Summer Sabbatical

This has been one crazy summer for our family. With Larry on Sabbatical (eight week vacation from work), we haven't had any excuses to do our normal summer routines. We've been out and about- just about everywhere it seems. Here are some shots from our adventures, and instead of being in order, they are just about the opposite of that... Last weekend we went out to Yechats, a beach in Oregon, to hang out with Paul and Kari. We got to see some awesome rock/tide formations, play some fabulous Apples to Apples and Balderdash, and have a wonderfully relaxing time on the beach.
On July 25, Larry's sister, Sherry got married to Jeff (he's the tall one). It was a wonderful day with almost everyone in town for the big event. This is a picture of all of Larry's family with all the grandkids and almost all the spouses. Now 8 of the kids are married with 5 to go.
Here are the original Dickinsons!
With family in town, the cousins really got to have a lot of fun together. They went to Enchanted Village ( a small amusement park near us).
Derek and Dallin were best buds this summer. They would even hold hands and talk Star Wars.
While most of the adults were rafting, we had "Cousin Day" at my house with all the grandkids. They had a blast playing together and we had almost no conflicts. It was a fun day for the 15 cousins.
We spent three weeks in Utah, so these next ones are from June/early July. Larry took the kids to the Hill Air Force Base Aviation museum while I had a BYU roommate sleepover. The kids had a blast, and I don't think I've laughed that hard or stayed up till 2:30 for a very long time.
We visited Temple Square and the kids really enjoyed the Church History museum. They have a great kid's section there.
Derek built his own temple.
We took a tour of the Conference center.
We stayed at Paul and Kari's house and were able to go the the Orquirrh Mountain temple open house while we were there. I hope it helps the kids look forward to being in the temple again when they are older.
Miranda just LOVED Paul and Kari's Rex and Roxy. She even brought along Diamond- her favorite stuffed animal dog. Miranda was in heaven with all the pets she met while we stayed at people's houses.
Part of our trip involved two days at Lagoon. I could not believe what Miranda wanted to go on! She is so daring! The kids enjoyed Lagoona Beach, too- especially Derek.
Lindsey and Spencer loved this space ship ride and went on it about 12 times in a row.

We did a campus tour of BYU. I wish we would have began with the Bean Museum because the kids just loved it. We also got to ride in the golf cart around campus, get candy in the bookstore, and drag Jeff along for the ride.
One of the first things we did when we got to Utah was to go camping with my family. We went to a hot springs. Spencer just floated around for a couple hours while Derek did the waterslides over and over. I sat this day out with Kara on deck.

I just had to include this picture of Miranda with her clay cat she made. It is one of her most prized possessions now.
The first day that the kids were out of school, Larry started his Sabbatical. We celebrated by going to the beach. It was a lot of fun.


Here are all the Swansons! Where did all those kids come from??
Miranda and Kenadie sharing a chair at the campout.
Lindsey enjoying a bag a chips. The kids got to eat all sorts of junk food while we've been out and about...


Here are a few more things we've done this summer...

1. Visited the Bonneville Dam and fish hatchery and the Pioneer museum near La Grande- I highly recommend both!
2. Stayed overnight with Larry's cousin, Eric.
3. Stayed with my childhood friend, Lori- toured Idaho Falls, saw a muskrat, visted BYU-Idaho campus, saw the new Rexburg temple.
4. Watched the 4th of July fireworks on my parent's front lawn. Tried to light our own dinky fireworks- Derek's hand burned on a sparkler.
5. Celebrated my grandma's birthday on July 4th- saw the Hyrum parade and had a big family dinner.
6. Visted the Botellos- a family Larry helped convert on his mission. The kids loved their turtle, named Bubbles (she was fast!). We went the Spanish branch with them where the dad is the branch president. They are an AWESOME family.
7. Visted Cove Fort, took the tour. I found out that pioneer girls would save their hair that they cut and put it in a box to later use for their dolls- among other things...
8. Stayed up playing Killer Bunnies with Paul, Kari, Sherry, and Jeff- and heard about Sherry's job doing therapy at the prison (it takes a special kind of woman for that).
9. Had a roommate BBQ at Julie's house after the sleepover- very fun and yummy.
10. Went to the beach for the Dickinson reunion where 32? out of 36 of us got sick. But it was still fun adding ourselves to the throw-up list...

