Since I'm so far behind on blogging I'm just going to do one huge blog about our summer activities.
In this first picture the kids are on the rocks by the city pavilion. They were climbing all over them during intermission of the play "Annie". They all earned tickets by signing up for the summer reading program at the library. It was a really enjoyable night.
It's not summer without a few trips up to Grandma and Grandpa Great's cabin in the Uintas. Grandma Stephens' made up a treasure hunt for us and made us all get dressed up appropriately.
Following the clues.
We found the treasure!
I think this little guy was hungry! He kept trying to get into the window to get at the food, no luck for him.
The old tee pee had to be moved so we decided to make it bigger and better than ever. It will still need to be filled in better but we have good "bones" for the tee pee now. The best part was Grandpa Stephens' speaking like an Indian every time he walked into the tee pee and trying to convince the kids he was talking normal but because he was in the tee pee he sounded like an Indian.
We went to the Days of 47 float preview. Our stake made a float this year (not the Madagascar one shown) so we had to go and show our support and put our wishes on a piece of paper to go in the wishing well on our float. I'm always amazed at what people come up with and that they are not professional float makers at all. They all do an awesome job!
We did a lot of building with all kinds of thing but mostly I put this picture here to show what my basement looked like most of the summer. A lot of playing went on here!
We love $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point! We always go to the gardens and always have such fun. This year we convinced the Wardle's to come with us which made it extra fun!
Playing in the water around "Noah's Ark"
Building bridges with logs.
Floating "boats" down the stream.
Beautiful kids and beautiful waterfalls!
As always I think our favorite things to do are roll/run down the hill, see the waterfalls and "secret garden", and play with all the fun displays.
This was the summer of swimming! I think we honestly spent about a third to a half of our days in the pool. All the kids took swimming lessons at the rec center pool twice and all made break throughs in their comfort level in the water. They all finally got it and loved swimming! Rhys is also a little fish, more so then any of the other kids at this age. He loves going underwater and has no fear, which gives me some fear :)
We went to the zoo. Here we are waiting for the bird show to start. This is one of our favorite things to do at the zoo.
A new section of the zoo just opened this year. In it are bald eagles (thus the nest), grizzly bears, seals, a polar bear, etc! The polar bear is quite the showman. We loved watching him swim around.
This "water ball" still grabs the kids' attention every time, they love to make it spin.
This was also the summer of "birding". Evan decided to take up bird watching. He checked out all kinds of books from the library and even bought a few so he could identify what birds he saw. The kids really got into it too. We put up some bird feeders in our backyard to attract the birds but really only attracted the same kinds of birds. Luckily we went on a few mini vacations this summer and could see many different kids of birds there.
Calvin and Hobbes reigned at our house this summer. Chris has never really cared for reading until he discovered Evan's old stash of Calvin and Hobbes books in the spring. Most mornings and throughout the day both Chris and Spencer could be found pouring over their books and marking their favorite ones with sticky notes. As you can see it might have used less paper to mark the ones they didn't like! Glad they have both found something they love to read.
Evan usually takes me golfing once a summer. He convinced me to take a golf class at BYU when we first were married so I kind of know what I'm doing. I enjoy golfing, though I'm not that good. This year we decided to see if Chris and Spencer wanted to come with us. Spencer jumped at the opportunity. He played pretty well for his first time and really enjoyed himself. Maybe next year Chris will join us.
Evan's employer has a party every summer for the employees and their families. This summer was a Luau. Sophia loved the chance to wear lays and flower clips.
For entertainment they had some Polynesian dancers come and perform and teach us how to do various dances. Sophia was in heaven. I think our favorite part though was the "fire dancer". He was awesome!
We checked out the Clark Planetarium and found out we could go to Mars. . .
and the Moon!
Not a lot of moisture this summer (lots of fires occurred all over the state and country) but we did happen to get a big storm and the kids loved puddle jumping.
And that is a part of what we were up to this summer. I love having all my kids home and getting to enjoy them and all the summer has to offer.
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