so far this summer...

we have had our first ride on the Heber Creeper.

 How did we never know that Monday night was $5.00 night!  Thank goodness for awesome friends who let us in on great deals!

It was a must have experience, especially for living in Heber.  It definitely lives up to it's name...it is SLOW!  Great scenery and great friends though!

We have been to 7 Peaks once a week, and last week we went twice!!!  LOVE the pass of all passes!

We usually go with 5 or 6 other neighbors and make a 1/2 day of it.  All of the kids love it, and they all have a few friends to pal around with.  I get in some good friend time as well, when I am not chasing my 3 youngest from one pool to the next...which is pretty much never.  It is still fun to be surrounded by friends though.

Ben came with us on Saturday, and we made it a family outing.  We all had a great time, and the kids love it when Ben and I go on the slides with them.  We ran into my brother Devin and his family there too!  Crazy coincidence!  It was pretty cool.

We all come home exhausted, tan, and happy.  I was terrified to do this alone with all 5 kids, but we are getting our system down, and it is quickly becoming the highlight of our week. 

We have had visitors.
Ben's brother Dan, his wife Kristen and their two kids Adam and Libby came to visit for 3 days.  We had a fun time with them.  We went to the Aquarium in Sandy, which is really, really cool!  I forgot my phone, so no pictures...sorry!  We did meet up with my brother Devin and his family there to celebrate Eli's 3rd Birthday.  It is great to have family near by, and to see them every once in a while.
The kids also had a big fat water fight with their cousins.

Yes, that would be our lawn.  We have grass!  We LOVE having grass!

We have been to open gym at Heber Handspringers.

Mary and Lydia...yes, it is blurry.

Sam and his friend Brayden.

Luke was a maniac, and he was extremely good at flipping!  He is just like Mary was at his age.

William is really into posing for the camera lately.  It cracks me up!  He jumped into the pit about 100 times.

I let each of the kids bring a friend, and they jumped, flipped, ran and went nuts for 2 hours.  It was awesome!  I just followed Molly around and tried to keep everyone from breaking any bones.

I also did my first back hand spring in 11 years!  Oh yeah!
I was scared out of my mind, but Mary wasn't about to let me leave without doing one.  She obviously has experience with tough coaches, and she was going to try to make me do mountain climbers if I didn't do it!

This is available once a week, I am sure we will be going again soon.

We do snow cones...lots and lots of snow cones. 

We have snow cone day once a week.  The kids pick the day.
I have a punch card at "The Spot" and we get a screaming good deal every single time.
 They have our order memorized...  4 smalls.  2 rainbow with extra cream, one orange, and one rootbeer with cream.  Yup, that's us!  Every once in a while we may or may not add a sugar free peach mango...large!

We have jobs.

We do jobs before we play.  That's how we role.  It keeps the house from becoming a complete clutter explosion, and mom loves it!

We have done day camp.

Sam woke up at 5:00am and was completely ready to go.  We didn't have drop off until 6:30.  haha!
He LOVED every second of day camp.  He got to shoot a BB gun, shoot a bow and arrow, make a bird house, buy an eagle claw necklace, and about a million other things. He even got to go with his best friend Blake.  Perfect day for Sam.

Mary also got to go to day camp with the activity day girls.  She brought home a rabbit skin, and has wanted to learn to shoot a bow and arrow ever since!

We have done fund raisers.

Mary sold 75 Butter Braids in order to earn money for her plane ticket to Texas for Nationals!  She went door to door every night for a week, and sold at almost every door!  She and Ben get to deliver them all tonight.
Good job Mary!

We have done "adjusting."
I don't know how else to describe it.  We have had lots and lots and lots of adjusting to being around each other all day long again.  The time out chair is very warm all day, and at any given moment there is usually at least one break down happening. Oh mercy it can get hard, but each day is better than the last, thank heavens!

We have done egg watching.

Mary and her friend found this bird nest, and have been watching the mother take care of the eggs, until she abandoned them.  Sad.  We were then "volun-told" to be the new incubator station.  So, we got the old lizard cage, a small blanket, and a light, and we have been waiting and watching ever since.  hhhmmm


We have done lots of playing on the playground!  I cannot even begin to describe how awesome it is to finally have a yard full of grass, and a playground this year.  It makes a huge difference for everyone!  The kids love the playground, and Luke especially is outside almost the entire day playing in it, or around it.

We have done tumbling twice a week, cheer once a week, scouts once a week, activity days twice a month, carpools, play dates galore, gym workouts daily (for mom), soccer, lawn mowing twice a week, work on the parking strip, flower planting, loads and loads of laundry, neighborhood barbeques, water parties, visiting teaching, home teaching, family movie nights, and weekly planning sessions to make sure we get the right balance and fun, family time, church stuff and work.

How does mom do it all?

Oh, ya know, just copious amounts of this.

