8/13/15

June, well a small part of it

 Man, I'm so behind!!!  School starts in a couple weeks, so I'm hoping I can get caught up while the kids are at school.  We'll see how that goes.  Grant finished T-ball end of May.  He absolutely loved it!

End of season T-ball party at Round Table Pizza.  He got a 'real' medal, a new baseball and a CUPCAKE. 
We visited the goat lawnmowers.  The city brings in goats every year to all the greenbelts to eat down the tall grass, so it helps with fire prevention.
Somehow they can get into the trees too.
My grandma died a few days before school got out, so Ava took her birthday cupcakes to school a couple days before her birthday.    Found a new amazing chocolate cake recipe, the icing is the best part!
I found this picture from Grant taped to my bedspread.  Ava and he learned to water ski this year, so it's a picture of him waterskiing. Of course it took about half a roll of tape to tape it on there. :)
On our way from Vegas to Hurricane, we kept the kids entertained by having them look for the '4' on the mountain (can you see it? middle of the picture above).  Once you find the '4' you only have about 45 minutes left to Hurricane.
We were traveling most of the day on Ava's birthday, so when we got to my moms all (at least the ones from Hurricane) the aunts, uncles, grandma's, grandpa's and cousins were there to celebrate her birthday.  When I told her they were all there for her, she got the biggest smile on her face and said, "I can't believe they're all here for me.  It must be a party".   She was in heaven having all the attention.  Aunt April was so nice to make her a pink cake and chocolate cupcakes.

The birthday girl.  I told her I'd make her a cake when we got home, but it's 2 months later and it still hasn't happened.  It'll probably be like Grant's birthday cake - I waited so long he forgot and it's almost his next birthday. :)  She got a scooter and some gymnastics leotards for her birthday presents when we got home. 
 My grandma Ballard didn't have the best health for a long time, but just like grandpa she kept getting better after each 'bout' of sickness.  Then all of a sudden 1 of those sicknesses, which ironically was the same (bowel blockage), came unexpectedly and they both died within a couple days of the diagnosis.  We were hoping she would hold on for a couple more weeks, because we were heading to Utah for a reunion anyway.  But, obviously we're not in charge of those decisions.  We took a very quick (2 days) trip to be there for the funeral.  Adam and I sang the song she requested "Somewhere My Love" at the funeral.  
They did my grandpa's temple work before grandma died (although she wasn't able to make it), and were planning to have them sealed as well.  Each time they went to do the sealing grandma would end up in the hospital with another ailment.  They never did get the sealing done before she died.  A couple weeks after the funeral, they were able to seal my grandma and grandpa to each other.  My dad finally got to be sealed to his parents.  I wish I could have been in the temple for that.  It's cool to think they were together in heaven when that sealing took place. 

 My brothers and cousins
 
I love this picture of Ollie.  Part reverent, part sasser. 

 
Got to spend a little time with family.  Jane giving Leah a serious makeover.  Miss Jane has got to be the funniest little girl.  I love just listening to her and watching her.
It was a perfect coincidence that my grandma's funeral was the same weekend as Kate's baptism.  Once of the disadvantages of living away, is we miss a lot of special occasions like baptisms and baby blessings.  I was honored to speak at Kate's baptism, and Adam sang (Beth played her Viola) a baptism song.  So glad we got to be there for Kate.  Sure love these girls.
We squeezed in a quick trip to the cabin.  This is the only picture I have from there.  The kids fished with grandpa, uncle Kip and uncle Kyle.  Kip cooked the fish over a fire at the lake.  We had a great time up there.
We got home from Hurricane and had 4 days left of school.  This is Grant's Transitional Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Gibson and her brother (Mr. K).  Mr. K came in to help out in the classroom a lot and the kids loved him.  Mrs. Gibson was the most patient teacher I've ever met.  
I forgot to get pictures of Ava and Noah with their teachers.  Ava had Mrs. Melvin (same kinder teacher as Noah had). And Noah had 2 teachers (Mrs. Milne and Mrs. Knepshield).  They rotated teaching each week and Noah really liked both of them.
We did our summer "schedule" again this year: park day, outing day, fun at home day, art/craft day, hike day.   Of course we hit up the cement slide park.  Amazing how 2 slides can entertain kids for hours.
My kids love to play school, so one day we picked countries to learn about.  Ava's country was Germany, so for breakfast we made German pancakes.
Adam and I went on a date one night.  Plans were to go to dinner then the temple.  We made it to dinner, but my car was broken into and temple bags stolen.  Aren't those robbers in for a surprise when they open those bags. Jokes on them. Quite an expensive date night.
craft day: Popsicle stick creations
Best blackmail picture ever.  Grant in heals shucking corn.
Ava teaching Noah how to cross his eyes.  Why is it that Noah can't eat a sandwich without it going from ear to ear?
Ava does this way too much.
Art day: sidewalk chalk
Park day: can't remember the name
 
Hike day: Secret Ravine trail

Craft day: made more hypertufa pots
Our friends, the O'borns, took us to their property to ride 4-wheelers, shoot guns and have a BBQ.......and get really dirty.



