Summer Vacation week 2

The four older kids spent the first half of the week at my parents house.  It sounds like they had a great time.  They went to volleyball camp in the mornings and helped Grandpa with projects in the afternoon.  They also watched movies, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and played with Daniels new puppy,

Lydia and I had fun at home.  We set up her pool and she had a fun time playing in it.  My friend Shelby brought her two kids over on Tuesday to play, they had a great time playing together and it was nice visiting with Shelby.

Leah and Joe and kids spent the end of the week with us.  They got here Wednesday while we were picking up the kids from my parents house and stayed until Saturday morning.  The kids loved playing together, the girls ran around playing dress ups.  We played all kinds of sports, ping pong, basketball, volleyball, badmitton, and four square.  Friday we set up a little competition with all kinds of activities, it was lots of fun.  Saturday morning we went cherry picking before they drove home.  It was a fun week, it was great to spend so much time with family.

Katie and Nicoles Birthday

Monday is Katie and Nicoles birthday, but they will be at my parents house so we celebrated it on Saturday.  The started the day with their traditional Ego Waffles.  They opened their presents, they really wanted to get each other something this year so I had taken them to the store Friday night where they had fun picking out little things for each other and buying it with their own money.

 

this is the hat Katie made for nicole

The plan had been to spend the morning hiking but we woke up to rain, so we had to come up with new plans.  We ended up doing a little shopping, then we went out to lunch and then the plan was to go watch the movie Finding Dory, but when we got to the movie theater we saw that it was sold out all day.  We ended up coming home and watching a movie.

 We Barbequed hamburgers, and then had cake and ice cream.

The kids played on the trampoline for quite a while then came in and we played some games before bedtime.

  I dont think it was the twins favorite birthday, things didnt go as planned but in the end I think they had a good day.  We love our girls and are excited to see all of the great things they do as they become 10 year olds.

Summer Vacation week 1

Summer vacation is here, although the weather didnt really feel like summer this past week, it was kind of cool and cloudy and even some rain.  The first day of summer the neighborhood kids were all over making their bucket list of things they want to do together this summer, one of the things on the list was to make a go-cart so they got busy making one. They took apart some old toys and found some batteries and got it running a couple of times.

They tried water balloons and the sprinkler but it really wasnt warm enough.

We had our ward campout it was cold, but we still had a good time, I think everyones favorite part was the canoes.

 The kids slept together in this teepee.

 Kyle went canoeing with some friends and fell in the water getting out

 The girls spent a lot of time in this grass catching grass hoppers

 

I didnt take many pictures of the rest of our week.  The kids had a pickle ball tournament one day, played lots of basketball, Kyle and Hailey played ultimate frisbee twice with friends, we did a puzzle, the girls colored paper doll clothes and and the kids made model cars,and  we went to the library .

 the puzzle we did

paper model cars

School is out for the summer

My kids finished up school on Thursday.  This year went by so fast, I still can hardly believe we are back to Summer vacation again. The kids all ended off the year well.  Kyle finished up the 8th grade, he did well in his classes, he really liked his spanish class and he also seemed to enjoy science.  Hailey finished 6th grade, she did awesome, I think she liked all of her classes and her teachers.  The twins finished fourth grade and graduated from elementary school.  They spent Tuesday with all the fourth graders up at a camp in the mountains, where they hiked, did archery, the zip line and played games.  They loved it.

They gave the kids these t shirts to wear on their field trip.  The backs say Our last Adventure As a Cougar.

The girls had their big end of year assembly Thursday morning before they came home.  They gave out awards so the girls got their mileage club sweatshirts for making it to 100 miles.  Nicole was the 2nd kid in the school and the 1st girl and Katie was the 6th kid in the school, I was proud of them for working so hard, they have really become great little runners.

And Lydia finished up Kindergarten. She loved this year, her teacher was excellent and she loved making friends.  She learned a lot and is ready for 1st grade.

Now we are on to all kinds of Summer Fun!

Gap 2 Gap

yesterday morning was the gap 2 gap race.  This is the last year Kyle could do it, so he decided to do the Iron Man, which means he does the whole race by himself.  He ran 3 miles, biked 6, steeple chase, kayak, and obstacle course.  He did really well, he didn't stop at all, he said the hardest part was the steeple chase because his legs were so tired from running and biking, but he finished without stopping or walking, we found out he did it in 1 hour and 8 min.  He won, but he was also the only kid who did the iron man in his age group.  He got a trophy to bring home and have his name engraved on, he will keep it for a year and then whoever wins next year will get it.

 finishing up the running

 after the race

 getting his trophy

Katie and Nicole decided to be a team again, so they took turns doing each event.  Nicole ran the mile, Katie biked 3 miles, Nicole did steeple chase, Katie kayaked, Nicole did the obstacle course.  They did awesome.  They got 3rd place out of 12 teams, finished in 35 minutes.

 

Nicole at the starting line

 Before the race

 Katie Kayaking, she did really well

Nicole running towards the finish line