Father's Day Weekend

We had a flippin' fun Father's Day weekend.  On Saturday, we went to Encampment/Riverside for their wood cutting jamboree and rodeo.  It was actually pretty cool (and cold for most of it)!  I guess that's what goes on for entertainment in our neck of the woods during the weekend.  We weren't sure how we'd like it, since we'd never been to one.  They had all kinds of events - log cutting with saws, chainsaws with snowmobile engines, two-person sawing (Mormon saw pull), people climbing up upright logs, ax throwing, kids climbing up the slippery log.  It was actually very entertaining!  Then we ate the lunch we brought in the car as it started raining a bit.  But the rain cleared, just in time for the rodeo, so we were glad for that.  They had all of your typical rodeo events, Cal loved the roping the best and and Emma and Lucy were excited to meet the Jubilee Days rodeo queens and get their autographed picture.  I say we're gringo cowboys, he he! Then we went over to their park, and it was a nice park.  What a nice day together!

On Sunday morning, we woke up early and made cinnamon coffee cake for Dave to have breakfast in bed, only he woke up before we got it to him in bed.  Emma kept saying "wake me up at like 6!"  Well, that didn't happen, but we made it and it was tasty though!  The kids also gave him a card that Emma picked out "just in time" she said, since our plans are to travel to Mt. Rushmore the week after Father's Day.  We also made some bakers dough and Emma made a statue of Daddy's face, a remote and TV that fit along with the card.  Church was nice, the kids sang "He Sent His Son" for sacrament meeting and Cal was waving to us, just to make sure we saw him!  :)  Dave even got a pen and some M&M's, which usually it seems the men don't get anything for Father's Day so that was nice.  After church, everyone changed into jammies and we spent the afternoon playing games together (fish pond and go fish!), and Dad took a nap while we got ready for dinner.  We had a fish party for Daddy's dinner, since we got him a fishing pole and gear for Father's Day.  We made cute fish balloon decorations, and made signs with fishy sayings.  For dinner, we had fish sandwiches with homemade buns, fries, and all kinds of fishy fixings.  Emma decorated the cake, which turned out very cute.  We are sure thankful to have this guy in our lives.  He is o'fish-ially the best dad!  I love how excited the kids are when he comes home so they can wrestle with him.  I love how he snuggles these little ones and makes them feel special.  I love how he teaches our family the Gospel.  I love how he worthily holds the Priesthood and blesses us all through that.  I love how he says each diaper he changes was worse than the last.  ;)  I love you, honey!

That night, we were able to talk to both of our dads and Grandpas.  We are so blessed to have them as well!  We love Grandpa Dan & Grandpa Scott!  All of the kids took turns talking to Grandpa Scott and when it was time for Lucy to say goodbye, she handed the phone to Dave and said, "Here Daddy, it's Grandpa Scott.  Talk to him.  He's a really nice guy."  Ha ha!  She is such a crack up!

"We all know fatherhood is not an easy assignment, but it ranks among the most imperative ever given, in time or eternity.  We must not pull away from our children.  We must keep trying, keep reaching, keep praying, keep listening.  We must keep them within the clasp of our arms"                      -Elder Jeffry R. Holland  

Happy Father's Day to my dad, father-in-law, and Dave who keep on doing these things!  Also feeling thankful for our loving and kind Heavenly Father who is the Ultimate Father and does everything for us all!

School's out for summer...school's out forever!

School is out for summer...school's out forever!  I wish...kind of...well, it's always nice to get back to schedules, but as of now, we're enjoying relaxing a little more and spending more quality time with each other!  As silly as it sounds, we're done with week one of summer, and I'm grabbing it by the reigns and already knowing it's going to cruise by fast, because it always does.

Before school ended, we were able to celebrate kid's accomplishments a bit.  I was able to go the elementary schools and help out with the final awards assembly.  Emma was kind of bummed at her assembly that she didn't win a kindle, though her name was in the drawing, but she was very happy for her friend Erika, who won it!  She thought it was fun I got to sit by her for part of it, though.  What a sweet girl!  We also got her report card back, and she got all top marks, little smarty!

Miley, the school mascot!  Emma thinks that's pretty great and loved dancing with her.

With her good friend Erika.

