Silly Swimming

Brandt was very silly today.

He wanted photographic evidence.

 

Scouts

On his way home today, while riding the scooter and thinking about scouts, Kent had the brilliant idea to bake cookies in our solar oven.  He felt like he was baking in a solar oven.  We pulled it out of the basement, I had the boys help me mix up dough, and then we went outside to get them baking.  Thing was, just after we set the oven up, clouds somewhat blocked the sun, preventing the oven from fully heating up.  I baked cookies in the real oven inside so that the scouts could take something away with them, and then we hoped the dough would bake outside.

Although it took a long time, I am happy to report that we ate solar oven baked cookies after dinner, fully cooked, even a tad burned (just how I like them).  Gives me hope that we'd be able to do it in the event of an emergency.  'Cause ya know, you'll want a fresh baked cookie in an emergency.

Primary Pool Party

Today was the Primary pool party, a perennial favorite at our house.  It was at the Cutler's house, and I can testify that a good time was had by all.  Although I didn't stay, I did bop over to pick up Brandt and Blythe and everyone was enjoying themselves.  A success, as no one drowned, in spite of all the little bodies in the pool.  Hooray for swimming with neighbors and friends!

Brandt and Izaiah Wilson on the left, floating on noodles.

Izaiah and Blythe preparing to go down the slide.

Concerts in the Park

This month, each Sunday evening, we have gone, per tradition, to North Park to listen to Utah Premier Brass perform their hour-long outdoor concert.  This was the 45th year the concerts in the park have been going, and we love them.  We are all glad to go and listen to fun music under the shade of the large trees that fill the park.  Craig and Monica came for several of the concerts, and we are always happy to see them, and Lee and Cammie joined us on Father's Day.  We marched through the park and ate popcorn and enjoyed this pleasant June tradition.

The pictures were taken over several weeks.

 

We're out of focus.

D*&#!

Lyla Has a Party

We were invited to join the DeMartinis at the Scera Pool today for a United Angels swim party.  Essentially, because Lyla has Down Syndrome, we got to go swimming for free.  And we got popsicles too.  Brandt ran around with Guy, Brick, and the Dudes.  They had competitions to see who could make the biggest splash as they jumped off the diving board.  For being relatively small people, they made some pretty big splashes.  I was in the pool with the kids, so I got one only picture, a picture of Blythe coming down the slide.  Splash!  Apparently one of the kids got a picture too, a picture of the back of my head.

Outdoor Movie Night

At the beginning of the month, I got together with my mom and siblings to plan out things we wanted to do together this summer.  Rather than try and scramble to find time we were all available, we just brought our calendars and talked about when everyone could do what we all wanted to do together.  Tonight we had one of those activities--outdoor movie night.  We all gathered here at our house because our backyard is on the east side of the house so it would be slightly darker earlier and cooler.  We had popcorn, soda, and candy, and we planned on watching The Jungle Book.  Unfortunately, our pirated from China copy had lousy sound and couldn't be heard well, so we watched The Lego Movie instead.  The kids were delighted to be with their cousins.  In fact, Brandt and the boys did more playing and racing around the yard than actual movie watching.  We want to do it again and may try to work it in another night before the summer ends.

Ice Skating

Oh what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green?  I don't know about you, but we go ice skating.  Yes, ice skating at the end of June.  Blythe has been begging me to go ice skating for field trip Friday for months, but Brandt doesn't like to ice skate, so we haven't gone.  She has continued to pester me, however, so a couple weeks ago I promised her we would go and I put it on the calendar.

Today we went for an hour and skated during a "small and tall" session at the ice rink.  As part of your entrance fee, you can use their plastic supporter things for free, making the whole experience much more enjoyable for Brandt.  He does not have a future as an NHL player.  He doesn't have any sort of future on the ice, but that's okay.

There were all of ten people on the ice.  Blythe was so happy to be there and made a friend, a little girl named Britain who was visiting her grandparents and was skating with her family.  She told me she was helping her skate, and they did move around the rink together quite a bit.  As we left she said, "Mom, I wish I could have a playdate with Britain.  She's my best friend."  I pointed out that someone you've know for only fifty minutes can't be your best friend, so she amended her statement by saying, "Britain is my best friend I've made today."  Agreed.

