A Heavy Heart

Bags of folders, notebooks, pencils, glue sticks and disinfectant wipes (do you ever wonder how growing up we managed to survive without disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer – it’s amazing the germs didn’t just kill us!). All these supplies can only mean one thing – summer vacation is officially over and it’s time for another school year.

So it is that I have had an extremely heavy heart all week. Samuel and I went to the school open house on Thursday to meet all of his new teachers and I left the building with a big lump in my throat. That lump later turned into tears as I thought about my little guy being gone for 7 hours each day. Sending Samuel to Kindergarten was hard, but at least I knew it was only for a few hours. Now he will be gone all day and I can hardly stand the thought without tears forming! I’ve decided I’ll probably just be a blubbering mess each year as school starts and I need to make sure I have at least a gallon of my favorite ice cream on hand to drown my sorrows!

One thing I’m really going to miss is all of us spending lunchtime together. At one point of my life this was the worst part of the day, but the past few years it’s been wonderful. The kids and I have all sat down together and I read to them from the Friend Magazine as they eat. I have really been distraught about losing this time with Samuel and then all too quickly each of the kids will follow. As I lay in bed the other night, not able to sleep, I had a thought pop into my mind and it has eased my worries. I realized that I could replace our lunchtime spiritual nourishment with an after school snack and story from the Friend. Maybe I will survive this new phase!

I’m gonna miss this guy hanging around the house all day!

Last Monday I asked Samuel what he wanted to do this last week before school started. He gave me his list and somehow we managed to squeeze it all in. We’ve had such a fun summer I’m going to miss those carefree action packed days!

As we bounced around from activity to activity all summer long I had the words of the song “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw streaming through my mind. We didn’t go sky diving, rocky mountain climbing or 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu man chu (words from the song and just in case you’re wondering I have actually seen Chuck go about 2.7 seconds on a little bull – it was very entertaining and a story for another day) but we sure did make the most of our summer!

A little snippet of this weeks activities.

We went to our favorite, Marv’s for lunch, a shake and little ninjas.

We had a picnic and swam with friends in our pool.

We went to the library and found a book on drawing fantasy creatures. Samuel’s favorite was the alien and if you look closely you can see my rendition of a fairy. Who knew I could draw anything but stick figures – certainly not me!

We made and flew all sorts of paper airplanes with information from another book we found at the library.

 

We spent time with friends at the river.

We did a little nature walk.

And fed the very aggressive ducks!

We played at the park

And had another picnic

We ate popcorn and watched the cartoon version of the Hobbit. Now Isaac is obsessed with drawing giant spiders!

Samuel and Bella wore out the slide at Sand Hollow.

We went to the Washington County Fair Parade on Saturday morning. We’ve never been to this parade before and I only knew about it because Samuel’s school had an entry and I received an email from the school.

There weren’t very many people along the parade route so the kids got LOTS of candy.

And to top the week off we took a long drive with Aunt Trina and Wes for a picture taking extravaganza. Their car broke down and we squished way too many people in the van. Our husbands sure are good sports! The pictures were adorable, but will have to wait for weeks to be edited I’m sure!

Good Bye Carefree Days We Will Miss You!!!

Oh What Do You Do In the Summertime

So what do we do in the summertime - a quick summary of our last months adventure. We managed to cross everything off our activity list that the kids wanted to do this summer. Okay, all except one, I just couldn’t bring myself to stay in pajamas and watch movies all day. Honestly, that much inactivity would have caused mush brain for sure!

Mommy proved she was the master fisherman in our little household.

We visited one of our favorite summertime spots – Pine Valley.

We hiked and built stronger bonds along the way.

The summer wasn’t all fun and games – we went to the library, studied, read and practiced the piano. I loved this Magic Tree House book on the Revolution. We will be reading it each July for sure.

 

We went swimming.

Tried new adventures.

Spent time with family.

Enjoyed a great year with our garden – Chuck canned 12 jars of salsa with all of our tomatoes! We’ll be pro desert gardeners one of these years for sure!

 

We caught frogs.

We went to the 4th of July Parade EARLY in the morning.

Yep, we wore out the swimsuits this year – the kids even wore them to the parade.

It was our first year doing fireworks in the dark – we’ve always done them when it was still light because the kids went to bed early.

We spent lots of time at the river.

And bought our first boogie board.

Mommy was bound and determined to get Isaac to float down the river.

Jenna ate way too much dirt and drank way too much nasty water, but she survived.

The kids loved the waterfall.

We went to the 24th parade.

Samuel perfected the art of drawing attention and begging for candy.

We ate way too many parade treats!

More fireworks and the first year that no one cried when the explosions began!

We worked on our sparkler dance Aunt Trina taught us years ago.

We went 4-wheeling.

Thanks to Aunt Julie, Chuck and I went on adventure all by ourselves!

We spent time at Chuck’s families cabin in Midway.

More hiking to beautiful destinations

I had to sneak in a few picture opportunities!

We tackled rock climbing and other fun activities at Park City Mountain Resort.

We went to the Gateway Children’s Museum and spent hours playing.

We played at the park.

Ate way too much pizza.

But not too much ice cream – at least in my book!

We scrounged food off from everyone’s plate at BBQ’s.

The kids played with friends.

And we spent time with friends.

It was a busy fun filled month!

Ready or Not Here She Comes!

Our little Firecracker turned 18 months this week – hard to believe!

Upon turning 18 months, Jenna has now reached the milestone all church going parents long for – Nursery. Yes, today was Jenna’s first day of nursery. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel sending my last baby to nursery. Honestly, I thought there was absolutely not a chance she would actually stay without throwing such a gigantic fit they would be frantically searching the halls begging us to take her back. But to our utter shock and amazement she actually stayed the entire time! When we picked both Isaac and Jenna up from nursery after church the first thing Isaac said was, “Bebe (that’s what he calls her) didn’t cry!”.

When I first entered the nursery doors, Jenna was fiercely clinging to me. I sat down by her and pulled out a few toys. Then I asked Isaac if he would take care of Jenna. These two have a love hate relationship right now, but Isaac was more than willing to try and help. As usual, there were already a few kids crying and so Jenna was distracted trying to figure out what this place was all about. I quietly snuck out the door and waited in the hallway for the screams I just knew would follow as soon as she realized I had gone. A few minutes later I did hear her crying, but just for a minute. Her cries were muffled by the little guy screaming and pounding at the door for his parents. I kept looking through the little peep hole, but couldn’t see her. I figured one of the nursery leaders must be holding her because she loves to be held. And sure enough one of the nursery leaders held her the entire time, except during snack. After church I told Chuck I felt bad because our nursery leaders are super sweet, but they are both older and I know it can be tiring to hold a baby for that long especially when you have other kids that also need help. Chuck then laughed and said, “You feel bad for them, she’s like that every day, you should feel bad for us!”.

So we’ll see how the following weeks go. I think next week will be harder because she will now know I’m going to leave her. We have late church which makes it difficult for the little ones because it’s right during nap time. I was able to get Jenna a little nap before we went to church so I think that’s another reason it worked this week. Chuck’s not ready to celebrate yet because he’s the one who will be attending nursery instead of taking her home for a nap until she decides it’s not such a bad place.

  

We sure do love this baby of ours – screams and all!