Weber River Parkway Walk

We went to Utah the day after Bryant got back from scout camp.  After a long drive on Sunday we were all ready for the great outdoors on Monday, Grandpa Scott and Grandma Jane took us out to one of their favorite walking spots.  It was beautiful! 

Before we hit the trail Grandpa gifted all the boys with new hats.  They were thrilled!  And they looked pretty darn cute to boot!

Ethan wanted flash backed to 2005 and showed Abe how to chew the sweet grass roots.

Back in the days of Oregon hiking (2005 "a couple of hicks")

Eliza was tired and needed a break.  She even asked me to carry her as I was holding Abraham.  Ha!  I mistakenly told her she was "six years old" and she could walk.  I realized later that she is seven!  Even more of a reason she can walk by herself.  I think the thin Utah air was hard on them all.  They all got pretty worn out pretty easily.

In fact, Bolton and Abraham headed back to the car while the rest of the crew got to play in the river. The kids all had a blast with Grandpa!

We all enjoyed just sitting in the shade on the grass and eating some snacks and being silly.

It was a perfect way to spend our Monday afternoon!

Art Camp

Another summer camp!  This time Bryant was away at scout camp so he missed out on the fun.  We had about 20 kids in our backyard for 4 days.  Art supplies were just bursting out all over...

I am not an expert with art, by any means, but we had a lot of fun experimenting and trying new things.  The most important lesson I hope they took from our week was that "Perfection is the enemy of good."  Things don't need to be perfect!  

One day we tried our hands at mixed media projects.  Most of the kids just made a mess, but a few of them got it and made some fun works of art.  I even got out the glitter and I think I made at least 4 girls' dreams come true!  Their parents must be like me and refuse to deal with it under normal circumstances.  My back patio is still sparkling 3 weeks later!

The last day of camp I had a friend come and teach them some fun stuff about Van Gogh and how he used color to paint his emotions.  They even got to paint their own interpretation of Starry Night.  And then we let the kids choose a couple of their favorite projects for pictures.  

The whole crew all lined up!  It was a fun (and exhausting!!) week.  The kids had more fun than I even imagined.  So it was all worth it!

Eliza Turns 7!

My sweet baby girl is not much of a baby anymore!  I just love her so much.  Today is her birthday and we celebrated in style.  This year we have done some fun family activities for the kids' birthdays and let them choose one friend to come along with us.  Eliza chose to go bowling and we had a rocking good time.

Bryant is very into dressing up these days, some days it makes me giggle, others it makes me cringe.  Today he made me smile with his "bowling in a bowler hat" ensemble.

The birthday girl is so tender hearted.  She loves with her whole heart and sincerely wants to help other people.  She is growing up so much and is a really good helper around the house and with her younger brothers.

She has inherited the "need to be funny" gene from her daddy and loves to crack jokes and quote Studio C as often as possible.

She inherited the "need to create" gene from her momma and loves all things artistic.  She told her friend that all she wanted for her birthday was coloring books and crayons.  She was rewarded with some GIANT Frozen coloring pages and a box of 96 crayons!!!  She is so generous and has already shared one of the giant pictures with each of her brothers that asked for one.

She also got a new bike helmet (with a Frozen tiara at the front of it!) and a Nerf gun.  She still isn't riding her bike, so we were hoping that the new helmet would give her some incentive for trying harder.  And the Nerf gun is because the boys have Nerf battles in the house 5 days a week and she's the only one of the 5 oldest kids who doesn't have a weapon.  And we're supposed to be going to the church for another epic battle in the gym soon.  Now she's prepared.

She opted for a less traditional birthday cake.  We had Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes.  They are so yummy!!!  Definitely worth cheating on the weight loss plan for this bad boy.

We love Eliza so much.  She was our miracle baby who is now a miracle big girl.  Bringing smiles to everyone she meets.  Happy Birthday Lizee Lou!

Building/Engineering Camp

Summer is zooming on by!  We only have a month left until school starts, ugh!  We are making the most of it while we have the time.  Today was the last day of our second summer camp, Building & Engineering Camp!  We had so much fun!  There were my four oldest kids, along with three others, two other 7 year old girls and one 10 year old boy.

