Our first zucchini was ready, so we made zucchini brownies!
Brett had the opportunity to go to FSY (For Strength of Youth) conference with his cousin Kaden. The Church pays for kids to go every other year starting the year they turn 14, this was Brett's off year but we were still able to register him if there was room. Since it was his off year it was $50 for 5 days in the dorms with meals, classes, and activities! What an amazing price! I was so excited for him to have the opportunity since it was something that only richer kids could do when I was a kid. I picked up Kaden and Lexi on Monday morning. Neil and Rebecca were on a 20th anniversary cruise trip so I got to drop both boys off. We stopped at the grocery store to get some snacks and treats and then up to BYU campus we drove. We got in line at the Marriott Center and got the boys lanyards, t-shirts, and journals. Then we headed off to find their dorm room. We walked over to Heritage Halls which felt pretty long with the sub-standard duffel Brett had packed and the super hot sun shining down on us. We got their keys, found their rooms, and left them to figure out life in the dorms. It was pretty crazy dropping them off in a dorm room!
They got to go to the devotional at the MTC.
Since Neil and Rebecca were gone, we got to take Lexi for the week! After we dropped the boys off we went to the creamery and got some ice cream. It was delicious!
Sean brought Kiwi some crickets and he was very interested!
We visited the pioneer school, the blacksmith shop, the cabinet shop, the pottery shop, the pharmacy, the bank, the leather shop, and the gold panning creek. We got some lunch and of course some ice cream there too!
On Thursday we went swimming at my friend Shulamith's neighborhood pool. It was pretty crowded at first which was stressful for Lizzie, but it ended up being really fun! That night we included Sean in our ice cream streak and went to Cold Stone for some deliciousness.
On Friday we went to Color Me Mine. The girls and I each picked different things to paint and then we sat and enjoyed painting and visiting. It was so fun and relaxing. We left our projects there to be glazed and fired and then we went to walmart to pick a birthday gift for Oreo! His 6th birthday was the next day. The girls also helped me pick out a baby gift for a shower I was going to the next day. Taking teens and preteens baby clothes shopping is very fun! We stopped at Arctic Circle on the way home to get some ice cream of course since it was now tradition to eat ice cream every day. We LOVED having Lexi stay with us. Hearing the girls giggle and play and laugh together was amazing! We also watched a movie called Cruella, played Quacks of Quidlingberg, and Skull King together while she was here. The girls also printed matching giant 3d print dragons. Oreo in particular loved having Lexi with us.
Brett sent Sean and I a few texts on Monday and Tuesday but by Wednesday we hadn't heard anything more. I texted him Thursday and when he didn't respond we look at Find My Iphone to see where it was. I also texted Kaden to ask him if Brett lost his phone and to let Brett know that if he had lost it to not stress. The find my screen showed that it was in the solid waste facility in Spanish Fork. Haha. Poor guy. He said he put it in his satchel before they did games one night and then when he got back to the dorm it was gone. We got a new one ordered and all was ok. Brett had an incredible time at FSY. He learned so many things and came home with a strengthened testimony of many things. He also had a wonderful time with Kaden and even stayed up the last night til 4AM playing Texas Hold em. Sean and I drove down to pick the boys up at 7 AM at the dorms. It was so good to see them! We brought them back to our house and watching the five kids all interact and catch up was pretty magical. They talked for an hour straight, then Rachel and Brent came to pick up Kaden and Lexi. Neil and Rebecca returned the next day and Rachel wanted some time with Kaden and Lexi before their parents got back.
We worked on cleaning and preparing for Sam and Jared and Kaity to come the following week. On Monday I went for a walk with some friends and when I came back our porch was covered with these tiny Jesus' and ducks! It was so cute and made us all so happy!
Lizzie has been working hard at Viola this summer and is going to start orchestra and continue with private lessons this fall.
