Dear Family and Friends,

Friday night the hot tub finally arrived. Jeremy and these guys strong armed it up and spent the evening getting it all set up. Saturday morning kids were quick to get their jobs done so they could try it out. Since we made them shower every time they took a dip, they were very clean by the end of the day! Watching Allison and her friend Andra "swimming" in the afternoon when the temperature was hitting 100 degrees didn't look too enticing to me but they were in heaven. Meredith took Taylor in Saturday evening and he approved by going into his limp noodle happy place.

This week was a lot of odds and ends. Tuesday I took Spencer and Allison to 7 Peaks a local waterslide park for the day. I promised myself that next year I would take Robyn but this year I sure enjoyed the luxury of just doing stuff with the big kids. As we waited in line my friend and running partner Brenda pulled up with all of her kids. What are the odds? I only go once a year with the kid's free reader coupons they get at school. So with friends to play with my job became more supervising and following them around. Spencer got the courage to try the vortex with me (more commonly known as the toilet). He is finding all the scary rides turn out to be the best. Then Brenda's little boy Gabe wanted to do the Free fall ride with me. So I along with all the scared to death but not wanting to show it boys tried it out. You literally fall straight down this open slide and for a while loose any contact with the slide and then you level out at the bottom. Very freaky. I did it once to keep my cool mom status and then just watched as the boys all decided it was the best ride there and needed to be done multiple times. Allison and her friend Andra were happy to have me float them around the wave pool and the tiny tube slides. We all had a great time and it took some doing to get the kids to leave at dinner time.

Friday afternoon we spent the day at the pool with friends in tow. Ran into our neighbor there so lots of friends around to occupy kids. Spencer and his friends spent the whole time trying to do this underwater skateboard floaty thing. I just watched Robyn do the baby slide over and over and followed her around. Allison has her routine down pat - float, do underwater gymnastics/ballet, eat and then repeat. Came home all tired out. We had planned to go to an owlz baseball game to celebrate pioneer day but that was nixed at the last moment with the hot tub's arrival. Turned out to be a good thing as I was so tired I fell asleep watching Robyn take her bath! And then our neighbor across the street invited us over for fireworks. They had made a trip to Wyoming and were loaded down. Lane (the dad) let Spencer shoot off Roman candles with Lane helping. When shooting them off for a second time after all the illegal major fireworks were done a city police car drove up. So Spencer got a little lecture with Lane but they were let go with a warning. One of the fireworks went off sideways causing us all to leap to our feet to avoid the pieces. Allison and all the girls decided to watch the rest of the fireworks from across the street after that. They were holding their own little rave over there dancing and watching the strobe effects of the fireworks on their shadows on the fence.

I was so tried Friday night because I finally made it to 10 miles. Felt fine legs and lung wise but I tried taking this liquid nutrition stuff halfway through called goop and man it did a number on my stomach. Good thing it wasn't race day! Don't think I will try it again. There are a couple other brands out there I might look at but perhaps I am just meant to not try to eat anything while running.

Robyn is always looking for a friend to play and had Raquel over this week to play and have a picnic in the backyard.



Kids and Jeremy go their hair cut this week. We went to the local beauty college where the students doll them up and they just eat it up. Allison went a lot shorter and I really like it. Spencer went almost to a buzz. Robyn got bangs to hopefully prevent her hacking any more off. When Allison saw Spencer she told him "wow, your hair looks cool". When she asked him for his opinion on hers he told her that it looked "hideous". We had a little talk about biting our tongues! He just said he was expressing his opinion because he thought all girls' hair should at least be below their shoulders. Nevertheless Allison remains confident in her cuteness.



My 2 day project of finishing a book case/night stand for Robyn's room turned into 2 weeks but I finished it yesterday. She is busy filling it up with anything she can find.



Spencer got his retainer this week and is back to wearing it all the time until his teeth straighten back out. In 6 weeks or so he should be back to just wearing it at night again. Met with the drug study doctor again. I really am getting tired of the process especially since I don't think it really makes a difference. They did wonder if Spencer's inability to sit still without periodically moving is caused by the drug. Spencer is excited because this week he will have earned enough from the study to buy his Nintendo DS.

Jeremy was able to do a photo shoot this week. You can see some of his pictures in the thumbnails on the side. Besides the hot tub he also got a drummel tool this week to fix our bedroom door. For the first time in 2 years we can now lock it. The luxury of being able to take a shower without company (kids and kids friends) joining me. Robyn and her friends think nothing of having a conversation with a buck naked mom. Not to mention that its much nicer to cuddle with your hubby without a little voice asking "what ya doing?".

Haven't been doing much in the yard lately besides mowing and keeping the front fairly presentable. Did notice that my squash and pumpkin plants were dying. Couldn't believe you could overwater squash but thats what it looked like. Yesterday though I finally got around to weeding and noticed that they are literally covered with squash bugs and eggs. They look pretty cool but they are everywhere sucking the life out of my plants. Tomorrow we are having a bug killing party. Spencer and Robyn are quite excited. Allison volunteered to watch!

Last night Jeremy I had a chick night of eating at a very girly restaurant I wanted to try (Jeremy was astonished that their idea of a portebello burger did not involve any meat!). And then went to the temple. It was a live endowment session and it was neat to watch all the new people going through for the first time. Next week I get to fly out and go through with my sister Christina which I am very excited about.

Summer days seem busy and go by fast but we are all good. We had our last story time this week at the library and have our end of the summer party next week. The school supply lists just got posted. It seems like summer just started! I can't really get into the mind set of thinking about school when its a 100 degrees outside. Nice part about school is that our hour of quiet time on Sunday afternoon does come with any protests. I think the kids are all happy to lay by a fan and veg for awhile.

Love to you all, Heather