Oak City

We were invited by friends Phil & Jenna to spend the weekend with them and & their twin boys in Oak City during Oak City Days August 14th through the 16th.  So Mike, Eliza & I packed up and headed to this amazing little city where we were made to feel right at home.  The city had a full schedule of fun and events like-

A parade held Friday evening.  After attending an evening parade I think all parades should be in the evening.  Sometime during the day you put out some chairs, and then you show up later when the day has cooled off and sit back to enjoy.  Or stand and wave.

Here's the sit back and enjoy.  I loved that it wasn't elbow to elbow people!

This float gets best sign!  Way to go Jenna (did you save it for next year?)!

But this might be the best float.  That cooler is motorized and was not slow!  

I wonder what he had in it?

Picked up some candy.  Again, no crowds.  

I think some of that might still be there.

The post parade crowd.  What should we do next?

Play at the park of course!  Did you know some cities still have the better-than-great old metal slides!  Remember when going down a slide meant more speed and less static?

And some time on the swings.

We helped (but mostly just hung out) in Lisa's cookie booth.  

I was lucky I got one early... they sold out fast and they are delicious!

We jumped on the trampoline.  Or watched.

We got to hang out and watch the Olympics.  We also watched video of the deer the men saw each morning while they were out scouting for an upcoming hunt.

Eliza even caught a little fish all by herself at the trout catch.  If you look closely you can see that she was in the act of letting it go.  I was relieved we didn't have to carry that little fish home in a bag.

Eliza thought it was fun to camp out on the floor.

We also enjoyed the ice cream social, horseshoe tournament, and barbecue lunch.  And we watched the BBC's newest version of Jane Eyer which I would recommend to anyone who liked the book (or hasn't read it) and has 4 hours to enjoy it.  It was a great weekend full of fun!  I know where I want to be one weekend next August!

* * * * * * * * 

Don't worry... we didn't leave the boys home alone.  They were having their own weekend of fun prospecting with Grandpa.

They spent entire days outside digging in the dirt, ate meals completely lacking in any vital nutrients, and got to use sharp objects.

Who wouldn't want to spend a weekend with Grandpa?  Thanks Dad!

Hot Hot Hot!

Do you remember these?  They are called icicles.

Do you remember snow?

I remember having to dig through 8 inches of snow so I could feed the dog.  I call "not it" this winter.

Do you remember having to dress up like this just to go get the mail?

Now be glad it is still summer.

Why do stores have Christmas in the summer?  Christmas is in December not July (or August).  Are they just clearing out all of their old stuff from last year because they need the storage space for all of this year's stuff?  Or do they really think people start getting ready for Christmas that early?  Do people get ready that early?  Am I the only one who thinks about getting ready early but then spends the two weeks before Christmas running all over trying to find something but not knowing what I'm looking for?  Maybe there is something to Christmas in July after all!

So, since I didn't blog about Christmas in December like a good blogger would, I give you Christmas in August-

One of my favorite Christmas trees ever.  Some of that has to do with cutting it down ourselves.  Friends Phil & Jenna invited us to go with them, so we all drove in to the mountains to search for the "perfect tree".  I have a picture of that day, but the other computer won't let me have it.

Our stocking were hung.  This was a R.S. Super Saturday project from the first ward we were in.

The Christmas Eve present.  Why is it always pajamas?  I made these ones.

And of course, tearing through everything the morning of.

Now I do wish it was Christmas in August.  

Time to start planning.

More fishing

We took the kids fishing to a secret spot.  Ok, I'm really not sure if it's a secret.  It was a perfect day- mid 50's, cloudy, and we had our bug repellant on.  There's nothing like the smell of deet in the morning, especially when standing by a lake.  The kids had a great time, and I again had the problem of too many pictures and not enough space.

Swimming lessons

Today was the last day of swimming lessons.  I have to admit I am surprised at how much a kid can learn in 9 lessons!  Clay was swimming all over (and under) and Tyler found out he doesn't always sink.  Now I just need to get them to a pool more than 3 times a year so they don't forget what they learned.

1st they practiced straight arms

Then they practiced kicking

They played a game

or two

Imagine my surprise when on the last day of lessons I look over to see them all like this

Shouldn't they do that before they learn to swim?  I was told they were learning about safety, but still life jackets and safety seem like a day 1 kind of thing to me.

They are done!

Again, I need some work on my picture taking ability.  I don't have any pictures of them actually swimming and showing off all their new found skills.  I'm really glad they had fun!  

And now we are done!!!

Pictures

I said I would post pictures of our trip to the Living Planet Aquarium and here they are.  I had more than I wanted to try to take the time to download so they had to go into a slideshow.

Here are some pictures of the family reunion too.

Having fun with Eliza

Jumping with cousin Penny

Every reunion must have food

And dessert!  The strawberry pie was delicious!

Tyler found he can be buoyant

Who would want to get off this?

Mike and Clay were also there; I obviously need to work on my photography skills.  I'll get them next time.