ZIPFIZZ!!!!!

an occasional and rare purchase of a Dirty Diet Paradise (pretty much heaven and instant energy in a cup) when the going gets really rough, and lots and lots of prayers for patience and energy.

Summer has been good to us so far! Especially when your not sick, pregnant, hot, dealing with gestational diabetes, and dealing with bored kids with a yard full of rocks, weeds and dirt.

aahhh, I have waited for this summer for many moons.

Welcome summer!

utah citizenship

At the beginning of the school year, Mary's teacher told the kids about an award they could earn.  It is called the Utah Citizenship award.  It was optional, and it required a lot of work.

Mary and her friend Lydia decided to go for it.  The worked hard, all year long to meet the 32 requirements, worksheets, maps, county memorization, and book reading sections.  They did this completely on their own.  I did not help with one thing.

Not only did they do this completely on their own, but the worked on this every lunch recess in the classroom.

That is some serious determination!!! 

At the end of the year, the 4th grade had a talent show.  Mary's teacher asked me to come, because that is where she would present the Utah Citizenship awards.

I packed up William, Luke and Molly, and we headed over to the school.

I was shocked that Mary did a group dance in the talent show.  I had not idea.  She is full of surprises!

At the end of the talent show, Mrs. Foy (Mary's teacher) got up and talked about what it took to earn the award.  The more she talked about it, the more proud I was of Mary.  It was A LOT of work!!!

Only 3 kids in the entire 4th grade ended up doing it.

She then presented Mary with her certificate and a ton of different prizes and gift certificates.

Mary and her best friend Lydia

The three Utah Citizenship award winners

This was a huge accomplishment, and I was so incredibly proud of Mary for putting in the hard work and determination all on her own.  What a way to end 4th grade!  Way to go Mary girl!

On our way out of the school, a fire truck pulled in.  It was also field day, and as part of field day every year, a fire truck comes and sprays the kids.

Luke literally froze mid-step when he saw the fire truck.  He did not move a muscle for almost 5 minutes!

his hands were truly frozen mid air..with his cars in them.  He did not move!

 William was really excited too, so we stayed and watched the firemen move the ladder up, set up the hose, and use all sorts of buttons and gadgets on the truck.  It was really, really cool!  I thought William and Luke would explode out of excitement, (once Luke came out of his trance).

Pretty good day I would say!

sundance downhill race

On Memorial Day Ben had his first downhill race of the season.

My cousin Robyn's husband, Morgan, also did the race, so we were able to hang out with them Sunday and Monday.  Our kids are the same ages, and totally hit it off.  They had a blast!  They got to have their first cousin sleepover ever the night before the race. 

The morning of the race was definitely nuts.  Ben and Morgan had to be there early for warm up runs, so I got to load up all the kids, and get us there.  It was pretty much a madhouse, and a feeding frenzy, but we got into the car on time, and the scenery on the way to the race was breathtaking!

Once we got there, we met up with Robyn, and we started the hike up the mountain side, to get to a spot where we would be able to see Ben and Morgan zoom by.

When I say hike, I mean HIKE.  Robyn and I had 9 kids, snacks, water, jackets, and a stroller, and there was not a trail!  We did some serious bush-wacking, and it was all uphill.  Thankfully, majority of the kids thought it was a "grand adventure through the woods."  My screaming legs and arms from pushing the stroller and holding children beg to differ.

um yeah...see how steep that section was.  Go William go!

check out the scenery!  I can't believe we live here!

We were able to find a great spot right by part of the downhill race track, and as a bonus, there was a jump right there.  The kids were thrilled.

We were able to see Ben and Morgan for about 3 seconds as they came blasting by, and we cheered them on the best we could.

Then....we packed up all 9 kids, the snacks, the shoes, the blankets, and the stroller, and made the trek back down the hill to the finish line.  We only lost 2 pairs of shoes in the process (both of them belonged to our 2 year olds), go us!

Morgan an

Luke and some random people hiking along the race track.

d Ben had great races.  Unfortunately, Morgan's chain broke, so it seriously slowed him down, but he still had a great time.

Ben did awesome, and he was even able to podium!  He was just over 4 minutes...which is a great time.  I think it was 4.03. 

Because Ben was in the top three, we had some time to wait before the awards, so we packed the kids up, drove to Heber, grabbed some lunch, and then packed them back to the race.  It was a BIG day!  They were really good sports, and very supportive of their awesome daddy.

After all was said and done, we got home just in time for a neighborhood barbeque.  Needless to say, I was spent.  So, Ben took the kids, and I stayed home and did this.

Netflix and Oreos...the good life.

Ben has his second race coming up this weekend.  He is hoping to get another great time, and maybe even move up a level.  He is definitely training hard for it.  Check out these pictures his buddy took!

"Courage is fear leaving the body."