Double digits!

Dallin turned 10 on July 23rd! 

It was a perfect summer day, mostly centered around food. He requested monkey bread muffins for breakfast. I made the dough in the breadmaker overnight and woke up extra early to make it so we could eat before Dave left for work at 8:00. It's amazing how early that is in the summer! I took him to Carl's Jr. for lunch, and then we went swimming with cousins and friends at Sinsheimer pool. We had pizza for dinner and funfetti cake with marshmallow frosting for dessert.

We had the family over for cake on Sunday. He asked for another watermelon cake. 

It was super moist and delicious! Isn't it funny that we don't want real seeds in our watermelon but love to put them in fake ones?

We got him a couple of small things (cookbook and Legos) for his birthday. We kept asking him what he wanted, but he didn't know. Heck, he still has birthday money left from last year. So we decided to give him an experience instead. I took him to Gilroy Gardens with Spencer, Tyler, and Peter (whose birthday was yesterday). 

It's a really cute amusement park about 2 hours away. It's geared to younger kids, which is good because Dallin and Peter don't like big roller coasters. 

One of their favorites was the banana ride.

 It was a hot day (mid-90's), but there was a ton of shade and a waterfall to cool us off.

This place started out as an exotic tree garden. A guy grew trees from around the world and charged people to look at them. But this didn't make much money, so he added rides and such. It was fun to walk around and see all the cool, funky trees. 

Peter ended up buying one of these pop guns at the end of the day - good choice.

I think everyone's favorite ride was the mushroom swings. I did it once, but it made me too nauseous. 

They went on it over and over. The place was not crowded at all, so there were almost no lines. They could go on most of the rides as many times as they wanted.

 At least I got some good pictures when I went on it.

The car ride actually had a little line. It was a fun one. 

It's super grainy, but how cute are they on the ferris wheel? 

I was worried that this place would be too young for Spencer, but he enjoyed it. It's just such a great group -they have lots of fun together. 

Gilroy is the garlic capital of the world, so of course they have a garlic ride! It's just like the teacups at Disneyland. 

The one real roller coaster (comparable to Thunder Mountain Railroad) was called Quick Silver. Peter was a little leary at first, but he loved it and went on it a bunch of times!

Dallin loved it too! The older boys are very hopeful this will help him want to eventually go on big roller coasters.

Dave was bummed he had to work, so we sent him pictures throughout the day. Then he sent me pictures of a brush fire right next to his work! He even had to move his car. Crazy.

Garlic hat!

 It was a really fun day. Happy birthday Dallin!!

Swim Lessons

 I just realized I never posted this blog, which I started a couple weeks ago. 

The kids did AWESOME with swim lessons this summer.

We went to our friend Megan, who has taught them for the past couple of years. But she graduated from high school this year and is headed off to college, so this might be the last year she does it :(

Levi's confidence grew a ton. He tried hard to do everything she asked him to, and by the end of the week he was swimming half the shorter length of the pool.

 It was a pretty chilly week, and he was always freezing after his lessons. The hot concrete felt good!

Brennan had his own private lesson, but by the end of the week he was joining the older boys too.

Tyler and Dallin fine-tuned their strokes and worked on diving. Spencer joined them a couple days too.

They worked hard and were always exhausted for the rest of the day.

Brennan can swim the long length of the pool now. Awesome!

Cute!

Thanks Megan!!

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.