I feel like these monthly posts just keep getting longer and longer, with way too much info/pictures jammed in...but it's hard enough to find time to blog anymore that it's easiest if I just do it in one swell swoop. So I apologize for the lengthiness...but it's the only way I can keep up!
PARKS/RANDOM OUTINGS
We hit the ground running with summer break, and we made sure to get out of the house every day starting at day 1. June was full of parks, splash pads, swimming, and outings of various kinds--both with friends and by ourselves.
We followed this beautiful path by the duck pond around BYU campus one afternoon--
we found where it started and ended, something we've never done before, and it was so fun!
This was from a playdate with the Bellows at a fun park up by their house--Camden kept asking for pretzels and then would disappear and then quickly come back for more. Brooke and I were both amazed he was eating so many so fast...until Bronco came walking over a few minutes later, haha. Apparently Camden had been sharing with him, and Bronco had a few more than he could handle...!!! :)
Checking out Calvin's soon-to-be Kindergarten playground at the elementary school one day:
(Tucker was missing school so much we had to go back for a visit!) ;)
This was after our first day of swimming lessons--I went through the trouble of changing the boys out of their swimsuits and making sure they were all dry before we headed to the park...only to have them get soaking wet playing with the drinking fountain and getting in the stream while I was occupied on a phone call, haha.
We've been pretty consistent about going to the library every week to participate in their kid crafts, and to stock up on books for Tucker. (a must these days!)
One week we went to the library on an off-day (non-craft/activity day), and the library was EMPTY. It was so nice! The boys loved having sole control of these much-coveted computers in the kids' area. :)
Brooke invited us up to Manila Pond in Pleasant Grove, and the kids loved playing on the "beach." (Good thing we went before our Legoland trip where we went to the REAL beach, haha, otherwise they would have been sorely disappointed with this rocky, nasty sand!) :)
SWIMMING LESSONS
We tried out the Provo Rec Center for swimming lessons this year, and they went really well. I was mostly concerned for Calvin--he needed a non-threatening, positive environment with a patient teacher, and it was perfect for him! He overcame his fear/anxiety of going under the water, and he improved by leaps and bounds! (as you can see from our Legoland vacation videos) Both Tucker & Calvin were so excited to go every day, and they were so sad when the two weeks was over.
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KARLI'S BAPTISM
Our niece Karli was baptized at the beginning of June, and it was such a wonderful weekend full of family. Curt gave a talk, and I was able to be the chorister at the baptism, and it was such a wonderful service filled with the spirit. Lisa had a nice brunch set up afterwards for family:
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The night of her baptism, we went to the Springville Rodeo all together:
Mike & Chris came to our house for Sunday dinner, which was fun:
And then Monday night we all had a picnic at the splash pad where Mike got this cute picture of the kids:
Such a wonderful weekend!
COLLIN'S BIRTHDAY
With Collin living with us as a brother/uncle/renter/4th child haha, we did our best to make his birthday special. He & Cory went out to dinner while we went to Tucker's baseball game, and then we had cake & ice cream & presents when we all got back.
Most of his gifts we gag gifts and dollar store gifts from the kids, haha, but they were still fun!
And this owl embroidery (from DI) won the best gift of the night. ;)
Collin is in the process of switching out engines/doing a ton of work on his BMW E30, so a BMW cake was only fitting. And I'm not posting a close up picture because I did a terrible (horrendous!) job getting the cake out of the pan...giving Curt a less-than-ideal canvas to decorate, haha. But it still tasted good, which is all that matters. ;)
FATHER'S DAY
Our Father's Day was pretty low-key, but we did our best to make Curt feel special. We let him sleep in as much as possible (I think he made it until 8:00...?), and then we made him a nice breakfast and gave him a few little gifts.
Curt's breakfast menu, courtesy of Tucker:
Father's Day fill-in-the-blanks by Tucker & Calvin:
One of the best parts of Father's Day (besides the delicious steak dinner we had!) was when the Primary and Young Men sang together in sacrament meeting at church. I saw an idea online to have the YM sing "A Child's Prayer" with the primary for Father's Day, and with Curt being in the YM presidency (& me being the Primary Chorister), I figured I could use my "in" to get them to sing with us. :) It actually was so, so amazing, and it turned out so much better than I imagined! The primary was SO excited to have the YM sing with us, and the YM did SO well! (Curt may or may not have bribed/incentivised them by saying he would have a pizza party/movie night for any young man who sang...but it worked!) The spirit was strong, and it was such a neat, neat thing. I definitely want to include the youth in singing with the primary more often.
