Summer This and That

Summer is long gone and I can hardly remember all the things we did.  As school was ending I began to panic as I tried to figure out how I would entertain my children, or should I say how they would entertain themselves.  We've had so many of our friends move away in the past couple years that the summer was looking pretty borking and lonely.  But we made it through and of course, started out strong with schedules and job charts that were quickly disregarded like yesterday's trash.  We didn't do nearly as much boating as we wanted.  The weather was too cold!  And we didn't go anywhere because we save our traveling for winter/spring break.  But summer was great and I survived with minimal friends/play dates and adventuring with only two boys in tow.

weekly park day in Seattle and we were the only ones to show up

After about 4 years of broken doors in the bonus room, I finally bought, re-sized, and painted new doors.  There were multiple trips to Home Depot and to our friends house with actual tools to get this done.  Turns out those door frames aren't the standard size.  But they're done!

Cold summer weather meant lots of hot tubbing

Henry got to play some lacrosse for the first time

Ethan bought an Audi.  He worked hard and bought it (mostly) with his own money.  Not sure how he plans to pay for school but maybe he can charge people for rides in it?

Din Tai Fung with the Johnson's and Henry was in heaven.  Landon ate 23 dumplings!

Henry hanging out while the family did baptisms in the temple

Swimming as the sun sets on Pine Lake = heaven on earth

Henry having fun for once

Free Slurpee day!  Marcus did it right!

Despicable Me 4 - I took the Bishop's kids to the movie with us and tried to hit the $6 Movie Tuesday deal.  Long story short, no deal.  This lame movie cost me over $100.  But at least I scored a discount on popcorn and maxed out the number of times I could refill the bucket which made me feel a little better.

This is the second summer Parker has done DC Speed summer camp.  It's twice a week and the kids basically play recess games like dodgeball, kickball, and capture the flag.  Parker loves it and its not a ton of money either.  Major win!

Slow Down, Summer!

Summer is FLYING by! Luckily we still have a couple weeks left before the non-stop days of school routine descend upon us.  This past week we've been consumed with grief as we mourn the unexpected passing of one of our friend's sons and one of Randy's scouts,  Tommy Beatty.  We've been grieving right along with the family and supporting them any way we can.  Randy spoke at the funeral and did such a great job that one guy said, "I need to get to know Randy better so he can speak at my funeral!"  Death is such a hard thing for us to accept, and yet it is inevitable.  I've learned a lot about grief and I can tell you that time truly heals all wounds but when your heart is aching, time seems to drag by.  This past week has stirred up lots of past heartache for me, but it has also been good for me to see how far I've come since the deaths of Lindsey and Mom.  It gives me hope for our friends, that eventually their hearts will heal too.

But now back to all things summer.  There have been so many little things going on here and there.  I feel like most of my time is spent juggling time doing fun things with the boys, cleaning up the messes they leave in their wake, and falling asleep anytime I sit down for more than five minutes.  A good way to measure the chaos in my life is to take a look at my laundry room.  It hit a new level of disarray that I had to document before getting it cleaned up, only to have it destroyed the next day.  My boys are slobs.

The explosion in my laundray room and you can't even see the stuff piled around the corner.  Ugh.

We went hiking with our neighbors

We made it to the waterfall but it was all dried up.  Still beautiful though!

Henry is still as cute as ever

After the hike we went to Chik-Fil-A for lunch, courtesy of gift cards from Grandma Great.  Thanks Grandma!

Every week there is a free concert at Pine Lake Park so we've ridden our bikes there a couple times to enjoy the music and play.  The free balloon swords are a nice bonus as well. 

Marcus got a job!  Hallelujah!  Bored teenagers are so annoying.  Mostly because I have a million things I could use their help with but that requires lots of nagging and then no one is happy.  Now I don't have to nag him (as much) and he's out of my hair AND earning money.  He lifeguards at The Pine Lake Club and basically gets paid to watch kids during their swim lessons.  He hates it.  I tell him it's a great motivator to get an education so he doesn't have to do it for the rest of his life.  Another perk: There are very few bikini-clad girls there to flirt with him.  

 We had some yucky weather for a few days.  It even rained which it never does in the summer.  I got so desperate I found a groupon for an indoor trampoline place and took my boys and their friends.  I read a book and made phone calls while they played.  It was money well spent!

Eventually we had the place to ourselves

Ethan needs to be a Ninja Warrior

We created a short bucket list for the summer and one of the things on the list per Landon's request was to go to the Fall City Library, (not the one near our house that we usually go to) and try out this little burger joint.  The library was a disappointment (most books have to be reserved online so there's not much on the shelves) and the burger place was greasy and delicious.   

