Summer: The Farewell Tour

Our last weekend before school started consisted of going camping with our branch to Brush Lake State Park.  It was a beautiful little spot and not too far from where we live.  There was a pretty good turnout, and some came for just Friday night or part of the day Saturday, but we stayed for all of it.  We first got up there and set up camp, cooked our BBQ chicken tin foil dinners, roasted  marshmallows and Starbursts (Cal was digging it, and I think that will be added to our camping routine in the future), exploring, and an outdoor movie - the Peanuts Movie.  We slept well, and the weather was very nice. We felt a few rain drops during the movie, but the weather held out for us.  Saturday morning it was heavenly hash and french toast from the Branch Presidency, who are great!  We went to the beach and swam, caught frogs, played in the "foam", dug in the sand, went on the jet ski or tubes, and kayaked.  Cal also found "the worlds largest dandelion".  He said as he picked it "Sorry, nature!  But I've got to show this to the world!"  He asked me to post it on Facebook.  Then he said "the world's biggest dandelion gets the worlds biggest wish!"  So I asked him what he'd wish for, and he wished for a jet ski of his own and learn how to ride it and never to get hurt again (he's been quite accident prone as of late).  He's so funny.  It was a great day!

We finished off the day in Williston, getting last minute school supplies, things for our home and eating at Culvers, yum!

The few days leading up to school, we got as many things done on our summer bucket list as we could that we hadn't finished up yet.  We did a Superhero sleepover, did science experiments, made crafts, worked on our Articles of Faith and more and got most of the items done.  The night before the first day of school, we had our crazy dinner where everyone chooses something to contribute to dinner.  Emma, being organized as she is, assigned each person something to pick out - so we ended up with bbq chicken and pineapple quesdadillas (Dad), salad (Mom), sparkling water (Cal), watermelon (Cov), angel food cake and strawberries (Em), fritos and cheese dip (Lucy). The kids think it's so cool they get to choose anything in the store they want.  Then we had a shaving cream fight, another bucket list iem!  We gave high fives, "snowball" fights, smearing it on each other, giving each other beards and more.  It was messy but so many great memories!  Great way to end summer!   Then, the kids carefully selected their back to school outfit from some of the new school clothes we ordered (yay for online shopping!).  We read "The Night Before Kindergarten" and had scriptures and went to bed with visions of paper and pencils in our heads.  See ya next year, summer!