We visited a new aquarium.
Tyler wanted to make sure he was taller than the penquin.
Kaitlyn wanted to spend the entire day trying to touch the stingrays.
Kaitlyn learned to use my sewing machine! She has been begging for months, and I finally relented. We had a lot of discussion about safety before we even put a needle in it, and I'm always right next to her while she works. But she has been doing great.
So far she made a pet snake, a backpack for her piano books, and then her 4th of July cape.
Next she wants to make "a mermaid tail I can swim in!" We'll see how that goes :).
We've gone on bike rides . . .
Met up with old friends . . .
And my mom, brother and neice all stopped by one night too! My brother has a cabin up in Idaho that they invited my mom to come to, so they stopped by on their way back home to Vegas before my mom flew home from our airport. We took them to the PG Rodeo, which was a first for most of them. It is a cultural experience you gotta try at least once.
One week, Daddy headed off to scout camp for a week.
So we moved summer school to our cabin. The kids are showing off their Kiwi Crate rainsticks here.
The kids all loved when we lit a fire for hot dogs and marshmallows.
Poor Tyler kept his hot dog far, far away from the fire so it wouldn't get burnt. Slooooow cooking. And then, after 20 mintues of work, it fell in the fire. Mommy had to cook another one, quickly.
And then last week, we canceled school so Mommy could get everything ready for our 4th of July party. We host Christopher's entire family at our cabin for lunch every year, and it is always so much fun! We smoked some brisket this year, and there was tons of food and tons of people as always.
This year I may have gone a bit overboard on the craft table. I made capes for all the kids to decorate! I had the idea last year, but didn't find any red fabric to go with the blue I had. So when I snagged a gigantic red sheet at a garage sale for free a couple of weeks ago, it was a go. They were really easy to mass produce, thankfully. You can see 20 of them hanging on the line here, while Kaitlyn decorates the one she sewed for herself.
It was all worth it because they were a huge hit.
These girls were honestly the most into it in the whole crowd! When they told their dad there were capes to decorate, he asked "do you guys want to make one?" to see if they were too old to think it was cool. But they responded "is that even a question?" and then made elaborate superhero decorations on theirs and their little sisters'.
I even had enough leftover red fabric to make liners for these baskets I painted! I figured I could make BYU liners and use them for snacks at a BYU party, too.
Jasmine cracked me up that day. She loved the bubbles Aunt Sandy brought, and enjoyed a few of them before they accidentally poured all over herself and the dirt.
Then she figured out how dispense root beer, and that got poured all over her. And THEN she played in the sandpit.
My child looked homeless by the end of the day.
In fact, the only reason her feet are clean is because she loved dunking them in the creek!
As I was looking though our pictures, it struck me how some things never change. I was talking to Christopher as I took the picture of Tyler in the sandbox, and I asked him "when do you think Tyler will get tired of this?" He honestly spends hours digging in there, every single time we go.
Daddy said "maybe when he's 30".
We changed out the swing this trip. The old IKEA swing was getting pretty ratty, and we moved the swing back to where Kaitlyn's rope used to be. It amazed us when we first bought the place when that tiny little girl would hook her leg through the rope and go swinging off wildly yelling "weee- ha!" Kaitlyn was thrilled we moved the swing back so she could jump on it anytime she wanted.
I am constantly amazed that we got lucky enough to have such a great place for our kids!
