Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Goodbye Summer!

This summer was without a doubt the most insane summer of my life. Big move, new house, new job for Josh, new baby who arrived via emergency c-section followed by an apparently very serious illness, putting a yard in, trip to Denver, adjusting to 4 kids, visitors almost all summer long, trying to get to know new people and make friends, finding new doctors, etc.

Wow! In some ways I am not sad to move past that. But I am sad to say goodbye to spending long days with my 4 boys having fun, reading, eating popsicles on the porch, going on big outings, swimming, late bedtimes, ice cream cones, and relaxing. In fact all day today I have been missing them-Nathan and Jack are at school.

By the time we got settled after the move (well, semi settled I mean-we still aren't totally settled) and our last visitor left, I had 2 days with my boys before I had the unexpected arrival of Adam. After his birth and the weeks of going to the hospital to feed him, I was really mourning the fact that my summer seemed to be slipping away and I hadn't even had time to just be with my boys. It was really stressing me out to miss out on summer. So, a month after he was born and when our last helpers/visitors had left this time (we were quite needy this summer-thanks helpers), we hit the summer fun hard. Insanely hard.

Here is a run down of some of our summer activities, so we can look back and remember this summer in years to come:

Swimming lessons-6 weeks of them for all 3 boys, though I only attended 2 weeks worth. The grandmas did the other 4. They learned a ton this year. Lessons here are WAY better than in San Diego. And half the price.

Basketball camp for Nathan and Jack for 1 week. They LOVED it. Dal was SO sad he couldn't do it too.

Owlz Games-Dal's favorite activity this summer were the 2 Orem Owlz baseball games we attended. Mine...not so much. Well, I enjoyed the games, but it was from the first game that I left for the hospital and ultimately Adam's birth. Crazy.

Bingham Copper Mine-Nathan's highlight of the summer. A big, big, very big hole in the side of the mountain from which copper has been mined for years. All three boys were enthralled by the whole experience. Both Nathan and Jack have decided to be miners when they grow up.

Children's Discovery Garden at Thanksgiving Point-we did it twice. Once with Aunt Natalie and cousin Daniel, once by ourselves. There is a splash park, a hedge maze, a river to play in, dirt to dig in, etc. A little boy's dream.

Krispy Kreme-I've never been there so I took my boys. Bummer-the machine was broken that makes the doughnuts so there were no hot ones to try.

Taffy Town-Somehow I have grown a serious addiction for Salt Water Taffy ever since moving here. 7 lbs of taffy from Taffy Town in Salt Lake did nothing to help that addiction. Yum.

Bean Musuem and Creamery-We explored the Life Science Museum at BYU and then walked to the creamery. This was actually my first outing alone with all 4 boys and it went really well. Felt so good to be out and about with them.

Cougareat at BYU with Daddy-Met him for lunch.

We raised our own butterflies-from caterpillars to butterflies, then we released them.
 
We took a week long trip to Denver which was HEAVEN. We got to spend time with my sister in law Natalie and her kids, my cutie granny and gramps, a couple of my brothers, of course my mom and dad and lots of my cousins:
We went swimming in Denver twice. Here is Uncle Doug with lots of boys: (there are 7 cousins-all boys)

Adam got to meet two friends. His cousin William who is just 3 weeks younger and my cousin's son Noah who is um, maybe 5 weeks younger or so? Here he is snuggling Noah:
  We also went up to the cabin in the mountains of Colorado for 2 days and had fun. Here are the boys cooking s'mores.
We tie dyed shirts because Jack has been dying to do that for a while. They turned out awesome. I will have to take a picture and add that at some point.

We took quite a few trips to 7 peaks water park because we have season passes. Only I couldn't swim for 6 weeks post c-section, so I mostly got to watch.

Speaking of that though, I took a weekly trip to the Dr. every single week for 6 weeks postpartum. My incision had some serious issues. I know my Dr. really well now.

We went to Trafalga to mini golf, play laser tag, ride go carts, etc. quite a few times because we also have season passes there.

Dallen has been desperate for a "super suit" so that he could be Dash. He asked me every day to make him one during the week that I came home from the hospital. He couldn't understand why mom wouldn't do it. It's hard to explain a c-section and baby in the NICU to a 3 year old. Finally I did it. Now I am a hero:
South Fork Park-We went on a picnic up the Provo Canyon to South Fork Park. We had a cold foot contest and threw rocks in the river. My boys were in heaven.

We went to lots of food places here for our Summer Coupon books made by me: Purple Turtle, Sonic, The Sweet Tooth Fairy, Smart Cookie, Little Caesar's, and several more.

Summer reading program and trips to the library including meeting Brandon Mull, author of Fablehaven. We always ended up with WAY too many books to carry.

Fireworks for the 4th at our house and again for American Fork Steel Days at Great Grandma's house.

I am sure I am forgetting quite a few more things, but that about sums up our wild and crazy summer. Summer, I will miss you, but it will be nice to maybe finally get some things finished up around this house.



3 comments:

  1. Wow! You were busy. I mean, having a baby and moving are busy. Add in all the fun and wow- super Mom!

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  2. Holy smokes! You are amazing. What lucky little boys you have!!!

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  3. It sounds like a very fun summer! I need to make a list as well. Your boys are so darling and you are super mom :)

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