Groundbreaking

We are getting a new school!  Last fall, the Provo School District and School Board were hoping to pass a bond to rebuild five schools.  I was asked to be part of a citizens committee to help promote the bond and work to get it passed.  I was willing to help because our very own Rock Canyon was one of the schools that would be rebuilt if the bond passed.  I'm happy to report that it did pass, and today they had a groundbreaking ceremony to officially start construction.  We all went (even Kent for a bit) and were happy to participate.  The school will take about 18 months to build, which means that it will be finished in time for the 2016-17 school year, Brandt's fifth and Blythe's third grade years.  The plans look great and it will be fun to watch it being constructed.  As part of the ceremony, children in attendance were able to release 53 balloons to represent the 53 years Rock Canyon will have been a school by the time the new one is finished.  Principal Nielson said that 30,000 students had passed through the school since it first opened, which is an awful lot of students.  And now, in my head, I will sing the short refrain of the Rock Canyon song I know.  "Rock Canyon! Rock Canyon! To you we will be true!"

Rock Canyon students extraordinaire, with big equipment in the background.

Mr. Nielson, Principal

 

 

 

The mayor, John Curtis, and Dean Nielson, trying to work the mini excavators.

Doing a little groundbreaking of our own.

Annual Physicals

I decided at the beginning of the year that we all needed to have an annual physical, well, annually.  So today I took the kids in to see Dr. Lauret.  We really like him.  He always makes the kids laugh and puts them at ease, and he's always willing to take time to talk to me about issues I might want to discuss with him.

The children are both healthy.  Brandt weighed in at 72 pounds (79%) and is 53.75 inches tall (71%).  Blythe is 48.5 pounds (41%) and 48.5 inches tall (62%).  Does that mean she's square?  Dr. Lauret asked about how they are doing in school (well), if they are wearing their helmets when they bike and scooter (always), and if they are wearing their seat belts (also always).  He gave them each a rock and, happily for them, no shots.  Blythe was in last week for strep throat (she's all better now) and Dr. Lauret swabbed Brandt just so we wouldn't have to come back (he was negative), and then wished us a good day and told us he'd see us next year.  Yeah for strong bodies that work just like they should!

Moose antlers and rabbit ears.

Father's Day

In spite of the fact that my dad is gone, I try to make Father's Day a joyous experience.  It stinks to have De gone and I miss him like crazy, but by the same token, we get to celebrate Kent who is father extraordinaire!  We had a nice day at church, the kids sang "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home," and the kids helped me make breakfast.  My mom and Lee, Cammie, and Aaron came over for dinner and we had pulled pork sandwiches and homemade tutti fruitti ice cream, because that is the favorite of both Kent and Lee.  Then we all went down to North Park for the concert.  The kids loved on Kent, and I did too, and we called and talked to Grandpa George to wish him a happy day too.  It was a good day, a fine time to remember those good men we love so much.

Kent is really a great dad who excels at making the children his top priority.  He is patient beyond measure, silly, fair, and is engaged in all aspects of fatherhood.  He is the better parent in our partnership, and finds no greater joy than the children.  I am lucky to be in this adventure with him.  We love you!

Backyard Camping

Last night we did backyard camping.  Several weeks ago a neighbor borrowed our tent to take on Pioneer Trek, and when the kids saw it out in the entryway, they both accosted me.  "Why is the tent out? Are we going camping?  Can we sleep in the backyard? You promised we could sleep in the backyard! It's warm enough now! I want to sleep in the backyard right this minute! This very second! Now!"  

They had to wait until after Pioneer Trek, but as soon as it was returned, the questions started up again.  So last night we slept outside.  Because they were so excited, they had a terrible time falling asleep.  In fact, they didn't fall asleep.  Kent and I were moving a couple of trees into the backyard when they were supposed to be settling down and being quiet, but we were adding to their distraction.  We tried to read to them, and that helped, but it didn't entirely do the trick.  I had promised I would sleep outside with them, and I had planned on joining them after doing a couple of things inside, but in the end, I gave up and joined them earlier than I had anticipated.

