Summer is here!

I've got a lot of catching up to do! Unfortunately, our camera was lost in Utah, so there won't be any pictures to go along with it.
We had 2 weeks between the end of school and our trip to Utah. It wasn't my favorite two weeks, let me tell ya. Miranda, Derek, and Spencer all had swim lessons Mon-Fri at lunch time. Our whole schedule was pretty messed up with that. Miranda barely tolerated the lessons with complaints of upset stomachs, and crying. We had to threaten her with losing a daddy date to keep her in the pool. Derek LOVED lessons- especially because he was with Kyler, his good friend. Spencer did really well, and mostly enjoyed them. He is even comfortable puttin ghis face under the water now. I am relieved to have that over with! We also had a short-lived sickness that we all got- except Spencer and Larry. Luckily, it was over before we headed to Utah.
I left with the kids on the 28th. The ride went well except that our DVD player didn't work! It was a major crisis, so we stopped in Boise to buy a new one to survive the rest of the boring trip. We kept things pretty low-key for our first few days there. The kids loved playing with their cousins. Miranda and Spencer just LOVED the slip-and-slide that grandma bought. They loved eating lunch and snacks outside on the back porch and playing with the toys at grandma's house.
Larry joined us on July 2. We saw Wall E the next day. Lindsey and Derek loved it. (Now Lindsey can say, "Eve"). On the fourth of July, we went to the Hyrum parade and to my grandma's house to celebrate her 82nd birthday. We woke up the kids to watch the fireworks and did some cheapo fireworks in the driveway (which Lindsey ran away from). We had a cookout up the canyon- my kids were covered in ash and dirt within seconds of arriving, but they enjoyed cooking hot dogs and marshmellows over the fire.
Spencer loved being able to ride his bike in grandma's driveway and her cul-de-sac whenever he wanted to. Lindsey has her independent self, quickly warming up to my parents and going with the flow of the cousins. All the kids slept in one room, and it worked for the most part. No one got sick, and we all survived the trip home- so I call it a sucess!

I will update more later!