Hello Summer!

Ahhh...summer is here!  I am so excited that school is out.  Though thinking about this summer is actually a little stressful.  We have lots of scout stuff going on like scout camp & merit badges for Cal and Clark, Clark's Eagle Scout project, Clark has meetings and practices for trying his hand at JV football and marching band, getting Clark set up with his own budget and checking account,  most of the kids will have swimming lessons, and Haley, Shanna and Elden also have a camp each to go to. And I haven't even mentioned our two family vacations.  Now I did.  I am so glad that all of the camps (scout, cub scout and activity days) are within the same two-week period, and back to back.  All the kids have camps one week, except Elden.  Then Elden has his the following week.

Random highlights....I went to the school one day and saw one of the girl's bikes' locked poorly.  Yeah, that's not gonna hold!


I love it when the kids jump in and do their job and get it done.  No prodding necessary. 


This should be in an older post, but Clark grabbed the phone and starting talking to his cousin Rebecca on a Sunday afternoon while we were visiting in Iowa.  Makenzie had been talking to Rebecca on the phone.  It was pretty funny.


I went on the last field trip of the year with Elden to Grand Caverns in Grottoes, VA.  We toured the cavern then stayed at the park the rest of the day for a pizza lunch and games.  Elden had fun joining in on baseball and kickball. Lee drove over from work and had lunch with us.






The older boys went on a recent campout and we went to an appreciation picnic our dental office hosted.  It was a luau theme and very fun.  Haley's name was drawn in the raffle and picked out a kite.  She loves using it.


Kids had games to play.




Photo booth too. There was also a Polaroid camera that someone used to take pictures.  That was super fun.


After a few times of purging the girls' room in the last two years, we did it once more. Hopefully this will be the last!  Their room has been messy for weeks.  It drove me crazy but I tend to put off things like this.  Finally, I couldn't wait.  One recent Saturday night we started cleaning at 8pm (bad idea but we got it done) and finished at mid-night-ish.  I dumped out EVERYTHING.  Well, their dresser we went through drawer by drawer.  The girls had to pull out everything under their beds.  It was a mess.  We got rid of three garbage bags full of garbage, have a box of things to give away plus another box of items that belonged elsewhere.  Now I know where all my tape went!




Oh, Elden "cleaned" his room that Saturday too.  I laughed when I walked in his room and saw these items lined up against his shelf. #cleannotclean


Shanna and Haley have been doing well with their room, with some strong guidance from me.  Ahhh....it's breathable in there now.  I need to take some pictures to reveal the upstairs!


Clark built another drone.  He finally got it working.


Well, the day came that most of us have been waiting for ever since the first day of school.  THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!  Finally!  The last couple of weeks before school let out were great, actually.  No homework, fun stuff at school, and I kind of sort of did a few things at home while the kids were in school.  Okay, so I wasn't that productive while they were all away.  But it's so nice not having any projects or homework! 

I went to the award assembly at the elementary school.  It was fun seeing my kids go up for different awards.  Elden was awarded a certificate for the A-B honor roll.






Shanna and Haley's teacher, Mrs. Francis, earned the Lions' Club teacher of the year award.  She does such a great job year in and year out! 


Shanna and Haley went up many times for good grades, the fitness presidential award, music, and chorus, and Shanna for the student council association, SCA.




Elden and his amazing 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Lewis.




Shanna and Haley's styles shine through with their outfits.  Love it!




Elden and his good buddy Kaden.




Haley and her good friend Belle. 


The yearly everyone-come-outside-to-say-goodbye is my favorite.  Lee, Cal and Clark were there too.


Right after the annual send-off, all of the kids and two friends and I went to the pool. Love this shot of Shanna.  All my kids did great on their standardized testing.


The weather was a bit on the chilly side....low 70s.  But the pool was practically empty and the kids still loved swimming.


















Mrs. Francis, Shanna and Haley's teacher, gave me this sweet gift for doing copies for her.  She is so fun and creative!  Also, two other teachers each gave me a gift card, and Elden's two teachers Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Shifflett gifted me beautiful flowers that I planted outside. Very sweet and thoughtful of them.  I feel like I should write them a thank you for a thank you.  But I haven't because that seems kind of weird?  Or no? 


With all of the craziness that lays ahead, I am still ecstatic that school is out.  I think we may even get their backpacks "ready" to go in July.  I'll be gone for the tax-free weekend anyway, so might as well get 'er done.  Plus Shanna and Haley love helping me with that.

