Summer Fun!

 

We are missing our pool, but finding other ways to keep cool and stay busy this summer….

This is what we do with water balloons now!

Another week of swim class.  The kids both did great!  We held off on putting Grayson on swim team again this summer for my own selfish reasons…. wanted them to have the same schedule and Colbie wasn’t quite old enough.  Next summer they will both be able to join & do some meets!

Took the kids to several movies this summer.  I think we made about five this year!  I was a little anxious about taking all three, but quickly got the hang of it.   Grayson & Colbie are my little helpers with popcorn & drinks and they know to sit tight in their seats when Mama has to excuse Mr. squirmy worm to take a walk & settle down.  This is another new smart aleck trick he’s picked up.  If his fingers aren’t in his nose, their in his ears! 

Brutus had an eventful few days!  When Blaine was away on his fishing trip, a neighbor contacted me about finding a wandering tortoise.  After seeing the picture and hearing her describe him, I felt awful and knew it must have been him.  They delivered him for me and he went right back in his hole without any hesitation.  A couple of hours later, Grayson comes home after lunch with Buddy and I asked him to go check on Brutus, as I’m not near brave enough to climb down his dark, smelly bunker.  Moments later, Grayson comes running inside, eyes ready to pop out of his head, saying, “Mama, there are TWO tortoises!”  What are the chances?  Long story short, we kept the new guy for a few days till we finally found the owner.  Thank God because Brutus was not happy about this outsider and definitely showed him who’s boss.  Several tortoise brawls took place to the point where Brutus had flipped the other guy on his back.  Good thing Grayson found him when he did!

Brutus is the big guy on the left.   Blaine’s crazy enough to crawl down the hole!

This is what we’re doing with Sissy when the house is eerily quiet!

Although we do miss our pool, we’ve had so much fun at our lakefront property once a week!!  Haha!  The water gets so deep when they irrigate, the kids dig in the mud, paddle around on their little raft and just have a blast!  Chase loves it too!

Skyler even comes out for all the excitement!

We are finally off on vacation!  Well, Blaine & the kids are at least.  I got to spend a couple nights last weekend and then had to come back last night for work.  One more day though and then we have two full weeks off!  I head back up to camp tomorrow, where we will spend this week in the mountains and then we’ll head to the beach after that!  Then it’s off to school again!  I can’t believe how quickly this summer flew by.  As busy as these kids are, I’m not ready for them to go off to school again :(

This is our view from the trailer.  We are camped just up the road from where we stayed last summer, about two miles from Woods Canyon Lake. 

Grayson found the biggest dandelion I’ve ever seen and a horny toad all in the first day!  We named him Spike.  Grayson has the craziest luck.  The camp host told us that Grayson’s was the first horny toad he had ever seen in the area; however, this was Grayson’s second year in a row finding one.  He was a pretty little guy.  They named him Spike and made him a little house out of a Corona box.  Even though he seemed pretty content, Grayson felt bad and let him go after a couple of days. 

“Hey Mama, look what I can do!”  Yep, he biffed it right after I took this picture!  Grayson learned how to split wood.  The bike hats were a requirement of Jed’s.  He’s pretty insistent and Grayson is an amazing sport!  And splitting wood is not as easy as it looks!

Painting rocks and pinecones… and shoes and hair and whatever else they get their hands on!

Coming back to a quiet, and I mean QUIET house last night was not as incredible as it sounds.  As much as I should enjoy the peace and quiet at night, I miss them terribly already.  Even Chase is in the mountains :(  Can’t wait to hug them again tomorrow!