Not sure if we are packing enough in

We have really been packing in the activities this June trying to take advantage of every minute of free time during nice weather months in Utah. Evenings are often spent on the porch or deck enjoying the pink sky and the warm temperatures. Smoothies are made often. Jared shot the squawking blue jays with a bb gun and they must have perished for they are no longer tormenting our cat or us, which they have been for three summers now. He's getting back to his Montana "red neck" roots. ha ha.

Continuing with my goal to have a hike a week, we purchased Timpanogos Cave tour tickets and hiked up the mountain to see this national monument last week. Weston sprained his toe in gymnastics the day before and wasn't up for hiking, so we took Aislyn McIntyre (Savanna's BFF) and had a great time. Beautiful weather and amazing private tour, no one else was at the 8:30 AM tour time but us!

 

Savanna was invited by Aislyn to go boating which she thoroughly enjoyed. She got eaten alive by mosquitoes though and was in some discomfort for a few days with huge swollen bites on her legs and back and arms.

Sav falling off the boat tube

So Weston had a birthday, he turned 11 on Sunday the 14th, and just like it is squeezed into this post it was squeezed into our summer activities. He had a 11 year old father son camp out that weekend so we had limited time for reveling. Weston wanted to go to "Avengers Age of Ultron" and Zupas for his birthday, so I made sure to get that in. His cousins Kayden and Trevan came with him even though they had already seen it. The theater was packed full of people wanting to see Jurassic World. We are a little behind, maybe some other time!

 On Sunday his birthday he ordered waffles for breakfast and opened his presents, a 4X4 rubiks cube and an electric scooter. This is to help him get around our hills to scouts and piano and friend's houses more easily and independently, and he loves it! (The girls can ride bikes they need exercise, Weston exercises more than a human needs to.) We had Grandma and Grandpa Barrett for dinner (Wes wanted homemade pizza, he likes the high carb meals) and they gave him some cash and sang happy birthday to him. We love our Weston!

Savanna continues to babysit/nanny for Shawna, tutor Nyla Hansen, and have violin and voice lessons and summer sewing class. Fiora had an adventure last week, she went to an all day Space Camp with her friends and loved it.  The girls have been packed full with things to do, but this week we scrambled to get them off to girls camp so all that is on pause. It has been quiet around here without them. We got to babysit Nyla Hansen overnight for 24 hours while her parents were out of town. She was such a sweet and cute little three year old wandering around the house. She wanted Weston to rock her to sleep that night, it was so cute!

Weston continues with his much gymnastics and has not been loving every minute of it, but he has been brave and goes nonetheless. He sprained his toe, then he got some major rips this week on his hand--like scary big I was worried he'd need stitches at first--and so we let him opt to not go to practice yesterday to let them heal. Its been a bit much for him going every day. But he is learning some new skills, and he copes with it by taking his scooter on a ride. Instead of gym I took him on a hike to the G, just him and me, the girls  at girls camp missed this hike. It was glorious! I love that I have the stamina to do all these hikes this year.

That behind us is what the G is made of.

Summer work and fun

 We gave Weston the choice to continue with gymnastics or try other things, because starting this June he was pushed up to the 7-10 level group, his coaches trying to push him to compete at level eight this next winter, which means 4 1/2 hour practice every week day, which is quite a lot for anyone to work out. Weston gave it some thought and chose to continue doing gymnastics, and survived his first week ok and said he only got sore muscles the first couple days. So he is continuing to develop his rockin muscles and gym skills.
Weston earned his Aarow of Light award in cub scouts. He will be a boy scout after next Sunday because he is turning 11, so we are proud that he completed his cub scouts requirements.

 Fiora graduated from 6th grade and wanted a nice dress for the 6th grade dance. She was going to settle for a skirt we had here, but thought we could try the DI (Savers actually) to see if there were any nice dresses for cheap. We found a nice blue dress that fit her well for only $12. She looked very pretty and was very happy.
Fiora has a group of friends she is close with from her 5th and 6th grade ALL class, they are doing some weekly activities and skills classes together this summer, and they had lots of "end of school" parties together. Fiora is a little worried that her friend dynamics are going to change in junior high, she really loves Norah, Kimee, Jordan, Amanda, and Jaquelyn.

 Savanna has been working hard this summer as a nanny for Justin and Shawna Schauers and a tutor for Nyla Hansen (3 year old girl in our ward with Down's syndrome). She is hardly ever home in fact and I often feel bad for leaving Fiora here while I go to work with Weston and gym and Savanna at "work" all the time. Savanna is trying to earn money for a phone and is certainly working hard toward her goal. She is also fun to keep company with while Jared fishes at Deer Creek.

I spent a good part of the first week of summer staying with my Grandma Rappleye while my parents went camping at the grand canyon. It was her birthday June 1, she turned 94, and I was so thrilled to be able to spend part of the day with her. She received lots of love and gifts from her numerous and worthy posterity, and was in a delightful mood all day, and kept saying how nice it was that I would keep her company on her birthday. The Terry's had her for half the day and threw a nice party in the canyons for her. She felt very loved. My kids spent a lot of the next day with her while I went to work and loved playing "apples to apples" with her. They also said grandma played solitaire for 4 hours and kept telling them that was one of her favorite games. Ha! Didn't know that. She still loves crossword puzzles, we did that while driving here and there. Glad you are still with us grandma!

I am trying to keep up with the kids' schedules and my schedule. I feel somewhat like the personal secretary and taxi driver for three busy children. I may have over done the summer scheduling, because I've accidentally double and even triple booked myself and the kids jobs/classes/camps/workshops over top of trying to play and have fun this summer as well. Jared has decided this summer he wants to get out of town which usually he is too busy for other summers, so that has thrown me for a bit of a loop, and I've had to pull my hair out trying to make things work. I'm hoping things will settle down. I like taking advantage of summer time but I also like enjoying the summer, and being overwhelmed by schedules is not my idea of fun.
One of my ideas of enjoying the summer is a weekly hike. Savanna was working and Weston had a primary activity Saturday, so I took Fiora and we picked up Kollin and Krystal in Provo and hiked the Y. Fiora said she had a great time even though going up was a bit hard. It was a beautiful day and I was very thankful for my life out there in the green mountains with a cool breeze and blue skies.

 Jared decreed that Weston would not get any more legos for his birthday. "He has too many and he can play with what he has." Jared doesn't appreciate the collector mind Weston has. So I went downstairs and played with Weston's legos, and he joined me though I feel like he was thinking I was "doing it wrong". We had an epic battle with all his bad guys on one side and the good guys on the other side. Weston is selling some more lego sets so he can earn the money himself to buy new legos. I'm going to post pictures of them because I want to remember these legos, he is selling a couple of my very favorites and "first evers" that I gave him.