Summer Days

 I always have to have a project to do even in the summer with my kiddos!  I hit the bottom of our garage door years ago and I always wanted to replace it but I didn't want to spend the money, but I found out that I could just buy one new panel and not the whole garage door so I finally did it.

 I ordered a window panel for the top part of the garage and then they used the top panel that wasn't damaged and we put it on the bottom so I don't have a dent in our garage anymore.  I found some iron rod handles at home depot and Kevin put them on for me.  I painted the garage door a few times and now I have a new garage door.  I love the new look for not a lot of money!

 Happy July 4th.  Connor sees the fire trucks coming in the parade and he is loving it!

 Here we are in our red white and blue.  Ashleigh had the most fun coordinating her outfit.

 Ashleigh wanted to make the cake this year and decorate it.  She was so happy it was dairy free so she could eat it too.  She is quite the chef in our home lately.

 The kids are waiting for the treats to be thrown so they can enjoy them while watching the parade.  We call it the tractor parade since there are so many of them that are there.

 Our friends had us over for a barbecue and then they had turns doing fireworks.

 Ashleigh looks so grown up in this picture.  She really is a big helper in our home.

 Kam and Hayden did the whole firework show for us.

 Andrew and Brynn loved watching the boys do the fireworks.  If you look at the back of their chair it has a letter for each of their names.  I thought it was so cute that they sat in the right chairs for the first initial of their names and they didn't even know it.

 We then watched the firework show from our local high school field and loved every minute of it. The firework show doesn't start until 10 p.m. I was surprised our little boys stayed awake.  They wanted more fireworks!

 We can't go without picking blueberries (or eating them) in the summer.  They are delicious!

 We invited our newest members to the ward to join in on the fun.  Connor didn't really pick, he just flirted and stole blueberries from everyone else's buckets.

 The girls were my big helpers and we picked 30 lbs.

 We just bought our family a fishing pole.  Kam has really enjoyed fishing even though dad doesn't.

 One of my favorite things that we've done this summer is camp!  I loved camping with Kevin for several years when we were first married but we tried it when Kam was little and it was too much for me.  I decided to try it again when my friend invited me and I loved it!  There were five women and their children who went to a campsite by the lake for a few days.  There were 22 children there.  Everyone had so much fun together.

 My friend was kind enough to watch Andrew and Connor during the day and Kevin would pick them up at night.  I in turn took her two children.  The girls made sure their tents stayed so clean.  It was so cute to see them so responsible of their tent.

 Every night we watched the sun go down and enjoy the peace of God's creations.

 Kam and Hayden had fun cooking up their hot dogs on a stick they found.  This is true camping.

 Here's the group. Kam and Hayden helped put up both tents that we used.  They were real scouts and looked out for each other.  I had the joy of watching them run the whole thing.

 I loved this every night!  It truly helped me to be at peace with life.

 Here's the kids having fun playing in the sand all day long.  It was one of the hottest days in the summer so we definitely loved being by the water.

 The kids had fun running up the sand dunes in the morning and evening.  It was quite hot during the day to do it.  Their favorite part was running as fast as they could down the dune.

 Happy Pioneer Day!  Our ward put on a fun activity for pioneer day.  Kam didn't care to dress up but we were fine with that.  Ashleigh and Brynn couldn't get enough of their costumes.

 Thanks to friends we get to have fun tubing!

 Since we've lived here for ten years we are getting bored of doing the same things each summer so we found  a few new things to do.  The dum dum factory!  Now that was SWEET!

 We are grateful for more friends who let us swim in their pool!

 Sage is one of the girls best friends.  She just turned eight and we were able to attend her baptism.  It was one of the largest attended baptisms we've ever seen.  She is part of one special family!  We actually didn't hear about her baptism until during our church.  I wasn't sure if we would stay because I didn't have any dinner for them and it was too far to go home to eat but the kids didn't care.  They wanted to be there for her baptism.  I'm grateful for their examples of supporting others even when they don't have food.  I wanted to go home but I stayed with them and I'm so glad I did.

 Here's sweet Ashleigh in her pioneer costume.  She loved it.

 Ashleigh is our artist.  She made this for her cousin Taylor right after she had her 16th surgery.  We are so grateful for Taylor's strength and faith.

 I had a few groupons to use and one of them was to a restaurant in town.  The kids loved it.  Ashleigh said this was her most favorite restaurant she's ever been too.  She loved her hot dog.

