Here's to Summer

I don't know what it is about summer that makes me try to pack as much into a week as possible. I guess it's the longer days and warmer weather but even things that we can do all year round don't become a priority until summer comes around. So here's to summer and all the fun we can pack into just a few months.

This week the kids started swimming lessons. Our friend Suzy has started teaching swimming this year and so the kids are in a familiar pool with a familiar teacher. Johnny is just a little too familiar with her though and wants her undivided attention even though there are 4 other kids in his class that she needs to focus on.

Friday night Brad needed to set up our smaller tent to make sure it was in good working order before we lent it to his parents for a camp out coming up. He suggested that the kids camp out that night by themselves in our backyard. Me: "By themselves, really?" Of course he had already mentioned it to them and they were beyond excitement. I was skeptical because when we camped in Cascade Alex woke up so many times and I didn't want to be running downstairs every time I heard them wake up. I figured they would end up inside halfway through the night. Well they were in high spirits and didn't go to sleep until the sun went down but they fell right to sleep as soon as it got dark around 10pm. We had our back door and windows open so we could hear them just fine and around 3am I heard Johnny whimpering. I headed out to the tent and he was wedged up against the side of the tent so I put him back in place and asked if he wanted to go inside. No answer, he was already back to sleep. He slept the rest of the night only to be woken by his sister at 7am. Not too bad, I have high hopes for our camp out in a couple of weeks.

That next morning I took the kids to the Pioneer Day parade. They had a cute little covered wagon ride pulled by a couple of Shetland ponies, lots of activities for them to participate in (including the stick pull which although I believe Johnny can out muscle his sister, her long arms and legs are definitely too much of an advantage and she pulled him right up off the ground) as well as a parade that the kids got to be in pulling their own covered wagons.


That afternoon (after a good nap) we took the kids to the YMCA for some rock climbing and swimming. They had lots of fun rock climbing. Alex did better bouldering without the rope than with it. Maybe she has trust issues, I don't know. But Johnny just wanted to hold onto the rope and swing the whole time. He had no fear of heights as long as he didn't have to do the work to get himself up there. Alex always went a couple of steps higher than she wanted to just to prove that she wasn't scared. Unfortunately they were holding a swimming competition that day so the pool was closed. Luckily for us we have some very good friends with a pool in their backyard who let us intrude at the last minute and go swimming there.

I'm ready for a couple of days of not doing anything but for some reason that never really works out. I think that as much as I like summer, 3 months of it is probably all I can handle. :o)