Summer of fun

The boys can't come inside if they see bugs. They got out of the car today after swimming and saw grasshoppers jumping so they had to catch some. Cadin found a baby "planter ray" as he calls it. In our terms it would be a praying mantis. Sebrina is out there catching bugs as well. Abree really wanted in the pool today when the kids went down the slide. We are going swimming tomorrow with our neighbors. Sebrina is having a sleepover tonight with her friend and she was invited to another birthday party tonight. The boys are begging to have a sleepover so we may be losing Sebrina tonight and gaining another boy instead. We have the missionaries coming over tonight with our old neighbors. Speaking of missionaries, they were in the right place at the right time on Monday. I saw that a neighbor was giving a lot of things away to move into an apartment and they had a swingset. She was leaving so it was first come first serve as posted on freecycle.org and so I didn't know how I was going to claim the swingset and keep it ours until Ken got off work. I had told another neighbor about it and she walked over there as I drove in the hopes of somehow fitting it in the van if we wanted it. The Elders just happened to ride by and they offered to carry a slide to my neighbor's house and they disassembled the swingset and carried it around the corner to my house. They also put it together since they took it apart they knew what went where. It is funny how things work out.

Sebrina treated Caesar and Bentley like royalty. Abree and Caesar were buddies also. Bentley is the black dog. The kids miss having dogs and loved to take these guys for walks and throw balls to them.

The girls were exhausted after two days of swimming and the fireworks. They fell asleep at 5:30 P.M. right before a neighborhood barbecue. I sat on the couch and read my book while Ken went to the BBQ with the boys.

This is the pool at the hotel where Grandpa Ford stayed at. The boys loved jumping in the water and they were diving for sunglasses and money at the bottom. The next week in swimming lessons they dove for sunglasses and they did very well at that skill with their previous practice. All three of the kids are in the same class which can be hard trying to get three open spots when I want them.

This is 4th of July weekend. We were busy with pool parties. People from the ward invited four families to their house for swimming, food, and fireworks. Grandpa and Grandma Brown watched the kids for Girl's Camp and the kids loved having them here. They love seeing their grandparents. Then we got a visit from Grandpa Ford and Teresa and the kids loved seeing all their grandparents. We saw Grandma and Grandpa Hemmer in May which is nice that they were able to see all of them in such a short period of time.

Conner likes to water his plants from school and Abree decied to use the tub as a mini swimming pool instead. She gravitates to any amount of water and splashed in it. Sometimes it is a little scary how comfortable she is with water. After being gone I loved the simple things in life like seeing Abree feed herself yogurt and finger painting at the same time. These are some of the leaders that went with us. I love the girl's personality. They are so fun.

I know that I am slacking, but after being at Girl's Camp for a week without electronic devices I am not as dependent on them. I loved Girl's Camp and would love to go back. It was amazing that we had a ward that was the smallest and we ran over on testimony meeting. I loved being there and the activities were awesome. I was glad to not have the distractions of phones or tvs and I have come back reading a ton of books. I am into a Mary Higgins Clark book right now that is intriguing and "The Host" is next on my list even though the first 250 pages are slow. I still want to say that I read it. The kids are gung ho in swimming lessons and soccer and I will get picture of them on here soon. Sebrina is asking to be in dance, swimming, and soccer. Thank goodness that swimming will end before dance begins. The twins want to sign up for soccer again as soon as they can. They had a game last night and even though there is not an official score the twins told us they had won 4-0. Cadin and Conner both played goalie and other positions also.