Summer fun: part 2

Summer edition part 2. This second half of June was also full of enjoyable times. 

First we did our family tradition of growing live caterpillars and watching them transform into butterflies.  This is something we usually do in the spring but this year we waited a little while and did it closer to summer. This was better I thought because we could let the butterflies go whenever they were ready. When we grow them in the spring, it is usually too cold or the weather is crappy when it is time to let them go so we have to wait. Summer is a better time for everything I think.

Brooklyn thought these butterflies were the best thing ever. She watched them from the cage in our house everyday. When it was time to let them go, she wanted to hold them on her hand. Well she got to watch us hold them and have them near her but when I tried to put one in her hand she shook it and the butterfly flew away.

Letting them go is my favorite part of growing them. This year we got 10 caterpillars but I think only 7 survived. Two caterpillars didn't grow and then one formed a chrysalis but the butterfly never came out. I don't know what happened to it.  Seven more butterflies were sent out into the world this month!

Next the kids had their Pops piano recital.  These songs are always fun ones for the kids to learn because they are popular songs they know.

Emily played "How Far I'll Go" from Moana. She worked really hard on this one and it was a fun one for me to learn as well. The only struggle she had was the last page of the song because it changes key signatures and sounds different. 

Colby played "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins. This was a good upbeat song for him and pretty easy to learn. Now if we can just learn how to spell that word!

Logan didn't participate in this recital but he is still taking piano lessons and likes learning new songs.

The most exciting part of this portion of the summer was Activity Days Day Camp for the boys. This year they attended Day Camp at Camp Fife.  I was not able to go with Russell and our group because I needed to stay home with Charlotte and Brooklyn but they all told me they had a blast!

Both Colby and Logan were able to attend Day Camp this year and they loved it. Archery is always a favorite among the boys. They all did their best and hit a few bull's-eyes.

All of the other activities were fun as well. They were able to go rock climbing on the rock wall, have slingshot shooting contests, and ride a Zipline.

Finally they were able to go BMX mountain bike riding. This was entertaining for the boys because all of them love riding their bikes at home. Some of them raced others just rode for fun. The Camp leaders even let Russell jump on a bike and try out the course. He said it was a really nice course.  Everyone came home so tired which means it was a great day!

This summer I have started working at the American West Heritage Center a little more. I help out with the Historical Adventures giving tours of the pioneer or farm houses and telling people about the history of the area. 

Part of that job includes dressing up as a pioneer during that time and cooking lunch for the staff using the methods the pioneers used during that time. This means I have learned to cook over an open fire!!  I have never cooked on a fire except for roasting hot dogs or marshmallows so this was definitely a good learning experience. Russell is our outdoor chef so he gave me a few pointers.  Robert, another employee, was a great resource as well. Robert taught me the difference between cooking on the fire (which is similar to cooking on a stove) and cooking with coals (which is more like cooking in an oven). So I gave it a shot. First I made taco soup in a Dutch oven on the fire. It turned out great! Then the next day my friend Katie and I tried to make brownies using the coals. Well let's just say the second batch worked out much better than the first.  We didn't really know what we were doing so we set the dutch oven on some coals and put coals on top of it and just let it cook. Well when we checked on it about 20 minutes later (like the recipe said), it was basically charcoal. We were so sad... Katie is always the optimist so she said, "Let's try again!"  So we did but this time we didn't use as many coals and we rotated it and checked on it about every few minutes to make sure it wasn't burning. This time it was perfect. 

Using my new found knowledge from the brownies, the next time I cooked, I decided to give cobbler a try. After checking and rotating it every few minutes, as you can see from the picture above, it turned out perfectly!! I was so proud of myself. 

I don't think I will make fire cooking my new normal but now I know that if I had to, I could do it and my family would not starve. Go me!

Finally, our garden is starting to grow. We planted late this year so I don't know how much produce we will get but our strawberries are flourishing!  Everyday it seems like we pick another bowl of strawberries. I don't know what to do with all of these delicious things.  This year I was able to make strawberry jam using all of our own strawberries rather than combining with the neighbor. It is so delicious! 

Well there is part 2 of summer and the month of June.

Baseball is in Full Swing

Nothing says summer more than baseball! All of the kids were involved in baseball this year so we were at the ball field almost every night in June. I actually like watching baseball games and the kids are getting pretty good so it makes the games even more fun to watch.

Emily played softball again this year. Her team was the Stingers.  Emily's favorite position to play is first base.  She also tried pitching again this year but decided she didn't like the pressure.

During batting she was able to hit the ball a few times. One thing she has a hard time with is judging strikes and balls when they are close. Sometimes she struck out because of close ones that she swung on. Oh well that comes with practice. She had a really great season.

Thankfully she did not break or hurt her arm this year so she was able to play the whole season. She did miss a couple games though because of FSY. The season ended with a couple tournament games but unfortunately they lost and couldn't keep going. Nice job Emily and Go Stingers!

Colby baseball team this year was the Hyrum All Stars. He is now in what is considered the major league. So it is getting pretty competitive. We still have a lot of fun though.

Colby pitched a few games this season but his main position was out field. However, he doesn't really like out field because there is not a lot of action. 

Colby was really good at striking kids out. He was also good at hitting. He also likes to wait for balls and often walks but he will swing if they are good ones. 

Logan's team this year was the Giants. This was his first year playing kid pitch. He had a great time. 

Logan's favorite position is catcher. He is really good at catching and throwing the ball to the pitcher. One thing he needs to work on is watching for players that try to steal and realizing when it is a force run/out at home plate. That will definitely come with time especially as he plays the position more often.

Batting is Logan's favorite. He often gets hits. He is used to swinging at everything though so we had to tell him to only swung at the ones he thinks he can hit. 

