Byron's Archery class started this week so for the next 3 Monday's and Wednesday's we meet a bunch of neighbor friends at the park where the class is held for a picnic and playing. Unfortunately, Miriam's sewing class overlaps on these days so she can't come. I don't think she would want to even if she could. She is spreading her independent wings as she rides her bike to and from her sewing class and loves being home alone for a 1/2 hour or so until we get back.
As a family, we scooted/EZ rode the Farmington Lagoon trail up to Farmington Pond one evening. We decided to run into Lagoon for a few rides before going home and randomly ran into my sister Sarah, her new husband Mike and ALL their boys! It was too funny! We had already gone on 2 rides so we all went on Tidal Wave together and then parted ways. We were starving and my rule is...if you are hungry it's time to go home:)
I figured out they were there through Madison's Instagram photo so I snapped this photo to surprise Sarah with a little clue about which ride we were going on.
The temps last week were so lovely!! We took advantage of them by encouraging (paying) the kids to get out help with yard work. I think we have settled into a summer chore system that works for us...for now at least. The kids have mandatory daily chores that we don't pay them for, it's just a requirement of living together in a family. I call it "Zone Cleaning" which I know I got from a blog somewhere but now have forgotten the source. The house is broken into Zones they rotate which one they are responsible for keeping clean all week, and then a deep cleaning in that room on Saturday. On top of that they have to keep their rooms clean, and do reading, piano, math, and Chinese everyday. I don't pay them for those things either but I do pay them if they finish a math workbook, or perfect a piano song on their own. It's still not easy, my main summer job is task time manager and cheerleader extraordinaire which takes the bulk of my energy and my day. But I have been good about forging forward with the book "The Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes" in my head. Someday my summers will be full of crossing house projects off my list, gardening, or running errands while the kids happily do their chores without my assistance...right? right?
Oh I dearly hope so.
I do have a separate list of extra chores that we will pay them for, weeding and lawn mowing being on top of the list. Things like cleaning the couches, cleaning the basement, washing walls, blinds, doors, cleaning out the car. Miriam is pretty motivated because she wants to do this zip line tour in Hawaii and get her friends gifts while we are there (her friends have this cute tradition of picking up things for each other on vacation), Byron wants to by an archery set because of his new class and wants to get a baseball cap, and Soren wants to buy everything he sees. He loves the action of spending money and walking away with anything remotely interesting so we try to stay away from stores with him, and have limited his viewing of vat19.com. His latest desire is Heely's but we think he is too young for those.
We finally got in a date night at Lagoon!
So fun to introduce friends to Cannibal.
Next time I am hoping we can ride bikes there and back.
No photos, but my mom, sisters, and a few nieces came up to look for dresses to wear to Mark's wedding. Not that we are matching, just to coordinate colors a little bit, and get ideas about what everyone is wearing. Shopping is so exhausting, but we all got some ideas as a jumping off point and had a yummy lunch at Zupa's.
Ladies Hike #4 was a trail run in Kaysville.
Julia and Jared came to visit and stay with us on Friday!
Jared is a BBQ expert so I had to take them to Smokin' Bones for dinner...not that I had ever been there, just because everyone raves about this local ma and pop BBQ place. I thought it was delicious, and Jared validated that it is fantastic BBQ. I had to laugh at myself because I called to make a reservation...just go there and you will see why that is funny. After taking a digestion break we went to Lagoon for the rest of the evening specifically to be on the ferris wheel to see the lights.
And then we went again Saturday morning.
(These kids did the more thrilling rides, but I only took photos of the kiddie section...Tatum and Wyler are fearless). Soren's new favorite ride is now the Hydro Luge, which he and I went on a total of 7 times...twice with Wyler. Soren also kept wanting to "do a switcheroo" which meant he wanted to ride with Julia...so cute.
We stayed until we were starving, the kids begged to go eat and come right back but we had to break up the party. Saturday chores ya know....and J & J had shopping to finish. There were tears and gnashing of teeth but we promised to do it again another day.