The kids had a blast. Nice to have fun friends to do things with.
The kids passing notes over the fence to our neighbor.  They love Doug and Linda.
Scout camp.  Oh man, this was quite the undertaking for me, but the kids loved it.  Noah kept telling me it was the greatest thing ever, and he was so glad someone put this all together. 
They're making bag ice cream.
 
Discovering tiny creatures
 
The Wolf den.  Noah is the only one from our ward.  We combine with another ward because our dens are so small.
Noah's leather bracelet he made at camp.
BB guns - I mean who wouldn't love doing all this?!?
Bottle rockets!

Sorry it's sideways. Too lazy to turn it.
'Take Flight' was the theme, so lots of 'flying' stations.  Paper airplane station.

One of the closing ceremonies they had a wildlife rehabilitation place come.  She brought a few owls that were injured and have been living at the center.  They had an owl that was ready to be released back into the wild, so the kids got to watch as they released the owl.  Pretty cool.  The lady told the boys to be really quiet while the owl was let go, but of course a few boys had to be rowdy.  Boys!!

Obstacle course.
 
Each night they did a closing ceremony.  This night they retired an old flag.
My cousin Andy came to visit the week of scout camp (sorry Andy we were so busy we couldn't adequately entertain you).  I felt bad that we had to leave every afternoon for scout camp, so one of the mornings we went to Sunsplash, immediately followed by scout camp for Noah (he was exhausted that day).  Notice Ava upside down in the water? 
Archery - Noah LOVED scout camp!!
Made Andy come on one of our hikes.  I can't remember the name, but it's near Lake Clementine and goes under the Foresthill bridge.
We did get to take Andy to the lake before he left. 
Another one of our art days:  splatter and blowing art



Granty lost his first tooth.
Went BACK to Hurricane for the Wilson reunion, and my river trip, and to meet baby Lucy, and to hang out with Ballards, and to see more friends and family, and to have lots of fun. I'll do a separate post for those events.
For my birthday I got a tough camera.  It's can go underwater so we've had fun playing around with it.  It takes pretty good pictures.



Last Christmas Adam insisted that we needed one of these motor things for the pool.  It's fun, but we've had leaking problems with it, so we haven't used it too much.  Sorry the water's a little murky in this video. 
 
Went to the lake with some friends (Sarah is also one of our babysitters, and the kids love her).


Ava lost another tooth.  Grant and her lost teeth a day apart.  The tooth fairy is going broke at our house.
Noah had his first cello concert in June.  He passed off his Twinkles and got his cello pin.  He was so happy to pass them off.  He assumed it meant he didn't have to practice them anymore.  Ha. He still does.  I'm really amazed how much he's learned in such a short time.
 June was crazy busy, but we had lots of fun, and some lazy summer days too.

5 comments:

Mary said...

I love those kids. They're so fortunate to have such involved loving parents...but I think this every time you post to your blog! Did you organize the scout camp? It looks so fun I can't wait to show Freddie...I'm planning to get involved (as a parent) when he starts cubs next year so you'll need to coach me. And stop beating yourself up for getting behind on the blog or birthday cakes or whatever. Our lives move so fast, I say let go of self-imposed expectations and just enjoy the present! Good luck with the new school year cousins!

mammasweet said...

I am so impressed with the amount of activity you crammed into the short time. You are amazing. I think I was about that busy with my kids in the summer! I wish I had been doing this kind of blog. Love you so much.

Summer said...

Mary, I was responsible for registering our 2 packs (which is quite an undertaking given the fact that parents are TERRIBLE at turning in paperwork, let alone the correct paperwork), organizing one of the stations and coordinating station leaders and parent helpers. I told the lady who was over the whole thing I would NEVER want her job. :)
Con, Internet wasn't around back then, remember? :)

mammasweet said...

I can wish anyway. But I do have thousands of pictures and movies of them. Any takers?

Ty * April said...

Great cello playing Noah! That was awesome.