sad chicken. I took her to the car for bandaids and they helped stop the crying. (I love how bandaids are magical.) We got back and moved the troops to a new location since we once again chose a spot where we were showered by falling debris. (Talk about being right in the action.)

With a Daisy on my lap, I managed to get one shot of the action. Not the best picture, I agree. But the actual show was amazing. I saw some fireworks I have never seen before. It was killer.

Then I carried a sleeping Daisy home. Too much excitement for one night.

Friday we watched Pirates: Band of Misfits. It was okay. Nothing to write home about. But I do believe making Friday 'Movie Day' was the best decision ever. It is great to end the week eating popcorn and chillin' with the kids.

Ahhh, summer. (At least for two more weeks.)