Summering

Another summer week has slipped by in a blur.

Andrew finished swim team a week ago, so this last week he got to come and hang out at the pool with me while Oliver and Evelyn had their last week of lessons. Mostly, he borrowed my phone to hunt Pokemon around the aquatics center. Evelyn passed (barely) her level 3 lessons, though the instructor suggested she might benefit from repeating them. Oliver passed his intro class (it would be hard not to, though!) and only had one bad day where he wasn't following the rules and let go of the side of the pool and sank. His teacher fished him up again, but he freaked out and spent the rest of the lesson sitting in my lap.

The rest of the days have melted together: lots of friends, a few chores, lots of evening walks with Andrew (hunting Pokemon, of course! But it does make for good bonding and some exercise). My babysitter was at girls camp this week, so it wasn't a very productive week for me, despite Andrew offering to pick up the slack (provided I pay him something!)--he was more interested in playing with friends, it turns out.

Yesterday, Dan had to work all day in preparation for a conference (where he'll be until Wednesday), so I took the kids to the library and then the local popnsweets (a new chain that's opened in town and has almost every soda imaginable and an impressive collection of foreign candy). We were looking for butterscotch beer (aka Butter Beer) for a Harry Potter celebration and wound up with a hot chocolate float (Evelyn--and yes, that's ice cream in hot chocolate), ice cream (blue and orange--Oliver still picks desserts by color), and a Prohibition float (vanilla ice cream, birch beer, root beer, and sarsaparilla).

(My picture from Instagram b/c I didn't have my actual camera with me). 

Park City!

 Every year since I was a teenager, my family has gone up to Park City for a week (give or take a few days) in the summer. As the family has expanded, the logistics have gotten more complicated in terms of where to put everyone, but we still manage to have a lot of fun. This year, all thirteen of my parents grandkids were present (and 3 of their 4 kids--my sister is off getting educated).

We went swimming every day, hiking one morning, and playing Olympics another. (I have some pictures but they're all on my new phone and I haven't yet figured out how to transfer all those pictures. I'll see if I can do that this week). My favorite part of the Olympics--besides cheating in the 3-legged race with Oliver (I just picked him up and ran), was watching Oliver try to crab walk. In the time it took the older kids to get around a cone and back, he made it maybe six inches.

We also went to the time-honored ice-cream spot (which has taken on the slightly annoying tradition of also being where the kids acquire yet another beanie boo . . .).

Mostly, we just enjoyed one another's company. (Though the walk my mom went on with me, Jared and Mitcee, where we were all playing Pokemon Go, might not have been so enjoyable for her!)

Thursday we headed back to Provo, where the kids spent a little more time with Jeni's kids while my parents took the two oldest grandkids to the temple for baptisms.

I spent the rest of the weekend at a Segullah writing retreat--which was lovely and rejuvenating. Though I did come back for a book signing at the Provo library Friday  night. Dan came up to join me and it was fun having an actual date night (and witnessing Pokemon mania first hand on the library lawn, which was covered with people. It was insane). Dan took the kids home Saturday while I finished out my retreat, and I came home Sunday morning just in time (well, five minutes late) for my ward council meeting. I then got to teach sharing time to an unusually squirrelly group of kids (they were missing half of their regular teachers), before a lovely dinner with Bubby and Poppy and a visit to the annual Platt family snow-cone extravaganza that they hold once each summer at the end of baseball tournament season (they run concessions during the season and they use up some of the extras here).

When the other kids were in bed, Andrew and I went for a walk around campus. (And yes, we played Pokemon Go. Andrew was super excited because he took down three different gyms. The fact that his usurpation lasted all of a minute in each case before getting taken down in turn did nothing to dim his joy.)

Weekly update

This past week has been a blur of summer: sunscreen, playing at the park, playing with friends.

We spent last weekend up north for the 4th of July.

On Saturday, we hung out at my brother Jared's house, shamelessly using him for his pool (j/k we were invited). Lia brought her kids as well, and we enjoyed some great barbeque and some swimming. We topped this off with a trip through Ikea where, as always, we came away with stuff that we don't exactly need, but looked useful.

Sunday and Monday we spent hanging out at Sarah's house enjoying surprisingly mild weather in her back yard. On Monday, we watched her cute neighborhood parade before hanging out at Chick-fil-A enjoying their AC and waffle fries. Also frozen lemonade, which Oliver said he wanted and then repudiated when it finally arrived.

 

The rest of the week has sort of blurred together. Andrew has had swim practice every day; the kids have spent lots of time with friends. I had writer's group on Thursday. Dan took Andrew to a swim meet on Saturday in SG, and the littler kids and I went to the library.

We did download the new Pokemon Go app on Friday and the kids and I have logged 10+ kilometers since then. Honestly, it's been pretty fun: I love the feeling of community when you run across other people playing, the kids love it (their favorite free time game for some time has been to pretend to be Pokemon trainers, so this app just makes their fantasies a little more real), and I get to spend more time with the kids.

(Ask me again how I like it in a couple weeks when I have to battle my kids for my phone)