Summer Fun

I wanted to write more often this summer about all our activities and projects but, yeah, we can see how well that went. We had great plans of doing something everyday to help entertain the kids but I forgot how tiring being pregnant and the heat of summer makes you. We did get to go on two trips for vacation. We went to Philmont which I loved and I think the kids enjoyed. I want to go in another year or two when I am not so pregnant that I can actually walk around with my kids. Then we went to Southern Utah to the Elliss home. We saw my whole family in a matter of two weeks, except Glenn. Sorry Glenn, at least we got to see you after your trip to the junkyard earlier in the month of June (BTW, Sam thinks we should ask you how a car works since you spent "a whole week underneath a car"). We saw Jenni and her family on our way to and from Philmont. I know the kids liked that, especially since Dan shared his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books with Sam and then also taught him a game to play with Pokeman cards. Now he wants us to buy him Pokeman cards. We saw Amber for a couple of hourse before she headed back out on another mountain trek. We of course saw my parents (the main reason for the visit). Justin hiked the Subway with some friends and coworkers and killed his camera. Fortunately he just reached his goal weight and now gets to buy a new one anyways. We visited Heather in Cedar City. The kids loved taking Zoeken for a walk to play at the park and then feeding her ice cubes while they enjoyed their popsicles.

Some pictures from the summer. We have done things at home and gone on some excursions (mostly swimming at the rec center, free summer movies, play dates, and running through the sprinklers at our house, library trips). We have done some projects (ice melting and then just throwing the ice into the street, making popsicles, making ice cream, decorating sun catchers, and discovering K'Nex).

First we have Michelle and her fascination with bugs. She will always point our the bugs that she finds outside or inside. Now we are working on not trying to poke the "flies" that are really wasps.

Next we have one of our wear out the kids activities. Katryn has stayed at our house several times in the last bit (thus we have seen Krystal and her family also) and her and Michelle have loved riding their bikes down the hill. They go down, and then push them back up and go again. This can last at least 30 minutes. What do I do, sit in my chair and watch.

Almost everyday we have popsicles for a snack. Krystal said Katryn hasn't had too many popsicles before. Never fear, she learned quickly how to eat them. They both have gotten quite good at not making too big of a mess with them. Of course we go outside to the porch to eat them.

Our most recent activity was trying to make homemade ice cream. This recipe came from the Children's Friend Magazine June 2010. 1 cup milk, 2 Tbsp sugar, a little bit of vanilla. Put in a ziplock bag and then inside another with ice and rock salt. Shake for several minutes. This picture shows Michelle and Hannah taking their turn at shaking the bags. We then resorted to putting it in a can and rolling it down the driveway. After a while a of that we just put the bags in the freezer to thicken. It made really good ice cream, it just wasn't ready when I was expecting it to be (I got the impression that it should be ready after shaking it for the time it said, no such luck).

We are having a good summer so far. We'll see if we can get some more pictures from other activities as we finish out our summer. :)