Tessa was so sad to hear that she wasn't going to go to preschool for a few months. My social butterfly. I failed to mention to her that her preschool buddies will be moving on to kindergarten next year without her. Playdates with these girls gave Tessa some good "girl" time in her usually all "boy" world.
On Cason's last day of school we attended a little kindergarten graduation. He's THRILLED to now be a 1st grader (which means getting to take lunch to school and seeing his brothers on the big playground at recess!). I'm thrilled because this means next year I'll have all three boys in full time school!! No more crazy driving back and forth from school a billion times a day!
Now usually we celebrate the last day of school by going camping, but it didn't really fit into the schedule this year. So instead we headed up the canyon and celebrated with dinner and smores over a campfire!
We've reached a wonderful stage in life, where some of our kids can actually cook their own food! Oh yeah.
Tessa was more interested in the bags of chips than cooking her hotdog.
And Knox was beyond frustrated that he wasn't allowed to play in the fire. Thank goodness for pac n plays!
A couple days after school was out we continued the celebration by heading up to Midway for a weekend family getaway.
Our favorite part of the weekend was running the Dirty Dash! Who knew tromping through mud could be so much fun?!
These awesome, totally fun gals dressed in pink made up the group we ran it with!
We decided it was basically a big jungle gym for adults. We climbed over walls, slid into pools of mud and laughed A LOT!
Couples that play together stay together :)
The boys joined in on the fun too! I mean, what little boy doesn't want to roll around in mud and not get in trouble for it?
We had mud in every crevice you could imagine.
It's such a fun thing to do with your family! All the kids want to do it again next year and I'm thinking that's a great idea!
Once we got back home, the reality sunk in that I had 5 kiddos and lots of empty hours to fill with fun and, of course, a family schedule so I wouldn't go insane. The goal was to find things to do that involved moving our bodies and enjoying this beautiful world (and trying our darndest to avoid spending too much time staring blankly at the TV).
Swimming is always at the top of my kids list of favorite things to do. We're so glad our Nanna and Gunka have a fabulous pool to enjoy!
We've also searched for new parks to play on.
I've treated the kids a couple of times with a trip to watch the latest movie. Malefecent was awesome… though this little guy was a HANDFUL in the movie. A 17 month old does NOT want to sit still for almost 2 hours. Candy was my only distraction. He was an absolute mess when the lights came on… and so was my shirt. Chocolate everywhere!
And even though the weather has been pretty darn awesome, we have had an occasional storm. But this just calls for some playing in the rain! If we had driven up the mountain we could've played in the snow! Gotta love Utah weather!
We also started our summer camps. The first was golf lessons. Cason was pretty stoked to get to join his brothers this year. But he was devastated (seriously cried all morning) when the boys left for Boy scout camp without him!
I've kept busy keeping the kids busy and keeping them fed and cleaning up after feeding them! And though I might look crazy when I grocery shop, I actually enjoy my little circus.
But I have planned a little "me" time each week. With school out I have babysitters available during the week, yay! So I've made a goal to try to get to the temple once a week. I've only gotten to go once so far, but it was so wonderful! I really needed the clarity and perspective that attending the temple brings.
I've also tried to just stop and enjoy my babies. I mean, I've only got about 8 summers left with my oldest before he's off and moved out. What a crazy thought!
Then the fun really picked up (and our summer schedule went out the window) when our cousins came to town to visit! My sister Amy and her kids stayed with us before their big move ALL THE WAY across the country to New Jersey! So we tried to take advantage of our time together! We visited Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake. This is a picture in front of the Salt Lake City temple, where Bry and I got married 12 years ago! We also visited the Visitor Center and our Aunt Elaine who volunteers at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
Another day we spent at the park
Where we rolled down hills, played Red Rover and raced each other. I took on Ty! I started off ahead….
But he totally kicked my butt by then end. It's time I got back in shape. Seriously.
And then we were so hot we had to go get snow cones. I think we went about 3 more times that week!
Best snow cones ever. Just like the ones in Hawaii!
Then on another day we took Amy and kids up to Midway to enjoy all our favorite things we love to do there.
Fishing is always fun… especially when a kid or two actually catches something!
My favorite picture of the day and it was totally ruined by my fat finger!
After fishing and lunch we did some swimming.
Well when I say "we" did some swimming, I mean the kids. Us Moms sat and enjoyed the shade and good conversation. So glad Ty is such a great big brother and loves to play with Knox in the water. Otherwise poor Knox would've been stuck on the sidelines with me.
Most days we just loved hanging out with each other. The boys ran around the yard with foil armor hunting beasts and the girls (yes Tessa has a girl cousin!!) played princesses and got their nails painted. We will miss them so much!!
I actually got to enjoy MY cousins this month too! My cousin Patrick got married (to the most darling girl MacKenzie!) in Boise this month and we were able to make it to their sealing (learn about the difference between being sealed and being married here).
I love visiting the different temples with my family! (pictures of all the different temples Here)
For my kids the highlight was seeing Grandpa and Grandma who were there for the wedding too.
As for the house… it's coming along! The biggest decision this month was the exterior paint color. Seriously paint is a nightmare. That little square swatch that you LOVED in the store is NOTHING like the big painted version on your house.
So we tried a bunch on, took polls of what others thought on Facebook, knocked on peoples door when we liked their paint color to ask them what their paint color was, painted more colors on, and finally after about 8 different greige paints, we went from this….
to this!!! We LOVE LOVE our color. It's called Sandy Hook Grey. It makes me happy every time I drive up to the house. So glad we went through all the effort to find it!
So now the house is painted inside and out! We've got our cabinetry and counter tops in. The wood floors, tile floors, brick floors and penny floors (yes I said I have a penny floor, like made out of pennies!!) are all in. I made all the decisions on lights (thanks to those of you who helped with choosing my living room chandelier this month… I chose #2!) and they should be arriving soon! In the next month we've got a BIG handful of finishes that have to be done before we can move in and I'm getting a little nervous. We'll be homeless if they're not! Hopefully my next blog post will be done from the inside of my new house!
PS I now have a Bachelor favorite: The Farmer (is his name Chris?) If he doesn't win… and I don't think he will… I think HE should be the next Bachelor! And someone PLEASE tell Andi she needs to stop with the pursing lips frown thing.
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