Our Summer Summary!

There's really no excuse for not keeping my blog current other than it's summer and frankly, I have better things to do like sit outside sipping lemonade while stimulating my brain on words with friends, or scanning through the endless world of Pinterest.  Of course, I only get to do those things when I am dreaming!  Reality hits and I am usually packing for a campout, or reunion, or doing laundry, or cooking, or helping the boys pack for another campout!  We have been busier than usual this summer due to the boys working and going on the Trek with the stake. Other events include our Bradley family reunion, K&C Birthday's, the 4th of July, a zoo trip, campouts and our family vacation.  Here is a summary of our summer!! Enjoy!

Skyler is an active member of our community.  Three years ago he joined a friend at a Youth City Council meeting, and on June 25th  this year, he was sworn in as YCC Mayor!  I refuse to believe he stays involved with this voulunteer group because of all the cute girls, but something inside me tells me otherwise!

Fourth of July was fun as we took a family walk around Manutua resevoir and made cake pops!  Which, by the way, are my new love/hate relationship!!

On the 5th of July we drove down to Springville to enjoy the company of 50 other Bradley's at our family reunion.  Some of the activities were shot put shooting and swimming and boating at Payson Lakes!  Fun times!!

July 18th-21st was the Stake Trek!  The boys were put into separate families and along with 230 other kids, walked 32 miles in 4 days!  They had a great time and learned to appreciate what our ancestors went through!

 July 24th  is Pioneer Day in Utah, so with the day off work, we went to the Hogle Zoo which we haven't done in years!  Brielle had a blast seeing all the animals, but she also enjoyed spraying everyone with her water bottle.  After walking in 95 degree weather, it was welcome!

On the 28th Kevin and Caleb celebrated their 15th birthday! Mark took them to Boondocks fun center this year .  I made up clues for them to "find" their gifts around the house. For example; "You're old enough now, So it's time you learned.  When you plug it in, Just don't get BURNED!"  This was the clue for their new electric shavers which were hidden in the oven.

Skyler and couple buddies from work joined the city's Triathalon.  He swam the 200 meters!

The second week of August we took our family vacation.  We decided to stay local as we are saving for a more exciting vacation next year.  Our first stop was Lava Hot Springs.  So much fun!  We all had a good time going down fast slides, but Mark and the boys were the brave ones jumping off the 30 feet high dive platforms! Mark and Brielle are watching from the water as they all line up on the highest platform! 

We also went to a water park called Cowabunga Bay.  It was fun but we enjoyed Lava better!

We also rode on the Heber Valley railroad which was kinda boring, but we had never been on it before.  2 hours of riding the train through beautiful scenery is fun for the first hour, but we were hot

and tired and ready for the air conditioned hotel.

Finally, we celebrated my birthday by going to the Park City Factory outlet mall and the new City Creek Center Mall in SLC to go school clothes shopping.  When we got home I had a party with my favorite people and a chocolate creme pie!  Mark and the boys gave me a crockpot cookbook and a cake pop cookbook,(the death of me!!) and a nice new juicer which I'll need to shed the pound brought on by the cake pops!!

Lifeguarding the new carpet?

Ok, so many of you know we have been needing new carpet since we moved into this home 4 years ago.  When making this kind of improvement, you spend months looking at carpet samples trying to make the right decision. Finally after moving quite a bit of furniture, painting some walls & baseboards, and tearing up all the old carpet, our new carpet was installed on June 14th.  Here are some before and after shots.  We also took advantage of this time to install new vinyl in the laundry room/bathroom area.  Now that everything is back in its place I think its a nice improvement.

beforeafter

Brielle's room before

Kevin is such a hard worker!

 stairs before

during

after

family room before

during

  Family room after

 Now that the carpet is done, we are enjoying our summer a little more.  Skyler has started his summer job as a lifeguard at the High school Natatorium.   He teaches swim lessons every morning from 8- noon, then has a break and goes back to lifeguard in the afternoon/evening.  It's really a great job for him!  Kevin and Caleb are doing lawn care this summer for a few people in our ward.  On the 16th we sent them to the Bradley's Farm to help their Grandpa put in a retaining wall.  They will be there for 10 days then come home, sleep in their beds one night, then head off to High Adventure camp with the scouts.  I love that the boys are so busy. 

