Busy Summer Fun 2022

June has been SO BUSY!!  Gavin had his piano recital, and participated in a two week tennis camp.  Laynie did a two week watercolor course and has been continuing her clogging classes every Tuesday and Thursday in Springville.  Both kids have been taking swim lessons on Wednesdays in Orem and we visit Aunt Greta each week after the lessons.

Gavin Played Hedwig's Theme and 500 Year Melody

One of Laynie's masterpieces.  She would rollerblade to her class each day, as her teacher lives a block and a half away.

The kids do daily chores to earn MOM BUCKS.  One of their chores is to read, and as an extra incentive, the kids joined the library reading program to earn fun prizes each week.

The kids LOVE playing with their neighborhood friends.  A day in their life is no complete without some friend time!

Laynie and I hiked Donut Falls.  She wanted a Mother/Daughter Day so we did just that!  We ate cheeseburgers and shopped at DI afterward.

I signed myself up for a watercolor course as well, and I've been LOVING IT!!  Painting relaxes me like no other!  July should be a more mellow month.  I've GOT to buckle down and organize my preschool office and work a bit on getting ready for another year of preschool...  because before we know it, it'll be time to begin another school year!

This sunflower was one of our exercises in the adult watercolor class I'm a part of.

I made this card for Brian's daughter, Sadie.

I still have lots of room to improve, but I LOVE to paint with watercolor, even in high school, it was my favorite medium to work with.

 

I Can Hear Him.

Every month, we study a gospel principle, along with Come Follow Me.  I have LOVED this way of teaching my kids.  It helps solidify 12 gospel principles throughout the year and my kids love learning about the stories that help teach each principle.  For the month of June, we've been focusing on how we can HEAR HIM.

We loved the story of Gideon - He had to be spiritually in tune with the Lord to know his will and how to lead the children of Israel in battle and win the war.  Even when the Lord instructed him to condense his army to 300 men, Gideon was faithful and ready to hear the next step.  The Lord told Gideon to have his 300 men do 3 things in order to win the war against the Midianites: 1) smash a clay pot 2) hold a light up high 3) blow a ram's horn.  At night the Lord instructed Gideon to have his men surround the Midianite camp.  Then all at once, they were to crash their clay pots agains the ground, hold up their lights, and blow their horns.  The scene resulted in chaos for then Midianites who ended up slaying their own and running away in confusion.  As I've pondered this story, I can't help but wonder if those three things the Lord asked the Israelites to do are symbolic.

1) smash clay pots.  Clay comes from the earth.  The act of smashing earthenware onto the ground could represent how the Israelites were casting down the ways of the world and chose to focus on the ways of the Lord instead.  2)  Holding a light - The Savior has said,"I am the Light of the World"  Could the Lights represent Jesus Christ and our willingness to follow Him?  3) Blowing a horn - the prophet is God's sounding alarm here on earth.  We must listen to the prophet's call.  When we focus on these three things, we put our Heavenly Father first.  We trust in Him to guide us through the hardships in life, and ultimately, we can HEAR HIM!

Another scripture story we studied this month was David and Goliath.  David was close to the Lord and knew he'd receive help when he volunteered to fight Goliath.  He was receptive to the Lord's word and could HEAR HIM.

I had everyone draw pictures of Goliath as I read the scriptural account and write one thing that was hard for them to do on that paper.  Then we threw crumpled up pieces of paper at Goliath and talked about how the Lord will help us through these hard things, if we but trust in Him and HEAR HIM always.

Matt's Goliath

Laynie's Goliath

Gavin's Goliath

 

Arches and Canyonlands

We did it!  We visited the Mighty 5 + The Grand Canyon in 8 months!  On June 20th, the stars aligned and we were able to finish the last 2 national parks before it got too hot and before Gavin's 4th grade free pass expired!  We hiked to Delicate Arch - which was awesome!

On our way to the Delicate Arch.

Seriously, kids?!?!  Already?!?

Delicate Arch!

Now we can say we've been to the place on our license plate!

Double Arches

These kids kept wanting me to take photos of them...  I'll remind you of this next time we take family photographs!

Then we travelled the 30 minutes to Canyonlands National Park, had dinner, then hiked to:

the Upheaval Dome, (It is suspected that a meteor created this indent in the earth.)

Overlooked the Green River,

hiked to Mesa Arch,

And traveled to Grandview Point where we could see the Colorado and Green Rivers converge.

I had never been to Canyonlands before.  It's divided into 4 sections:  Island in the Sky (which we visited), The Needles, The Maze and The Rivers.  You have to take different routes to each section because the steep canyons and the rivers make it impassible...  Some day maybe I'll make it to the other places.  This state we live in is sooooo beUTAHful!!!

 

A Fantastic Fatherhood Feast!

For Father's Day, I created a mystery menu and had the kids and Dad order from it.  You should have seen their faces when I set down before them what they ordered.  Then I prepared my own plate and sat down.  Their faces were seething with jealousy!! LOL!  After that, I let them fix their food how they wanted it, and we all had a nice meal together.  We gave Dad some jerky and the kids wrote him cards.

We sure appreciate and love this dad of ours!  He works hard each day at his job.  He's very level headed and organized.  One of his best talents is being able to organize something to run in a succinct fashion, requiring the least amount of work.  He's also really good at being there for his wife and kids, lifting heavy weights, and knowing how to say things in a kind way.

Happy Father's Day, Matt!  We sure love you!

 

Flipping the Strip

Matt wanted to flip the strip.  We had been watering and mowing crabgrass the 5 years we've lived here and it didn't make sense to keep doing that.  So we went in on a sod cutter with the Prestwiches, and we hired a neighbor to dig out the strip with his Kabota.  Matt did the sprinkler work and we both worked on the design we wanted.  It was a LOT of laborious work, but I love working with Matt on projects.  It's our quality time together.

before

Bye, Bye yucky crabgrass!

I also had fun going to the nursery to buy the waterwise plants I wanted.  I chose 2 kinds of catmint, yellow coneflowers, rock soapwort, blue fescue grasses, penstemon, and blue rug junipers.  These plants will need minimal water throughout the years and will bloom throughout the growing season as well.  I can't wait for them to get bigger and fill in the boulevard.

We had close to 12 tons of rock delivered to our house.  I'm shocked both our backs held up during the shoveling of it.  3 kind neighbors came to offer their time and braun to help us get it shoveled in.

We put chat in-between the above flagstone as well.  It looks really nice.

We also took out the grass to the left of our garage and compacted chat to go in its place.  It looks nice.

after

 

Scouting

Gavin has really enjoyed being a Webelo these past few months.  He got to ride his scooter in the Splash Days parade and attend Webelo Day Camp at Camp Maple Dell in Payson Canyon.