JUNE 2016

We went to Kolob with Gma Linie and Gpa Bruce and Meg, Bossy, and Brooks. I had never stayed at their cabin before. We had a lot of fun and made some good memories. Gus and Meg have formed quite the cute relationship. Gus adores her. We took them to see the lightning strike tree, Meg claims she has never seen it. We also went fishing a bunch, Linda taught me and Gus how to kayak. Every Saturday she goes for a walk with Sage then she comes back and whoever wants to go kayaking goes to Blue Springs first thing in the morning. She says its the only time the lake is calm. She made us a yummy breakfast complete with a smoothie which Jack devoured. Abby came up to Kolob to work on Jen and Andy's wedding stuff so we got to snuggle baby Bris too. We wore the boys out which makes the weekend a success. They were in bed Saturday by 7:30 sound asleep.

We have done a whole lot of swimming this summer. It's hard not to when its so blasted hot outside. Gus has become a really good swimmer. Oliver started the summer off wearing his life jacket, but now he can swim pretty independently by himself. I would say Oliver is 75 percent there. I don't trust him enough to not watch him. He can jump off the diving board and swim to the side, but he likes me to be down there while he does it. Ashlee, Madison, Meg, Kyle, and I scrubbed Gma Linie's tiles for her. It was amazing how good they looked after we did it. We loved when her blackberries were ripe. The boys get super hungry while we swim so it was nice having a little snack to give them during our swims. Occasionally Jack would fall asleep during our swims and would stay asleep on the bench for a bit. That was nice because if the water was too cold he didn't like to be in and would stink bug crawl all over trying to get into mischief.

Brooks had a birthday while April was a girls camp. This is his birthday donut party at our house.

Random pictures of playing outside. I feel like we are outside a ton because our house is small. We have great trees to shade us all day. It still gets unbearable at times, but the kids don't seem to mind. I would guess we are outside 80% of the day.

Meet Hot Mess the Second. She is a beaut right?! The first pic is of Josh and Jack. Josh is Kyle's mechanic helper. He used to live right next door to us with the Kimber's (they have the little boy Cory who was Gus' best friend until they moved a couple of years ago) anyways together they got the Hot Mess II running. We take it swimming and now we can take it anywhere because it just got licensed and insured.

We found a king snake at the Stout's one evening after picking apricots. I was amazed Kyle was brave enough to pick it up. Oliver and Gus hated it. Jack wanted to grab it and eat it. Poor Jack doesn't know how yucky that is. It looked really cool mixed in with her fallen apricots.




Nicholas did such a good job at his mission farewell. He is an amazing kid. Tanner Monk sang the most beautiful song. The entire building was packed, as in no room even in the waiting areas outside the chapel. Lots of people love him. Kyle has had a few of the high school teachers tell him what a nice kid Nick is at school. He has the biggest heart and the France Lyon mission is lucky to have him.

 

Brooke my sister in law and I have tried getting together on Wednesday's throughout the Summer to be tourists in our own town. We went to Fort Zion in Virgin to get ice cream, do the petting zoo, and look at their neat souvenirs. Another week I took her to hike to the first fall at 3 falls. She had never been there and loved it. Lola and Oliver got really yucky dirty. I followed Brooke's example by trying to be way cool that he was so dirty. We just said they were "earthing" We have been really bad about going in July, too much going on.

The Monday before Nicholas left we went to Sheeps Bridge as a fam. Kyle worked in Vegas that day so he couldn't make it, he was super worried one of the kids were going to drowned so I was anxious the whole time watching the three. We got Ashlee to cliff jump which was exciting. Amy watched my kiddos so I could go and jump once.  There were horse flies that were kinda miserable, but other than that we had a really good time.

I screen shot the scriptures that I like while reading. Moroni 8:26 is a keeper

I wasn't aware until recently that Teddy's birthday is in June. I think June 16th. We had a nice celebration for him. I made cute mini chocolate chip cookies for the occasion. Kyle had to help Gpa Bruce at the ranch and it took longer than expected so we had to go ahead and celebrate with out him. Gus and Oliver got Teddy some nice gifts. I think a rock, a stick and something else. Woody, Olaf, and Kyle's little soccer ball guy attended the festivities as well. I think Teddy had a good birthday. The next day Gus told Ashlee she missed his party so she brought over a gift later. The cutest little mini teddy that is white and has red and blue stars all over it. It's name is Cambria becuase it reminds us of the 4th of July in Cambria.

Kyle found this crazy bug on one of his bike rides. It looks rather nasty, but I would like it for Gus' bug collection.

Kyle has rode to Kolob a few times this summer. Dr. Mike is training for Lotoja so he is game for the intense bike ride. This is them at Kolob Reservoir.


Gus and Oliver call Jack "Artist" we don't know where they got it from, but if they are teasing him at all they say hey Artist blah blah blah. It's weird and they can't tell me where they got it, but "Artist" likes to eat chalk and not do any art.


Chet and Erin Woodbury stopped by one Sunday evening to talk for a minute. Erin always talks about how she wants one of her girls to marry a Ballard boy. This is Hannah Banana and Oliver version of a hug.



Kinlee and Jack were wearing matching shirts one day. We love Kin, she is a great girl. Kin's shirt is a tad cleaner than Jack's is though.



Kyle got so sick one week. Like crying on the floor from stomach cramps sick. He went to insta care 2 times they gave him some zofran and something else. Well 3 days later he still had it, so we went back in and they took an X-ray of him and it showed nothing. They said to go home and take 2 tagamets and if it didn't help within 2 hours or so take him to the ER. It was the day of Andy and Jen's wedding. Well 2 hours later and he is still in tears and insta care is closed so we head to the ER. Ashlee came over to stay with the kiddos. 4 or 5 hours later after a cat scan that showed nothing they think it was built up gas. Poor guy was miserable and I'm glad it went away and nothing serious was happening.


Luckily someone sent us this cute picture of Andy and Jen since we missed the event.

J.O.G had a fruit stand one day. They sold apricots, cookies, and cold lemonade. 4 hours later they had made fifty bucks. I was quite surprised. We had put a power aide in the freezer for the garbage man and let it get slushy so when he drove by we gave him his powerade and some cookies. He drove back by and gave the boys $5. I refused it but he made Gus take it. We seriously love our garbage man. He is the one that gave them the awesome Christmas presents one year too. he is a great guy.

I the counselor over activity days in Primary and our leaders couldn't do it in June, so I did one of the activities. It actually turned out to be 2 activities because we didn't finish the project. I printed out the quote that says "Be a pineapple, stand tall, wear a crown, and be sweet on the inside" We read in their  Faith in God books and talked about the 13th AOF and being a pineapple. Then we made these cute pineapple drawstring backpacks. I think the girls loved them. We have 11 girls so it was quite the undertaking, and I asked my mom and Ashlee to come and help me sew the second activity. If I wouldn't have had them we would still be working on those things. They turned out really cute.

I'm going to end June with the most adorable drawing by Gus. He gave it to Kyle for Father's Day. The two people in the middle (which is Kyle and Gus) are holding hands and looking at the stars. So sweet. We have it hung above our bed in our room now.