Summer 2013 Wrap Up

We have less than a week before school starts.  Swimming lessons are over, sewing classes are over, the search for the missing library book is over - we'll just be paying for that one.  I had some photos left on my camera from the last few weeks, so let's do a purge post.

First, the morning after Aaron and Lori's wedding, those of us who were still in town met at the Salt Lake Temple to do sealings for some of our ancestors.  For Christmas last year, the kids in my family gave Dad a subscription to Ancestry.com and between that and Family Search, Dad has found hundreds of names for us to take to the temple.  It's been remarkable to be a part of the miracle.  

Jen had to leave a few hours later and Melissa and Jeff had to go even before that.  I'm so glad we made the time to do this part of the temple work together.  All of us have been taking family names to the temple for the last 6 months.

I don't know what's happening here, but I like the expressions.  Katy wore the wrong shoes for all the walking around on the wedding day and then for the second day at the temple.  Lesson learned, eh?

Allyn and Aron headed to Mexico for their 15th wedding anniversary while the rest of us were at the temple.  They farmed their six children to various relatives and we won the jackpot with Lilja.  Bridget was so excited to have Lilja stay with us that she became a Bossasaur, telling Lilja what was going to happen next.  Ha!  Luckily Lilja has four younger siblings and she could deal with that.  The boys started demanding a bit much of Lilja, too.

At Bridget's swimming lessons, Lilja found a nice little nook on the playground to read her book.  Then she was joined by Emil and Colin and it wasn't so cozy anymore.

Speaking of swimming lessons, by the time that third week came around, Bridget was doing cartwheels off the diving board.  It was worth the money and the chasing the boys around for her to learn all the skills to have fun swimming.  Brian and I took all the kids to the outdoor pool on a Saturday a few weeks ago.  The boys had no fear - they were jumping off the side of the pool into our arms and going down the big slide with Mom and Dad, whooping the entire way.  Yes!  Hopefully a good sign that they'll do well at swimming lessons next year.  And I will sit in a chair and read a book and not have Dr. Pepper spill on my pants four days in a row.

We had our Sunday treat of caramel popcorn.  I need to replenish my supply of those paper popcorn buckets.  Who knew how often I would use them?!  I know Lilja was a little homesick, but hopefully she'll look back on her visit fondly.  We'll always have caramel popcorn on the back step.

The neighborhood summer party was a few nights ago.  Bridget started playing with Kodi at lunch time and she didn't come home (except to change out of her swimsuit to watch the movie) until 9:45pm.  She had a major 50-foot waterslide/popcorn and candy hangover the next day.  (I asked her to help me look for the missing library book and she wailed, "I'm ezausted!")  I'm glad she got all that sliding done early in the day because it started raining pretty bad during the dinner.  (The boys have been sick, so we didn't take them this year.  Dad had a picnic with them in the backyard.)

Millie and Natalie took shelter under the food table.  Shivering and eating Otter Pops.  Naturally.

Some of the boys took the shelter construction a little more seriously.  Ha! 

Bridget had the time of her life.  I had fun visiting with my neighbors and their cute kids.  There are four or five moms in our neighborhood who put in the most time and effort to make the summer party awesome.  All of them were smiling and game through the whole evening, even through the rain.  I came to get Bridget at 9:45 in one of the backyards where a bunch of kids were watching "Wreck-It Ralph" on a big screen, sitting on blankets, eating popcorn and candy from their individually prepared goodie bag.  Like Bridget said to Kodi on their way to change out of their wet clothes, "I'm so glad I live in this neighborhood!" :)