We had a little preschool graduation at home for Callahan.  This past year, we've done Mommy Preschool with he and Lucy.  He's a smart little boy and so looking forward to kindergarten.  I think he's ready!  We made a little handprint picture and attached a fun poem to present to him and he helped make a tassel out of yarn.  For the "ceremony" we had, we played Pomp & Circumstance and had him march around the living room, Emma read him the diploma and presented it to him, he sang a few songs and told us his favorite things about preschool ("science experiments!" he said).  Then he switched his tassel to the other side of his graduation cap and we ate graham cracker grad caps for a treat.  Proud of this kid!

The two older kids wrapped up their last soccer games.  They had a great season!  They are sad it's over and already looking forward to next year.  They were given trophies, which was pretty exciting for them.  Cal was especially thrilled about his trophy.  "My first trophy!" he kept saying.  He also kept kissing it and shining it.  Cute!  After their last game, we went to go get ice cream with the Websters to celebrate their good effort out on the field.    

To kick off summer, on the last day of school, we had a popsicle party.  Each of the kids got to invite some friends. It was a chilly and cold day, but the rain held out so we had the gathering at the park. We had popsicles to eat in every variety (next year we'll try hot chocolate...but the kids didn't seem to mind!  Always a good time for popsicles).  Then we had all kinds of bubbles, some ice chalk Em helped make, and water balloons with games to play with.  But mostly the kids enjoyed frolicking around with friends on the grass!

We also put in our little vertical pallet garden we put together.  We will see how it does!  :)  Emma enjoyed helping to pot and plant and doing everything, Cal loves watering, and Lucy liked poking the holes for the seeds.  I don't have much of a green thumb, let's hope something works!  We planted carrots, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and spinach.

This summer, to keep us busy after we've gotten our work done in the morning, we have our summer fun days!  We decided to divide up our days  into themed days.  We are doing:

Make-It-Monday - make a craft, recipe, science project together.
Theatre Tuesday - we purchased discount tickets to a weekly kids movie at the local theatre here or we'll play movie theatre at home.
Wednesday Water Day - go to the pool, set up our slip n' slide, run through the sprinklers, water balloons.
Field Trip Thursday - go somewhere fun we haven't been to yet or have been and want to visit again.
Friend Friday - all of the kids get to invite a friend over to play

We started a clothesline and put up something from each day this summer that represents what we've done.  We also wrote up a bucket list of things we'd like to do, so if we accomplish one of these things, we put it on the clothesline.  That way, the kids can remember what we did and they are having a good time thinking of what to put on the clothesline for the things we did.  So far, we have an invite from our popsicle party we held on the last day of school, recipe card for homemade oreos, a bookmark from the summer reading program we signed up for, a ticket stub from Turbo, a business card from our new grill, water balloons from our water fight, pictures of classic cars we colored the day we went to the car show for our field trip, and a bobble and bait from fishing.  Here are some pictures from our first week of summer!

Nothing says summer like a barbecue in the backyard, and now we're ready! We purchased a picnic table and got a swanky new grill.  Dave has been saving for and researching grills for a while.  He decided on this RecTec smoker grill, which he was so excited to set up and use!  He really was like a little boy on Christmas while opening it, assembling it, and now he's putting his BBQ skills to good use.  The first night we got it, we made Whistler hamburgers and grilled corn.  Since then, we've done some other things with it.  My favorite was the ribs my pit master came up with, they were tasty!  But BBQ is complicated.  There was a marinade, spritz, sauce and glaze we made to give it that meaty perfection.  I thought of how much easier a casserole would've been for dinner.

We went fishing out at Seminoe Dam last Saturday.  The kids love, loved it!  It was a little chilly, and Lucy kept going to the car or wrapping up in blankets to stay warm.  They loved trying to catch fish, but we only ended up getting "bites" from rocks and plants in the water.  I think it may have had something to do with us being noisy and throwing lots of rocks into the water, maybe?  But it was good to teach the kids about patience and so great just to be together.  Besides fishing and dipping our feet in the water, we had a picnic lunch, ran into Toby & Shelley, played at the playground, and drove around the beautiful area.  

When I asked my dad if he had been there, he said of course he had!  What dam hasn't he been to?  :)

We have been having so much fun and getting so worn out, by the end of the day, the kids get tuckered out and fall asleep super quick, many times before dinner!  One night, Cal fell asleep at 6 and didn't wake up until 8 the next morning!  We are looking forward to this summer and all of the adventures that will come with it!