It started to rain hard so we ate in the van.  Marcus downed this in about 30 seconds.

Marcus went on trek for the first time.  I cringe at his accessories but was happy he went.  Eventually he was happy he went too.  He quickly became nicknamed "The Ox" as he helped everyone pull their handcarts.  There was a major lightning storm so all the leaders had to figure out a new plan and while they were doing that, they put Marcus in charge of the entire group of 500+ youth, leading them in songs as they waited.  I've heard from many adults about what an awesome son I have so I'm proud of him and his natural leadership abilities.

Trek 2019

It's Summer!

But it sure doesn't feel like it because it's so cold!  It's a cool 67 degrees inside the house right now because I refuse to turn on the heat.  But it's kind of nice that the kids can play outside all day long without melting.  I even took/dragged the boys on a bike ride the other day, smack in the middle of the afternoon just because we could.  The Utah girl in me will never take for granted an opportunity to play outside in the summer when I don't melt into a big puddle of sweat.

Anyway, school ended and I did something I've never done before.....I threw a neighborhood party to celebrate summer.  It was a BYOSC Party {Bring Your Own Shaving Cream}.  I invited all our neighbors who have kids and only one family (the Mormons next door) could come.  So I invited another family to join us and we had a great time eating pizza and snacks before making a huge shaving cream mess in the yard.  It was fun and I'm considering making it a tradition to add to our other last-day-of-school traditions of rainbow pancakes for breakfast and ice cream sandwiches after the bus stop. 

 Last summer was a bad one due to the whole pregnancy/newborn thing.  The boys spent countless hours in front of the TV and I couldn't do much about it.  But it was bad.  And long.  And made us all really happy when school started.  So this summer I have been stressing about how to make it a great summer even if we aren't doing a whole lot and even if I have a baby that needs two naps a day and a teenager who is too old to do things with the family without throwing major attitude.  I told the boys about their new summer schedule of jobs/piano practicing/reading/exercise and they were furious.  I tried to get them to help me come up with a summer bucket list and they would have none of it.  Basically they were anticipating a summer of screen time and spending as little time together as possible and I quickly informed them the horrible summer of 2017 would never be repeated.  A couple hours later I locked all the boys out of the house.  I was mad.  They were mad.  Landon told me I was ruining his life.  The next day was almost as bad.  Ethan told me this was the worst summer EVER!  But I persevered and made a few changes.  I threw in 1 hour of screen time in the afternoon IF their jobs are done and IF the kitchen is clean and IF they are being good.  Oh, and they are only allowed a snack at 10:00 and 3:00.  GAME CHANGER!  I knew I was onto something good when the moment I announced it I almost had a mutiny on my hands.  Landon instantly started to cry.  Apparently limiting their access to the kitchen was hitting below the belt and it made me so happy.  Now I don't have to constantly clean the kitchen or nag someone to do it and the boys stay out of my way or I put them to work.  It's lovely.  I haven't locked anyone outside except that one time, been yelled at, or had to hide in my closet so that's a serious win.  But I'm giving most of the credit to our next door neighbors.  This is the first time since Okinawa that my kids have had friends they can play with at the drop of a hat and it sure makes it great that their mom doesn't allow any screen time so my kids think I'm pretty generous for allowing them their one hour. 

Ethan made matching bracelets for him and Henry to wear.  It's amazing what he can do when he doesn't watch TV!

We've spent some time at Pine Lake where the boys swim/kayak/paddle board while I follow Henry around while he eats dirt.  It's so boring.  But at least I don't have to put on a swim suit so that a major thumbs up.

Landon and Parker have discovered the freedom of the kayak.  Pretty soon they're going to paddle off into the sunset and I'll be turned in to social services.

 Henry is my entertainment at the lake.

The tradition of biking for sushi and donuts lives on.  Unfortunately a couple miles into the ride Landon's chain kept falling off his bike so after lots of tears, yelling, and drama, we turned around and went home.  Then I drove everyone to the store and gave Ethan a little hug for being so patient with Landon.  And Wednesday's are $5 sushi days so this will be a weekly tradition.

I forced everyone to go on a Sunday walk with me through a nearby preserve that we've never been to.  It was gorgeous and my boys could probably be heard for miles around as they yelled, wrestled, broke tree branches, sang songs, whined, teased, and even had fun.  And they wonder why they never see any wild life.  They're so loud they scare it away!  Parker held my hand on the steep parts and told me all about the things he's looking forward to doing in kindergarten.  Made my heart melt.

 I dropped Marcus and his friend off at EFY, a week-long church camp.  I loved that they both brought their stuff in garbage bags because why not?  Marcus is having a great time and I can't wait to hear all about it.  I have a feeling if I blink he'll be all grown up and graduating.