The evening was nice and warm, so when we all settled down to sleep, Brandt didn't have enough on, and none of us had adequate covering.  At 2:00am, Brandt woke up and said, "I'm really cold."  Blythe was all scrunched up looking cold, and I was chilly too.  So I crawled out of the tent and went for more blankets.  I tried to be super quiet, but I woke Kent who was concerned about us.  We were fine, once I got us all better covered.  The birds woke us up pretty early, but the children seem none the worse for wear.  I, however, am feeling old; my back and hips hurt.

Family Movie Day

We are having family movie night next week, but today we had family movie day.  The new Pixar movie Inside Out opened today and we have all been excited to see it.  We all met and enjoyed treats as we watched the movie.  It was wonderful!  We laughed and cried.  In fact, at one point in the movie, Blythe leaned over and said, "Mom, I'm crying."  I replied, "I am too."  It was a marvelous catalyst to talk about feelings and emotions and how to deal with them in positive ways.  And it was fun to see it with practically everyone.  Not so wonderful was the picture the theater worked took of all of us.  Oh well.

Don't try to adjust your screen.

It's the picture that's out of focus.

Sad face.

Swimming Lessons

We changed up swimming lessons this year.  For the past several years, I have had the kids in swimming lessons at the Provo Rec Center, and we've done them practically the whole summer.  Because we swim so much and the kids are in the water all the time, I have felt that lessons this way were not super effective.  My kids spent a lot of time bobbing up and down by the side of the pool as they waited for their turn amongst the five other kids in the class.  I wanted a bit more individual attention in the hopes that they could make some really good progress in a short period of time.  So when my good friend and neighbor's son-in-law sent around an email saying he would be teaching swimming at her pool, I signed the kids up.  It was a lot of money, but it was just my two kids during the half hour time, and I felt it was money well spent.

Zach was a good teacher and worked the kids hard.  They swam laps, tweaking their arm and leg movements as they went back and forth.  They were pooped by the end of each the half hour, but I really felt that their front and back crawls improved dramatically.  Now I just need to make sure that we keep practicing when we are at Grandma Sue's pool.

 

 

 

Blythe is practicing breathe stroke leg motions.

With her bum in the air.

 

Rodeo!

Tonight, in the company of Grandma Sue, Donovan, Uncle Lee, and Aunt Cammie, we went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo.  We haven't taken the kids to the rodeo before--an oversight on our part--and we felt it was about time.  A perfect summer evening activity.  The kids really liked it, had lots of questions about what was going on, were happy to watch and not participate, but didn't want to stay until the end.  They got tired before it was over, and being considerate parents, we got up and took them home.  We missed the wild milking, barrel racing, bull riding, and motorcycle jumping (grand finale), but we saw enough to have satisfied the kids, and we'll go again next year.  We sat right next to the gate where competitors in some of the events started from, and were able to see the cow ropers back their horses up to the starting position.  They were good seats; pretty cool.  We also got to eat strawberries and cream, so all in all, it was a great evening.

I learned that the cream portion of this strawberries and cream is actually ice cream base.

It was a sticky mess, but delicious!

These are the sheep that has participated in the mutton bustin'.

Lots of little kids in bike helmets rode these sheep, to a greater or lesser degree.

The little girl who won had to be plucked off after her sheep was chased down,

and she was crying and crying and crying.  

She did not exalt in her win at all.

The sheep will likely be in therapy for months too.

Donovan wanted to ride a sheep.

Not Brandt and Blythe.

 

This was a funny activity.

Three cows were covered in dollar bills and then turned loose in the arena,

along with all the kids under 12 who wanted to come down and chase them and try to get the money off them.

The "cash cow" was sponsored by Central Bank and was pandemonium.  

More animal therapy.

Again, Donovan wanted to participate.

Not Brandt and Blythe.