Monday night despite the rain clouds we went to one of our favorite summer traditions, an outdoor musical at SCERA shell.  This year it was The Sound of Music and it was awesome.  I realized my kids have never seen this musical before and they were entranced.  To the point that at the end we are constantly reminding Robyn that only the actors are allowed to sing and dance during the performance.

It was good to sit and relax with kids and enjoy the evening as Monday was also the day we went to the dentist.  My kids consider the dental office a fun outing and look forward to it for days.  No cavities needing to be filled this time just a bunch of little stuff.  Is it bad when the dental workers all call you by name?  It can't be a good sign.
Tuesday while Jeremy hosted a party for all the photography studio members and their family I got to cheer on Spencer getting a bunch of merit badges.  He leaves tomorrow for a week long scout camp at Timberline where he is in scout uniform all week.  So he was excited to be fully dressed in scout pants that we had gotten earlier that day.  After seeing the receipt at the scout office he cheerfully worked with me on getting the yard all done for Jeremy's party.  Of course it ended up raining hard all evening but it looked good from a window.  Spencer has gone fishing a couple of times this week. He even took Allison and her friend on evening.  Allison was a bit smug that they caught four little fish and Spencer caught one.  Jeremy made Spencer put the fish back as it was teeny so he is still hoping to catch a fish that he can eat!  Thursday Spencer got to go with a friend to do a space mission at a space education center.  He thought it was so cool to 'pretend' everything was real and got into the spirit of things.
On Wednesday I took kids and a few friends up to tour the Sweet candy factory in SLC.  No cameras, watches, jewelery (not even a wedding ring) - it felt like we were entering a Willy Wonka establishment.  Kids inhaled sugar for an hour and found their candy store at the end to be an amazing place where huge bags of candy could be bought for a dollar.  Then we came back and Robyn made lunch for her and her friend.  She had a vision and besides not having the right toothpicks for her, she was quite proud of her ability.
On Friday Spencer and Allison got their eyes checked.  Their eyes changed till they are practically the same -5.  And they got contacts.  I couldn't help smiling as they tried to figure out how to make contacts work.
And we learned a valuable lesson - kids should not have contacts in the same bathroom, in the same color cases.  After an hour of recriminations and trying to figure out whose contacts were whose we ended up with a ripped contact - Spencer's.  So since he was so sad to not be wearing contacts to church, Allison wore her glasses too just to show him solidarity.  Allison once she gets her contacts in does fine.  Spencer's eyes are really giving him trouble but he is determined to make this work.  When he gets back home he is going to go meet with the doctor as contacts are not agreeing with his eyes.

Allison started viola lessons this week and was so excited to start learning how to play.  We had the wrong size viola so we have to go trade it in for a smaller one this week.  She had a tough day Saturday.  When we came home she found her guinea pig, not moving, squeaking, eating, or drinking and having discharge from her eyes.  She spent the entire afternoon and evening holding Midnight and feeding her with a syringe.  Today Midnight looks a little better and she is praying hard that she will get better.  Spencer and Robyn did her jobs for her and felt bad that she ended up missing Spencer's cross fit pool party.  It was at the coolest backyard pool I have even seen.  Throw in a bunch of Luau food and Spencer and Robyn never wanted to leave.

Robyn is the girl in the red suit jumping

Friday night we got to go up in the canyon with several friends to eat a picnic and do a four wheeler ride.  We ended up staying out till midnight just visiting and enjoying adult time.  And I realized how much of a Cinderella I have turned into.  My brain just shuts down at 10 p.m.  Somehow though I managed to get up at 6 and take our girls to their last swim meet before county.  It was brought home to me at this meet that my girls are not very fast (they are my daughters after all!) but they have improved so much and enjoy being in the pool on these 100 degree days.   And I loved watching them cheer for each other.


And then late Saturday night, cousins and Aunt Griselda arrived.  My kids think this is the best Sunday ever.


This week has made me think of the amazing people that interact with our kids, encouraging them every day and making up for parental short-comings.  Friday night Spencer was very excited to go to a multi-stake dance.  His first one.  But Jeremy and I couldn't drive him there and none of the 10 boys he called would go to a dance.  So our amazing high councilman and his wife came and picked up Spencer and took him to the dance.  And then the dance had been cancelled without our stake being notified.  They drove Spencer around for half an hour checking all the other church's to make sure it hadn't been moved.  Spencer loved spending time with them and I was floored by their kindness.