Summer - Week #7

Is anybody else getting sick of my summer titles?  I am, but I barely have enough energy to post this stuff, so creativity is out the window!  We're more than half way through summer though so we won't have to put up with them for much longer. ;)

This past week was a slow one for us.  We have been going full speed this entire summer and I wanted to do as little as possible.  Is it hard to believe that I started to get listless, lazy, bored, and wishing that we had a bit more on our schedule?  I guess I'm never satisfied. ;-)   Monday, Owen and Will started golf lessons - they go each Monday for the next month.  They're loving it!!  For the last part of the lesson, their instructors run around as targets in velcro outfits letting the kids hit them with sticky golf balls.  Despite that adorable photo opportunity, somehow these are the only pathetic pics I took at their lesson:

Lauren is taking a writing class this summer from a lady named Suzanne Vincent.  We met her through the homeschooling groups and she's an editor of a local magazine.  Her classes are at her home in Ogden (yucky drive) but it's SO worth it because she's a fabulous instructor!!!  Lauren brought me inside this week to show off the Vincent's new bunnies; born the night before.

The best part about the week for the kids was spending their own money on toys.  Will and Owen both got legos; thanks in part to the $ Will "earned" from his papa for going down the slide last week.  Lauren ordered herself a 3DS.  She's been saving up for it for almost a year; nice work Lo!

 And my favorite part of the week was a night out with Biffy, Cournie, & Amber.   We went to Roosters for dinner and then did some shopping at Home Goods.  We were laughing non-stop; such a great night!

 The following pictures were taken after I told Biffy to take another picture of me and Amber because I didn't like how I looked in the first one.  She totally teased me for wanting a glamour shot and took dozens of photos non-stop until I grabbed the phone out of her hands.  I love the first picture of Amber... I think it shows how much fun all of us had that night.  Oh how I love these gals!!

 The end, see you on week #8!

Summer - Week #6

The entire Hyde family was in town from New Jersey for a week of fun, and oh what a grand time we all had visiting with them! :)  

Sunday dinner at Cassie & Mason's home:

Monday - Going to see Despicable Me 2... this was SO enjoyable because I sat between Will and Owen and I got to hear them giggling non-stop.  Fun movie. :)  After the movie, Bradley went shooting guns with Papa and the uncles.  That night, the Hyde kids came to our house for a sleepover while Marie and McKay had a date night.  Marie e-mailed me after she got home asking me how I made oatmeal for her kids that morning because Peter said the way I did it was "freakishly delicious."  I had to laugh as I responded to her question; I think he loved it because I gave him free reign with the sugar... sorry Marie!

Wednesday we went boating.  Just as we got out near the buoys, the batteries in the boat died and we had to paddle back to shore to jump them.  Owen was pretty cute because he came up and softly said, "I think I bumped the buttons and turned them on when we were cleaning the boat at home - I'm sorry."  What a sweetie to take responsibility.  To make the morning even worse, sweet Miriam was sick to her stomach and being in the swaying boat did nothing to help calm her tummy.  The fiasco was stressful at the time but ended up making for a funny memory, especially when Marcus was standing at the back of the boat and yelled, "Richard Parker!" in his best Indian accent.  The picture of Marcus standing in the water was right after he got hold of the jumper cables and quipped, "I feel a little vulnerable right now... this doesn't seem like such a good idea."  Luckily, we're all safe, got the batteries going again, had some good laughs via Marcus and we continued on having a fabulous day.

Friday we went to Lagoon.  Can you believe we've lived 5 minutes away from the park for six years and we've never taken the little kids?!  They loved it!!  I actually loved it too... I haven't been in 20 years and was impressed with how they've improved it over time.  The park was clean, uncrowded, had great landscaping, and a ton of shade.

The only bummer about this week was that I broke my toe by stubbing it on Matt's shoe.  Yes, I am uber clumsy - I am well aware of that fact.  I broke it on Tuesday night and was super careful with it on the boat the next day.  On Thursday I hit it again so I decided to wear my boot from my previous bar stool injury to the amusement park.  I can walk around just fine barefoot or in flip-flops but I couldn't fit my foot into any other shoes and it needed protection.  As I'm writing this post, it's been a full 2 weeks since I injured my toe and I still can't wear anything but flip flops. :-P

Saturday we had a pool party up at the Walkers.  The highlights of that day were:

1) Papa bribed Will with $10 into going down the water slide.  Will is uber cautious but is very motivated by money... the money won.  Once was enough for Will (the pictures below are of that first time down) but after Matt added another $5 to the pot if Will went a total of three times, Will became confident enough to do it without bribery and went down non-stop.  

2) Matt helped Owen learn to swim!  Owen's taken quite a few swim lessons but this was the day he worked up enough courage to go for it.
3) Dad Green (Papa) went swimming!