Every year we take a Father's Day picture of Curt with the kids, and we always do it before or after church so everyone is in their nice Sunday dress. Well...this year we completely forgot until everyone had already changed into their pajamas/lounge clothes after church. I'm trying to be more flexible with life in general, so rather than have everyone change back into their clothes, we just took pictures as they were. And they actually turned out SO cute! Best Father's Day pictures ever. :)
Also, we made this video for Curt's dad for Father's Day, showcasing funny pictures/video from snapchat, haha:
ADDITIONAL SNAPCHAT PICTURES
Yes, we still love snapchat. Sometimes when the boys are freaking out about something/throwing tantrums, some good ol' snapchat can "snap" them out of it, haha. (see what I did there?!) And, let's be honest, Curt & I like to mess around with it as well. :) Here are some other favorites that didn't make the video above:
OTHER RANDOM PICTURES
The spread of pizzas we made during the weekend of Karli's baptism when we had everyone that was in town over for dinner. (Curt's Aunt Dorene and cousin Austin + his girlfriend--it was so fun!)
Lexie & Bronco rocking the power wheel at the brunch after Karli's baptism--they are so fun to watch together!
Homemade Mickey Mouse costumes the boys made one Sunday morning:
Bronco LOVES having Tucker & Calvin read to him. And it makes my heart so happy.
Cousin movie night when we had the girls over for swap:
Bronco is super resourceful--his most common M.O. is to carry/drag stools over to help him reach things that he shouldn't be getting into, haha. Here he got out the broom to help him try to reach a ball that had bounced onto the counter!
Bronco also loves to come upstairs wearing random costumes. Oh how we love him!
More random costume-wearing, haha:
We've tried to make a point of inviting different friends over to play on Tuesdays for "Friend Day"--and we had fun introducing Ty & Rex to snapchat:
After our first (and last, in Curt's opinion) experience hiking the Y a few years ago, where Curt ended up carrying kids the entire time, he refuses to go again. When I posted a few months ago about how Curt flat-out turned me down on an offer to hike the Y for a date, haha, my friend Meredith saw it and texted me a few days later saying she'd love to hike it with me! So we scheduled a time for a few days later, and it turned out that Kelsie was able to join us at the last second too! (We all went to preschool together, graduated high school together, were roommates in college, etc. So it's always fun to get together!) The hike was harder than I remembered, but it was so fun doing it with these girls and catching up.
We went in the evening, and the view was gorgeous!! If anyone else wants to hike it, I'd love to join you! :)
The boys were fighting or wouldn't stop with the potty talk (or something along those lines) one day in the car, so I made them get out as soon as we were in our neighborhood, and they had to walk the rest of the way home. (I followed them closely the whole time.) It was supposed to be a punishment...but I think they actually really enjoyed it...so we haven't done it again. If anyone has any thoughts/suggestions on how to get kids to obey in the car when you're occupied driving, please let me know! ;)
Bronco's first dental visit! He was a little nervous, but did well for the most part. All three boys walked away without any cavities (which is a relief since Tucker & Calvin have been brushing their own teeth for awhile now & I've always wondered if they do a good enough job...), and toys & balloons. They LOVE going to the dentist, which makes me love them too! (Children's Corner Pediatric Dentistry)
Bronco LOVES putting on other people's shoes and walking around--he gets so proud of himself, haha.
A little friend reunion from one of our married student wards. It was just a few families, but it was so fun to catch up. Oh how we miss that ward!!
Bronco insisted on wearing his winter coat out to play one afternoon...and it was 93 degrees, haha! (I made him take it off after only a few minutes because his head was so sweaty...!)
We found this at Walmart, and the boys were in potty-talk-loving little-boy heaven. A giant poop emoji??!! So of course we had to take a picture.
And on that lovely note, we'll end. :)
P.S. With our Legoland vacation, we ran out of time to do one-on-one dates in June, so we made up for it in July...but we didn't take pictures. Curt & Calvin went up to IKEA and then Calvin hung out at Curt's office, and Tucker & I stayed home and played board games all afternoon. It was fun!
