Summer!

Yes, it seems like it just turned into spring, and voila!  Now it's summer!  Yay summer!

We are loving summer around here - I try to get the kids to do a little but of learning, but mostly we're just having fun.  :)  We went on our first summer camping trip this weekend, and it was a blast!  Kip found us a nice quiet campground (well, not quiet after we got there! haha) and we were able to have a campfire and make s'mores so all the kids' wildest dreams came true.  It was McKinley's first camping trip and she was a real trooper!  She thought it was great fun to step all over everyone else in their sleeping bags and poke me in the eye before she finally fell asleep.  She also won the award for the very dirtiest because she threw dirt, ate dirt, rolled in dirt, rubbed dirt all over, all kinds of dirty fun.  I forgot my camera so I'm a little bummed that we didn't get photos of it, but it was still fun.  Our friends the Smiths camped with us, which was awesome, and the next day we hiked around a little and climbed on some really high rocks and had some good outdoor fun.  We got home Saturday afternoon - it's funny that I spend hours packing and preparing, we're gone a total of about 24 hours, then it's hours of clean-up and laundry and three days of catching up on sleep.  Camping - gotta love it.  We do! 

We've been going to the neighborhood pool about once a week also, and one time as we were gathering things to leave, I handed Rachel her towel to carry and showed her that it had her name on it.  She said, "How does it have my NAME on it???!!!"  I told her the grandma Thygerson sewed it on, and she looked at it some more and said - very excited - "And she did it in CHINESE!" I replied, "Oh!  Yay!  But I think you mean cursive!'  hahaha.  Funny girl.

Ella and Rachel did summer art camp this week which was fun for them, lots of painting and drawing - with permanent makers, woohoo! - and for Ella even all kinds of sculpture and mixed media stuff.  They had a great time.  This week will be Caleb's turn with Cub Scout day camp, he is super excited about that.  He also has a piano recital this Saturday, it is fun to watch him get really into his playing, bobbing his shoulders around and stuff. 


We visited our friends in Rye, had our annual donut morning at Krispy Kreme, filled approximately 350 water balloons for a party with my Sunday School class (and the kids), made fruit popsicles, found 2 new playgrounds in town, and made progress on the ceiling.  We're trying to get it finished before the 4th and our reunion in Utah, but I'm not positive that's going to happen. We'll see. :) 

There are a lot of wildfires in Colorado, but they are not close to us.  We have smoke in the air from one of the closest, but nothing burning nearby.  They are usually able to evacuate people in time, which is wonderful, as long as people listen and leave.  On our way camping, we passed one high school that is acting as housing for evacuated people from Conifer, and firefighters that are working.  Tents everywhere - that would certainly be an adventure to say the least.

We are super excited for July and our family reunions.  Yay family!  Can't wait to see everyone!