Memorial Day Weekend!

How was Memorial Day weekend for you?  We don't have any special traditions for this holiday, but we should.  I am so thankful for the men and women who sacrificed their lives for my freedom.  Sometimes I think about how blessed I am to walk into a store by myself, with my purse showing and not feeling one bit scared.  I love this great country I live in! 

Pack meeting for May was a picnic in the park.  About 5 minutes before we left Lee saw a mouse in the laundry room.  Yuck.  I'll spare all the details, but finally I caught it by its tail with the bottom of Shanna's crutch (she has play crutches).  Cal put on a glove, grabbed the mouse and put it in this jar.  The kids released it at the park.  I had damaged the tail though.  I couldn't bear keeping the jar and lid and just threw them away.  On the way to the park though, I stopped at Martins and got a $25 gift card for the cub scouts!  I was able to use it right away on food for that night and the bill came to $6 after the gift card money!


For Memorial Day weekend we traveled to Iowa for my nephew Hyrum's baptism.  Normally we don't go this far for a baptism, but it fell on a long weekend and worked great.  We left Friday after work and drove through the night.  We arrived at our Iowa destination around 9:30am.  After freshening up, and a visit to a hobby store we headed to the baptism. Elden was supposed to be born within days of Hyrum, but Elden and my body had other plans.  Elden was not born the end of May but the first part of March.  Something that was special is my dad was asked to speak on the Holy Ghost and he shared stories about his dad, Elden Bartholomew.  So our Elden got to hear some stories about his great-grandpa Elden as a little boy.

All the ladies wore a teal-ish or black color.  Love it!  And it was so great that Shawna and Sam were there!  I had no idea they were coming up.  Loved seeing them.  Matt's mom came too--Hyrum's grandma.


More sibling time!  The best!






After the baptism and yummy lunch we headed to Chuck E Cheese's.  (I just had to google how to spell that....)  It was so fun!  I got cards for each of my kids to play games, but then Deb surprised Lee and I by giving us our own cards for games. 








Loved seeing the wise people get into it too.






We swam at Sam's hotel pool later (apparently the front desk gave an iffy answer as to if outside guests could swim there....I thought it was all cleared until I asked...)  After the pool we had pizza, a party and a movie!  The North Avenue Irregulars is super cute and fun.  Great family movie!  Sweet Emma was tuckered out.


Sunday we enjoyed church, each other's company, delish food and more visiting.  So, so fun.


Monday morning we headed to Backbone State park.  I want to go back there!  Deb brought a fun breakfast of oatmeal and hot chocolate.  Then we did a little hike.  We didn't have much time as we were headed to Stephanie's for dinner in Indiana, and then home.














An awesome ravine type area we got to hike down into.








Boomer is a favorite with my kids.  Well, Shanna, Haley and Elden.


We had an awesome time in Iowa, enjoyed a terrific dinner with Steph in Indiana (and riding in her "new" X1 SO FUN!) and arrived home at 5:09am Tuesday morning.  The drive home was terrific!  Even though we drove all night, it went smoothly for both of us. I think one thing that helped was the book Lee listened to, Boys in a Boat.  Highly recommend.  And highly recommend listening to it.  The reader was fantastic.  I will say there were a few swear words in there....maybe 4ish? It's about the journey of a rowing crew team making it to the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  I had read it before but then wanted to relisten to the rest of it with Lee on the trip.  It made me tear up at the end...all the hardships they went through, but how they each found acceptance and love. And what a crazy journey! Especially loved Joe Rantz's story.  It's a true story too, which was fun.  I want to buy it and edit it for Clark to read.

Back on the ranch....after our couple hours sleep in a bed, we got everyone out the door on time.  Lee and I went to the school that day for the million word club that Lee's business sponsored.  Every fifth grader who reads more than 1,000,000 words through AR (Accelerated Reading program...it keeps track of word count per book tested on) was awarded a limo ride and lunch.  Four kids did it!  Hopefully we can keep this going every year.  This was our first year sponsoring this, and the details finally came together just days before, but it worked out.


Yet another blessing of this country....Lee can run his business how he sees fit!  Happy Memorial Day!  We enjoyed squeezing in our first road trip of the summer!  (Though it's still technically spring, but who cares, right?!)