The Joys of Summer So Far

It's quite lovely to have very few scheduled events and a lot more freedom :) Here are things that have kept us busy since school got out:


Artwork
Our family on the Magnadoodle
by Holly
 
She loves drawing. It seems like everything she touches becomes art.
 
Same for Emma. I'm so glad she's taking art again next year in school. I think she's amazing.
 


Home Projects
We bought some garage racks from Costco. They were a HUGE pain for Dana to install but he did it. I didn't take a picture of the racks :( but we can finally (after 10 years in this house next month) fit BOTH vehicles in the garage. It's so awesome. And our garage is so organized now! :)
 

We've wanted to refinish our kitchen table for a long while. So one weekend when we didn't want to paint our bathroom, we went for it. It was actually one of the easiest projects we've ever done. We had no table for a day or two, but that was a small price to pay.
 
We love the way it turned out. Now we just need some matching chairs.
 

Eventually, we got to the bathroom and finally painted over our "angry" paint swatch Dana unintentionally made in our bathroom when we were painting our bedroom. :)
 

Dana finished up framing our window and we hung curtains. We're eventually going to get bamboo blinds and then at that point we're thinking we may take the curtains down so you can see the white trim better. We'll see. Our room has a LONG way to go.
 
I can't really describe how happy it makes me not to have a brown room anymore.


Swimming
Besides swim and dive team, we've gone to lots of pools. And luckily have good friends to visit them with.
 

Holly and Sadie's gym hosted a pool party. I had fun relaxing.
 
And accepting visitors occasionally...



We went to a "Dive-in" movie night showing "Frozen". Emma thought the activity was too kid-ish.
 


After one of Holly's dive meets, Dana played hide n' seek with the kids.
 
Holly tried to "blend in" for one of her hiding places :)
 


Peach Picking at Schnepf Farms

This was back in May. The kids just LOVE doing this.
 


They also have a little store there with some really yummy jams, rolls, cakes, chocolates, etc. We had to get some peach butter of course, but we also got a few other treats and sat down to enjoy them at some little tables. Holly wanted to go get a drink at the drinking fountain inside and before she left she said, "Don't leave while I'm gone." So after she left I said "Let's hide..." (I know I'm a total stinker). So we hid behind some hay bales and peeked over as she walked out. She was pretty surprised to see that empty table when she came back. This picture still makes me laugh...
 
Luckily, she thought it was funny too.

They also have a petting zoo there. They all loved the baby goats.
 

We stopped at a Costa Vida on the way home.





Playdates
 Of course!
 

Waiting for Megan to arrive...
 

Seems appropriate for me to include a girls lunch in this section:) Our good friend Sheryl moved to Texas...
 
I'm glad we live in a time when goodbye, isn't goodbye forever. We can still keep in touch with social media. Plus her husband works for an airline so they fly for free.


Father's Day
We spoiled our favorite husband/father with waffles with berries, syrup, and whipped cream and a side of scrambled eggs and orange juice in bed. I thought he must have heard all the clattering pots and pans, but he had forgotten all about his big day.
 
Of course the cards were his favorite part :)
 
We love him so.
 

Don't forget about that nap!
 


Brainwork
I was doing "summer school" pretty diligently for a couple weeks...:/
 
One thing we have stuck to is at the beginning of summer I made a goal with Sadie that she would read to me for a least 20 mins a day. We missed a couple days but made them up and we even read together on our trip to Utah for the each day. Her reading is really improving! :)

She also started piano with one of the YW in our ward that is an absolutely AMAZING pianist. And she even comes to us!
 

Emma goes through books too fast and keeps running out of reading material. If you have any good recommendations for a YA book, let me know.
 
I need to get back on it! I keep seeing little hints of back to school stuff and am trying to put off thinking about that yet.


Randoms
Emma's body must be making one last push towards reaching it's full height potential, because she falls asleep before she knows it sometimes. Lol. Love this pic :)
 

We accidentally left our side gate open one day. We came back after a couple hours and Scout was just laying on our front porch waiting for us to get home. What a good boy!
 

We went to the "Summer movie" and visited the pet store afterward- one of the kids favorite things:)
 

They also love the escalator :)
 

And last some snuggles during a movie or two. A sight that makes my heart happy.


Hope your summer is as wonderful as can be!