For the Love of Summer

Classic neighborhood moments right here.  We have the best neighbors and they are always up for a good time.  

Sadly there has only been a small amount of swimming this summer.  We literally only had one week of heat.  

Driving through town we saw this... and laughed our heads off.  That boat fell right off the trailer.  

This is how the boys stay entertained during Horse 4H.  Lovely.

We have had more horse rides than normal... The kids can catch and saddle their own horses.  It been glorious.  As much as I hate to see my kids grow up, some of these "growing up" things are pretty great!

Notice the clock... We haven't been to bed before 10 for months! Its killing me!

Hayes and cousin Josie Neville keeping cool with a pan of water at the Dayton family reunion.  

Lots of pioneer rides while irrigating.  Funny story.  We bought a side by side called a "Pioneer".  Hagen loves singing time in Primary and learned  the song "Pioneer Children Sang as they Walked" but came home confused as to why if the children were "pioneer" children did they have to walk instead of ride in their pioneer.  Oh my goodness, these kids are ignorantly privileged.  

A couple more awesome "growing up" moments.  Cole can not only catch and saddle his own horse, but can also take the little boys for rides! Essentially this means I have to do nothing! 

Kallie babysits a lot.  Like more than she should probably have to! Its the greatest! She always sends me pictures like these from the iPad when I am away.  That little boy is so lucky to have such an awesome big sister! 

June 2015

Most of our summer evening look like this.  We all load up and help dad irrigate.  Its my trick way of sneaking the whole family away for some bonding time.  We all enjoy it and the kids (mostly Cole) are learning the ins and outs of farming.  

Hagen had his eye appointment in Salt Lake that luckily was pretty uneventful.  His prescription changed but other than that things look the same and he is doing well.  We made a super quick down and back trip that ended with Weston getting a horrible migraine and me driving us home.  (I am usually not allowed to drive when he is in the vehicle so I knew the migraine was a bad one.  

This picture is horrid but I have to post it to document an equally horrid day.  I was sick.  So so so sick.  My whole body was aching and my chest hurt and I couldn't breathe. Fever and chills would strike at inopportune moments and I was simply miserable.  After battling this for days I finally called the doctor.  I scheduled an appointment right after the boys gymnastics class.  I doped myself up on pain meds and headed out the door.  At gym Hayes decided it would be awesome to revert back to his infancy and poop clear up his back and down his legs.  Luckily I had a clean shirt and a diaper but no extra pants.  I was too sick to care and drug him along with the other two boys to my doctor appointment, where we had to wait in an entirely empty waiting room for 45 minutes.  No lie.  We were in there forever and the kids (half clothed) were running crazy and wild.  I was beside myself but once again too sick to care too much.  Once we were finally put into an exam room, we then waited another grueling 30 minutes.  Ten minutes it far too long for my three boys and they were out of control at this point.  I hate to admit but I must've dozed off for a minute or two because the next thing I knew the doctor was in the room and Hayes was covered with hot pink lipstick that was in my purse for clogging competition.  I was a little embarrassed and truthfully glad that he told me I had severe bronchitis, at least I had a reason for letting my kids destroy the place.  And if all this wasn't enough, Hagen took it upon himself to take a picture of me sitting there.  What a nice boy!

The sandbox is still a fan favorite and the kids spend hours in that thing.  

I made the kids write out some summer goals thinking they would make goals like, not fight with each other or not whine when asked to do jobs.   But no, Cole's top goal was "catch lots of frogs".  That he has done! Lots and Lots of frogs have been consuming my canning jars.  

This view never gets old to me.  I love watching my boy learn and grow and work alongside his dad.   Priceless.  

This selfie is rather priceless too don't you think?

Baseball and Bike Rides

Baseball season was so fun this year.  Out of desperation I was asked to coach Kallie's team.  It was pretty fun except I realized I can never do it again.  I have spent the last 15 years trying to tame my competitive side down to a manageable level and coaching undid all my efforts.  Its safe to say I got a little "too into" some of the games.  The girls did so great though and had a lot of fun.  It was such a great bunch!

Evening bike rides have been in full swing and the Hammond's hill is the favorite spot.  Hagen flies down that thing on his Strider bike like nobody's business.  He is a wild man and so fun to watch.  

After some extremely intense tournament games the girls won the championship and their fellow classmates from the other Parker team took second. Our little village definitely represented!

Kallie did great this year.  She improved a lot and got on base nearly every at bat.  She loves the game but loves the social part every bit as much!

I am so sad that this is the only picture I got, but Kallie played on a little All Star team after her regular season.  They only played in one tournament but she had a lot of fun and even earned the MVP for one of the games.  Unfortunately her two weeks of the horrible sickness we had started on the last day of her tournament and she didn't get to play in the last game.  She was pretty bummed but was so sick! 

June 2015

I went to buy flowers and bumped into Misti at the flower shop.  That was a real treat since I made her pick out all the plants for my yard. It was also great because these two crazies entertained each other while we shopped.  Hagen and Bentley are great friends and their sass and attitude combined is out of control.  This was honestly the best picture I could get of them.  

Hayes won't ever be left out and many times is found sleeping on the job.  He just can't keep up to these big kids but insist on trying.  

Be busted out a lot of yard work and the kids worked along side us.  Cole is turning out to be a tough kid and a great worker.  Kallie usually gets babysitting duty while I help work.  

Kallie, Berklee, and Kallie could play for days and never get bored.  Those three spent hours one day jumping on the trampoline, riding horses and four wheelers and playing ball.  I love them. 

May 2015

May was busy, always is! We couldn't keep up to all the field trips, ball games, school projects and more that consumed our life.  These two little boys were troopers though and handled it all fairly well.

Kallie had multiple clogging competitions and recitals.  She had fun doing clogging with Kallie Johnson this year but has decided that she will not be doing it again in the fall.  I have mixed emotions about that.  On one hand I am happy to have one less activity to fill our schedule but on the other I won't ever have a little girl in dance again:(

Cole came down with a terrible sickness the last two weeks of school.  Seriously he had a fever for 10 days and rarely got off the couch.  After multiple doctor visits, blood draws and tests they decided he had mono. That was ruled out when a couple weeks later Hayes and I got the same thing followed by Kallie and Hagen into June.  Someone was sick for well over six weeks at our house.  It was awful! Cole missed most of the last two weeks but did manage to perform in his class talent show and program.  He played a lovely piece on the piano that hadn't been practiced for weeks.  Oh well!

I got put in charge of field day which nearly gave me ulcers.  It turned out just fine though and we had a beautiful day for the event.  I was so glad when it was over!

These two enjoyed the last few days they had without the big kids home to bug them.  They are becoming pretty good buds and are starting to play well together.  

Hayes was obviously wiped out from all the craziness, I found him asleep like this one afternoon.  

Before Cole got sick his class went on a field trip to hike R mountain.  I tagged along and am so glad I did.  It was so much fun! I love watching Cole with his friends.  They are a great bunch of kids.