A busy week

I'm going to briefly look back over a week that will prove we actually did things over the summer.  If I don't write it down, there will come a time when my kids will say "I don't remember" & I sure won't.  Here's how it went-

Monday the 28th- 

• Clay has piano lessons at 8:30.  Early for the summer, nice when school comes around.
• The boys start swimming lessons at the Lehi pool.  I learned to swim at the Lehi pool when I was a kid.  What a coincidence.
• Grandma Diane takes the kids (I went too!) to Burger King for lunch and to see "Kung Fu Panda".  The kids love it, Eliza actually sat in her seat through the whole thing.
• I go on a "girls night" with my sisters (s-i-l & baby included) and mom.  We shop and eat at the Gateway and then see "Mama Mia".  We laugh a lot (mostly at Mama Mia).

Tuesday the 29th-

• Swimming lessons again.
• Mike & I take the kids to the Living Planet Aquarium before our passes expire at the end of the month.  It is fun to pet stingrays and see sharks and other marine creatures you would normally not see in Utah.  I will post pictures later.
• We stop by the new Sam's Club in Sandy.  Not only is it new and clean, but it is empty.  It is so nice to walk around a store and not see 20 people on every isle.  They also had lots of samples and we loved the Key Lime cake.  Very good and summery!

Wednesday the 30th- 

• Swimming lessons of course.  You know these last for 2 weeks!
• I take Tyler to the school for his 2nd grade reading assessment.  He is doing very well!
• The kids & I go up to Grandma Diane's house to pick apricots in the orchard.  We pick a couple of bags full because I want to make jam, but while we are looking at the chickens with all the little babies a cow pulls the bags off of the trailer and eats our apricots.  What a pig!  So we just take some home to eat.

Thursday the 31st- 

• Yep, you guessed it!  Swimming lessons.
• The boys had earned 7 Peaks passes for reading back when they were in school and this is the day they expire.  So my mom & I take the kids.  We burn our feet on the extremely hot cement, we don't burn anywhere else.  It's amazing I actually get everyone covered in enough sunscreen (ok, so Tyler got a little red on his shoulders & back).  It is crowded- I think everyone else is using up their passes on the day they expire.

Friday the 1st-

• Swimming lessons.  More of these to come next week.
• We actually spend the afternoon at home getting things done around the house.
• In the evening we load up the car and head to the cabin to spend the night.  We see lots of wildlife and the kids are happy we are out of the house.  Were we even home much this week?

Saturday the 2nd-

• At 7:45 am we are already packed up and heading home from the cabin.  Why?...
• We go to the Burnett Family Reunion in Lindon.  There is a private pool with slide and kid pool, basketball courts, trampoline, a bowery, and train rides for the kids and kids at heart.  I think I have a picture of my 6'6" uncles on that train.

So now I have proof that we did something this summer.  Maybe next year we won't do it all in one week!

Fiesta time!

We had the opportunity to attend the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo on July 22nd.  The kids had lots of fun and food (hamburgers, hot dogs, snow cones, licorice, nachos, etc).  I think their favorite was the "Wild Child"- he was the clown and had quite an entertaining motorcycle show.  We missed Mike who was home with 3rd degree burns on his foot- ouch!

Then on the 24th we finished off all the fireworks that weren't used on the 4th, including a tank war...

fountains...

and of course, flowers.

Have you ever seen what happens when you put a lit flower in a bucket of water?

Be careful.  Sometimes they jump out!

Finally Fishing!

We have been talking about going fishing for a while now, and finally decided if we didn't just go it would never happen.  So on Friday, July 25th we loaded up the car at 6:30 am and headed up to Strawberry reservoir.

Eliza needed some protection from the sun and was happy with this solution.

The boys helped Mike get the poles ready while Eliza fished for dirt with her little Barbie fishing pole.

Once the poles were set it was time to start crawdad-ing.

Most were caught on a chicken leg with a net, but some were caught by hand.

Some got caught on a hat.

Now that's just showing off!

The start of a good bucket of crawdads!

Tyler tried his hand at fishing.

And succeeded!  

What a nice fish!

While up on top of those rocks we saw a really big small-mouth bass swimming around.  And although we watched it following the lure, we couldn't get it to bite.  Then back by the crawdading spot we saw a big cutthroat trout swimming around in the shallows.  Mike tossed a lure in front of it and after watching the fish swim behind for a second it bit!

Eliza calmly watching the fish come to shore.

Last year when we did this the boys got in the water.  This year Mike asked Clay if he wanted to jump in off the rocks and swim over to where it was shallow enough to touch (probably 5 feet), and Clay said yes.  So, he jumped in.  And although he was moving around a lot, and we know he can swim farther than that, he wasn't going anywhere.  Mike was ready to help as needed with the net pole...

And we got him to safety.

Time for swimming lessons.

All the kids took a turn getting pinched once or twice.  Eliza finally figured out where to hold them.

After having lots of fun, not drowning, and catching all the crawdads we needed for dinner, we decided to head for home and I promised Eliza some marshmallows when we got back to the car so she would help pack up.  We loaded up the car and started driving.  After a few minutes I heard her say "marshmallows".  We looked back to find her already asleep.

What do you dream of?