Impromptu Trip to Utah/Idaho

Every summer Andy is supposed to get two weeks off, and they picked their weeks earlier in the Spring. We chose two weeks at the end of July. However, in the end of May Andy got contacted about a job in Idaho Falls that wanted him to come up to meet with them. It just so happened that there was a week in June that nobody had selected as their week off, so we decided to take the whole family and make a vacation of it.

One morning my mom and I took the kids to walk on a path in Spanish Fork by the river. I always forget just how much I love and miss the mountains until we go back to Utah to visit. Aw, mountains. At the end of the trail there was a park with this rock climbing wall. Colby thinks he's a big kid, and he climbed right up!

On our way up to Idaho Andy's dad invited us to meet him at the Hogle Zoo. We haven't been there in years, and it was fun! Grandma KD was able to come over for a little while too on her lunch break, and it was fun to see them.

After the Hogle Zoo we headed up to Idaho Falls. Colby fell asleep super fast. I just love how cute he looks when he's sleeping in the car!

While Andy was meeting with the hospital I took the kids to the Idaho Falls zoo, because it has a reciprocal membership with the Carlsbad zoo, which I belong to. They were doing this fun penguin craft, which the kids loved.

They also had a little petting zoo, which reminded my kids of Disney World because we always went to pet the goats at Animal Kingdom.

On our way out of town (it was a super quick trip!) we stopped to walk on the path by the temple for a few minutes so our kids could see the temple. It's so pretty! I really love the river and the falls.

While we were in Idaho Falls Kylee got contacts as well! She had told me at the end of the school year that her glasses were blurry even though we just got them in November. Our insurance only pays for eye exams once per year, so I knew I was going to have to just pay out of pocket for an eye exam, and then I would just order new glasses from Zenni like I always do. However, the Walmart in Carlsbad is the least expensive place to do an exam, but they were booked out until mid-August. Sam's Club in Roswell is 1.5 hours away and I rarely go there. So I thought I'd make an appointment at the Sam's Club in Provo while we were in Utah...but they said their eye doctor quit and they weren't currently doing eye exams. Sooooo...I called Idaho Falls. They were able to get Kylee in while we were there. They suggested she needed bifocals, which isn't great for an 11-year-old, so our other option was to get contacts and have her wear reading glasses on top of them. We had discussed contacts before, so we went that route. They were able to fit her with contacts right then, and gave us a 1-month trial supply so that she could wear them for a week or two to make sure they were comfy and then I'd have time to order some online and get them shipped to our house. She's loving them!

When we got back to Utah Connie and her kiddos had arrived, and one day we drove up to Cascade Springs with everyone to walk around. We took the photo below as a joke because we'd both see multiple people post similar ones of their road trips on Facebook recently.

Again...mountains!!

I took NINE pictures of these two in this position, and this is the best one. In all the others one or both of them are not looking, and/or they are looking even more grumpy/confused. The sad thing is that they weren't grumpy or confused. I'm not sure why they wouldn't just SMILE!?!?

These girls' smiles look a smidge weird, but at least they tried!

Kylee and Maia purposely had matching hair.

I was trying to balance my phone on a pole to take a picture of our whole group, and finally a guy in a nearby car noticed and offered to take one for us. Candice and her fam hadn't arrived yet, and Todd and Evalina were unable to come this day, but this is most of our family!

Connie really wanted to go to the Manti Pageant since this is the last year they're doing it (at least on the scale it has previously been). I knew my little ones would be a nightmare, and Andy had zero desire to go, so it worked out perfect. Connie and I took Kylee, Pax, and Lucy and left the little kids home with the dads. The pageant was pretty much exactly how I remember it. Evalina and Lucy sat on my lap the whole time and asked questions, and Evalina made some of us (and a lady behind us) cry a bit with some of her comments. Before it started we were singing some songs to keep the kids occupied, and Evalina wanted to sing the Mother's Day song she learned this year. I said, "Oh, yeah! Grandma came to your church so she could hear you, didn't she?" She said, "Yeah, but mommy could hear me in heaven, too." Then at the end of the pageant when the angels were standing on the wall singing, she said, "My mommy is an angel, too. But I can't see her." Then she was crying because she misses her mommy. So do we, Evalina. So do we.

I hadn't been back to Utah since Tiff's funeral, so this was the first chance I had to go to the cemetery. I got some flowers in bright colors to make it less sad. Sometimes it just still doesn't feel real, but I know it's gotta be so nice for her to not be suffering any more.

Start of Summer

Shortly after school got out a group of our friends invited us to go to the beach. We went early enough in the morning that it was not at all crowded, and the kids had a blast.

Skyler pretty much spends all his time digging in the sand making a "water city" and then he pours buckets of water at the top and watches it make its way through all the canals back down to the river.

At first Colby was too chicken to play, and he didn't want to wear a floatie (because he pretty much never has, and he didn't understand). However, after he realized all his little friends were wearing floaties and playing in the water, he warmed up to it and started having fun. It turns out that his swim shorts are a smidge too big, though!

