A great way to start Sunday.  Today the kids and I were able to drive up to SLC to listen to Music and the Spoken Word.  Kids didn't complain about getting up early although halfway through the rehearsal I started to hear some really deep breathing from Spencer:


Taylor loved it.  I couldn't get any good photos of him because he kept moving his head and clapping.  Thankfully he didn't start chirping as I am sure that wouldn't sound so good in the live broadcast.  And doughnuts in the parking lot were a big hit.  Taylor and Spencer ate two apiece and couldn't understand why that was enough.  Our church time switches to 9 am in the fall so this was on my summer bucket list to go to while we could.


We got the outside of our new doors all painted and done.  We tried it out this week with pushing Taylor outside and it was super easy to eat dinner on our deck.  I think that will become a habit.  Best part is clean up just involves Jasper and a hose.

Spencer has asked for more hours at work so he is gone most nights now leaving at 3:30 and getting back at 10.  It makes for very quiet evenings around here.  We try to get some fun family activities in while he is home.  I got to take him to see Avengers one afternoon at our dollar theater.  And to celebrate Pioneer Day we went to the pool before he had to go to work.  At night while Jeremy and Spencer were slaving away at jobs the girls, a friend and Taylor got to go with me to a baseball game.  Hot dogs, card games, fireworks and watching Allison do a game on the field were a perfect way to celebrate.  Taylor wolfed his hot dog now and then hung out in the grass thinking life was pretty good.  Except for the sunburn on his face where he had wiped away his sun block.


This was the last week of school for Taylor and me and now we get a break for three weeks until we start up again.  I found a set of annotated notes for the Praxis test I have to take so I have been studying that.  I feel brain dead after an hour or two of trying to remember things I really should know like what each amendment is etc.  I registered for next semester for my classes.  So far it looks like 9 credits so I hope I can handle it.  I also got my job assignment for next year.  I will be in the same class but only three days a week.  The tough part is that on those three days three of our kids will get out an hour before me.  But they said they will make it work and help each other out.

Rest of the week has just been full of summer stuff.  Girls picked and sold bags of plums off of our tree.  Allison is limiting herself to eating three a day.  Spencer and Allison surprised me by going to the temple while I was at school one day.  I am trying to do better about not nagging them to do things so this just really touched me as they did it all by themselves.  I don't want to know what sibling prodding went on to make that happen and just enjoy that they did it.  One night this week a friend had a pool party to celebrate her daughter being able to swim again after a year and a half culminating in a kidney transplant.  It was an awesome evening to be a part of.

Jeremy got to go do a photo shoot for a vocal camp at BYU Friday afternoon and evening and will be down there again next week.  He said it was pretty amazing to see what these kids could accomplish.  He had a bad back week so he has been pushing through the days with ice packs.  Wish he didn't have that cross to bear or at least had some warning of when it would hit.  He still shows up a my knight in his white truck to rescue me when I blew a tire on a bike ride.

Robyn has been helping us remember to be more polite.  We have had LOTS of family time lately, which is great and also full of teaching moments.  We are either going to have very polite kids or very in shape kids.  Since my biggest problem is interrupting people I asked for that consequence to be sit-ups.  I could use them.