We made our summer bucket list, and this year we made a banner that says "Summer" on it and we draw things from our bucket list on there that we do. It's been fun!
Feeling pretty old these days as we got quite a few graduation announcements from friends - ahH! Excited for these kids, but it's just making me realize our kids are getting closer and closer to that point with each day but we are gong to enjoy the summer and try not to think of that yet.
We worked on lots of arts and craft projects and did some science experiments, too. The kids all made masks, did tie dye again this summer, sunscreen painting, made balloon cars, did salt painting, pencil in water bag, homemade ice cream, and more.
We finally got our grass! Here's the sod squad hard at work! We worked hard lots before the grass, too. We had to dig up all of our rocks and clean them because dirt from this past winter got on them. We planted a bunch of trees and filled our flower pots. Got some gravel for the side of the house. It was lots of time spent and lots of work but so worth it! We are so glad to have grass to play on again! We have been living it up!
We were able to do some fun youth activities. We got approval to start meeting in person a bit. So we played some corn hole, the young women went hiking and fishing, we went on a boating activity and got to go camping at Lewis & Clark State park. Though we are small in number, we have a great time together! And we usually have some tag along brothers and sisters, which the youth are very nice about. Sydnie calls Celestina and Charles her best friends now. The camping was great! We set up camp, had BBQ chicken tinfoil dinners, played games, did the ranger program which was learning about bats and detecting bat sonar, had a campfire and s'mores and looked at the stars and shooting stars and the next day went towards the caves (wasn't able to get in with Covid restrictions though), visited the gift shop, and hiked up part of Buffalo Jump State Park. It was a good time with the youth!
It was a hot and dry summer so we tried to stay cool by visiting the pool, and swimming at home. They had restrictions on numbers and asked all to social distance, but we were glad we got to go hang out there quite a bit! We got to go to the Oasis water park, finally. We went with the Martins and had a good time. This is the third time and it was overcast so not many were there, but perfect to play and be there. It was a hit!
We had lots of great visitors, probably the most visitors we've had in such a short period of time. My mom joked we were the Hotel Ryerse this summer. More on that later.
We got to go do the beautiful Beartooth Highway drive again and then on to Cody, WY to explore the town and go to the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. It was a great museum!
Down by the river is where we liked to hang. We even brought a frog home from the river for a few days before we released it.
We did some service projects, like making a care package for the policemen here, helping others move, and delivering toilet paper (a hot commodity) to others. When times are tough, it is nice to look outside yourself. "Have I done any good in the world today?"
The oldest three tried a new sport this summer - golf! They went to a golf camp for youth our golf course put on and they really ended up liking it. We even got some smaller golf clubs, and Dave upgraded his set this summer. The kids did great and even won some challenges, can't wait to go again!
We did some random things like glow stick baths, spa days, dyeing hair, dancing and dressing up, recreating coffin dances memes, and Daddy brought home another big Nerf rival modified gun, so we've been having lots of that going on.
Lots of reading going on around here. Our librarian said she loves that we love to read so much and that our kids get through them so quick. At one point we had to ground Lucy from reading because she was doing it all the time and not wanting to do anything else. We read the book Hoot as a family and then one about Sacagawea by Ken Thomasma. Good reads! We also participated in the summer reading program at the library. Emma volunteered for that and some other things the library needed help with. They did some fun activities. It was a fairy tale theme this year and super fun. Some of our kids even won some of the grand prizes. And Lucy insisted on getting her own library card, so we did that. Read away!
We finally got our fishing licenses so we did quite a bit of fishing. The kids really enjoyed that! One day we tried fishing with gummy worms, the fish loved that, haha!
We were able to get in some playdates with friends finally, which was nice. We love each other, but as Emma said "I need a break from you guys!", and yep, sometimes we did and it was nice for a switch up.
We completed a 1,000 piece puzzle together of Montana over the summer. Got some social study lessons in and had some lessons on perseverance. One piece went missing, but we felt a great sense of accomplishment.
One of my favorite things was going on family bike rides together! We have some great places to pedal around, and it is beautiful.
It was a weird summer with Covid and everything, but we didn't let that stop our fun. We still went places and did things. We enjoyed being together. We fulfilled most of the items on our summer bucket list and though it felt loooong, in the end, it still zoomed by!
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