Slow and Fast Summer

This post took me more then a week to finish, which shows you how much I have summer brain! But here you go: THE LAST MONTH IN ONE POST.

Summer is flying by. Each day is long and each week flies, in the grand tradition. The girls just got their teacher assignments and supply lists today. They are so excited! I am a little happy for school but mostly sad, because I love all the time I've had with my little chickens. Ah, summer.

I've been horrible at taking pictures, but here is an overview of our fun since the Cruise Disaster of '17.

4th of July was fun. Parade, breakfast with cousins, and dinner with Grandma Sugar. This lady is a lot of fun.

Benson loves a few movies with all his heart, especially "Super Puppies" as he calls the truly awful 'Super Buddies'... a movie about a farm, aliens, and puppies with magical powers as far as I can tell. That's fine, though, because when life gets ruff (I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself) for little Ben the super doggies really help. Most important of all, though, is 'Moana'. As you can see, he takes his viewing of this new classic very, very seriously. I kind of get it, though. Moana is the best! 

Kate the Great turned SEVEN! I seriously cannot believe that my baby girl is going into the second grade and only one year away from being baptized. Seven just seems so old for my little shadow, I guess. She had a great birthday. Donuts, lunch date with Mom and Dad, and dinner and birthday cake the day before so she could celebrate with Daddy, then zipping up to Utah so that the Ute Stampede could throw a parade in her honor! We then went up to Salt Lake to stay with Aunt Jan and it was pretty much a birthday weekend for this little pile of cuteness. Lots of family and lots of fun.

Benson was a dedicated helper to her as she opened her gifts. It is so fun to watch her when she had a big reaction, because she is so measured in her response almost always. Olivia worked and worked on a little scrapbook/journal for Kate that was just such a labor of love and is so sweet. I sure love this little birthday girl.

We had a fun time in Nephi and SLC, even though it was a short up and back trip. We took the kids to this huge sports store with a ferris wheel inside and that was awesome. They had this statue of Honest Abe outside and these three crazies felt like they needed their picture taken with him. Katelyn felt that she did NOT. 

Ferris wheels are as intense as I remembered, but we all had a great time.

We stopped in Nephi on the way home so grandma could show the kids all her old stomping grounds and then we drove home in a big electrical storm. Good times.

I don't actually know why I took this picture, but it is an accurate depiction of summer mornings. Maybe I just thought their underwear-sporting cereal eating was cute. They are quite the gang.

Benson, my tiny baby boy, turned THREE! THREE!!!! How, I ask you. We had birthday donuts and then snuggled up to watch 'Moana,' as requested.

The kids helped me pick his presents and he loved them all. We went out to dinner and just had a fun day celebrating this light of our lives. Benson makes everyone's day brighter and sweeter! Utterly mystified that my tiny baby is three (and yes, I will persist in calling him my tiny baby until the end!).

We decided we really needed to send the summer off right, so the kids and I headed up to Utah for one last hurrah. We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa A, visited and went out for ice cream with Grandma Sugar, went coking several times (drives with a soda pop), and spent all day for three glorious days at Aunt Trina's house, playing with cousins and friends. Shawna and Jodi came over on Tuesday and we just solved all the world's problems. Best time ever to have that Marie/Trina time! Even got the long-desired butter beer from Fiiz on the way home. It was awesome.

Otherwise we've been doing our back to school shopping and feeling a little nervous about this next week, where we have four days of babysitting, guests coming to stay, back to school nights, visiting teaching, Relief Society meetings and other adventures. It's a good life, that's for sure.