Good times

                         

 It is hard to believe Skyler turned 17 this month.  Of course taking him to Boondocks with some friends reminds me he is still a kid at heart.  His birthday requests were a CTR ring, basketball & itunes card. I decided to also give him a laundry basket so he could start doing his own laundry.  Better to learn now than while at college.  He had some friends over for a party, too.  Notice his girlfriend wearing the I love N.Y. t-shirt. (Jen)

We are done with Lacrosse!  At least for a summer break.  When the boys start back to school they will join the JV team.  It keeps us busy, but I am glad they enjoy this new sport. 

 For Memorial Day we went to the Bradley's.  Brielle had a great time as she watched and pet the horses.  We had a great time visiting with family.

One of Mark's cousins is McKay Jacobsen who played for BYU then was drafted to the Philidelphia Eagles.  The boys had fun trying on his helmet that he left with his grandparents.

Don't blink or you'll miss it!

Even though I have a really crazy day planned today, I wanted to take advantage of Brielle's nap time and update this blog.  April flew in the front door and out the back like one of my teenagers! Where it went I have no idea.  I do know that spring is here I am loving the flowers and blossoms on all the trees.  Especially my "Shelly tree"  I call it that because we planted it on Sept. 5th last year which is Shelly's birthday.  It is actually a fruitless weeping cherry tree and I love how it adds to our front yard.

I am not always on top of things when it comes to April Fools day, but this year I found some things online that I really wanted to try.  For dinner we had cupcakes with ice cream and carmel sauce (Meatloaf baked in muffin tins "frosted" with mashed potatoes colored with pink food coloring with potatoes on the side and gravy.)  Then for dessert we had grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. (pound cake frosted with orange frosting in the middle with strawberry smoothie in a bowl)  I should of gotten better pictures of the kids faces because even though they knew what they were eating, it really played tricks on the mind! Fun times!!

Then the first week of April was Spring Break, so we thought we'd run off to Oregon and see the fam!  We arrived on Thursday evening and stopped to see Multnomah Falls with Julie and her family joining us.  We stayed in Sherwood with Dad and Connie!  We went to Omsi for the day and made some stops to see friends.  Here is a picture of Schuyler in front of Schuyler St. in Portland.  Not very far from my High school.

On Saturday we drove to Eugene to visit my cousin Becky.  I asked her parents not to tell her I was coming, it was fun to surprise her.  They have a huge pond on their property and the kids found all these tree frogs.  On Sunday we went to church with Dad and Connie then prepared an Easter feast.  All my siblings came except Ryan, Victor and Nick.  It was fun and crazy as usual.  The kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt and the adults visited.  It was fun for us to see Brielle meet so many new cousins.  She met her cousin Reagan who is only 5 weeks older than her and they had a great time visiting.  I have to wonder if these two were friends in the preexistence, the way they hit it off. 

 We drove home on Monday and got in our driveway around 11:30pm.  I don't know how the boys made it through school on Tuesday!  After a fun and very short trip things only got crazier.  Kevin and Caleb joined the city Lacrosse team and have practice 3 days a week with games every Saturday.  And by games, I mean we are driving to Pocotello, Logan, Ogden & Roy to play other teams.  And usually they play an early game, take an hour break for lunch then play a second game against another team. All day event here! I am thrilled that the boys have found a sport they are really enjoying, but once I saw them all decked out in these uniforms, I had to wonder what kind of injuries are we about to see?!  This is like football but with a stick and kids are fighting over a much smaller ball!  They are wearing shoulder pads, elbow pads and helmets!

We have been fortunate to have some beautiful weather lately, so I went out and bought Brielle a small swimming pool.  This pool will actaully be used as a sandbox later, but for a couple days I filled it with water and let Bri have fun in it.  She was hesitant at first, but had so much fun once she figured it out.

 

I also made time this month to reupholster a couple dining chairs I had found at the DI.  They were really easy to do and only $5 each.  I love how they match so well with the dining table I also found at the DI for $10.

                                    

The twins also had their braces taken off this month which are much more exciting before and after pictures if you ask me!!

 Before

Kevin after                                               Caleb after

Well, there you have it my April in a nutshell.  Now I am off to take the boys to Lacrosse practice, conduct our ward Enrichment meeting, and leave early from there to go to a parents meeting for Boys State, which Skyler has been accepted to go. (It's one of those nights where everything collides!)

Skyler applied in March for this oppertunity and was chosen out of several applicants to go to Weber State University the 1st week in June to learn more about Political Science.  They have mock trials and debates etc...  The American Legion is sponsering him (no fee for us) to go and by going he can earn a Political Science college credit.  So proud of him to get this chance.  Now, I just have to make it to this meeting.  Planning commission meetings for Mark always fall on the worst days! 

                                 The agenda for May....Potty Training!!!