what's up weekly. (what we did on summer vacation)

A few weeks ago when I sat down to write out the weekly blog post, there was not one single photo on the camera from the previous week.  Not that we did nothing that week, but we just apparently didn't take any photos of what we did.  Probably because it was Same Old Summer: some school, some pool, some dinking around at baseball club.  Glorious stuff, but not exactly headliner news.  Plus, we were in the middle of a few other things, like celebrating Jenny Geddes Day...

Todd made this drawing of a Bishop and the kids all threw water balloons at him.

Knox has been loving this luchador mask.

... and packing to go on vacation.  

That's right.  Since you've seen me last, I've been jet setting.  Globetrotting.  Perambulating.  And by all that, I mean "riding shotgun as Todd obeys the speed limit across South Dakota's I-90."  We spent last week at Todd's parents' house in the Black Hills, which is also why I didn't post last week.

And now you're up to speed on my wandering ways and negligent blogging.  So let's show you some slides of our travels. 

We began by stopping at our regular park pitstop in Sioux City, Iowa.  It was... a letdown.  Not only was it about as hot as the surface of the sun, but the local YMCA had dropped off like a thousand daycampers to play in the devil's spittle that was the park's pathetic """"splashpad"""".  We waited in line for the only available bathroom for like eighty hours just to finally get in there and have to avoid piles of sopping wet toilet paper everywhere.  

Not a choice favorite.

At least we got our traditional family photo in front of the park's weird baseball mascot.

We got back in the car and headed for Pizza Ranch in Mitchell, SD.  Luckily, that did not disappoint.  Pizza Ranch was its old, wonderful, staggeringly-expensive self.  (I should have just bought us plane tickets with what we spent on the buffet, and then we could have avoided Toilet Paper Park altogether.  Hindsight is 20/20.)

Shhh.  Here you see two toddlers actually napping in the car, a rare sight in these parts.

We were going to stop in the Badlands for a picnic dinner, but as we got near to our exit, a really crazy storm rose up out of nowhere - blinding rain and 100 mile-an-hour-winds.  Multiple semis were blown over on their sides in the ditch.  We kept moving forward slowly, and skipped the Badlands loop in favor of just getting out of the storm.  What that meant for us was that we arrived at Todd's parents' hours earlier than we had anticipated!  So we ate our picnic dinner at an actual table like actual civilized people.  Not the world's worst ending to an eventful road trip.

We spent four days up there, visiting with Todd's parents, digging in the flower beds, and riding the four wheelers.  Todd's aunts, and a distant cousin, stopped by while we were there and we got to know them better.  It was so relaxing and fun.

Atticus and Finneas were both a huge help in getting some landscaping work done.

These babies have been so cute and affectionate lately.

Needed to take a little break to drive some sisters around.

 Callista learned to drive the ATV this year.

They would drive buckets of weeds up to the burn pile for us - which came in handy later in the week because they were all so antsy to have more weeds to drive up there that they were super motivated to actually pull weeds with which to fill the bucket.  I felt like Tom Sawyer convincing all the neighborhood kids to beg me for the privilege of doing manual labor.

Atticus cut his foot pretty badly on some metal roof shingles.  It probably could have stood to get some stitches, but we got it cleaned out and glued shut and it has been healing well.

The kids played this little keyboard all week.

The kids loved sitting around singing songs with Grandma Jacqi and Papa Tony.

Look how fast we're filling that bucket.  So many ATV rides into the forest were necessary when so many people were working together.

For a while it was just me and the boys, and I have to say I just love having teenage sons.  They're funny, and fun to be around.

Callista helped me make breakfast most mornings.  Oey was just there for moral support.

Howdy, ladies.

Knox, living his best life.

Juni and Lalie.

Callista and Oey dancing on the porch.

He's powering up in his Dutch shoes and fireman's hat.  Enemies of the King, beware.

After four days of family and fun, we hopped back in the car and headed homeward. 

No sleep for these babies this time.

