July Date with Tyrel

Got up and went to swimming lessons with Trevin this morning.

When I got back, Tyrel asked me out on a lunch date.  He wanted to go 4wheeling to Four Bay so he packed us a lunch of sandwiches, chips, string cheese, and a treat.  We got our water bottles and headed out.  It was fun and I only got lost twice.  Did I tell you I was directionally challenged?  I told him he needed to make sure he stopped at all the forks in the trail so I knew which way to go.

We found a nice spot and had our lunch and took some pictures.  Thanks Tyrel for the fun date.  I love it when they plan it all out.

No Cleaning Today

Since Travis and Tyrel deep cleaned their room yesterday, they thought we should have a day off today.  We will finish it up on Thursday.

Trevin started swimming lessons today.  He is struggling with the deep end of the pool.  He gets nervous and then starts swallowing water.  He actually does fine jumping into the deep end and swimming to the shallow end, but every time they want him to go from the shallow end to the deep end, he beelines for the side of the pool and only makes it about half way (to where the water is above his head) and then grabs the edge and works his way down from there.  Hopefully by the end of lessons, he will overcome his fears and do better.  It makes me nervous until my kids get over that fear.  Tyrel was the same way.  Travis has always been a fish.  Once Tyrel got over his fear, he loves swimming and doesn't have any problems now.  Trevin was excited to have Riley as his teacher again this year.

Tyrel's friend Keaton came up today.  Travis drove Tyrel down to Keaton's.  When they got bored there, they decided to ride bikes from Keaton's house to Elk Ridge.  They were pooped, hot, and stinky when they got here.  After they recuperated, they went and rode 4wheelers all afternoon.  Keaton stayed for dinner and then they went riding some more and then came back and played video games. 

Travis had a few of his friends over too.  They watched TV for a while and then all headed to Spring Lake to catch toads once it got dark.

Starting a new week

Travis and Tyrel got the bug to clean their room today without me even saying anything, and it isn't even a regular cleaning day today.  They got lots of it done, but still have a ways to go.

I went grocery shopping to restock from being gone and get us through the next two weeks. 

The challenge this week at Stuff to Scrap is to scrap about names, meanings or significance, or nicknames or whatever.  I did a layout for Travis and hope to get one done for the other two tomorrow if I have some spare time. It was kinda fun.

I shouldn't have started

So, the Hunger Games series are our book club picks in a couple months.  I thought I could just read the first two books slowly and then be ready for the third one when it came out the same month as our book club.  I couldn't.

They just kinda drew me in and I finished the 2nd one this afternoon after church.  Now I'm mad because I'm going to have to wait for the third book to be released.  The first one ended well and I should have stopped there because the 2nd one ended at a stupid spot and now it is going to drive me nuts!

Quick Trip

Well, so much for a relaxing weekend.  It kind of seems like a waste to pack everything up for just one night, but we have a wedding reception to go to tonight and Sean didn't get a substitute for his Sunday School class, so that is all we get.

It has been fun though for the most part.  I froze last night!  Couldn't get my legs warm and so I didn't sleep very well.  Everyone else said they were okay.  There was a huge lightning and thunderstorm, so it was good the boys had decided against their hammocks or they would have been soaked.

We had breakfast this morning.  I sat around and chatted.  All the rest of my family took naps at various times.  After lunch Sean went on a 4 wheeler ride.  He took Lauren with him.  Ken took Alli, Adam took Kristi.  They said they had fun.  Alli was so cute when they got back showing us how she could drive the 4 wheeler.  She has a lead thumb though, I though she was going to throw Uncle Sean off the back.  They found a gravel pit that they said was really fun to play in.

After they got back, we got everything packed up and headed home.  We barely made it back, showered and to the wedding reception on time.  I thought it went until 9 but when we got home I looked at the invitation and it only went to 8:00.  We did make it though.  Kimberly looked gorgeous and we are glad we made it back in time.  We went and grabbed something to eat after with Sean's parents and Sharlynn.  Our boys had stayed home to go to a party at the park.

Soapstone

Sean's family reunion this year is at Soapstone in the Uintah's.  It is beautiful up here.  We got here, visted a bit, had lunch and then set up camp.  The boys are going to sleep in their hammocks in the trees, I'll have to take some pictures, because it looks pretty cool!  Since Sean sold his truck we couldn't bring the trailer so we are tenting it and I'm not really too excited. 

They had a dutch oven potluck for dinner.  We made SWAT team chicken.  Only a few of us were done on time.  I thought the lasagne was good and our chicken was yummy!  After dinner, we played family fued and the Nielsen family won.  It was Troy, Lisa, Me, Sharlynn and Jen the first time we were up.  Then it was Troy, Lisa, Sharlynn, Grandpa LaMarr and Travis the 2nd time we were up.  Then for the championship, it was Troy, Lisa, Sharlynn, me and Travis.  Some of the questions were dang hard!  We won some Cottonelle toilet paper and a plunger.  We were thinking it would be fun to toilet paper the 2nd place team - Team Ballard.

It keeps raining up here, hopefully we stay dry.

After the game, we roasted marshmallows and went to bed.  The boys are worried about the rain, so Trevin is sleeping in a tent and Travis and Tyrel gave up the hammocks for sleeping in the car.

Getting ready to go again

First thing this morning, we cleaned all the upper cabinets in the kitchen.  It wasn't too bad of a job.  Trevin wasn't feeling well, so I sent him back to bed but we saved the blinds for him to clean.

We spent the rest of the day doing laundry, cooking and packing for Sean's family reunion this weekend.  We were going to leave tonight, but then decided we didn't want to set up the tent in the dark so, we have everything loaded and ready to leave first thing in the morning as long as Trevin is feeling better.