Summertime, and the livin' is easy

We love summer! No homework, no schedule, and beautiful evenings - perfect for badmitton!

Love those expressions!

It was Brennan's turn to build the fire. He was mighty proud! 

That's one relaxed dad! 

This little stinker cut her hair down to the scalp tonight. I cried for 2 hours. Seeing all these pictures of her long hair makes me so sad.

 They always set up benches around the fire.

A perfect place for family home evening. Songs, scriptures, and of course s'mores for dessert.

July 4th

We didn't go to see fireworks this year, but we still had a fun 4th of July. We cleaned the church in the morning, went to the beach in the afternoon, and had a campfire in our backyard that night. I just bought this fire pit at a yard sale for $8 about a month ago, and we've used it at least one a week. We love it!

On the way home from the beach, we stopped in Templeton (where fireworks are legal) and bought some sparklers. 

I love slow speed sparkler pictures!

We stayed up really late eating s'mores and occasionally catching a glimpse of fireworks from the top of our swingset. For some reason we just weren't in the mood to face the crowds this year.

Toasting a marshmallow with a sparkler. I don't think they ate it though, b/c I warned them it might be toxic!

It was a fun night, and no one got hurt!

We saved a box of sparklers for Spencer - he was out with friends, doing their own fireworks in Templeton then watching the ones downtown Paso. He got home just as we were finishing up. Then Dave and the 4 oldest boys woke up really early the next morning to go rock climbing. 

40!

Dave turned 40 a couple weeks ago! He wasn't thrilled about it, but we tried to make it fun for him anyway.

We got together with my family the day before. He requested a tres leches cake. It was the first time I made it, and it was super moist and delicious!

We had a big combo party for Dave, my nephew Jacob and my friend Nancy's son, Austin. 

Jacob turned 13 - an official teenager!

Austin turned 16, which is a big deal! 

Chloe loves birthdays, and she's got this candle-blowing-thing down!

Dave had to work on his birthday, but we spent the day getting ready for a fun party. We all did 40 of something - Dallin had the idea of throwing 40 balloons at him when he walked in the door. He was so surprised! 

Tyler gave him 40 Jolly Ranchers with a list of 40 ways he makes him "jolly." 

Levi gave him 40 flavors of Jelly Bellys.

Spencer collected 40 birthday greetings from Facebook friends. Dave doesn't have a FB account, so he did it on mine.

Dave told us not to get him anything, since he has been buying some things for his upcoming 54-mile hike with Spencer (hiking boots, hiking pants, wool socks, backpacking tent, etc.), but I got him a $40 gift certificate to the movie theater. For dinner he requested fried pork chops and peach/blackberry shortcake. I think we managed to make it a fun birthday for him.  

Pool day

Dave took a few days off work last month. We relaxed at home, worked on the fort and went swimming.

Levi is much braver in the water this year. We started swimming lessons yesterday, and he does everything his teacher asks him to.

Brennan is becoming a much stronger swimmer too. He likes hanging out with the big kids in the big pool!

Chloe has always loved the water! She's almost too brave - I have to watch her super close. She's very independent, though, so she doesn't want me to get too close to her.

One of our favorite things about Sinsheimer pool (other than the extremely warm water) is that it has 2 great diving boards.

Brennan was so excited to go off the diving board for the first time. He talked about it for days before we went. But as he walked up to it, he started to get really nervous. He got in line. He got out of line. This went on for a little while. His brothers gave lots of encouragement and promised to buy him a treat if he did it. Finally, I told him to say a little pray and see how he felt - if he was excited, then he should just do it. If he felt scared, then we would walk away. He agreed. He sat down and said a personal prayer. He got so excited! In fact he said he never got an answer that strong before.

With a look of total determination, he went straight to the diving board. He ran down the board and jumped off with no hesitation!

We all cheered! The next time we went to Sinsheimer, he went off the high dive too! Way to go Brennan!

It's always a little chilly in SLO, but at least they keep the water toasty warm!

After the pool we surprised the kids and took them to Doc Bernstein's for ice cream.

We had been to the one in Arroyo Grande a few times, but this one just opened up in SLO. It's on Higuera St., where Cold Stone used to be. Our friend Ron Daniels made the decorations for it.

We got two large sundaes, and everyone got to choose an ice cream flavor. 

Yum! Then we picked up Chipotle for dinner. They opened a new one in our town that day, and we had some BuyOneGetOne coupons. What a fun/delicious day!

Cub Scout Day Camp

The first week of summer was Cub Scout day camp for Dallin. It was his third year, and he loved it!!

It was a smaller group than usual because they didn't have enough volunteers. They held it in the field behind our church again, which is really convenient for us - it's very close.

He was in the oldest den, and he said he loved having some extra priveleges - like extra snacks and such. His den leader (the same one he had last year) told me they were just a really great den - they all listened well the whole time. 

We stayed a little bit after we dropped him off one day and watched the morning flag ceremony. This was the first time in many years that I didn't volunteer. I actually missed it, so maybe I'll do it again next year.

It was a knight/dragon theme this year - they were the "cubs of the round table," and his den was the dragon slayers.

I loved how organized it was, and I especially liked the closing ceremony. We've been to quite a few of these things, and it is usually very hot and sunny. This year they had it in the morning before it got hot, and there was plenty of shade that time of day for the families to sit and enjoy all the skits, songs and awards.

His friend Mason was in a different den this year. The awards ceremony was short and sweet - we were home by 11:30.

As usual, Dallin didn't want the week to come to an end. It was a perfect way to kick off the summer!