Oh What Do You Do In The Summer Time

Well, what we do in the summer besides travel is not a whole lot. We do somethings, but the thing I love most about summer is that you just kind of run your own schedule, so even when you do things it doesn't feel like your doing a ton of things. Most of what we do when we are home is play, swim, read, clean, eat, sleep, visit the library, and play.

So, this last week that is pretty much what we did. I got the house all cleaned up. It takes a lot more energy when you are pregnant. I think I might be teaching my two girls how to scrub the lower parts of the bathroom a little sooner than I expected too. However, Gaupo talked about working together as a family and wanted the girls to try helping the first time we asked instead of complaining. If they could do it than he would get them a treat. Well it worked for many days in a row. I wish it would become permanent because it was so nice to just have them say, "Okay, Mom." Anyway, we dusted, vacuumed, swept, mopped, scrubbed bathrooms, and got a few other miscellaneous things taken care of. Normally, I try to do all the cleaning in one day, but for one I needed naps, and for 2 I intended to give my kids attention in the afternoon. What actually happened with idea two is that I ended up reading two really great books. I really do love reading, but I also really do feel bad for my family when I get into a good one. Anyway, I would clean until close to 11:30 then we would go to free lunch, then come home play and take naps. Then the girls would play when they woke up and I would read. It worked great for a couple days, but by day four they were kind of ready for some actual Mom attention not just Mom presence.

Also this last week was Gaupo's Friday/Saturday switch, so after much debate we decided to go to Lakeside Amusement park on Thrusday night. I know that doesn't really make sense, but it does a little because we could stay out late and Gaupo could take a nap the next day. Last year was our first time at Lakeside and the girls loved this year too. We paid for Gaupo and I to do the train with the kids, but other than that, we took them to kiddie land and let them ride all the rides. The girls sum it up by saying they went on a roller coaster and in lots of circles. These are true statements. I don't think next year kiddie land is going to cut it as well, so we will have to see how it goes. However, this year it was still fun. The roller coaster was a blast and the girls enjoyed staying up late and riding rides. On our way home, we got nudged by someone who didn't have their lights on, and they didn't pull over to exchange info or make sure we were okay. We reported it to the police, but since the car and everybody is alright they aren't really going to do anything about it. Still it was crazy and kind of but a damper on the night.

Kylee in her car.

Tia in her car.

Ti and Kylee on the roller coaster.

Me and Kylee on the train.

Tia on the carousel.

Kylee on the carousel.

Tia and Gaupo on the train.

Getting of the roller coaster one of the many times they went on it.

Friday was probably the craziest day of the weekend. It started early by us all getting up to help with Food Truck. This is where the bishop's storehouse drops off the orders for the stake and we set it up kind of like the store and those who order go through and pick up their orders. So, we did that. Normally there are a lot of orders and not too many people, but this time it was just the opposite, so it was not quite as fun as normal, but still good and I like taking my kids to do service. On the way home, Gaupo took us to the store and we bought donuts and I bought some whipped cream cheese to go on bagels we already had. Then we home and had breakfast. After breakfast, Gaupo took a nap while I worked on a couple things and the girls played. Then I took them to the park till I and they couldn't handle it any more. Normally they can play at the park forever, but they were just so tired they couldn't figure out how to get along. They wanted to play together, but couldn't quite get it figured out. Anyway, we came home and had a 'snacky' lunch and then read books and tried to go down for naps. I think everyone got a small one, I know I did. They had to sleep fast because our friends Jensen and Calvin Blaine were coming over to play while their parents finished packing up because they moved to Atlanta. It is a pretty big bummer we love the Blaines, but I am excited for them and this new adventure. They played here for almost 3 hours. It was fun, but it kind of showed what I have been worrying about which is that my living room may not be big enough for my family to all play together in. It was fun and eveyone managed, but boy was there toys all over the floor. While they were here I got ready for the temple. Then Gaupo got ready, and once the boys left we took our kids over to the Jacobson's house, so we could go to the temple. We made it to the 5:30 session. It was so great to be in the temple. Then we stopped for dinner at Wendy's. It might start becoming a temple tradition. Anyway, we ate dinner together and then got the kids came home and went to bed.

Needless to say, it was pretty hard to get up and get Gaupo to work on Saturday, but we did it. Once he was off though, we kind of eased into the day. That is until I could tell Tia was going to explode if she stayed in the house. So, we biked to the bank and the grocery store. We made it home to have lunch with Dad and enjoy naps. After naps we went to the library for a short bit and then hit another grocery store before coming home and having dinner and getting ready for bed. I made the mistake of checking out the next book in my series and Gaupo made the mistake of telling me I could start it. Three hours later we decided to go to bed, his new phone fully setup and my book about another hour away from being done. Probably not the best use of a Saturday night, but not terrible.

Sunday was pretty normal with church and naps. I also finished my book. We had granola and smoothies for dinner. Sunday's right now are pretty chill and its awesome. Sometimes its a little long because I go to primary, so I don't get a chance to chat with adults, but my team teacher is an adult and it is nice to be with her and luckily I have great kids and husband, so it nice to just be.

Monday, I decided that my kids needed to get out. We needed to be dirty. Seriously, Tia's bath on Saturday wasn't hardly dirty at all. I totally felt like a failure. I know dirtiness doesn't mean happiness, but it usually means you at least went and did something. Anyway, I decided that with the 'cool' weather we would go hiking. Well, my kids started out good, but before the first half mile was over Tia was ready to go home. By the time we made it 3/4 of a mile Kylee was ready to go home. I then thought we made it to the start of the loop, but apparently we didn't take the right place, so we made it to part of the actual loop we were trying to hike and sadly the girls chose to take the direction to go home instead of to keep hiking. We did hike for about and hour and half maybe a little longer, but our average hiking speed is literally probably 1 mile per hour. I think my kids could go faster and longer if they didn't find huge rocks at the beginning that they wanted to carry the entire hike. Seriously, Tia had at least one rock in her hands the entire hike. Luckily the big rocks didn't get found till we had about 3/4 of a mile left, but I still don't understand carrying rocks.

Kylee and Tia on the trail.

Kylee and Tia trading around rocks so they carried the ones they wanted.

Carrying them.

A group shot to prove I was on this hike.

Anyway, we came home and had lunch. Then got ready for naps and apparently the kids were tired because they took good ones. I made rolls which we had for dinner and also delivered to a few families for FHE. It was a good day, but I think that because we spend so much time riding bikes my kids have kind of forgotten how to walk. Oh well, at least they don't hate both.

I love the laziness of summer. I love the time it gives me with my kids and them with each other. I love the warm days and cool nights. I just love summer and it is speeding past so fast. But, oh what a wonderful season it is.