 We helped one of our friends move.  Andrew helped the whole time.  She is just like his daddy always wanting to help.

 Brynn is waiting for the train ride at the dum dum factory.

 Connor loved cuddling with my friend Valerie as the other kids swam in her pool.  What a fun summer evening we had together.  We even had the missionaries over for dinner with all of us.

 Brynn has enjoyed several playdates with friends.  She loves to socialize.

 Ashleigh couldn't stop talking about the dress made out of dum dum wrappers.  It was a small museum at the Dum Dum factory but the kids were very fascinated by it all.

 Kam amazed me with his packing skills and how prepared he was.  He took a whole week to make sure he had everything for scout camp.  This was his first year to go all by himself and he didn't forget anything.  I didn't even have to check his bags.  He is a very responsible young man!  We love him!

 Ashleigh and Brynn didn't think that serving could be so much fun.  They didn't want to leave but we had to get the little boys down for a nap.  They spent hours helping Madi pack so they could move while we helped load the truck.  Madi was nice to share some of her treasures with the girls.

 Connor has found that watering the plants is so much fun.  He's a great little helper.

 This is a terrible picture but it's the memory of us at our Dum Dum factory tour.  Kamren was at scout camp while we went.

 Andrew is our little perfectionist!  One day he just took some cards and organized them like this.  It was so sweet to watch him.  He was proud of his work!

 I love watching the kids have fun at the zoo.  They loved the seals.  Ashleigh's favorite were the penguins and I loved the monkeys.

 Connor loved roasting his own marshmellows at scout camp.  I think we are done with smores. We've eaten more smores than we ever had in one summer.

 Kevin took the kids to Home Depot Craft day.  It was the best day ever because they made trucks and raced them down a track.

 These are the women from our ward that went to the women's retreat.  It was so fun to get to know them better.  They are all so amazing and inspiring.

 Rachel and I stopped by a dairy farm and ate yummy ice cream while we biked the 45 miles.

 The girls have plenty of dresses but they really wanted a maxi dress so they saved their money and got one on clearance with a coupon to get these dresses from old navy.  They are so proud of their new dresses.  I got a new maxi skirt to coordinate with them.  They love coordinating every Sunday.  I've tried to stop it but they continue to love it so I am going with the flow.  Andrew is so tired and is ready to go home after church.  He still loves his thumb when he is tired.

 Kayaking is so much fun.  The weather was just perfect.  I love the summers here.

 I made the girls necklaces and keychains while I was on my women's retreat.  The girls love them and I loved making them.

Ready, set go!

 Kam had a blast climbing at scout camp.

 He earned all five of the merit badges that he wanted to get.  They are  personal fitness, environmental science, wilderness survival, climbing and first aid.

 This was Andrew's first time doing the race.  He biked and biked and biked.  He didn't want to swim or run but that's okay.  He finished!

 I just missed the triathlon because it took me longer to get back from my women's retreat.  Kevin seemed to handle it all just fine.  I really wanted to see the kids race but they did great without me.

 There were 60 kids who did the race.  We are so proud of all of them.  We had a barbecue after the race.

 Kam finished first place in our neighborhood triathlon!  He loves to compete.

 Most of the women did the 23 mile bike ride but I wanted to double it to give myself a challenge.  My friend did it with me and I loved it.  46 miles wasn't that bad.  I'm ready for a 100 mile race now:)  Kevin bought me a new bike and I really think that has made the difference.

 There were 51 women who went on the 4 hour kayak trip.  These women stand for righteousness and I'm so grateful I was able to get to know them better.  I can't wait for next year's funathalon!

 Kevin watched the kids while I went on my campout with the sisters in our stake and they loved the big watermelon slices dad gave them.  Dad always does fun things.

 Connor had fun visiting Kam at camp.  His favorite part was watching all the boys interact with each other.

 I love these pioneer boys!

 It couldn't be a summer without a picnic in  the backyard.  They just finished eating.

 After I got back from my camping trip with the older kids I took the little boys out for ice cream.  They loved it. They had to have the red white and blue ice cream.  To my surprise it was good.

 We tried out a new lake near our home and loved it.  The day was perfect with our friends.

 Brynn loved the Toledo zoo.  We've never been there before which made it more fun to see new animals.

 Kam and all of the scouts put on a few skits for us for family night.  It was a great laugh.  Very creative too.

I had so much fun kayaking for four hours on a peaceful river at the women's retreat I went to.  I want to take my family back now.