A Little of What We Did in July:

This month has gotten hotter and hotter! Whole weeks where it's 100 degrees every day. So you either have to play in the pool or go somewhere with air conditioning. Because there were no camps or anything this month, we had to keep extra busy.

Dinosaur Museum:
We visited the Dinosaur Museum and brought Shawna and her kids along, as well as Cruise's friend Claire. They had a lot of fun and we got to see a new exhibit as well!

Afterwards, we all went to the Thanksgiving Point deli and got ice cream and desserts and made ourselves sick! It was awesome. 

Swimming:

We've done some swimming at the indoor and outdoor pools. One day, the boys wanted to go to the indoor pool but I wasn't feeling very well, so I sat and watched Dave and the boys (and Braedan) in the pool and brought my camera along since I don't get swimming pictures very often. 

I love their matching swim trunks.

Rain Gutter Regatta:

The Cub Scouts had their boat thing and unfortunately we didn't put as much time into it as we did with the derby. Cruise had a rough time and had a few meltdowns because he kept losing. Let's just say it was not a favorite experience. But, there's always next year!

Next post...YELLOWSTONE!

Independence Day

Well, I'll just say this, it was a good thing we didn't have many plans for the 4th because we woke bright and early to the pungent smell of dog diarrhea. The smell literally woke me up. It was like being punched in the face with a sack of dog poop. Dave and I went downstairs to inspect and sure enough, there lay piles of poop from one end of the playroom to the other. The other being right next to the air intake, which caused the entire house to smell. Dave shoveled it up while I tried to figure out what we were going to do about the carpet. Dave said to me, "When your first weapon of choice to clean the house is a shovel, it's not gonna be a fun clean up." Once he had the piles up, I started on the spot cleaning and sent Dave to Lowe's to rent a carpet cleaner. We had been meaning to clean the carpets for months now, but hadn't anticipated having to do it due to dog feces. We spent the next few hours moving EVERYTHING from the playroom to the garage and shampooing the carpets. And then everything had to be moved back into the house. 

Finally, I was able to shower and get ready, and, of course, get started on our 4th of July meal. This year we had a small celebration but I made A LOT of food. We had burgers, chips, watermelon, corn on the cob, a vegetable platter, and root beer. My mom came to town to do some work in the lab at BYU, so she came on the 4th and I picked her up from the train station after dinner. She ate and then we all went out to the cul-de-sac to start on fireworks. 

Side Note:

We have new neighbors, the Baileys, to the left of us who moved here from Indiana. They've become pretty much our only friends in the neighborhood. Shawna is really fun to talk to, she's upbeat and positive. She and I go out once a month just for a girls night, which is really fun and a nice break from so much testosterone in our lives, ha ha! Her husband, Neil, is a nice guy and really wants to go fishing with Dave but their schedules are completely different, so it's hard to find a day to go. They have two boys, Braedan, (7) and Colin (8 months). Braedan and Jett have become best buddies. Braedan really enjoys hanging out at our house and it sometimes seems like he's become our 4th son since he's over quite often and even eats meals with us sometimes. Both of our families like to get together and go to the pool or to a museum or get ice cream. It's so nice to have friends! 

Anyway, Dave started the night with some water rockets and then we sat out front with the Bailey's and did our own fireworks and then watched giant fireworks shows all around us! We busted out the glow sticks, and the kids were making giant necklaces, light sabers, etc. It's always a good Independence Day in a cul-de-sac!

Shawna, her adorable baby Colin, and her husband Neil

June Summer Activities

June was busy with lots of camps for the kids and our own family activities. The boys had two weeks of Sports Camp put on by Lehi city. Each day they learned a new sport, which was pretty fun for them to find out what they like. Cruise hated flag football and really enjoyed tennis. Jett loved soccer and basketball. So now I know what to sign them up for this fall. 

I wish I had pictures, but I didn't stay to watch them. The first day was a little hard for Cruise. When we went to pick him up, we were informed that he flipped a kid off. After talking to Cruise, we found out that he had no idea what that meant and that the other kid made a huge deal out of it. So after educating Cruise and notifying the coach of his autism, the rest of the camp days went by much better. 

We have also been doing the summer movie pass at the Megaplex. Each movie is $1 per movie per person, so it is really affordable. We learned after the first movie day (which is at 10 AM) to feed everyone protein for breakfast, otherwise we all feel like puking after some popcorn and soda. We also got to go see Finding Dory on opening day. I absolutely loved it and felt like it resonated a lot with parents of kids with special needs. It's definitely one we'll be buying! 

Cruise got to go to Scout Day Camp for two days and had a blast! On the first day, the boys got to buy something at their little trading post, so I sent him with some money and he bought a rabbit skin. Ha ha! He was weirdly excited about that. He got to learn all kinds of things at camp, including making a marshmallow shooter, playing marbles, and shooting BB guns. I was so nervous that he would have a hard time, especially since it went from 7am-1pm, but he did so great! 

 This year we decided to buy the "Pass of All Passes" which includes unlimited visits to 7 Peaks and free entrance to the Tracy Aviary on Tuesdays. It also includes passes to other venues like baseball games in Orem as well, but we haven't done any of those yet.

The first visit to 7 Peaks was hard because we weren't sure what to expect when it came to taking children along, so it was a little stressful, but the second time was a lot easier and a lot more fun. So we will continue to go back, despite the huge crowds. We also bought tube rental passes, so the boys can get a tube every time we go as well. They really enjoy it there. Miles is happy as long as you are willing to whatever he wants, as many times as he wants. We always finish off the day by going to the Creamery On 9th for dinner.

We decided to visit the Tracy Aviary first thing in the morning before it got too hot. It got hot really fast though. But the birds were amazing! We will have to go back again when it's not so hot so we can enjoy it a little more.

 

 Cruise enjoyed reading about the birds and learning about where they're from.

These ones below are all birds from Argentina. It was fun being able to walk into their cage and take a closer look at them.

 These were my favorite: flamingos!

 Then there was this giant peacock walking around the aviary like he owned the place. He was gorgeous!

Three little birds.

Miles and I left the group towards the end because it was just too hot! We hung out in the gift shop and he found a bunch of stuffed birds that make their sound when you squeeze them. He found a woodpecker and immediately knew what to do with it.

Here are a few other pictures from last month:

Lookout at Squaw Peak for FHE

Trafalga Lehi AKA Seven Peaks Lehi

Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point

More Boating on Utah Lake

Miles playing in the sprinklers on the trampoline.

And finally...

The following is for those with strong stomachs only...

Dave got his right leg cut pretty bad a week ago while at Metal Mart. He was out in their scraps yard when he tripped over a piece of metal sticking out. It cut him really deep and he had to drive home with two of the boys to come get me to take him to the emergency room. Luckily we had a bunch of bandaging stuff in the car, so he was able to wrap it tight before driving. This guys is so tough, he even went to work after getting seven stitches! I would've totally used that excuse.

Okay, here it is:

And that was June.