June

 Summer vacation has been good to us so far! Lizzie misplaced bear for a few nights and one morning I came in to see her snuggling her Baby Blues comic book =) There has been lots of reading, sleeping, eating, temple trips, and playing! 

The Ellis family has some awesome clay that our kids can play with for hours! 

Lizzie made a beginning of summer celebration cake! It was very yummy! 

We got summer passes to classic skating in Orem and we have gone twice with Rebecca and Kaden and Lexi. The kids get unlimited access to skating, bounce houses, and laser tag. We also went to top golf with them. Rebecca got a summer pass where she can golf every day for 2 hours with 5 guests so they took us =) 

Sean went with Mom P to a candlelight quartet concert featuring music by Hans Zimmer. They had a really nice time! 

Brett went to FSY with Eli the very first week of summer. He had a wonderful time and came home on a spiritual high! He also had his young men's camp. It was a stake camp and they had a great time doing trust falls, ziplines, and hanging out. I am so grateful for his awesome leaders! 

Brett has also been doing Cross Country every morning that he can. He wakes up early and goes and runs lots of miles. I think he is aiming to get 40 miles a week. Sean signed himself and Brett up for a 10K on the Jordan Narrows trail, just by our house. They had a good time and finished in under an hour which was Sean's goal. It was a really hilly course and the uphill part was mostly at the end, gross! Brett came home and ran 3 more miles and then took a nap. Brett has also been enjoying Age of Empires game and playing tons of piano. He is learning a Rachmaninoff piece.

Alana was signed up to do swim team this summer, but she called me half way through the first practice saying she hated it. We were able to get a lot of the money back and her friends rearranged the carpool. Overall I think we are all happier to not be doing swim team! Alana has really been enjoying hanging out with friends and cousins, practicing violin, reading the Hunger Games, swimming, and watching the Dick Van Dyke show=)

Here is her cute swim team suit and cap, which was not her favorite! 

Driving a go cart to play fugitive with her friends =) 

Lizzie has had many play dates with her friends! She is loving the freedom to read in bed at night and then sleep in til 9 most mornings! She has been working really hard on speech practice with me since we weren't able to find her a summer program or teacher. She is taking viola lessons and working hard on her posture and rythmn. She lost ANOTHER tooth with a bracket on it! I think that was her fifth tooth lost with her braces on! She has one more wiggle tooth right now, but this one doesn't have a bracket on it. When I took her to the orthodontist this last time, he was pretty shocked with how many teeth she has lost in the last few months. She has loved swimming with friends, playing sneaky Sasquatch, reading Wings of Fire and comics, and just relaxing! 

Oreo tumbled and rolled while sprinting to get a ball in the field right at the begining of June. We gave it about a week and he was still limping so the girls and I took him to the vet. He has a sprained shoulder and has needed pretty strict crate rest. Some days we are better at it than others, but we are trying. He is about 10 days in and he was still limping yesterday. I may have to take him in for an x-ray. It is so sad to see him having to lay down and not get to run and play fetch. The vet did give us some anti inflammatory medicine as well as a medicine to help him be a little more sleepy. The sleepy one helps a little, but he still wants to play and pounce and bark. 

Sean continues to go to work and write notes every day! He is amazing! He wore his Dad's peanuts tie for Father's Day. He's been working on a new composition based on Angels We Have Heard on High which is really pretty! He has also been getting up at 5:10 to run every morning!

I have been deep cleaning our house: cabinets, decluttering, banisters, walls, closets, etc. As part of that, I cleaned out the basement and took down all the rest of the homeschool decorations. We got rid of one of the shelves and got rid of the old couch. We bought a new couch to try and make it a more friendly movie space for the kids to have friends over. Sean and I went to RC Willey and bought a sectional we really liked. When they came to deliver it, it wouldn't fit through the basement doorway. Here is a picture of the first one we bought. 

We went back to the store to find a new option. We found one we really liked and were 95% sure it would fit around the corners to the basement. When they came to deliver it, they said it was just barely. If it would have been an inch bigger, it would not have fit! Of course the new one was $800 more! I do like it a lot though and it has a ton of seating. It looks great down there! 

I also bought a kindle and have been loving reading with it! I am making more pot holders and have been practicing the piano a little bit. Haha! I miss teaching, but this has been such a good break so far!