Week 10 of Summer Vacation (Part 1) - The End of Summer

We tried to pack in some good summer fun for the last week of Summer.  School starts this next week.  Rebecca starts tomorrow with Freshman orientation and Rachel and Adam start on Wednesday.  

Early in the week amid cleaning the house, getting yard work done, and preparing for the beginning of school, we headed up to TIBBLE FORK RESERVOIR again.  This time we took Rachel who spent most of her time on the shore of the lake reading her book for school (The Road... she says it's the worst book she's ever read).  We also took our inflatable raft and Adam and I rowed it across the lake.

 Adam and Rebecca's favorite part was walking around in the river that flows into the reservoir.

 They built a little trail marker in the middle of the river so I could find which way they went.  :)

 

It wouldn't be summer without a little homemade ice cream.

 It's hard to tell that we made vanilla ice cream since it's all smothered in strawberries and chocolate but it was very yummy!

 This is the little woven basket made from the dyed yarns that Rebecca did in a few posts ago.

 Just had to include a picture of these roses from my garden.  They are so cool because they start out being yellow and as they open up they get this deep pinkish orange on the ends of their petals. 

 Later in the week, David's work had a party for all the employees and their families.  It was at a park and they had food, music, and a GIANT slip 'n slide.  It was super fun.  David was in charge of it and I think everyone had a great time... we sure did.

 An employee brought this drone and flew it around taking video and pictures of the whole event.  Crazy cool little piece of technology... it is now on the kids' wish list.

Week 9 Summer Vacation - Tibble Fork Reservoir

PERLER BEADS - We happen to love doing crafts with Perler beads.  This week we made some Super Hero coasters and we started making some much larger creations like Rebecca's Waldo.

We made a list of good things to do on the SABBATH DAY and we now have it on our fridge using Tanner's name badge he sent us to hold it there.  We love you Tanner!!

TWO KIDS AND THEIR DOG - We found a great place to play in the water and dogs ARE allowed.  Woohoo!!  Tibble Fork Reservoir in American Fork Canyon was beautiful.  Rebecca, Adam, Ace and I headed up there for a few hours and had a great time!!  We had such a great time we are going back next week.

Week 8 of Summer Vacation

I'm catching up on a couple of weeks of our summer.  It is just flying by and I am too busy having fun to keep up with my blog about how much fun we are having.   Hahahaha.

Week 8 - not this past week but the week before.

First off, my GARDEN is doing extremely well.  I have a million cucumbers if anyone has any good ideas as to what to do with them.  We eat them but can't eat them fast enough.

We had some passes to go to the Water Slides which were expiring on July 31st.  So on July 29th (in honor of Jared's 25th birthday), we headed to Seven Peaks in Provo.  We had a great time and I got to enjoy one of my favorite refreshments...  DIPPIN' DOTS!!!

We did a little grilling.  Rebecca is our resident hot dog grilling expert.  I mean it.  She is the only one who seems to be able to get them just right without burning them.

I hope everyone noticed the BLUE MOON on July 31st.  It is the last one until 2018.  They only happen "once in a blue moon".  Hahahaha.  We were over at the park playing a little tennis so I only had my iphone to take a picture of it.  It didn't turn out very well but you get the idea.

Of course, we are always doing crafts around here.  I think that's partly because I love to do them so much and the kids get into it once I get things started.  Just wait until you see some of the big projects we've been working on.  We aren't finished with those yet but I will post them once they are done.  Anyway, below are some pictures of the kids wood burning.  I need some good flower labels for all my iris plants and everything I've tried so far involves a Sharpie which washes away after a little while.  So, I decided to try burning the names into some sticks.  It turned out to be a fun project for us all.

Another project Rebecca and I worked on was some dying and then weaving.  We used kool-aid to die the fabric and then weaved it into baskets (those will be in next week's post).

And last but not least.... SPORTS!!  Adam had a soccer tournament in Park City.  It was quite exciting!   They lost their first 2 games so went into their 3rd one feeling a little discouraged.  Especially since it was a team that beat the team Adam's team lost to.  (Does that make sense?).  Anyway, the game was crazy.  Adam's team won 14-1!!!   Who would've thought that would happen.  So they went on to the semi-finals.  The game ended in a tie, 2-2.  They went into overtime which ended in a tie, 2-2.  Penalty Kicks would decide the game.  Adam went first and had a great shot!!!  The other team made all their kicks but our team had one that the goalie blocked so we lost by 1.  Oh well.  It was a little sad but still majorly exciting.  The team who won the whole thing was the team Adam lost to in the first game.