Finally Charlotte was able to play her first year of T-Ball! This is also her first time playing a sport.  She was so excited.

T-Ball is the best sport. Nobody gets out, you just have fun, and everyone gets to hit and catch the ball. Charlotte loves it all. Her favorite part was getting the treat at the end of every game. 

Her team was the River Cats. She made a lot of new friends on her team. She also loves wearing her baseball hat everywhere now.

This has been a fun but busy baseball season. It's always exciting to watch the kids play their games and learn so much about their sport. 

Summer: Part 1

Summer is already off with a bang! We are only two week in and already we have done so much.

We started the summer off with the annual Hyrum Hot Rods car show.  We love going to the car show and seeing all of the awesome cars.

Colby is always in heaven at car shows. He and Logan point out all of the best cars. The girls just like the nice paint jobs and always pick the prettiest ones. I am in heaven when I see the Corvettes and Camaros. I don't care what year they are, I just want one so bad. The new 2022s are pretty amazing. 

This summer Emily joined the Mountain Crest Mountain Bike Team.  She has really enjoyed getting out on her bike and riding with the team.  Here are a few pictures of her riding over the last couple weeks.

These pictures were taken during a practice at Mantua Reservoir.  Emily is learning a lot about how to ride mountain bike trails, gearing, braking, and a lot of other techniques to help her on the trails.  She loves riding with the team.

This is a cute picture of Brooklyn. She learned really quickly that the popsicles come from the freezer.  Now anytime she walks by the freezer she reaches up and asks for a nummy.

During the first couple weeks of June, Logan and Charlotte spent their time at the swimming pool.  They both took swimming lessons at the Mountain Crest pool and loved every minute.  They also learned a lot.  

Logan was able to pass off one level on the first day and passed off three levels by the time lessons were finished.  Logan was swimming across the deep end of the pool and had begun learning the different swimming strokes by the end of the session. 

Charlotte also passed off a couple of levels and got really comfortable in the water.

 

Charlotte was diving, back floating, and swimming by the end as well.  Their favorite part of lessons was the last 5 minutes of class because it was free swim time.

On the last day of class, they were able to go off the diving boards as many times as they would like.  Logan went a bunch of times.  He was also brave enough to not just jump off the board but he also did front flips off the diving board.  He said he was too scared to do a back flip but I'm sure he could have done it if he had tried.  This kid is an acrobat!

Charlotte was also brave enough to go off the diving board.  She went a couple of times and said it was so fun.  She didn't do any tricks like Logan but still had a great time.  I think I will enroll them in more swimming lessons at Mountain Crest in the future.

While Logan and Charlotte took swimming lessons, Colby had the great opportunity to attend a basketball camp at USU.

During the Leadership Run at our school, we were entered into a raffle drawing.  We were lucky enough to win a free entrance into this basketball camp put on by the USU basketball coach and players.  The camp was a week long and would typically cost around $300.  We were excited to get in for free and Colby was excited to learn more basketball skills from the USU players.  

The camp was really good for Colby.  He didn't know hardly anyone there so it was good for him to get out of his comfort zone and meet people.  He also learned a lot of basketball skills and drills.  Colby loves playing basketball and really enjoyed the week.

At the end of the week, Colby got to meet all of the basketball players and they all autographed his camp t-shirt.  This is a cool memorabilia of the camp.

Russell has also taken the kids to the river a few times so far this summer.  They usually go up Blacksmith Fork to the river near the CCC camp.

Brooklyn is a fish and loves the water.  She gets really mad when we hold onto her life jacket so she won't drown or get away.  The other kids also love the water too.  They love floating in the tube or just wading in the cold water.

Also the first week in June, Emily got to attend FSY at Utah State.  She spent the whole week there in the college dorms with her friend Cami Davis and other girls in her group.

They played games, learned from the scriptures, played more games and just had a great time.  She didn't want to come home.  I am glad she got this opportunity and experience.

Russell also has been having fun at work.  He recently got to tour some war planes and was in heaven.

These war planes were on tour through Logan and he was able to check them out as part of a fire inspection.  One of the planes had this writing all over the inside.  The writing was the names and signatures of all of the people that had flown on missions in this plane.  He said it was pretty cool to see.

Finally, these beautiful ladies had their first parade as the Hyrum City Royalty.

This parade was the Nibley City Founders Day Parade.  The girls really had a good time waving at everyone and being on the City float.

The float was pretty crowded with 15 girls on there but they made it work and they all looked beautiful.  

Since this was the first parade, we learned some things to help with future parades.  First I learned that we need to watch the parade from the beginning of the parade route instead of the end.  By watching it from the end of the parade, we were really late in picking up the girls from the float afterwards.  That and I didn't know where I needed to go to pick them up...  Oh well they were fine and thankfully they had each other.  Second, the girls decided they wanted music on the float so one girl volunteered to make a playlist and bring her speaker.  Third, the girls wanted to throw candy.  I don't know if this will work for other parades but we will see.  Finally, all 15 girls also wanted sashes that said "Hyrum Royalty" like the other cities' royalties had.  A couple moms and I thought they needed them as well and were willing to make some for the girls.  Unfortunately, we were shot down super fast and hard by the pageant director.  For some reason that I still do not understand, she was adamant that they not have sashes.  After going back and forth, I decided it wasn't worth the fight and gave up the idea.  The girls will still have a good time as part of the royalty with or without sashes.  

Anyway, the first parade was a hit and Charlotte and Emily had a great time on the float waving to everyone.  They also liked hanging out with the other girls on the Royalty.  

This is just the first two weeks of our summer so far.  There are more adventures to come.