Summer Update!

Well boy howdy! I can’t believe it’s been 6 months since I posted on here! I have to admit, I haven’t been on my computer as much these last few months, just because I can do so much on my phone instead! Check my email there, surf the web, play games, etc., and my desktop has been taken over by the kids! They spend more time on pbs.org than I do on my blogging, that’s for sure.

But that’s okay, because now I’m here and I’m ready to recap! Here are some fun photos from the things we’ve been doing the past few months:

The biggest thing is that we’ve started a summer bucket list that we’ve been working on with a few other families in our ward. It’s called the Family Adventure Challenge and it’s a list of about 100 things that you can do to earn points throughout the summer. There are all sorts of activities on there, from trying a new food to going to the beach to inviting another family over for FHE. Then, at the end of the summer, we’ll have a barbecue and awards ceremony! The kids are super-psyched about it and we’ve been trying to do something from the list each day so that we can get as many points as possible! Here are some of the things that we’ve been doing.

Eli made us (Nathan and I) dinner and served us as our waiter. He wanted to pick out everything he did, so he made shrimp cocktail and breaded chicken with pasta! It was delicious!

Father’s Day selfie with my boys! Don’t worry, I got a photo with Nathan too, ha!

We went to the drive-in to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 and got the BIGGEST pizza for dinner! That one fed us for a while!

We set up a tent in the backyard for camping and Big Turtle wanted to help put it together! Silly turtle, camping’s for kids!

We made delicious dutch oven stew and cornbread! Oh man, this stuff was yummy!

And what camping trip would be complete without S’Mores?? Seriously one of my favorite desserts on the planet.

The boys did some fingerpainting!

We also made a fun fort! (I love those clamps, they come in so handy!)

We played a game the boys made up called Shape-tionary where you have to make a picture with shapes and have the others guess what it is. It was super fun! We also spent an hour under here singing everything we said. That one was brutal and I’ll spare you the video, but I’m glad we did it and earned points for it!

Another day, we went to the San Diego Safar Park to see the new Tiger Trail! That was so much fun, the boys loved seeing the tigers and I loved being outside for most of the day, even if it was a little hot. But at least it was cooler in San Diego than at our house!

They boys got to feed the lorikeets! They loved it and even though they were loud, it was really cool to be in there with them. I even got a stowaway! This guy jumped up on my back without any coaxing because I was holding the boys’ empty cups of nectar and he thought he would get a treat! If not for him squawking SUPER loud in my ear, I would have loved to have him hanging out on my shoulder all day!

A couple of days later, we went to see the pets at the pet store. I told the boys we have enough turtles for one family!

We also went to the beach, and although the only photo I got was a selfie, the boys had lots of fun! Eli had just gotten a new boogie board (better suited to his size) and he spent pretty much all his time in the water. I even got in with him this time and had a blast! West used Eli’s old board and because he’s so dang small, he got a ton of waves just sailing him right in to the shore. He loved it all, except for the couple of times that he got tumbled under! Thankfully he was wearing his life jacket, but he still got a little roughed up. I’m glad they both had fun though!

Our family went to the March Air Force Base museum and got to see a bunch of really cool planes! The boys loved it, but I would love to go back once without them so that I could have time to sit and read all of the displays and everything. Needless to say, their attention spans are not long enough for that. But they did love seeing all the cool stuff they had there. I’m so glad we got the tram tour ride because it was HOT out there, and we got to see everything in a covered tram. Perfect!

Thanks to Nathan’s dad, Nathan and I got to sneak away for a Watkins Family Hour show at the Largo. Oh man, it was SO good! They had a few special guests, including Jackson Browne (who wrote “Take it Easy” by the Eagles) and he was amazing. Seriously, I had chills when he finished one of his songs because it was perfectly quiet in the theater and the song was just beautiful. But the best part of the night? Getting Sean Watkins’ new album, All I Do is Lie, and getting to have him autograph it in the Little Room after the show!! I was so star-struck I could barely tell him my name to put on the CD. (For any who don’t know, Sean and Sara Watkins are brother/sister and they are two-thirds of the band Nickel Creek, which is my favorite band of all time.) In any case, it was a wonderful night and although we were out way past our old people bedtimes, we had so much fun. I can’t wait to see them again!

We got together with a couple of friends and made stepping stones! It was really fun and although not all of them turned out (most of them cracked or fell apart as they dried), the kids had a great time making them and that’s what matters! Oh, and the points. The points matter too.

We took the kids to Seascape, which is a big warehouse place with bouncers and a huge ball pit and lots of good ways for the boys to use up their unending energy supply! They had a great time and they slept well that night!

For the Fourth of July, we went over to our friends’ house and Eli created this patriotic scene out of Legos! He was so proud that he even made the flag ‘waving’! I love this kid.

We even got to play a good Settlers of Catan game! It had been way too long since I had played and I missed it!

Earlier that morning, we went to our ward’s Fourth of July breakfast and they had a cute bike parade for the kids. They gussied up their bikes and scooters and went to town! Of course, there were a couple of crashes here and there, but for the most part, it was safe, ha!

Family Selfie while waiting for the fireworks to start! Granted, it’s not a great photo, but I’m glad I have it.

Alright, so that’s an update into our lives for the last little bit! Congratulations if you made it this far in the post! Hopefully I’ll be able to add some more updates soon.