Two weeks

At the beginning of July as I was looking at our calender I commented to Dave that it felt like the whole summer was being smashed into two weeks. It seemed like there was nothing through June and then there was everything about midway through July. Dave was out of town for five days in the middle of it. It was a work trip but he was able to be in Utah and spend some time with both his an my families...I was a bit jealous! But he made up for it by cleaning up the backyard, including killing the massive black widow I discovered while he was gone, and the disaster zone of a mini van yesterday.

Those two weeks flew by, and here's a bit of what we were up too.

The activity that dominated everything else was swimming lessons. Amanda and Maren both participated this year, while the boys and I hung out in the kiddie pool for three hours. (Which ended up being a good thing, minus the sun exposure, as it helped Spencer to be less afraid of getting his face wet, and is now laying down in the water in the tub without screaming!)

Maren completed level one, which was huge for her, as until the end of last summer she too was afraid to put her head underwater. She learned the beginning of how to stroke and her teacher said she has an exuberant kick=) By the last three days she was brave enough to jump to her teachers life guard float in the deep end. A huge accomplishment for her! Here she is waiting her turn to jump.
Amanda completed level 4. She can now swim full laps with many strokes, and began learning the butterfly. She enjoyed her self so much, that she is thinking of doing swim team this year. On the last day they gave them the chance to jump off of the high dive, Amanda has a fear of heights, so I expected to see her go up and then climb right back down the ladder. But after some encouragement she did it! And then did it again and again. She was a huge help to me while we waited for her lesson, and played with Jacob many days. He likes the water, until he forgets and reaches in to pick up a toy and gets a face full.


We had two fun activities with church. The first was a day at one of the members house with a water slide, tree house, tire swing, 4 wheeler rides, balloon animals, and a summer BBQ.


The kids had a blast, until Amanda got injured on the tire swing, and the rain started. But to be honest, I was grateful to go home and get out of the humidity.
The second activity, was an pioneer day primary activity at the church. The girls and I dressed up in bonnets and aprons, and we participated in activities that pioneers may have once done. We made buzz saws, with string and a button, ate hard tack corn bread and hard boiled eggs, and listened to pioneer stories. Amanda shared a story with everyone from our family history, and we all paraded around the gym in our pioneer regalia. It was very fun and I think something the girls will remember doing for a long time.
Besides those activities we had Jacob's birthday party (see below), physicals done for all the kids, registration for fall sports (so happy this is the last time I will have to do this with the army, as it is quite a painful process), a friend over for dinner, and play dates with the kids friends. And then there was the laundry, meals, dishes, cleaning, shopping...I will stop there. It was good fun and the only negative to come out of it is the cold I am home with today, the same one that the boys both are just getting over. Despite not feeling well, it is nice to rest!