Swim Meets and Summer Days

The week after vacation is always full of laundry and errands and getting back on top of life. These boys are good helpers though, and summer is really fun with them.

On Monday Michael hosted a book club about Anxious Generation. On Tuesday we had so much fun seeing FIREFLIES together. We didn't know you could see those here but we learned the right spots through a city-led walk and it was really magical with the boys. On Wednesday we woke up early for Bike to Work day, which the boys always love. Then Thursday we met a lot of our friends for an outdoor library concert by the Okee Dokee Brothers and it was such a happy night. My friend Jamie took Westin and Bennett to an all day Trekkers program and they really loved it. We went to the pool that night and ate dinner outside. Saturday was our boys one and only swim meet this summer and I was so proud of them! They both worked really hard.

This is a sweet stage for summertime. 

The true scene of summer.
Between camping weekends and fun trips and walks and playing with friends,
most of summer looks just like this :)

Michael is ready for book club! 
Sourdough rye bread and Peach sensation.
They talked about Anxious Generation.

Why do I still love all the neighborhood bunnies so much.

Playgroup at Twin Silos.
The kids love looking for crawdads in the stream.

The Blackstone is a game changer.
Bring on the teenage years.

We went on a firefly catching night!
We didn't know you could find them here but we took a little volunteer-led walk and learned the right spots to find them. It was so magical!

Bike to Work Day! 
We always love the free food and happy people before we ride to swim team.

Westin's first lawnmowing!

Met up with the Schmidts at the church to eat pizza and play basketball.
Plans always help get us through the long parts of the days!

Dropped our Kia off for maintenance and walked home,
with a little Dunkin' stop on the way.

I'll never get over this.

I felt like a mother duck walking home from the car dealership.
They're so cute.

Basement naps during construction time!

He's the coziest thing to find when I wake him up to go get our brothers.

Swim Meet!

Our piano room has turned into a bathroom reno storage room.
Hopefully for not too long!

The Great Flood of 2024

This week... fun times and not so fun times!

We caught up on things at the beginning of the week, then Kelbre watched the younger boys Wednesday while we took the older to down to Denver to meet cousins and go to dinner and Frozen. Such a fun night out with them! They really loved the show. We hit some serious traffic on the way down so getting there was a little stressful but I laughed noticing how Westin and Bennett felt zero stress. It's good to be a kid.

Thursday we went out with two other couples for dinner and trivia night. But one round of questions in and we got a call from our babysitter that we never get a call from... she told me that there had been a flood in our half bath on our main level and there was about an inch of water through the entryway, hall, bathroom, into our piano room... she was putting the younger two to bed upstairs while the toilet just ran and ran. We rushed home, her mom had helped clean up the water that was there, but we knew it was totally wet where we couldn't see. The guy who installed our flooring quickly sent me a contact for someone that does flood repair, and he came out that night and pulled off baseboards and some floorboards up and drilled some drywall out of our ceiling basement so we could get fans going all those places all weekend. Sooooo painful, in so many ways. We were chatting about kids (he has 5 around our same ages) and I told him our second kiddo caused the flood. He said, "My second would've been the one to do it too." Haha birth order, man. We hope we can get our house put together before we take off to Florida but my hopes aren't very high.

On Friday we met a few other families at the park and the kids all ran around while we all took turns playing pickleball. I loved seeing lots of friends that night, summer has felt so fast and busy. Asher took a football hard to the head that night and Meg got her leg stuck in the playground railing, but, those were the only casualties :)

Saturday was our second (and last!) swim meet of the summer, and the boys really had fun doing their races. Camden did not have fun being a spectator for almost 3 hours. Many snacks were had. Then Saturday night we had the same babysitter from Flood Night (brave girl!) and went to play pickleball and eat dinner with the Dimonds. We had so many fun plans this week because it felt like we'd all been traveling all of June and now we're all back in town. I loved catching up with Colby and Diane.

Sunday we watched lots of Euro Cup and Copa América games, then made rolls and salad for a ward linger longer. We had a little incident at the end of linger longer that will forever instantly remind me how much work four little kids are, and I won't write it out here because someday they'll be four big humans... but when I read this, I'll always remember. Sometimes Michael and I just literally look at each other and say, "What is our life?" But we also say it out of love :)

The day after he taught himself to ride his bike, he couldn't wait to get back on it.
He rode it up and down our street for literal hours. Probably over four.

Ice cream after dinner, but protect it from the dog at all costs.

Bike to work day!
Even thought none of these people are going to work today.
But will ride for Chick-Fil-A sandwiches.

Camden's face was being particularly dramatic about this haircut,
but he wasn't whining or complaining at all,
and the combo was just making me laugh.

Asher's curls! He skipped the last couple haircut rounds because I just love them.
But, he was so sweaty after all his bike rides.
Time for a fresh cut before Florida.

Sometimes I wait for naptime on Wednesdays to run my errands for a little solitude.
These three heard my plan and wanted in on it.
So we found solitude together :) :)

We turned around at dinner in Denver and spotted these cousins at the bar hahaha.
I thought it was hilarious that the bartender hadn't kicked them off. They were watching Mr. Bean haha.