Our first stop was the rest area at Chamberlain, where we checked out the Lewis and Clark exhibit and the Dignity statue.  We had planned to try the Badlands loop on the way home, but in the interest of making good time, Todd decided to skip it, which ended up being propitious.

After Chamberlain, we got back on the road.  About 15 miles from Mitchell, we heard a big bang, and then the van started driving funny and pouring smoke from the rear wheel well.  We had blown a tire.  And I do mean blown.  It was in shreds.

Luckily, the right lane had been coned off for construction that hadn't started yet, so we were able to get over to the shoulder easily, and had an entire lane of buffer between us and the traffic.  Plus, since it was a construction zone, traffic was going slower than the typical 80 mph speed limit.  So we were about as safe as we could have been, given the circumstances.

Todd and the older boys got out and got the spare put on.

 

Once the spare was on, we headed into Mitchell.  First we stopped at Pizza Ranch again to get everyone fed, watered, and morale-boosted.  Then we headed to the Walmart tire center.  It took a couple of hours for them to get new rear tires put on, so we wandered around Walmart to wait.  When we got back on the road, the van was steering so crazy that we had to turn around and go back.  Long explanation short, we needed new front tires as well, so we got to wait another couple of hours for that.  We ate dinner at the Subway in the Walmart while we waited.

Finally, six hours after the tire officially blew, we were back on the road and completely exhausted.  Since everyone had been fed recently, and we were already on track to get home super late, we decided to just power through the six hours of driving from Mitchell to home without stopping.  We got home around 1:30 in the morning and were glad to get all that behind us.

This week, we've just been trying to recover from the trip.  Luckily we had left the house in decent shape when we left, so it didn't take long to get things put away and have the house feeling pretty normal.  But I have been so tired this week!  A friend of mine with a lot of kids told me that she feels like it takes twice as long to recover from a trip with kids as the trip itself lasts.  I'm starting to think she's right.  Looks like I'm going to need another week to recover yet.  

We have gotten back into our routine of spending most afternoons at the pool.  The last day of open swim is next Wednesday, and we're trying to maximize these last few days.  

Tuesday night was the Elder session meeting, so Todd hosted that on the deck.  While that was happening, Penelope had a couple of her friends over for a movie night, one of whom is leaving for college this upcoming weekend, so it was kind of a farewell sendoff.  While the teen girls were all watching Signs downstairs, the rest of the kids and I cuddled up in my room to watch Tom and Huck.  I'm starting to notice that the best movies for Movies with Mom are from the 90's, so that might become the official theme of our movie nights.  We'll have another one tonight during Men's Beer and Books - what should we watch?  

what's up weekly. (we're total pool rats now.)

It's been another hot minute since I last updated you on what we've been up to lately.  It's been a summer full of the best things: some structure, some relaxation, and tons of fun.

The biggest news we need to discuss is that this girl is nine.  NINE. 

She is such a thoughtful, deep-thinking, kind girl.  She is great with babies and loves taking care of them.  She is very clean and tidy, and is particular about her clothes and hair and how she presents herself.  She wears about one thousand bracelets.  She will often exclaim, out of the blue, "I love my life!"  She is very frugal and thoughtful about her money, and she is already asking how long she'll have to wait to start getting babysitting jobs like Penelope has, because she wants to save up more money.  She loves running and swimming and crafting.  There is not a dull thing about her - she is beautiful inside and out, and we love her so much.

She asked to go to Sonic for dessert on her birthday, so we met some other families there for shakes and play time.  She is super social and has some really good friends at church, so this was really fun for her.

We had her family party last weekend, and it was so fun having all the cousins come to play. 

I didn't get many photos, but here is one of her opening her new bean bag chair from my mom, with all the cousins and siblings gathered around.

In other news, we attempted potty training the babies.  It didn't really seem to click for them, so we tabled the effort after four or five days.  Eulalie is starting to seem like she'd like to try again, so maybe I'll try working with just her next week.  Some things are not really affected much by whether there is one baby or two babies along for the ride; potty training might not be one of those things.  We'll see.

Watching Elmo from the comfort of their potties.

