Summer part 1

I love summers, and I love that I have the opportunity to make fun memories with my kids.  I love not having a schedule, and being able to do whatever we want, whenever we want.  I did make a chore chart for the older boys, and told them they had to fill it out every day before they could play any electronics.  They had to read, create, clean their room, learn, practice piano, and help mom with one chore every day if they wanted electronic time.  I did give them a free day once in a while, or if we were busy all day on an adventure, I usually let the list slide for that day.

After our Oregon trip, I had to take Blake to the dermatologist. Blake had a funny skin colored growth on his elbow.  I took him in thinking they would just look at it, but the doctor told me she could remove it if I wanted.  I agreed, and she started prepping the exam room right there!!!  I thought I was going to have to come back for a surgery date, but she said she could do it right on the exam table.  I had all the boys with me, and was really surprised she was going to do that procedure in front of them.  Wesley was pretty excited, and watched everything.  Chase was really nervous and wanted to sit on my lap, which he couldn't do because I had to hold Blake's arms down.  Overall I think the older boys were only a little bit traumatized.  Blake cried a lot - I don't think he was fully numbed when they shaved the growth off.  I felt so bad. They gave him a cute fleece blanket to help calm him down, and we took him out for ice cream after.  He recovered pretty well, and liked to tell people about the day he got his mole taken off. 

right after the procedure 

He made out pretty well though - blanket, lolly pop, AND ice cream!! 

A day or two later 

Wesley made this cute little "corn cob holder" out of play doh 

A new splash park recently opened near us, and it is HUGE.  It is the Disneyland of splash parks, except it is free.  It was amazing, but so ridiculously crowded.  I couldn't keep track of my kids which was the one downside.  I love that Utah has so many fun family adventures.  There is always something to do!

Chase and some of his lego creations 

When we first moved into our house, one of the large upstairs rooms was painted purple, green, and light green.  It had girly shelves, and butterflies hanging from the ceiling.  It was a huge room and would have been great for a boy's room, but I didn't want to put the work into it.  We gave Chase  a smaller room next to it, and I used the girly room as a craft/junk room.  However, Chase really needed more space, so three years after moving in, I decided to just get my hands dirty and swap rooms.  For three days I worked sooooo hard prepping, painting, and then moving the furniture.  Jason helped remove the shelves and fill in the holes, but I did the rest while he was on a business trip. I think his room came out really nice, and now he has tons of room to build all his lego creations. 

For the 4th of July we went to Sugar house park.  We found a grassy hill to relax on, and the boys had fun running around throwing balls and playing other outside games.  We got dinner from a food truck, and then enjoyed the fireworks after dark.  Its hard being alone on the 4th of July, and so far from family, but I love that we can create our own new memories.   

More fun with the water slide

One day we headed to Fossil Butte National Monument and learned about some fossils in the area.  Its wasn't super exciting, but that evening on the way home we went to Bear Lake.  It was late enough that most of the crowds were gone and we pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves.  Its not quite like being at the ocean, but its as close to the beach as we can get in Utah.  It was a beautiful, peaceful evening and the boys didn't want to leave.  I love outings like this, because the boys can get as crazy and messy as they want.  They get out all their energy without destroying the house, and I get to relax!! Win win! (except when I have to clean them off to get them in the car). 

There is a fungus among us 

We sat down to eat a picnic lunch we packed.  This was the only nice, shady picnic area at the national park.  It was perfect...or so we thought.  As soon as we sat down, we were bombarded with mosquitos.  There must  have been a huge swampy nest of them under us.  It was bad.  We ended up heading back to the car to eat.