July 2021

 July was full of adventures! Here's Google's then and nows:

After the Martin reunion, Mindi stayed another night and taught Hyrum how to play Carcassone. He loved it and was obsessed with it for awhile!

Our friends from our college days came and visited one afternoon, and it was so fun seeing them:

One day I took the kids to Hang Time, a local trampoline park, as part of our Summer Fun list:

We also went on a hike to see Mt. Timpanogos falls. It happened to be on a very hot morning, and despite what I had read about the hike, it had almost no shade, and I should have brought more water. We barely made it there, and I think the kids will always remember this as "the worst hike," but I actually thought it was pretty, and they made it!

Hyrum had another swim meet in July! He did great!

Ivy loves taking pictures with my phone:

I took the younger three kids to a chalk festival in American Fork one day, and they thought it was so cool!

When we were cleaning the girls' room one day, we took some pictures of their art projects/ room decorations:

Cora has been working really hard with her cheer team this summer, and she can now do the splits! Ivy likes to try it too:

We all really loved having Uncle Dallen live so close to us this past year, so we tried to squeeze in some extra fun with him before he left. Ryan took him tubing down the Provo river, and we all went to Tucano's with him:

Ryan also took Dallen and Hyrum to Dallen's favorite place in Utah, Evermore. They had a fun night doing archery, axe throwing, riding the train, and pretending to go on quests:

One night we decided to take the kids for ice cream instead of having dinner. They loved it!

Ivy finally got over her fear of the sprinkler under the trampoline, and it has since entertained the kids many different times:

Ryan and I have gotten to go on a few different dates this summer, out of the house, since Hyrum started babysitting. It's been wonderful!

Cora's best friend from Nebraska came to visit some family in the area, so Cora got a short visit with her! She was beyond thrilled to see her bestie again!

We did "cooking camp" with the kids this summer, which this time meant that they each picked a dinner to make for the family one night. Ivy made Pesto Pasta with me and did awesome. 

Zane made pancakes for us, and he did great too! I was trying to let him get the bacon out of the oven on his own, and it did not go well, so here he is with a few ice packs (no worries, he was fine, just a little shook up):

Cora got to visit the Orem temple site this month wither primary activities group. It was cool!

We did a few crafts together one day as part of the summer fun list. We drew a couple things from Art Hub, and the kids got to paint on these little canvases:

We were able to visit the Butterfly Biosphere one day and the kids had a blast!

We even got a butterfly to hold and hang out with us, though Zane and Ivy were too scared to try this time:

The kids are attending a brand new school this year, so we got to go to the community open house, where they also got some yummy treats:

We celebrated Harry Potter's birthday this year in a fun way- with some HP sorting hat cupcakes from a local bakery! Hyrum was not pleased to be sorted into Hufflepuff, though Zane didn't mind:

Ivy's cupcake sorted her into Gryffindor:

Cora's sorted her into Ravenclaw:

We also had a British dinner (bangers and mash) and watched a Harry Potter movie that night.

This month Hyrum also got to go on a Young Men's overnight campout (his first one!), and Ryan went along. They biked from our house to Provo Canyon, then they played some games, then went to bed.

The next morning they biked to Bridal Veil falls, then biked home. I was so proud of Hyrum for making such a long bike ride! And he had a great time.