Todd hung a flag on the front of the house for the Fourth of July and it looks so cute!

 Baby-approved

The day before the Fourth, we all went to buy fireworks for the celebration.

The girls wanted their nails painted red, white and blue, so we spent some time in The Salon getting all festival-ready.

We did a cookout-themed dinner the night before the Fourth, and here is a photo of me cutting strawberries while watching My Girl on my kitchen TV.  How Americana is that?!

Growing up, most of my friends who had stay-at-home moms had little TVs, or at least radios, on in their kitchens most of the time.  For some reason, I have always equated it with domesticity and coziness and a sense of 'home' - someone must be in their kitchen a lot to have a TV right on the counter.  Technically, I keep mine hidden on top of my dryer and I rarely use it, but I like the rare opportunities I have to bring it out.

On the morning of the Fourth of July, we drove through heavy rain to a college about half an hour away that was doing a "Spirit of America" event.  They had recently completed a building project that includes a replica of Independence Hall, and they had some amazing historical documents and a replica of the Liberty Bell on display.  We even learned that on the Fourth of July in 1804, Lewis and Clark were in that very town, shooting off guns and having a heyday.  They even named the local creek Independence Creek in honor of the holiday.  Kind of a neat coincidence!  The final event was standing in the rain and enduring a Lincoln reenactor give a speech that was... less than rousing, through no fault of his own.  Then we headed home.

We laid low through the afternoon, then after dinner Todd took the bigger kids to the theater to see Young Washington.  (The twins and I stayed home.)  They got popcorn and soda, and took up an entire row, and had an absolute blast.

Callista spent her birthday money on her blue shirt-and-skirt combo.  She had in mind exactly what she wanted to wear on the Fourth of July and made it happen.  She looked adorable.

After everyone got home and the babies were in bed, we messed around with fireworks in the yard for a bit.  Our town has a sizable military fort, and therefore tons of military residents.  The fireworks were amazing and constant for about three days straight.  Between the rain, which ended up producing 90% humidity (literally - that was the exact humidity reading that night) and all the fireworks smoke, there was a thick haze all through town.  It was almost like fog, but it smelled like gunpowder.  It was wild.

The kids saved back some Pop Its for the babies to throw later, since they were asleep during all the fireworks fun.  They didn't quite get the hang of it, since they couldn't throw them hard enough to make them pop, but it was cute to see the kids all encouraging them and helping them.

Other than those major items of note, much of our time has been spent at the pool in the neighboring town.  I bought us a family pass at the beginning of the summer, thinking that it was a better use of money than paying hundreds of dollars to enroll everyone in two weeks of swimming lessons.  I figured I'd just figure out how to teach them to swim myself somehow.

Well, it has worked and then some.  We've been going three or four afternoons a week, and just logging time in the water has done wonders for them.  Most were not strong swimmers, a few couldn't swim at all yet.  Now everyone from Juni on up is swimming like a fish.  They're doing great.

Many afternoons we wait until Oey and the babies are down for nap, and then we head to the pool without them.  (Atticus doesn't like going to the pool, so he stays home to hold down the fort with the little ones, but they're all sleeping so it makes his job easy.)  Maybe once a week, we take Oey and the babies with us.  We go right at lunchtime and eat a picnic lunch, and then we swim until it's time to take them home for naps.  Right at first, the babies were not fans of the water.  Knox would walk around a little, holding my hand, but Eulalie would not let me put her down.  But after a couple of visits, they've become little sea monkeys.  They like laying across my legs and pretending to swim.

Oey loves the water and is fearless, but she doesn't know how to swim yet, so Penelope and I take turns watching her like a hawk. 

And that has been our summer break so far!  The mornings are spent doing some simple schoolwork (math, reading, typing, piano) or household projects, the afternoons are spent having fun in the sun.  It has been one of the best summers we've ever had, and we still have so much break to go!  I'm trying to get in some planning for next school year here and there, and I'm trying to decide when we'll start back to school.  With as much fun as we've been having, we might wait until after Labor Day to start.  Why cut such a good thing short?  Viva summer!