Summertime Fun

A campout to start out July became a jumping-off point for all sorts of summer fun.

Some friends took me out mountain biking for my birthday and it was a total blast!

Wendy was about to move and we were fitting in our last fun times together.

Free Chic-Fil-A for cow appreciation day. Spots never looked so cute.

Tired of hearing so much negativity come out of my mouth towards the kids about what they're doing wrong, we tried a new system where the kids were rewarded for positive efforts. Lydia completed her chart of positive actions so she was able to choose whatever restaurant she wanted to eat at. Olive Garden for the win! I am so proud of all her good decision, hard work, and genuine goodness.

Ammon wasn't far behind and he chose Red Robin as his restaurant of choice. I loved seeing his thoughtfulness and helpfulness grow.

Kendrick completed his chart eventually and he chose "Mickey-D's" to eat at (not pictured). However, he also got to benefit from his siblings' chart rewards as well. This boy makes my heart happy and he really worked hard at talking nice.

Ivy was too young for her own chart, but she just worked at growing bigger and learning all she can.

Like how to chew through cereal boxes to get to the goods. And what grocery shopping is like when everyone is home and eating alllll the things.

What it's liked to be trapped on your own personal trampoline, and snuggling with brother in the rocking chair.

We took a trip to the Pacific Science Center and made sure to visit the butterfly exhibit.

Ivy also went to her first IMAX movie about Rescue Dogs.

She kept her glasses on, but really it was snacks for the win.

Unfortunately, July wasn't a very warm summer month and we were only able to fit in one lake day at our favorite: Rattlesnake Lake.

There may have been an incident where I accidentally dumped Kendrick and myself off a paddleboard. Kendrick is terrified of water and panicked immediately, despite having a life jacket on. I swam to him and he suctioned to my neck, screaming, thrashing, and trying to scale me like a tree. I couldn't keep myself above the water (I didn't have a life jacket on) with his death grasp and he would have drowned me if I hadn't realized I could touch. Once I finally got him back on the paddleboard he dramatically exclaimed, all sorts of traumatized, "Mom, you saved me!" I tried to explain to him that he would be fine because he had a life jacket on, but to his little three-year-old mind he had just barely escaped a terrible death.

Kendrick refused to even come close to the water again and spent the rest of the afternoon throwing a million rocks into the water from a safe distance.

The other kids had a blast with friends, paddling and floating around the lake and soaking in what sun we could before it left again for more rain.

Lydia and Ammon earned free Mariner's tickets through a school service project and I was thrilled to take them on a firework night.

My parents and Kayleen came as well and sat a couple rows down from us. We were high up in the nosebleeds, but we also had a great view of Seattle.

The first half of the game was a total snoozer and we were in the hot sun. But as darkness fell, we saw some fabulous plays and pulled out a win in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and a full count. That's some good baseball!

The fireworks were awesome and Lydia and Ammon had a great time. I loved spending some time with just my older two and can't wait to do it again.

Our good friends, the Ropers, had to finally say goodbye as they moved to Saint George. One of their boys is Ammon's best friend, Hyrum. For a final goodbye, we took a group picture of these three buds together. Boy were we sad to see them go.

I was able to go on a hike with a group of ladies from church. We hiked Little Si and it was a blast.

We hiked up and chatted with each other and laughed at our old age and enjoyed the views at the top.

I love these ladies and I love hiking with no kids.

Eager to get out and enjoy what good weather we could, we had a family dinner out at one of favorite places, Kanaskat-Palmer State Park.

We tossed a football and spent time throwing rocks in the river.

And that's how we like to spend our summer. Outside, eating, baseball, friends, and family.

July 4th Camp Out

In one of the most unconstitutional acts of the century, my city outlawed fireworks. I, as an American citizen, am no longer able to decide if I would like to shoot off fireworks to celebrate my freedoms and country. As you can tell, I feel very bitter about this and so we decided that if we couldn't celebrate with fireworks, that we would leave and enjoy some great outdoors over the holiday instead.

So in rebellion, we left and set up camp at American Heritage Campground in Olympia and settled in.

I was nervous about Ivy staying warm or sleeping well in the tent, but she did fantastic. And she loved climbing out of her bed to snuggle with me in my sleeping bag each morning. The other kids kept cozy on their side of the tent.

My parents and sister were camped across the way and we set up home base around their fire pit. Trying to keep a crawling baby clean while camping proved a difficult, if not impossible, task. Ivy did love the camping chairs and playing in the dirt as much as possible.

We tried to keep her contained in a pack-n-play, but she really hated it. She wanted to be free!

Our first full day, we left to explore a couple of hikes in the area. We found one that led us to a couple of discovery zones along the Puget Sound. We saw seals, gooey ducts, and also an old bridge thing that now houses a bunch of bats.

The hike also leads you to a bird refuge of sorts. So many birds line the trees that the ground in the surrounding area is white with their excrement.

They feed on the fish that the Puget Sound brings in the bay. I tried to get a video of how loud the birds are all squawking together, but it's hard to tell from the video. It sounded like a symphony of creepiness. We also found a plant with red and blue - fitting for our holiday weekend.

On our way back, we took a small detour to extend our hike to see some extra nature things.

This proved to be disastrous for me as Kendrick lost all motivation a part of the way through and I ended up dragging him for a VERY long time trying to get out of the endless forest. I even started singing, "this is the trail that never ends. It goes on and on my friends." Kendrick refused to look at the camera for a picture he was so grumpy.

One of the kids' favorites was the campground pool. A couple of the days were cold and windy, but they were not deterred and often had the pool to themselves.

Another favorite was the nightly hay rides touring the campground.

Basically, the tractor pulls you around the campground and you wave at all the campers as you go by.

Scooter and roller blade races brought out some heavy competition one evening, and Ivy put holes in the knees of her pants trying to keep up.

Mom became the goat whisperer at the animal farm as we tried to call the goats out of the barn so we could look at them. The goat loved to maaaa at the disturbing sounds coming out of Mom's mouth. We finished up daylight with some scramball before heading for our campfire.

We heard the fireworks that night, but we enjoyed the flickering lights of our campfire and each other's company more.

The next morning we took another hike around Tumwater falls. This one was more low-key and stroller friendly.

The falls are big and beautiful and we walked down to the very bottom to fully enjoy them.

Ivy enjoyed the hike around the falls too.

We cleaned up camp and enjoyed our final bit of time together before we headed home.

Ivy looked a little hammered our final morning waking up.

We stopped to visit the State Capitol Building since we were in town.

The kids ran around like wild people being all sorts of disrespectful while we looked at the monuments and enjoyed the fountains.

After enjoying the grounds we explored the inside of the building.

And then we rushed home to beat the holiday traffic.

Our campout was great. The two negatives were that Brigham had to spend most of our trip studying for his Certified Financial Planning test he was about to take. And the only bathrooms in the tent section of the campground were these horrible, terrible porta-potties. And those things also got real full real fast with all the campers having to share them. The flush toilets and running water promised were a ten-minute walk away in the RV section of the campground. We visited them when we could, but that is way too long of a trek in the middle of the night. Oh, it was a gross, terrible situation.

Besides those two issues, we had a great time. Camping food, tent snuggles, campfires, games, hikes, and good company. Everything a girl could want for her birthday weekend.