Tuesday was our first day and we started off easy with paper airplanes.  We tried several different designs (the kids took turns teaching designs they knew).  Then we all trekked out to the backyard and took turns flying them and measuring the distance.  After airplanes we made tissue paper and straw gliders.  The kids "flew" them from the second story window and had so much fun seeing how they caught the wind.  We finished day one with an attempt at hovercrafts.  The kids were really excited to try them out, but unfortunately they didn't do too well.  We tried a few different modifications and only had one or two that had a sort of lift like on an air hockey table.  It was a little disappointing but a good lesson in scientific discovery. :)

Day two was our first foray into wood working and power tools.  We used some Ana White plans to construct these picture ledges.  I let the boys use the big compound miter saw and all the kids-boys and girls- used the drill to drill and screw the pieces together.  The kids were all so excited to see their work come together into something so awesome.

Day three we started with sanding down our ledges and then we got right to work painting them.

The rest of Day Three was spent measuring, cutting, and constructing some golf ladder games.  I read that some people have used tennis balls instead of golf balls and I realized it would be a fantastic idea with my little terror around.  After building camp ended for the day we hosted a cooking class with some other friends and by the end of it I was exhausted!  The kids really wanted to swim and I just needed to rest so Bryant asks me, "Why do you get tired so easily?" Ha!  Its funny how kids have no idea how much we do for them.

Our final day of camp was today.  The morning began with putting another coat of paint on our ledges.  Next up was designing a launch pad for our bottle rockets!  They got a pencil and some paper and went right to work.  The object was to have a 2 liter bottle upside down with room under it to attach a pump.

Bryant and Jonas started out working together, but they just couldn't compromise on their design plan so they ended up working alone.  Bryant's launch pad was a large board with four legs sticking up to support the bottle.  He wrapped the top of the legs with duct tape to gently hug the bottle...

Jonas built his with a table up on some legs and some 1x8 boards on two sides of a hole in the table top to support the bottle.

Levi and our friend A worked together.  They built a table up on some legs and cut a hole in the table top for the bottle to rest in.

Eliza and her best friend E worked together only they didn't use any power tools.  They opted for some big LEGOs.  Their first design didn't work out, when I tried to put the rocket into it and it blasted off and the LEGOs all fell apart.  So they opted for a different design that was more stable.

Our rocket launches did NOT disappoint!  Once we figure it out anyway.  We had bottle flying way up into the sky.  It was awesome!  And a perfect way to end Building/Engineering camp.  One of the kids said, "I'm so glad we did this!  I wish building camp wasn't over!"  Those words made it all worth it!

Losing Stuff, Sweet Moments, and Playing at the Gymnastics Center!

Losing Stuff #1:  Eliza's tooth was hanging on by a thread.  She wouldn't let any of us touch it.  She refused to pull it.  Then one afternoon, she was just minding her own business eating some applesauce (of all things) and Levi nudged her.  The next thing I knew she was missing her tooth.  And it was really missing.  She must have swallowed it because it was gone!  She started to cry at that realization but held it in pretty well.  Then she started talking and we all heard her new lisp.  The boys (Jonas!) really teased her about it and she really let the waterworks fly.  I cheered her up by taking her picture, but you can definitely still see the teary face under that smile.  Love this sweet girl, so much!

Losing Stuff #2:  I am working really hard trying to lose some weight.  I haven't lost anything since Abraham was pretty new and the time has come to get serious about it.  If we talk any time in the near future you'll probably hear me mention it, its kind of consuming me right now.  I'm not doing anything magical, just eating fewer calories, but more protein.  And working out till I'm disgusting pretty often.  Wish me luck!

Sweet Moment:  Aren't these two just adorable snuggled in together like this?  We were having FHE and they weren't really paying any attention to it, but they were sure being cute looking at this cookbook together.  At first Bolton was grumbling at Abey for getting in his chair and then he just let it go and was a good big brother.  Love them, so much!

Playing at the Gymnastics Center:  On July 7 a friend texted to invite us to go to the Gymnastics Center her son goes to.  They were having an open gym day and we were super happy to join them.  Its only two hours (and we were a little late) but those kids ran and jumped and swung and balanced and bounced and... you get the idea.  They had a lot of fun!

July is shaping up to be a great month for our family!