Staycation

Since our family camp Aspen Grove vacation was cancelled I hunted for an air bnb with a pool.  We rented the basement of a house with an awesome pool.  We played at parks in the morning and swam all afternoon and watched movies at night.  It was just what we needed.  The kids even did an amazing job driving the 6.5 hours.  It was great to see their swimming skill pick right back up from last summer.  The twins were a little hesitant at first but quickly remembered what to do.  It is so fun to watch the kids be so confident in the water.  I don't think I was ever like that.

Maverick really loves chess right now and lucky for him the house had a set.

Watching TV in their swim suits (Bluey is the favorite right now)

My sister and her family came by one night to play with us since they were near by visiting Preston's family.

Lark liked this little play room the house had.

Lark was not interested in going down the slide, Olive tried it once, but the big kids all loved it.

We played at the park one day with my friend from high school and her kids.

Nixon is younger than Maverick and Violet by about 6 weeks, but is a tad taller than Autumn.

I took the girls school shopping since masks are required in the county we were staying in.  The girls were so excited.

Our attempt at a picnic on the drive home from our vacation.

Fourth of July

No traditional pancake breakfast or parade, but probably my favorite fourth of July in a long time.

David and Linda helped Evan move furniture during the day.  Then we made dinner on the George Foreman Grill.  We had Popsicles outside and did small fireworks out back.  The neighbors put on a pretty large show that we also watch.  The kids enjoyed playing in the backyard and we even had an impromptu soccer game.

Korey's Visit

One of my favorite things about summer is seeing my family.  I knew it would be challenging to make that possible this year so we invited my niece to come stay with us for a week.

We went to the Children's Village.

Instead of a craft they gave all the kids a small shovel and told them to have at it with a huge pile of dirt.

Hail storm

The kids spent a lot of time playing made up games in the back yard and Autumn using Korey's roller blades.

We decorated cookies with red, white and blue sprinklers.

Lark is a great friend to Olive.  Lark is clever and fun and has a great imagination.

She also stinks at going to bed at night.

I reserved some spots at the splash pad weeks before I knew Korey was visiting, so Olive played at Grandma's for a couple hours.

Again after much begging I finally let the girls do some face masks

Making signs for their secret club

The weather is unpredictable in Cheyenne. (Autumn looks really tall here because she was on Korey's roller blades)

I forced the kids to watch TV every afternoon, so I could take a breather.  Korey introduced us to "The Descendants" Movies.  The soundtracks have been playing non stop every since.

Had to do a quick book pick up at the library so I made the kids pose in front of the many boots.

Park! 

The kids loved that I let them all sleep together in the basement. Since the kids woke Korey up early every morning she was tired every night and promptly went to bed and luckily the other kids followed suit.

Our art project this week was soap carvings

checking another thing off our summer bucket lis (sno-cones)