August 3 - We had a lot of unseasonable rain this summer and today our creek was out of control. Lauren was the first to notice the water from the kitchen window (we can never see it from there). I think the water raised about 5 feet higher and a LOT wider than normal. The bottom two pics show what it usually looks like for comparative purposes.
August 4 - Lagoon! We always have a great time at Lagoon when we go, but we didn't get as much use out of our passes this summer as we did last year. On this trip, Owen and I rode Cannibal while Lauren went with Will on the ferris wheel. After our time at Lagoon, we crossed the freeway and got some gelato from Harmon's because it was one of the things on our 'Summer Bucket List' that we hadn't accomplished yet. Yum!
August 6 - Swimming at Oakridge: We took the Leishman boys with us to the pool a few times but this trip was the most memorable. It was the first time that both Jed and Tanner jumped of the diving board!! It didn't take long before Jed went straight into trick mode and pulled off this epic front flip like his big brother! I was most excited about Tanner's progress though because at the beginning of summer he wouldn't even swim in the deep pool so he overcame the fear of the deep and the jumping! I love the two bottom pics because they show how much fun all the kids had... they'd all congregate around the diving board and give each other tips and scores on their dives.
August 8 - Matt gave me an early birthday present and took me on an overnight getaway. We stayed the night in SLC and saw the start of the final leg of the Tour of Utah from our hotel balcony.
We walked through the SLC farmer's market, went to some fun places to eat, and then drove up to the Huntsman Center to see the brick that "I Heart Peanut Butter" sponsored with the proceeds from the sale of my cancer "pants." I was completely unprepared for the flood of emotions to come. While I was looking for my brick, I kept noticing so many of them were "in memory" of someone. Seeing all those that have passed because of this disease was very humbling and kind of scary. As soon as I saw my brick I completely broke down in tears.
I thought I had things under control, so I sat down to snap a pic but the bottom left picture is the beginning of breakdown numero two. Everything from the past 9 months just resurfaced and it was such a cathartic, healing experience to have a good "it's hopefully over" cry. I completely cried off my fake eyelashes (ha ha) but the experience of closure was worth it. I didn't want to end the experience on a crying note, so I took a "victory" picture in front of the building.
After we went to Huntsman, we drove out to Usana Amphitheater for the main event of the trip... Kelly Clarkson's 2015 "Piece by Piece" concert!! Woot woot!! Eric Hutchinson was the opening act and I didn't know any of his songs but he was super talented and we loved every bit of his show (live music is the best, right?!)
After Eric, Pentatonix did a set. They were fabulous!
And finally, Miss Kelly came on. It was amazing... just love that gal!
August 9 - The Hyde family and Marcus & Krischelle's family were in Utah this week and we met up with them in the afternoon for a walk in the mountains.
August 10 - We had a staycation for two nights at Little America with the Hydes and the rest of the Green family. Matt, Krischelle and Marcus went on an early morning hike, we played at the City Creek mall, went to the Living Planet Aquarium, and the kids played in the pool at night. Papa led all the kids and grandkids in a "Mafia" type game and it was a riot to see him lead everyone in the fun.
August 11 - We went up to the Olympic Park in Park City with the Hydes and Marcus and Krischelle's family. Will got some weird, random neck cramp that made it so he could barely walk. Everyone did the obstacle courses while we rested in the lobby. Grace came and joined us while Krischelle did some of the obstacles and she was SO cute with taking care of Will.
Me, Will and Owen left the obstacle course early an on the way home, we got rear ended by another driver. Luckily it was stop and go traffic so it wasn't a bad crash, but it still ruined my bumper. :(
After we rested up at home, we met the rest of the extended family at Rancho. Since everyone was in town, Mom Green wanted pictures taken. She had a friend from her neighborhood take the pictures and we snapped them quickly under the roof of the stables while it was raining. We were going to abandon our plans of a bbq because of the rain but it let up enough that we decided to pull together and whip everything up. It ended up being such a fun night!!! (I think the days following the bbq there were a lot of people with the stomach flu - whether it was a bug or food poisoning is still in question, but I don't think anyone would question what a great memory that night was. :)
August 12 - Back to School shopping with B. He's the only one of my kids that actually enjoys it (and we have a lot of fun together!). We were laughing about how much time he used to spend when he was younger when he'd decide which shoes he wanted to buy.
August 14 - Matt's birthday!! I was kind of a loser in the gift department, but he did get a chocolate cake with white icing. ;-)
That same day I snuck over to Jackie's to die my hair:
And Matt's birthday dinner that night. :)
The next night we snuck out to a Bees game as an extension to Matt's birthday. We went to 2 games this summer, great nights.
August 16 - I think in my last post I mentioned that this has been the summer of Harry Potter. We've got a rule that the kids have to read the book before they can watch the movies and if they're old enough and dedicated enough to read the books on their own, we'll bend our PG-13 rule and let them watch the movie. Will finished all the books and watched the movies as he progressed. Mid August and he was ready for the last two movies. Oh my goodness HP, how we love you!
And in conjunction with Harry, this has been the summer that Will's become a lover of all kinds of books... Lauren was always obsessed, Bradley got hooked at the end of third grade, and now Will's joined the reading fan club. I found him cuddled up with a good book almost every day of the summer.
August 18 - We took the Leishman's with us to check out the new library and play at the splash pad next to it.
August 21 - Lauren's annual "Vision Hike" for Vanguard. The girls in the first pic (from left to right) are her good buddies Veronica, Sariah, and Squid.
August 22 - I was surprised with a birthday dinner at Maddox to celebrate my 40th. (Which, can I just say as a side note that I'm loving 40!? Life is good!!!) Anyway, this was such a lovely surprise - THANK YOU!!!!
August 24 - First day of school! (And my birthday, but we already celebrated it all month long...) The kids all had a great day and are looking forward to the year.
August 28-29: Lauren had a writing conference in Logan so we went up to stay with Grandma Marla. In addition to the conference (which she loved) we went to Frederico's for pizza, and got some funnel cake and pie from the Box Elder County Fair. Mom's house also sold right before we got up there so I took Mom to meet the cute family that moved into it.
While Lauren and I were away, this is what the boys did:
August 31 - Today was the first day of Lauren's new debate class. We're hosting it at our home and her teacher (Sam Martineau - teaching debate to homeschoolers is his full time job) had them go on a "fairy run" outside to help overcome their fear of being laughed at during debate. We're looking forward to a great year with this class.
