A Mostly Normal Feeling Summer

Now that most of the Covid restrictions have been lifted, we had a mostly normal feeling summer again - yay!  Summer is the best!  

I can’t lie, it has been so nice having Dave home all summer. He helps the kids get ready, I have someone to help keep them in line, we can go wherever we want during the week when it’s less busy because he doesn’t have to work.  So we took advantage of that! 

We went and visited Pompey’s Pillar, a national landmark where Lewis Clark and his expediton came through and signed the large butte.  Lucy went on a field trip here recently so she was like our little tour guide. Pretty neat, and we love the beauty of this area.

We’ve been playing outside a great deal…lots of sprinklers, tramp, pool and slip and slide. Our pool also opened back up again, hooray!  Kids have been going a lot. Cov, Lucy and Sydnie also all enjoyed lessons and passed with flying colors. Sydnie kept her teachers laughing with all her comments! Little fish we've got around here.

We held a neighborhood block party.  We were planning on doing this last year after finishing our yard but with Covid, we held off. We had a bring your own meat BBQ and a side to share, fun things for the kids to do, and we all sat out and chatted.  Joni and Blake stayed really late.  We had a great turn out and our neighbors are so great!  We will really miss them!

We have been participating in the summer reading programs at the library. The kids got to learn about repitles, dinosaurs, turtles, and more. Cal and Emma got to do some cool crafts, they especially liked making dragons eyes with model magic. The kids have been reading away like always. Even Emma won a bike as a prize at the end of the program!

We had a piano recital, featuring Jazz, Blues, Ragtime, and Boogie music. Super low key and fun.  We got all the kids sunglasses they picked out to wear.  They all played amazing and I am so proud of them!  It was the Meier family and our family.  Here’s what everyone played. Emma – Pouding the Beat by David Karp, Blueberry Rag by Martha Mier (a duet we played together), Callahan – That Boogie Beat by Betty Collie, Hammock Blues by Robert D. Vandall, Lazy Chord Blues by Nancy and Randall Faber, Lucy – Strutting Turkey Blues by Elizabeth W. Greenleaf, Down Home Blues by Tom Delaney, Coverton – Primetime Blues by Bill Boyd, Celebration by Bastien & Bastien, Levi – The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, arr. By Jon Schmidt, Easy Does it by Betty Colley, Sawyer – Boogie Brigade by Roger Grove, Heart and Soul and I played Night Train Express by Tony Caramia.

The kids got to go to Cooney with friends a few times.  Cal and Lucy went with Casten & Maryn Martin over to go boating, explore, and play on the beach.  And then Cov went with Dean Montgomery and his family. They had a blast! We went boating with the Fairbanks and Brocks for a youth activity at Cooney too. A good time was had by all on the beach and boat, and we even got Cal to skip like a rock when we knocked him off the tube!  Good times.  

Dave took the older three golfing one day to Overland golf course, and I took the younger two to the Absarokee pool.  They tought the best part was driving the golf cart and watching Dad hit the ball so far. Cov and Sydnie loved the diving board best, and I helped Syd the first few times, and after that, she wanted to do it all by herself (with a life jacket of course). We also had a fun picnic in the backyard all together after that. 

We got to see not just the Idaho Potato World's Largest Spud truck, but the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile twice. Kids thought it was pretty novel.  We even got some weenie whistles. 

We stayed busy with some Young Men and Young Women activities. We made a bunch of wood welcome signs for a fundraiser for our youth conference. Then, the Relief Society asked Emma to teach a painting class to the women and young women. Lucy also brought a friend. Fun times!

We kicked off the Olympics with some fun food. We made an American flag pizza (go Team USA!) and olympic ring cupcakes that we shared with neighbors.  We watched the opening ceremonies...I love it! I don't ever binge watch, unless it's the Olympics and then I always binge watch.

Lots of makeovers going on this summer, haha!  Sydnie got a makeup set for her birthday and has been doing everyone's makeup. She also gave my fingers a makeover one day. 

We got to go to the little fair here and enjoy some local food trucks and see some of our friends and their animals and displays they made for 4H. Cov liked calling back and forth to the animals and trying to get them call back. Some did! We have also helped some of our friends get ready, like rounding up the chickens!  Always fun at the fair! 

Spent lots of time at the park and in the backyard. Bug hunting is a favorite activity. My favorite is when the kids come up with impromptu games they make up together and all play nice. Those are the best times! 

A smoky summer again...half of the state of Montana (and lots of the west) is on fire. So sad!  We have been praying hard for the elements to be tempered and for the fire fighters. One day Lucy said "I just want to see the blue sky again!"  All of the smoky air felt oppressive. We saw some really red suns, but were so grateful when things started clearing out. Have to keep reminding ourselves "the sun will come out tomorrow!"

When things got too smoky, we had our fun indoors. Kareoke, messing around, playing games, making crafts, video games, chatting with friends and sleeping in, playing with toys and Jazzy, all the things that keep us busy. 

We ejoyed cheering on the Utah Jazz during the playoffs!  Emma made a cool sign and Cal cracked us up as he impersonated the opposing players! While they ended with the best regular season record ever, they fell short due to some injuries. As we say every year "next year"!  

We had lots of great times with friends!  From sleep overs and playdates, going places together. Emma's favorite hangout session was when we took her and Emily to Billings shopping and out to lunch. Fun day!  Cal loved hanging out by the creek building the fort and building things with his tribe. Cov's favorite was going to baseball games with Hunter and going camping and fishing with the Emmetts. Lucy enjoyed all her sleepovers and movie night with the neighbor girls. And Sydnie mostly just tagged along with her siblings friends! We also had a bunch of fun birthday parties the kids went to. i went out  with Lindsey Wilhelm to the Japenese Steakhouse where we did the fun show. We were also going to go to a trafficking demonstration before but got a call to do a showing of our house so we weren't able to go to that. At least we made a cool sign. We will all sure miss our good friends here. 

Emma got her first real job and paycheck!  She worked at Kid's Club doing watering, landscaping, weeding, and other outdoor things. She enjoyed it and we love Shannon Moore, the director there. 

Gas prices were going bezerk, along with lots of other things. Anytime we fill up our tank or something else goes wrong, we say "Thanks, Biden!" When we were driving through idaho, this made us laugh. Too bad our tank was more than $5.00 to fill up. The kids in our town also diss each other and say if someone is doing something they don't like "You support Biden!"  Silly politics!

For our bucket list this year, we wrote on our poster the things we did. Fun way to see all the good times we had. We pretty much ended the summer in Montana, moved on Saturday and started school the following Monday. So bitter sweet. We loved our summer and so glad to be feeling pretty normal again!