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Sunday, July 6, 2014

Family life


Family life.  Sometimes you just shake your head in amazement and wonder how your kids can be so great and how wonderful forever sounds.  And then literally a minute later you can just shake your head in amazement and think about how ominous forever sounds and wonder what you did wrong.  Seriously though we were all excited to be back together again.  We had a day or two of adjustment where everyone got back into the routines and parents kept falling asleep at 6 in the evening.

One night we left Taylor with a sitter and took a long bike ride up the Provo Canyon.  I was impressed Robyn made it the whole way to Bridal Veil Falls.

Robyn was there, she was just busy pretending to be a mermaid:


Spencer has been busy fishing and learning how to clean and cook his fish himself.  I love it because he spends a few hours outside and comes home happy, tired and elated if a fish that was eatable was caught.


We have been enjoying hearing Spencer's stories about his High Adventure backpacking through the Unitas.  They had snow the first night so he was glad he packed pants and boots for all the snow drifts.  And I am grateful for leaders who took such good care of him.


Spencer has not grown, it just seems like it.


But Allison has grown 3/4 of an inch.  She is so close to 5 feet - her ultimate goal.  Since she deep cleaned her room for a summer challenge we biked over for ice cream and Subzero - someplace she has been wanting to visit for a long time.


These two weeks Allison and Robyn have been doing an acting class with Center Stage.  Robyn got into the program for the fall, so next year they will both be working on a play.  They are both very grateful that they will be in separate age groups!  Allison has been working on a Personal Progress goal of cooking for two weeks.  So she has been shopping and cooking all or part of dinner every night.  It has been awesome.  I thought it would be a bonding time of me teaching her but instead it is a matter of me getting out of her way and she will ask if she has a question.


Taylor did awesome while we were gone.  I felt bad for Kelly and Jason that doing awesome means plenty of poop detail but it is better than the alternative.  I think he was happy to be home though.  This week he had his warts taken care of.  We are in full on wart removal mode around here as Robyn had hers burned for the second time this week as well.  They went pretty extreme on Taylor's elbow, numbing, cutting, burning, and blistering - it looks very gross.  He has been enjoying the pool, getting massages at home, attending a few hours of school now and then, laying outside and going all over with the family.


Robyn's little friend next door Kelly is moving in a week.  So they have been spending as much time together as they can.  I took kids to an outdoor Shakespeare play at a park.  I am not sure either of my girls actually paid attention to the play but they sure had fun.


This week Jeremy's sister Jonna was in town for a convention so we got to have a big Hall dinner here at our house.  Our kids think their cousins need to just move in with them.  Luckily in a few weeks they get their wish while Jason and Kelly are gone.

We had our annual Neighborhood of Fire and once again did not take a single picture.  Kids ran around making giant homemade bubbles, throwing water balloons, decorating the entire street with chalk while adults visited and ate.  Then we all went to our friend's the Blacks for a huge fireworks show.  The next night another friend put on a big fireworks show.  So many late nights, loud noises, junk food and big fireworks.  My kids are in detox mode today.

Robyn had a swim meet this week.  I was a timer to spent the whole time with a stop watch at the edge of the pool.  On a side note I never appreciated the timers before - that is a tough job when its 95 degrees outside and there are no breaks for 5 hours.  Robyn did great although she was very disappointed at getting disqualified on her butterfly and breast for doing an improper kick at the beginning.  I was impressed that at the swim meet which is sort of zoo like she was able to show up in the bull pen for each of her events.  When she wasn't racing she was in the warm up lanes swimming laps...for 5 hours.  She got a little fried and tired but boy she sure loves water.  She has been going to the pool most afternoons in addition to her morning practices.  Her hair is taking a beating and she is super golden brown.

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