Summer's over

Seems like summer came and went and now we're into fall. I was so diligent at writing my blog, that I will have to spend some time doing catch up here, with a few snapshots of family history accompanied by words that hopefully aren't too scattered in their recreation of facts.

SO... JULY:
We swam a lot in the pool and had a few cook outs. Not as many as usual, but it's been a crazy summer. I think I mentioned that Eric and I rode the tandem to the Louisville Temple, but I don't have the blog up in front of me to verify my recollection. It was a different experience than last year, but that is to be expected when it's a youth trip and the youth are not your stewardship anymore and you're riding with your hubby. He will admit that, "the HILL" was about as tough as I said it was. This year we had more hills, which was rough, but we were able to conquer each one together.

That was the weekend after July 4th. On July 4th, we watched fireworks with Dunahees at Highland Park, which looks into downtown where they light off the fireworks. Kids enjoyed themselves; Eric could have cared less about the fireworks, but enjoyed being able to visit with the Dunahees a little.

Neta & I played fetch while waiting for the fireworks.

We did go on a couple family bike rides. Eric found an extra wheeler for $40, so now one of our three younger riders gets to help pedal a grown up. They seem to enjoy it.

Nate and Eric getting ready to pull out.

On the way to school with Xela.
Neta is all smiles.

AUGUST:
Kids went back to school the last week of July. That month went by in a bit of a blur. I can't say there were many great events worthy of recording. Neta got her first haircut in four years on August 8. I love her long hair, so of course, I told the Great Clips gal to only cut off the split ends. I went with her, as I wanted to get my hair cut as well. Neta didn't want to go first, so I went and she watched from the booth. Then it was her turn. Once she got in the chair, she seemed to enjoy herself.

Ready for a trim
(Mom didn't want a total hack of hair gone.)

Got the cape, now for the scissors of a professional
(Neta already gave herself an amatuer cut-about 1 yr ago)

She had to stand out of the chair because she was so short
and her hair was so long.

All in a straight line

All smiles with her first cut souvenir

The neighborhood has this, I think 300 gallon tank that is used to collect rain water and then water the neighborhood garden. Well, it had been taken over by algae, so Eric brought it home to clean up. After filling it and doing what scrubbing we could, he emptied it and then let two anxious children get in and get the hard to reach places as best they could.

Down in the depths of stinkiness.

Coming up for fresh air as they climbed out.

GROSS!!

We spent a good part of August fixing up rental houses. One so it could be rented. We redid the bathroom of one, fixed two toilets, air conditioner, blower, sink, kitchen floor, kitchen sink, cabinets and I can't remember what else. If you have rentals, you have to fix them if you want tenants and you have to keep them up, mostly, if you want to keep your tenants. Whether or not you have a job, so our credit card is carrying a heavy load at the moment. Oh well.

The kids were really good at helping and being patient with our crazy schedule.

Kids with their sandman outside of the St Clair house.

I'm glad Xela and Ro were so willing to be "in charge" and that the house are close, so we could leave them at home sometimes, to have their own fun.

SEPTEMBER:
The kids had been dying to go camping and I kept thinking we would and hoped that we would and then July turned into August which quickly brough about September. I decided we were going for Labor Day weekend. The kids had a four day weekend, so we left after school on Thursday and camped through Monday, coming back for church on Sunday. The camp spot was less than an hour away, so it worked out well.

Thursday was quiet as all the holiday-ers had not arrived. It was nice to have the campground basically to ourselves.

Playing in the sand at the park as the sun set.

The road completed by top notch engineers

Friday morning, we went to the lake. I made sure we had a campground that had water stuff, because we love playing in the water.

We spent about two to three hours at the lake Friday morning and went home for lunch.

Creating a castle with a mote

Nate enjoying the cool lake water on a HOT September day.

A sand covered sun bathing beauty

The kids walked up and down the beach counting dead fish.
I was a little grossed out, but they had fun.

Fun in the sun and water.

De-sanded, potty break finished and ready to load into the car.

Friday, everyone else showed up in the afternoon and evening. Our campsite was treeless and therefore shadeless and Labor Day weekend was HOT!!! Eric opened the hatch of the car and put his camp chair under it's meager shade. Luckily, the site next to us, whoever was supposed to be there just put their car or boat there so the kids played and naped in the shade of it's one small tree.

Playing all day can wear you out!

The campground had a trail that we explored. It had a nature center that was air conditioned so we went in there and escaped the heat for a little while. Eric dominated in checkers.

Aurora everso confident got squish by her dad.

On Saturday we went to the camp pool that had a water slide and diving boards. The kids LOVED the water slide. Aurora enjoyed that, but preferred the diving board and spent a lot of time there. As we were nearing two hour limit, Nate and Graigry, who were just about at the height requirement (and I'd seen a girl Neta's size go down alone) asked if they could go down unaccompanied by an adult. I asked Eric what he thought and he was hesitant, but decided if Xela was in line behind them and we waited at the bottom of the slide, we could save them if they started to drowned at the bottom (it was only as deep as our pool, but had the gushing water and drop off which was the nervous part).

Nate was a little nervous as he stood at the top of the slide, you could see it in his face and I wished I'd had a picture of it. He slid down just fine and said he liked it. When I asked if he wanted to go down again by himself, he shook his head and said no. Graigry loved it and went down by himself again. After Nate saw his brother do it, he wanted to do it again.

As a parent, it was a little hard to let the kids take off the floatie and go it alone. It was a good parental moment in trusting the children and what they think they are capable of doing. I assume that's what Heavenly Father felt when we headed out to Earth.

After the waterslides and Eric turning into a lobster, we left for the ice cream social at the nature center. We got a cup of vanilla ice cream with chocolate, carmel and strawberries and whip cream. It was very tasty in the hot weather.

We went back to the site, made lunch and dinner. Kids and I made tin foil dinners, cooked them and then took them to the beach. There were fireworks at "dusk" so we told the kids we would eat dinner at the beach and play in the water until the fireworks started. Dusk apparently meant pitch black as the fireworks didn't start until almost 9:30. The beach was packed with people and we started chanting "Fireworks!" "Fireworks!" because the signs said something about around 8:30ish and we were all getting impatient.

Xela and Ro wearing the glow in the dark bands.

It was a good show, for being a state park beach front. It was cool to watch the firework reflection in the water too. The kids had a blast and then when it was done, we sat in the car and waited for most of the people to leave. Thankfully I had some cookies which we munched on while waiting out the crowds. We were all tired, but kids were patient in the buckles and soon we were able to get back to our site and sleeping bags.

Enjoying cookies & a story while waiting for traffic

We were one of the first ones there on Thursday and we stayed as long as we could Monday and were one of the last ones to leave. We all had a good weekend. Next year, I hope to go camping a little more, but we'll see what reality brings.

Since then, there hasn't been much action. School, home, church and life in general. Nothing too exciting, at least that I can recall at the moment. If I find a picture that sparks a memory, then I'll add something.