The final countdown, chit chat

So after all of my whining about WHEN?? is school going to start, my kids are all over each other and I can't make it STOP!...here we are in the final week of summer.

The weather is gorgeous and the kids are actually behaving pretty well. Despite staying up late to watch the Olympics. Savi is enamored with Michael Phelps, can you blame her? Her quote "Do you know who is the BEST SWIMMER IN THE WORLD?? pause MICHAEL PHELPS!!!"

And we're currently of the opinion that Nastia Luiken got ROBBED of her gold medal on the uneven bars!! That was so wrong.

We spent 3 hours playing and splashing at the local Rec center outdoor pool yesterday and had the pleasant surprise of 2 sets of friends arriving shortly after us, SWEET! Now we're starting to wish we had more time to get all the summer playing in. Isn't that how it always is?

Next mission, school shoes shopping!

My weekend

I just returned yesterday from a weekend in CA with Sydney, and my sister Kasey! She is the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, let's go kind of sister that you can't help but love!

I was planning on a quick trip to go to my friend Christine's wedding and excited to see my parents and siblings again after our visit in June....however short. Turns out, my parents headed to a funeral at a moment's notice (it's not like you can plan when those happen) and I ended up staying at their beautiful home without them....so I was thrilled that just 2 weeks prior, K had heard I'd be swinging through and it just happened to coincide with a business trip she was traveling to this week. She added on a leg to her trip and the ticket ended up costing less. Bonus.

So, we did shopping, dining, movie-going with a couple of my S-I-Ls, wedding attending with my bros families and road tripping. It was nice to just have 1 child along for the ride too. Anyone with 3 kids knows, that 1 is a vacation!

Plus, then the kids get some Dad time and know what it's like to miss Mom. THAT is always a good thing!! They picked us up at the airport and we were so excited to reunite....Then I walked in the house and saw THIS....

Can you believe it?? My dear husband (who detests shopping in every form but online) actually went to a store, with 2 kids, and purchased a dining room table and chairs!! Which we sorely were in need of, and are perfectly aligned with my tastes!!!! I'm still a bit shocked. Oh, and the house was clean too! :)

Binky Binge

Ok, let me start out by saying that NONE of my babies would EVER take a binky...despite my desperate efforts. Believe me, it would've made my life so much easier. The other day Savi unearthed my stash of different sizes and brands I unsuccessfully went through in order to get them to attach to them and pacify themselves at least a little. They all picked one, and dressed up as "baby girls" which was a bigger stretch for Gunnar than the other two. This was about a week ago, and Sydney can now be seen occassionally walking around chewing on one. At least it's newborn size so she won't really start sucking on it....I hope... Wouldn't that be a bummer if she really became a binky baby at 18 months????

Camping

We have 2 trips that we take every year, it's a tradition that's been going on for the last 3 years and we are looking forward to doing the same trips until we're old and crusty!!

The kids love it because they can remember the previous years and really look forward to it. The site we went to has a little creek running along the back of it that is perfect for walking around in, the kids spent alot of time moving logs around and trying to build a dam this year. The water is FREEZING and was a bit high because of the cold Spring we had this year. We're still seeing a lot of snow melt. Our neighbors had a couple watermelons cooling in it, and the kids were so amazed. "Mom, there are wild watermelons growing in the creek!!!" LOL They also did a lot of balancing acts on a fallen tree right next to the bank. In the same hour Savannah's flip flop broke and Gunnar lost one in the fast moving current....so we had only hiking shoes after that. Dad rigged Savi's shoe and one of the campers we canvassed looking for Gunnar's shoe ended up finding it and brought it back the next morning. Shoe drama, there's nothing worse!!

Sydney LOVES being outdoors and was in heaven. Of course she believes she is a big kid too and takes off after her bro and sis. So Mom was on full alert the whole time. She also thought it was so cool to hang out in the car and turn all the knobs and press buttons.

We hiked to Donut Falls which is a waterfall that comes through a huge rock with a hole in the middle....you guessed it, a donut. On the hike we found a log that had been carved into a seat, but they called it a throne. The kids imagined that we had to make it through all the booby traps on the hike, like red ants, stinging nettle, steep hills and thorny bushes before we could claim the throne on the way back. It made for good motivation when they were tired out. See "Savi the Triumphant" above.

We had a couple of young moose saunter through the site and hang out for a while snacking on trees and bushes. We saw a lot of butterflies, ground squirrels and birds, all of which the girls were fascinated by. Gunnar had a littel squirrel-guy friend that chattered at us too.

After we'd packed up camp we headed up to Silver Lake to try some fishing. It was a HOT day and the fish weren't biting so we hung out for an hour and headed on home. Maybe we'll catch some little trout to fry up next time.

Swimming Lessons

We had our last swimming lessons last week. :( We were so lucky this year because an old friend of mine from the Singles Ward Days and I reconnected. She lives in my neighborhood and happens to be a certified instructor. She invited my kids to take part in her classes this year. She has only 3-4 per class and is able to be so hands on with them. Gunnar went from hanging onto the side of the pool to jumping off the diving board and holding his breath under water. Savannah can now freestyle and backstroke where before she could barely doggy-paddle. All of us are thrilled with the results of 2x per week, for a month lessons. I never realized what a difference a good instuctor can make, she is incredible. The added bonus? Sydney and I got to swim in the private pool she taught at during the kid's lessons each time. Cha-ching!