Sam's family arrived late on Monday night and we met them for some Top Golf on Tuesday morning. Sean needed to work but the kids and I enjoyed hanging out! We came home for an afternoon break then went to Mom and Dad's to have some dinner. I made BBQ chicken and Steak and we enjoyed visiting. Brett went to a baseball game with the Brown's and my Dad while the rest of us visited with Grandma. Sean drove me and the girls home to get to sleep and then went back to get Brett after the game was over.
On Wednesday we got up early to go get our passports! Sean had worked really hard to get all the documentation ready and organized and the guy was very efficient and gruff. It was a pretty stereotypical interaction with a government worker. We got it all done and now we just wait to be approved and to get our birth certificates back. Its pretty exciting to have passports coming though! After we finished at the post office we stopped at Color Me Mine to get our finished projects and then we went to Kneaders for some treats and snacks. We met Mom and Dad and the Browns at Boondocks and played there for 4 hours! After Boondocks we went to Mom and Dad's house to have dinner. Sam and Jared made some delicious Shepherd's pie. Sam, Jared, Brett, and Sean played a super long game called Zoo I think. They had a great time! Alana and Kaity hung out together and Kaity taught Alana to play Baby Shark on the Saxophone. Lizzie and I watched the new Snow White movie and actually really enjoyed it! We left at like 11:30 after they finished their game, haha!
On Thursday we met at the mall around noon to go to The Cheesecake Factory. We had a 45 min wait, so we wandered the mall a little bit, mostly just looked at the Lego store. We ate super yummy food then all went home to chill for a while. We went back to Mom and Dad's and had a good chat with them and Sam!
On Friday, we went to Breakfast with Mom and Dad Z and then went back to their house. Sean and I took Kaity and our kids swimming while the others did some shopping. They gave us a free loaf of sour dough bread at kneaders and my kids had requested to make butter for Pioneer Day. So we made butter after swimming. That night we had everyone over for some rigatoni. Steve and Linda and Andy and Tammy came and it was fun to reconnect! We finished the night with some fireworks in our front yard! It was crazy to see Kaity moving the car out of the road where we wanted to do fireworks!
Part of the conversations we had during the week led me to ask my parents if they would want to move. I showed them a listing for a house four minutes from me and they were actually super interested. We made an appointment and went and looked at it that Saturday and my parents went home and talked about it and decided they wanted to go forward with selling their house and moving! I needed to get 24 hours in at the elementary school before my contract started on August 11 to get a special stipend so I spent several hours at the school. We had to move all the furniture and supplies out of my new classroom (and there was A LOT!) to the new preschool classroom. Then I needed to search out and find furniture for my new classroom. It was an exhausting journey and a little adventurous and hard!
Sean has Wednesday's off so we went to my parents to start working in the backyard. In order to get their house ready to list there were several large projects to conquer. Our kids were so amazing at helping each step of the way. We cleaned out the flower beds, took down a fence, trimmed the rose bushes, and dug out an herb garden. While digging out the herb garden we unearthed a hornet nest. Those guys were mad and Brett and Grandpa both got stung! My parents met with their real estate agent and decided to get pictures taken on August 18 which gave us 3 weeks to get the yard done, bedrooms cleaned out and staged, shelves put in three closets, storage area cleaned out and garage cleaned out. We also needed to just do a deep cleaning to get it ready to show.
And if that wasn't enough for July we had one more adventure to share. There is a Harry Potter Exhibition here in Sandy that looked fun. It was $30 a person to attend which seemed too steep for me. My neighbor told me that tickets were only $9 for Harry Potter's birthday on July 31. So I got tickets and we went. Everyone else did too. When we got there we saw two huge lines in the 100 degree heat! We decided not to wait the 90 min and the lady told me that we could come back any day and they would honor the tickets I bought. We showed up on August 1 at 8:50 AM (they opened at 9. There was a line of about 20 people by the time they opened but we got right in and it was so fun! There were so many different interactive exhibits and I was so glad we waited and came in the morning, it would have been way too crowded to enjoy the day before. I was sad Sean missed it, but the kids and I had a fun time!
No comments:
Post a Comment