The kids have been out of school for four weeks and it feels like we’ve lived 2 entire summers in that time! I have so many photos of adventures to go through but for now, I’m just playing catch-up on things that happened before school ended.
My brother came to visit and we taught him the balloon game – a game our family made up and everyone we introduce it to loves it as well. It happened to be Bennett’s birthday and my brother and his family were in town and instead of calling and leaving their traditional happy birthday song, we heard it in real-life for the first time and it was better than I imagined!
Steve and I taught seminary for the day and it was fun to see our boys and their friends. I loved standing in the hallway outside our classroom door to see so many familiar faces coming and going to their classrooms.
I lucked out at Brainfood one week when four of Steve’s siblings joined. (Two from out of town, and one local who hasn’t been before!) It was fun to serve together.
The very next week Hallie was home and she got to join for our last day of the school year.
The morning after Hallie got home, she requested a family tennis match. Bennett was confident he could take Hallie since she was rusty…he underestimated her abilities even though she was rusty and after three shots he determined she was better than he thought.
We attended a mario birthday party for our nephew’s child and we brought the fun.
Hallie is trying to catch up on a year and a half of no sunshine.
It feels as though Bennett’s hair grows faster than anyone else in the family – he’s always needing a haircut. I usually push him off for a couple weeks, and by the time I cut it, it’s past the unruly stage.
I still can’t believe she’s home!
There was a one-day overlap with Hallie coming home from her mission and our best friends’ daughter leaving for her mission so we spent an adult day at the lake and Hunter and Grace joined us once their AP testing was done.
Another tennis banquet!
We’ve made a few visits to our friend’s city farm.
Steve and I have almost been married 23 years and we finally upgraded to a king bed as part of our master suite remodel and it looked really large until Hunter was sprawled out on it!
One of Hallie’s companions came down for her homecoming and they made sure to hit the tennis court. They also managed to play pickleball each night and found friends to join them. Add to that a lake trip and a high school state volleyball championship game – she was a good sport on that one.
Saturday hills with the strength and agility coach is not on all my kids’ bucket list but somehow Steve and Hunter convince them to go. And it’s usually not one of those “You’ll be grateful you went” experiences! Hallie joined when she got home and she was worried she wouldn’t be able to keep up but she ran them just like the rest of them.
We made it to the lake for the first time as a family when my parents were still in town for Hallie’s homecoming which was the first time they’ve been on our boat (they avoid Arizona when it’s warm enough to take the boat out!!) I was excited they got to see my kids surf for the first time since it’s an activity we’ve grown to love so much.
My dad didn’t bring work clothes for the shorter trip but we did manage to spend just a few hours working on some trim outside. 🙂
Steve and I got to escape for a Friday evening to the temple for a friend who was taking out their own endowment. A nice quiet reprieve from the fun and chaos that came with the last day of school.
