August 2018

We had to fit in a lot of activities in August before school started and since my work project finally calmed down enough that I could go do some things during the day...so hang on while we fit all of summer vacation into 2 weeks.

We used our get out pass quite a bit and went to Funtopia to do some climbing.  The kids loved it and keep asking when we can go back.



We went to Cowabunga bay.  The kids LOVED the lazy pool and would have stayed in it all day.  They were all pretty brave and tried some of the bigger kid slides but thought the water was cold so they preferred the small kid slide, pool, and lazy river.  Jaron was the only one brave enough to stand under the huge bucket of water when it poured out.



We went to Highland Fling the night they lit up the hot air balloons and watched fireworks.  It was so cool to watch them all lit up but was a bit nerve wracking as the wind picked up and they started moving and had to be taken down right where everyone was standing.



We went to Lagoon and had a great day.  It wasn't very crowded so it was super fun.  We did a ton of rides.  Jaron was tall enough to go on the Bat ride.  Aria went on Cannibal with Shane and I talked Siena into going on the Spider with Aria and I...which was a mistake as she screamed/cried the entire ride.  I thought it was so funny and then she got mad at me for laughing at her dramaticness...oops.  She is definitely not a roller coaster girl which is hard for me to understand as I have always loved roller coaster so I need to be more understanding about that.  Aria is exact opposite and will go on anything, although she was so scared to go on Collosus cuz it does 2 upside down revolutions (I don't think she realizes the Wicked, Cannibal all go upside down too but she just can't see it.)



We went back to the Ninja gym, which they love to go to and helped start their now obsession for monkey bars.


Christy and family came to town and we had a fun afternoon celebrating Mia's birthday going bowling with all the cousins.



We took a trip to Bear Lake which I'll save for another post.

We went to a rodeo with The Pace's when they came to town, they mostly liked the treats and seeing the Pace's.



And then...school started.  I thought I was going to be totally fine sending them back to school after a long summer but as we pulled up and the girls jumped out of the car, their teacher happened to be standing right there and gave them a big hug and I thought 'great, now she gets to spend all day with them and I don't!'  Jaron has Mrs. Reckling, who the girls had last year and has 2 friends from the ward in his class.  The girls got Mrs. Correa who their friend Sorena had last year so all my kids went to school the first day so excited for their teachers.  The girls leave an hour before Jaron so it's nice to get them off and have some time with Jaron in the morning.  All of them have done great so far.  I heard 1st grade was a hard adjustment but besides maybe a little more tired at night, they've done great and think that 1st grade is the best thing ever.  They love eating lunch at school and buy lunch every Wednesday when they have Pizza.

Bear Lake

We were so excited we got a chance to go on a family trip this summer after my work project finally slowed down.  We booked it and got out of town and it was just what we needed to wind down our summer vacation.



We have never been Bear Lake before and found a great condo for 3 nights that we stayed in.



On the way up we took advantage of our Get Out Passes and stopped in both Ogden and Logan for some fun times riding Go Karts, climbing walls, obstacle courses and bounce houses.



Bear Lake was the perfect get away and was fun to just relax, spend time at the lake building sand castles and playing games.



We went on this short but beautiful hike where the kids found this bush full of butterflies and had a blast trying to catch and chase them.



On our way home we stopped at another arcade in Logan and with our Get Out Passes we each got $20 worth of tokens.  We had a blast with our thousands of tickets and came home with some 'amazing' prizes(well according to the kids).  The kids thought this was the best thing ever being forced to spend all $20 of tokens in a short amount of time.

July 2018

July turned out to be a very busy, crazy month, but not with our usual fun family activities.  2 things had me quite busy this month.  The first was my project at work that I have been working on for 14 months trying to get done.  It proved to be my hardest project to date (and hopefully ever) and well I'm proud to say we got it launched the last week of July.  But I worked 35-40 hours each week in July.  With 3 kids home all day, this was super stressful for me.  The other reason July was crazy was I called to be primary president in our ward.  I was called as a 3rd counselor a few months prior but it's been super busy trying to get my presidency in place, holes filled and everyone up and running.  We have 122 primary kids with 30 nursery aged kids.

It's a bit crazy to say the least.  So when you see that we didn't do a lot this month, now you know why.  I'm trying hard not to feel super guilty about it.  My kids still had a great month, they spent a lot of time at home yes, but they played with friends, swam a lot, spent time with grandma and cousin Abbey and luckily Shane works from home and was able to take them a few places that I don't have documented (fishing, bounce houses, swimming, Ninja gym, etc.)  And the kids were awesome.  Of course they wanted and needed my attention but for the most part they tried to be understanding and let me get my work done.

Luckily we made up for a lot and packed in a lot of our summer activities the 3 weeks of August before school started.  More to come in the August post about that.

Jaron and I went on a Mother/Son date to a Jazz Summer League game.  He didn't have a Jazz shirt to wear so he thought we should both wear our BYU shirts...lol.  We got tickets on the 12th row and had a great time.  I think Jaron ate almost that entire bucket of popcorn but he thought it was pretty cool to see a Jazz game in person.



On top of my crazy month, Shane and I got asked to be in charge of our ward/neighborhood 4th of July Breakfast.  And it was at the park with no electricity to make breakfast with.  However, it turned out great.  We had some good help and a great turn out and although it was busy, it was fun.  We did the usual kids bike parade but I was so busy I barely got a pictures.  That afternoon Skye Estates hosted a big neighborhood event with bounce houses, lunch, cotton candy and snow cones.  That night we watched fireworks at Sandy which has become our tradition.



We couldn't forget our 7-11 day with free slurpees.  Although I was in the office that day so Dad was nice enough to take them and even sent me a picture!



Sad to say we barely made it to Draper Days this year.  I love Draper Days but we just didn't make it this year to the concert and fireworks but we did make it to the Dog jumping contests and got to see the petting zoo and reptile exhibit.

One Saturday morning we went and got donuts and went on a short hike up the canyon and enjoyed our donuts.



We did lots of swimming in our pool this summer.  It's been nice because all 3 kids can swim and I don't feel like I have to be in the pool every minute.  So there were times I could go take them for an hour and still check email as needed while they swam.  Still not ideal to sit there working but at least it got them out of the house and doing something they love.  They all learned to do flip/somersaults into the pool so they think that is so fun.  And they can all swim the entire length of our pool which is about 50 feet long.  I was so happy to see that, especially Jaron who at the beginning of summer I was still making wear floaties.

And the month ended with Jaron turning 5!  But we'll save those details for their own post.