First big show!
They really loved it.
Thought Bennett asked during intermission if they were real people, so,
I think the whole concept was just kind of blowing their minds.

A fun night in the city with our cute older boys.

A free concert with Dr. Noize and noisy he was.
He had a song unknowingly go number one on a Satellite Radio kids station,
then got a call asking if he did kids shows and he said yes.
He hung up and his wife was like, "No you don't?" And he said, "Now I do!"
Haha he was very entertaining and the kids loved it.

Got this picture from our cute neighbor down the street.
They have a sign in their window that says S or NS 
(Snack or No Snack)
So the kids know when they can knock on the door and ask for a popsicle. 
They're so cute.

Dinner outside to skip the clean up.

Oh that dear new floor.
Didn't think we'd see our old floor so soon.

And some new holes in the new basement. This flood was a total pain.

These fans were so loud. We had about 5 running downstairs and upstairs from Thursday night to Monday morning.

A Friday guided nature walk.
First sighting of a rattlesnake in the wild!

I loved that this was mostly older people and my kids.
Everyone had such a nice time.

Asher wanted to kick a pinecone with me the whole.time.

This guy was fun to spot.

This ranger found and preserved a bighorn sheep skull,
and she loved telling the story. The boys thought it was so cool.

Bennett met his swim goal this summer! Date night with mom.

His goggle ears and his banana snack were just making me laugh so much.

So then he embraced it.

Michael timed Lane 1 the whole day and Westin had that lane for his first race.
"Dad, shave off 10 seconds!" Haha.

Our sweet hoarder.
This post-date night check made us both laugh,
so many little pieces of his life surrounding him. SO many :)

My rolls rose :) This was cracking Westin up.

Girls Camp & Summer Days

I've been talking with Kindal's good friend in St. George a lot and we keep mentioning how strange it feels to do our routine things when life has changed so much so quickly for Kindal. She was on my mind through all of this week.

The drive home from Utah on Sunday was smooth, and sad. I spent the drive kind of coordinating if I'd even be able to get up to Girls Camp or not since my parents were now not coming. I had originally planned on going the full three days, but ended up just going up and back the middle day thanks to a friend kindly watching my boys the whole time Michael was at work.

Being at girls camp was good for my soul. I was so impressed with those girls. They led the camp, ran the camp, took care of each other, were so good to each other, and everyone had such a good time. I just really felt lucky to be there with them. And it was very good for me to unplug for a day. I have been on my phone so much talking with so many people about Kindal, coordinating lots of things, and just feeling lost. Unplugging really was a good reset.

On Friday we celebrated the Strawberry Moon with strawberry milkshakes on the Gregorys' roof, with the Behunins too. The clouds didn't get the memo but the night was still so fun. We went on a bike ride around the neighborhood after in the dark, with glow sticks on, and my boys thought it was so fun.

Saturday was our first swim meet of the season, early morning and long time at the pool. I did seeding all day and luckily Michael didn't end up having to do the timing he signed up for, so he was Asher duty. Then he took them all to a primary activity while I finished up volunteering, and the boys had a totally great time having water balloon fights and games with a lot of guys from our ward. Multiple sweet older men told me the next day that they sure had a lot of fun with my kids, which I correctly interpreted as my kids got them super wet and were relentless. Bless good friends.

 Saturday night we watched Monsters Inc. on the big screen in the CSU stadium and the boys thought that was pretty cool. My favorite part was that fake turf has no real bugs :) A summer night out with no mosquito bites?? Unheard of.

Sunday night we did a potluck with our neighborhood -- our street, the next street over, and a few other random houses around. We have such a nice neighborhood crew. The best part was that while we were chatting, Camden just up and taught himself how to ride his pedal bike. What?? Michael had tried to teach him the day before, I had tried that day, and he was just not into us teaching him at all. But then we look over and he's just kicking down the street on it like it's a balance bike, then he's just pedaling. What a stud.

Life always pauses for garbage truck sightings.

These cuties keep giving me extra hugs and kisses when they notice I'm sad.
My heart is with Kindal, and they are just so sweet to share so much love.

These girls. They were so amazing at Girls Camp. 
So good to each other, so good at leading camp. I admire them so much.

Friendship bracelets!
If only we were making them for a Taylor Swift concert.
That tour needs to wrap up so I can wrap up my FOMO :)

That missing front tooth look!
Benny boy is getting bigger.

If my kids look miserably hot it's because they are.
But I made them go to an outdoor piano concert with me.
Next time we'll get there earlier to get some shade!

So hot, but still so sweet.

They were back in good spirits with a little AC and a trip to the car wash.

We rolled out of bed Saturday morning and walked straight over to the boys' swim meet.
Those 6:45 call times, man... But I mean, we're up anyway :) Haha it just still sounds so early.

Bennett's first meet! Westin was pretty nervous for his first meet of the season but he did great.

Westin asked me to take this picture of him in front of the football stadium and send it to Dallin Holker :) He's a forever fan!

Monsters Inc. on the stadium field.
I love that movie. And I love that there were zero bugs because it's turf and not grass.

Camden just up and teaching himself to ride a pedal bike during our neighborhood dinner.

We have a good crew of neighbors.
It's hard to get together but we did a Sunday dinner outside and it was fun to catch up with everyone.