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!