So what now??
Larry goes back to work on the 13th, so we are squeezing in a camping trip before then. We're also getting the lawn ready to seed (it was majorly destroyed during construction). We are planning a trip to Bend on the 21st, then Larry and I leave for a week in Mexico on the 29th- no kids! I think I will need a break by then!!

My dad

Here's the West Wing!!

Sorry I took so long to post this! We actually moved into our new space on June 10. We have been really busy since then trying to get all the kids and their stuff moved into their new rooms. Everyone seems to be enjoying their new spaces, and it is nice to have it a little more quiet. Larry has now been on Sabbatical for 2 days. Tomorrow we pack for Utah and leave on Tuesday. I will post some pictures of their rooms completely finished sometime when we get back in mid-July.

Studio session

During construction...

Other things happened while our house was being torn apart. Larry and Spencer ran in the starlight parade. They were electricians. Spencer put a whole bunch of dirt on the slide and then got friendly with it.

Larry also had a campout with the boys in May to the beach.

Updates:

Miranda:still obsessed with pets. She went fishing for the first time yesterday and caught a fish.

Derek: Got to play chess at school with a first grader for a while. Still obsessed with Star Wars. He and Larry and reading the same book (and Derek is farther along in it).

Spencer: LOVES school, now that it is finally over tomorrow. He is starting to read. And he really likes to write.

Lindsey: Loves her dress up shoes and still wants to wear them to bed even though she has big sores on her feet from them! She is talking so well now. It is funny to ask her questions and see what she says.

Kara: WOW, she's growing up. She's crawling slow and steady all over the house (break out the vacuum and broom). She now has 6 teeth and I've got her off of baby food. She loves Everything! I'm so glad she's not a picky eater. She even ate olives the other day. She also stands up now.

Larry: Is trying to finish up some projects at work to get ready for Sabbatical!!!! That's an 8 week extra paid vacation!!!! So, Larry doesn't have to go to work from June 18- Aug 12!!! We are going to do a lot of travelling this summer. He is also finishing up being a baseball coach.

Michelle: I'm trying not to get too anxious to move the kids into their new spaces! I'm also planning our summer vacation. I've recently started volunteering in the kids' classrooms, and that has been really fun!

Week Eight

Lots of finishing touches were done this week. First of all, we finally got our door in! (The French doors don't have the window panes exposed yet).

Larry's dad came and spent a lot of time finishing the electrical. We now have motion detector lights on the sides of the house and a flood light on the back.

Larry put up the trims and bulbs on the recessed lights.

Here is Miranda's room. I finished filling in nail holes and putting a final coat on all the door jams, trims, and window sills.

Here is our "hole" that is between the family room and the kitchen. This was probably the part I was most worried about in the whole design. It actually turned out better than I expected! We were going to put something up to seperate the rooms, but I haven't found anything I like enough yet.

Here's our next project- the weed forest and the area formerly called the lawn.

The boy's door.

Our favorite electrician also put in the closet lights, and a new fan/vent in our bathroom, among other things. Oh, we now have shelves and a rod in the closets. Don't you think all the boys' toys will fit on that shelf?

Monday, tomorrow, the carpet comes!!!! And then the baseboards go up. After that, I think it's just the final inspection. I'm hoping to move in next weekend.

Week Seven of Construction

The painting continued this week- we painted all the trims and door jams and the rooms themselves after all the texturing was finished. This is the boys' new room- a light blue color. Spencer said, "thank you for painting my room this color!"

Miranda's room is a pale yellow- it looks a little green in this picture. We let her help paint- which she LOVED!

Here's a view towards Miranda's room.

We painted the boys old room light purple in preparation for Lindsey. They patched up and retextured the walls in the boys room, office, dining room, and bathroom.

Here's a view of the textured ceiling. Let me tell you, painting ceilings was NO fun. We had to do so many coats of paint!