One more picture to add.  David has been playing a lot of softball and I wanted to include a picture of him with his team.  It is a team from his work and they've done pretty well this season!!

Our Trip to Peru

I finally sorted through all my pictures (thousands of them) and chose 140 to share with you.  I am sorry there are so many and I totally understand if you don't go through all of them.  I just couldn't narrow it down any further and there are several of almost the same view of Machu Picchu because we just couldn't stop taking pictures.  It was so amazing!!   If it is not on your bucket list, put it on.  If it is on your bucket list, move it closer to the top.  :-)

Create a photo slideshow

Week 7 of Summer Vacation - Park City

The last half of this past week we spent in Park City.  David took his last available vacation days and we played.  We spent one day at Lagoon (they have an awesome new roller coast called Cannibal).  We spent one day bike riding, playing tennis, playing some "huge" games on the lawn, watching movies, playing card games, etc.  And we spent one day at Park City Mountain Resort riding the Alpine Coaster, Alpine slides, zipline, etc. It was a very full and active few days with a couple of us getting sunburned in spite of the layers and layers of sun block we applied.  It always seems like we miss spots here and there.  On the last evening, we discovered that we could ride our bikes down the hill from our hotel and then get on a FREE gondola-type lift with our bikes, ride back up to our hotel and ride our bikes down again.  Needless to say, that is the best way to go bike riding.  Bike down, get a ride up, bike down again.  We did that for quite a while before we headed in for some more swimming, arcade time, and another movie.  There is no time to sleep on vacation because we need to cram in a lot of playing.  Hahahaha. The photography is complements of David, Rachel, Rebecca and Adam on their phones.  I decided to have a break from my camera and just be on vacation.  Enjoy our little slide show of random pics of our Little Park City Vacation.

Customize a free digital slideshow

Week 6 of Summer Vacation

2 main things happened this week..... Webelos Day Camp (Monday and Tuesday) and Soccer Tournaments for Rachel and Adam (Wednesday through Saturday).  A busy but fun week.  I did manage to squeeze in doing the laundry, weeding a little bit of the yard, and I made some apricot freezer jam which turned out to be delicious!!!!

A few pictures from Webelos Day Camp (I am the Webelos leader so I got to go too!!)

I took a lot of pictures of the tournaments so here is a short slide show...

Customize your own picture slideshow

Week 5 of Summer Vacation

Weeks 2, 3, and 4 are still to come since they mostly involved our trip to Peru.   Stay tuned for those pictures.  I may get through them all eventually.

This last week was great!  Even though I had a terrible cold and cough (which is now almost better) I still had lots of fun with my family.

Sunday, July 5th, we were still kind of celebrating the 4th since Rebecca made this yummy dessert for us.

Jared, Tori and Boston were with us until mid-week so I had lots of fun with my cute little grandson.  Boston especially likes Ace who hides behind Rebecca, or whatever else, to kind of avoid the little hands in his face.  Ace is so good with Boston though and lets him touch him, pull his tail, pinch him, etc.  Boston is learning to be gentle and I hope they will be good friends.

We went rock climbing and took Jared with us.  They had a fun time and are getting better and faster all the time.

Jared

Adam is the one with the Red and Blue shirt up high to the left

The girls went to girls camp for most of the week and had a great time in spite of the rain.  I don't have any pictures of that but hopefully I will soon.

Adam had a busy week with friends.... playing in the water, night games, sleep overs, Cowabunga Bay, Boondocks.  

It's never ending and he's having a blast.  Sometimes he gets completely worn out and so he spent Saturday afternoon sleeping on the couch.  Hahahaha

The week wouldn't be complete without a garden update and a craft update.  The garden is producing now and we are having great fresh produce.  The beets are especially delicious.  But I just found out last night that I am the only one who likes them.  Bummer.  I guess I'll be eating a lot of beets.

One more item finished and out of my project cupboard.   YAY!!