August Fun!

August has come and gone, but here are a few everyday summer activities....

Lots of swimming.  It's fun taking pictures of kids doing flips!


One night we played a Fancy Nancy game.  One child was not happy--we weren't properly following her unusual rules.


A few years ago my friend told me that when her boys turned 12 they started doing their own laundry and she loved it.  Ever since then I've planned on having Clark do his own laundry starting at age 12 too.  It's going pretty well!  The other day he started it all on his own, without any questions!  Not that I mind the questions, but it was neat he felt sure enough himself to go ahead and do his laundry. 


We also did bike rides. 


And that same night stopped for ice cream cones and a look-see at the little river in town.


More flips!




Killing time at the park.


Clark participated in his first young men/young women's activity at the bowling alley.  He seemed to enjoy it!




Cal made a little guy out of Starbursts.


My brother Sheldon went to Korea for a few weeks this summer with the military.


The first weekend in August was tax-free weekend, so we did a lot of school shopping.  School didn't start for a few more weeks, but it was nice to save a little money. 


Good thing I have these cute pictures to look back on because after the first store I was done shopping with all of them.  Did that stop me?  No.  (Though it should have!) And we went to several more stores that day.  This was one of our last stores.


My sister has a matching handbag that goes with this cute little clutch?  Not sure what to call it.  It would be so fun if her daughter had it...but she is a toddler and this little Michael Kors cost $50.


My kids did swimming lessons this year.  Elden really progressed this year, and what do you know-he can swim now!  He and Shanna were the only ones that passed their levels.  I couldn't get Cal into swimming lessons.  I kept asking and asking, but no spots opened up. 


The youth had a temple trip one day before Clark was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood.  Since he missed that trip, Lee took him the next weekend.  I asked Clark how it was being in the temple, and doing baptisms for people who have already died (standing in as a proxy).  He responded: "Spiritual?"


The kids and I hung out at the temple grounds and visitors' center, then I went in.  There is a cool tree, bush thing by the visitors' center.


There was a fun opening inside that my kids enjoyed.




We're proud of you Clark!


I'm hoping that my girls will be married in the Washington, D.C. temple (my boys too!).  Any temple will be fantastic for my kids but it would be fun to have some of them married in this particular one!


We arrived home late that night.  When we got home we found Shanna in a weird sleeping position!


We enjoyed one harvest of green beans from our garden!






One Sunday Lee made some amazing pineapple sorbet!


Our transmission on our minivan has been acting up for over a year.  It's been working fine up until recently.  When we took Clark to the temple, we had a horrible time with it.  As in it wouldn't go over about 50 mph unless the rpms were about 6000 or so.  It was crazy!  We seriously contemplated purchasing a different vehicle.  Not these cars, but they were fun to look at for a moment.


Years ago, when we bought our Honda, we test drove a suburban and liked it.  We decided a minivan would be more practical, and less inexpensive to maintain so we settled on that. Lee and I took all of the kids and test drove a suburban with them.  That thing is huge, and has comparable inside space as a mini-van, but we really liked it. Plus it can haul more weight, like bikes and such when we go on trips.


This particular one was pretty sweet, and too expensive.


Ultimately we decided to fix our transmission.  It ended up costing about $3500.  We didn't want to fork over that money, especially since our minivan is now worth only about $3500!  But we figured it would be cheaper to pay $3500 to keep our van running for another couple of years, than to scrounge up several more thousands of dollars for a suburban.  And we would be spending money we didn't necessarily want to use up...like our emergency fund.  Thanks to the start that Lee's grandpa gave us, we've never had a car payment.  Don't get too jealous though. Our first car was what Lee acquired after his mission (if I remember right his grandpa helped pay for it...). A black, 1991 2-door Plymouth Sundance.  Here is a picture of one that I found.  This white one is a couple years older, but our black one looked worse than this and had rust on it.  (As far as I remember.)


You may have seen in older posts, but our trampoline net failed.  Lee took the time and found a new net and put the trampoline all back together!  The kids were pretty excited.


Clark spent some of his work money to make a "flame thrower". I guess more like a "flame blower".




Each summer we head to Riven Rock park at least once, it seems.  It's always a fun afternoon.










For the record, I can still do flips....but not land on my feet.  I need to practice!


Can you spot the little sign?  A Hobby Lobby is coming to town!!!  Now we just need an Aldi, Home Goods, and a Trader Joe's, and I'd be set!


Cal has been making some cute, creative Lego creations lately.  This one is his minecraft guy at a slurpee machine. Cherry and raspberry drinks available!


A few years back my sister Deborah made these great hard cover recipe books with our grandmother's recipes in them.  Haley flipped though it one day and took a picture of this.  I need to bake this sometime with her.  Looks delicious!


All through swimming lessons, school shopping and car hunting, we were working, working, working on our bathroom.  (Post coming soon!)  We decided one night to see a meteor shower in Shenandoah National Park.  It was 2:55am when we left...I hadn't gone to bed yet. 


We drug all the kids out of their beds, and boy were they not happy! Lee and I saw several shooting stars, which was cool.  #happysummermemoryfail


Cal received an AT-AT for Christmas.  One day he had it covered with Lego mini-figures.  Quite the attack!




Lastly we spent another pretty evening in Shenandoah National Park with our friends.  We enjoyed visiting and eating dinner.  I think this is the only picture I took that night!  My friend Brittany let Shanna hold her cute baby boy. Shanna is quite the motherly type!