Summer Wrap-up

Summer is coming to a close, I can hardly believe it. Soon we'll be back to our regular life of school, homework, & crazy schedules.

But first...

Here are a few things we've done this summer...

This is a LONG post with lots of pictures because I need proof when my kids say we NEVER do anything fun, or our summer was SO boring I can say...NOT SO!...we had FUN!

The Orem summerfest is always a great day of fun!

This little adventure hiking Bridal Veil Falls was really fun for Ken and I but the older kids were a little nervous of the height. I don't think they were scared for themselves but they didn't like the little ones being so close to the edge of the falls. Sydney and Kaylie held hands the whole way down keeping an eagle's eye on all the little ones. It was pretty cute to watch.

Kaylie learned how to bake bread this summer and in typical Kaylie fashion she taught her younger siblings how to bake bread too.

Kay loves to bake and she almost always has a group of eager young fans cheering her on as she patiently shows them what she's doing and let's them help. 

Kaylie's bread is GOOD! I solely blame it for at least 5lbs. I've put on this summer.

Sydney learned to french-braid this summer. I showed her once and she just took off braiding every one's hair in sight. This is Kaylie's hair on Sydney's first try. Not too shabby.

We did some home improvement projects this summer. Here Ken is replacing the lights in the kitchen. That project is still in the works, but will be a big improvement when it's all done. We also painted a few rooms that we started clear back in January...we move rather slowly sometimes.

Sydney and Kaylie both went to girl's camp this year. It was Sydney's 3rd year and Kay's 1st. Because of fire danger they were unable to go to our normal camp. Kaylie was devastated for a few days because she was SO looking forward to going to Mia Shalom, but they found a new camp, made the best of it, and had a great time in the scorching heat and the pounding rain.

On Pioneer Day we hiked Stewart Falls. This is such a nice, beautiful hike. One of our favorites!

The kids have enjoyed riding the dirt bike. It was having trouble starting so Tyler worked on the carburetor and now it starts on the first kick. That was a pretty cool victory for him. Nice job, Ty.

While the girls were at girl's camp Ken had a front yard campout with the kids including a redbox on the laptop and popcorn to munch on. Now that's what I call camping!

I could add 100 more pictures of Bear Lake but I won't. That was awesome FUN!



Lots of summer days were spent riding bikes, splashing in the kiddie pool, and soaking up the sun.

I got to have a play day with my old roommates. Fun day!

Ok, our summer wasn't all fun. We did have some sick days too. Almost all of us ended up with some icky gunk.

Over Memorial Day weekend we visited a pioneer village. The kids LOVE stuff like this. It's a treat for all of us.







We've gotten lots of use out of our pass of all passes enjoying trafalga and seven peaks several times. I wish I had the picture of McKenna and Daric on the rock wall they are great climbers. Miniature golf, laser tag, and bumper boats are also a blast.

Zachary's tree gave us more delicious peaches this year.

We spent time REMEMBERING together.

And we spent lots of time PLAYING!

Sydney and Kaylie got to go with Ken to Denver on a business trip.

They got to go the Denver temple to do baptisms.

They also visited the zoo.

See kids we've had LOTS of FUN!

We also had McKenna's birthday in June. We have Sydney's birthday to look forward to in a few weeks.

The kids got to see all of their grandparents this summer and many of their cousins.

We missed those that we didn't see. :(

I'll admit I actually cried on the kids last day of school because I was afraid of having them all home all day long for the whole summer. I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to get homework done and that my days would be nuts trying to meet the needs of eight separate individuals. But I was a little over dramatic, this summer has been my favorite so far. I have loved having the kids home. They are such great little people. They are so helpful and instead of making my days harder they made them easier. I'm looking forward to them going back to school but only because I love to see them learn, grow and challenge themselves.

YAY FOR FUN SUMMERS!!! 



Hope you had a great summer too!