Splashing, talking, camping

This was Clementine's face at the moment the air conditioning in the car turned on. I can relate! During this hot weather, I am so grateful we can drive around in comfort in our cooled cars!

Of course, Abe reminds me every week that our summer heat isn't that hot. And it's not humid. So I can't complain, except I sense that part of the way Abe copes so well with the heat in Texas is by feeling superior to all us wimps back in Utah. So I feel it my duty to be sufficiently wimpy! For the greater good, you know.

Anyway, hot or not, here are some of the things our summer has been full of lately:

There is no break in the summer for cross-country runners. Seb and Ky have practice at 7:30 every morning, even Saturdays! They are so tough; they amaze me. They just got back from a week-long running camp in Mt. Pleasant. This picture is from the freshman mile time-trial a couple weeks ago (Malachi won it!). I didn't get a picture of Seb's longer race, but he did awesome as well.

Weird schedules and late nights mean we sometimes find Gussie asleep in strange places!

He was also a little feverish for a day or two, which it feels heartless to be happy about, but it does mean lots of snuggling—my favorite thing with a busy little 2-year-old who doesn't usually have time for such frivolities!

Miss Clementine is not actually walking, but she stands a little bit, and has even taken two or three steps! That doesn't seem right, does it?

We came upon Ziggy "walking" Gus, his pet bunny, on a leash.

We've gone to the splash pad a few times to cool off. I forgot how fun it is!

Tip-toer

I think I just like every move this squishy little boy makes in a swimming suit

I love Gus' posture here exactly mimicking the angle of Ziggy's

Matching dotties

Squishy Gus again

A nice Clementine glare. Why does she glare?

This was Sam getting the last of the water out of the bucket after the sprayers all turned off. I like Junie's helpful jump in the background.

Twinkly eyes

Here is Clementine being "airplane"-d by an invisible person (pretty sure it's Seb)

Gus in his new pajamas

Gus eating cake

It was fun on the Fourth of July. (Our block party had been the Saturday before.) At dusk, people started gathering with their chairs and blankets on top of the hill.

And once it was dark, we joined them. You could look down and see the fireworks shows all over the Salt Lake valley! It was so fun. When Sam and I lived up on the mountain in South Provo, we had a balcony that overlooked the city. On New Year's we could watch fireworks going off all the way across Utah Lake, and I always loved it. I'm happy that now we have a place to do it again.

Another night. Ballet moves on the playground, against a stormy sky. The girls are at the stage where they must conquer a playground's every pinnacle!

While we were at this playground we saw/heard a terrible car accident at an intersection nearby. I turned around and saw something flying up in the air—maybe a car flipping over, I thought! But when we ran over to help, we saw a completely demolished motorcycle—and a man. And we heard a horrible screaming. Luckily there was already an army of people surrounding him to help, and a fire station on the corner with an ambulance instantly on its way. So we didn't get any closer. But it was sad and sobering. Sam and I thought about it the rest of the night. We never found out what happened to him.

Marigold somehow managed to scavenge enough stuff around the playground to make a little ice cream shop. Look at all the delicious toppings!

Clementine climbed and climbed! We could barely keep up!

Pleased with herself.

Clementine is getting a little more hair, I think. She eats everything enthusiastically and scarily, picking her food up with terrifying deftness and stuffing it into her mouth! She especially liked some corn and smoked pork we had the other day. She sought out the pieces of meat particularly. Milk before meat! Doesn't she know that?

She likes playing in water (here at Thanksgiving Point)…

…and putting milk lids into jars!

And she loves to scramble up stairs. In spite of all our efforts to teach her, she does NOT know how to go down them backwards yet, but she has not the least sense of caution and is often caught trying to dive down headfirst.

She also says some WORDS! She can sign "more" and "eat" and "all done." And she says "hi" (with darling backwards baby-wave) and "hat" and—as captured in this picture—"hug." She says it and then does it! It really is the cutest thing.

She knows she's done something cute.

Daisy's glasses broke, and the replacements came in a different color! They are cute.

Daisy has had many new adventures this summer. She got to go to Oakcrest, the church camp for Salt Lake County 7th-graders. I don't know exactly why it exists—you sign up through your stake, and people who grew up here went when they were young too. Anyway, Daisy got to go with two friends from our ward, and she had a great time! She was even excited about riding "Le Bus"—"I've never been on ANY sort of bus before," she told me.

The very next week, she was off to our ward Girls Camp.

Where, of course, she had an equally great time! Bless those wonderful Young Women leaders.

Speaking of Young Women leaders—I got to meet up with the Young Women's presidency I was in ten years ago. We became the dearest of friends and we still try to meet up every year when Annie (who moved to Texas—she lives in Abe's mission!) comes to town. Emily has the most beautiful yard and pool, so our kids got to swim and play while we talked and talked and talked. So good.

Sam looked out the window to see some kind of red bird flying into the tree. What kind of bird? A Caw.

Junie does yard work for a sweet lady in our old ward. Her yard is so beautiful! Junie is quite proud of her contributions.

Ziggy was excited, but rather nervous, to be inside this plane at the museum.

He drew these cute "Caw" birds. I thought they were pointy-eared bunnies at first. (I don't know who drew the mayo…or why.)

He and Gus like to ride off to "school" on their trikes. They take backpacks and eat their little lunches on the hill or the neighbor's lawn. It's so cute!!

Daisy, amazing sister that she is, noticed that Ziggy had found an old whistle and was always playing "Lifeguard." Seb is a lifeguard this year and I suppose it inspired Zig. Anyway, Daisy sewed a little red patch on a white shirt, and painted the whistle red and white, and made Zig this little lifeguard costume! He loves it sooo much. He literally did not take it off for about five days…and then, only because I made him!

(In Daisy's defense…"guard" is a hard word to spell!)😄

Of course Gussie wanted to be a lifeguard too.

They were pretending Caw was drowning, and throwing this float at him. "Save yourself, Caw!"

We got Sam a couple new tents for Fathers Day, as our previous tent was seriously undersized for our current family! These are nice because they just pop up so easily. Even the kids can put them up!

This tent is huge! And it even has a built-in light on top. The children were so excited about it when we put it up, we let them sleep in there for a few nights.

All snuggled in, girls on one side…

…and boys on the other.

So fun!