We also went up to the zoo one day because Skyler and Kylee hadn't been there in awhile. The ranger had just fed thrown fish food into the pond, so these huge fish were swimming right by the fence, and the kids thought it was awesome.

We then followed the ranger down to the baby turtle cage. She fed them a bunch of lettuce and we got to watch them all come over to eat some.

After lunch Colby goes down for a nap and the other kids have quiet time. Most days I spend that time lounging in my hammock because it is so peaceful to just swing in the shade and look at the sky.

This year all the friends joined the local Elks Club so that we could swim at their pool and take swimming lessons. The kids love to swim there, and it is never crowded, so it's so fun!

Kylee and I went to help our neighbor with her booth at Cavern Fest. She runs the Carlsbad Anti-Gang and Drug Coalition, and each Fall they do "neighborhood night outs" in neighborhoods across the city. This year's theme is luau, so our booth had games and activities to give people ideas about what they could do in their neighborhood block party in October.

Andy brought the other kids down to see the car show and walk around the Cavern Fest booths as well.

This is Ally and Skyler at swim lessons.

Our local theater is doing free summer movies again, so we've been to a few!

One night a storm rolled in out of nowhere and dropped marble-sized hail. Luckily our cars both go in the garage!

I wasn't planning to have Kylee take swim lessons this year because she's already a decent swimmer, but it turned out that the advanced class that met right before Skyler and Ally's class only had two kids signed up, and neither of them were coming! So I signed Kylee up and she got private swim lessons for 8 days.

Another trip to the beach with friends. Colby warmed up to it a lot faster this time.

We're also participating in the summer reading program at the library again, and every Wednesday you can go get your prizes and play games and make crafts. The first Wednesday we went, they were making bubble wands out of pipe cleaners. It was quite the messy activity, but the kids LOVED it.

Colby then found this fishy game (which we used to have at our house, but I think it bit the dust before Colby came along), and played it over and over and over until I made him leave!

On the last day of swim lessons they let the kids jump off the lifeguard chair, which was about 5 feet up. I thought Skyler might be too scared, but after he saw Ally do it he jumped right in! I guess peer pressure is a real thing...

End of School

Ally was sad/happy to graduate from Hillcrest Preschool. She LOVED her teacher and her class, but she's also excited to move on to Kindergarten next year.

Ally's teacher took graduation photos of the kids ahead of time so that she could give them these cards at graduation. She also made them each a yearbook since the preschool doesn't do "official" ones. It was really cute. She had a great teacher!

At the end of the year Ally wanted me to take her picture in front of the sign where we took it at the beginning of the year so she could see how different she looks. It appears to me that her hair is about the same, but I think she possibly grew a couple of inches?

Right after preschool graduation we headed over to Ocotillo (Skyler's school) to write the ribbons for the field day winners. While I was moving my table into the shade (about five minutes after we got there), Colby got on a four-person teeter totter with Ally and Savannah, and promptly got bounced right off. He hit his face on the metal handle...and we're pretty sure it broke his nose.

Check out this huge lump. Poor little guy! We never took him in to the doctor, though, because online it said there's really nothing they can do about toddler nose breaks anyway, and as long as the swelling went down within a few days he'd be fine. It did, so we just left it alone. It still turns really red anytime he cries too hard or bumps it on anything at all, but it he doesn't complain that it hurts, so I think it's fine.

As babies tend to do, he forgot about his owie pretty fast. He LOVES otter pops, and he was super pleased to get to have one AND have a turn jumping in the bounce house.

Skyler won first place in the Sack Race at field day, which kind of surprised me, to be honest! He's not a very sporty kid, and the sack race is a tricky one! He was really excited to get a blue first place ribbon. I was happy for him as well, because I kinda thought he might not get a ribbon at all...😜

This photo is from a few days before school got out. When we go down to the park to wait for the Elementary bus the little kids play on the playground together. These cute kiddos love each other so much! They decided to make a train on the slide.

Skyler had an awards show again for the end of the school year, and this time he won the "Character Counts" award. They pick one kid per class per term, so four kids win this award from each class each year. He got a t-shirt to go with his award, so he was super excited about that.

Kylee really enjoyed taking art class and participating in art club after school this year. She ended up having some of her artwork displayed in the hall of the hospital where Andy works (the sunset with mountains below), and she also had one of her artwork selected to be in the New Mexico State Fair this Fall. I'm not sure which one because I haven't seen it, but they sent home a note to let me know that her art had been chosen and that they would return it to her in 7th grade after the State Fair is over.

Kylee also had an end-of-year awards assembly, where she won a bunch of awards. She got the Gold Presidential Award...

...and then she also got certificates for being on the "A" Honor Roll for both semesters, as well as the Million and Two Million Word Clubs (she was disappointed that she missed Three Million by about one book), and also she was #2 out of her whole school of about 600 kids in the Accelerated Reader points contest. Apparently you get points after you a read a book and take a quiz about it on the computer. She LOVES to read, so I'm not surprised!

Within a few days after hitting his nose, Colby had two black eyes. Poor little guy!

On the very last day of school all the parents planned a water fight for the kids at the bus stop. We brought water balloons and squirt guns, and ambushed them as they got off the bus. It was super fun!