Summer's End

Oh summer. How fleetly you fly. Here's some of the things we did to wrap up our holiday:

We spent as many hours as possible at the pool. This year we got a little more involved in the maintenance of the place. We checked the water and kept the pool-vac and chemicals going from time to time while the real care-takers were out of town. As always it was a wonderful retreat from the heat. 

We had a lot of fun with the chicks that we got in the spring. I can't remember if I already mentioned this, but this year, only half of our chickens were roosters. That's a better ratio than last year, which is sad. But here are the two we got to keep, which happened to be our favorites. When we were purchasing our chicks this year we were trying for a breed called Frizzled Bantams and the two who were actually frizzled were the two roosters. So...neither of our girls here were frizzled at all. One, the white one, was the puffiest cutest sweetest little poof of a chicken ever. EVER. She would sit on our laps and let us stroke her and she was the very softest thing ever. Also she could fly and escaped the coop at least a hundred times a day. We gave up on trying to keep her in. The smaller one was Chase's choice at the chicken store - she was a Japanese Bantam and what a beauty! And so so soft. Loved sitting on shoulders. And also...could fly. She roosted in the trees every night. What fun these little chickies are.

Troy and I were absolutely tickled to have a chance to get together with a dear old group of friends. Troy and Kathleen came in to town and rallied the troops for a Cafe Rio dinner and a long night of laughing and talking and getting parental therapy from each other. I adore these people.

Stranger Things Season 3. That was a fun big part of our summer as well. Troy and Romney took it on first and I didn't allow myself into the living room while they were watching. I wasn't ready to commit to it yet - that show is one of those slippery slopes where once I start there is no stopping. So I kept clear and listened to their shrieks of horror and shock with suspense. Finally I got my turn and the video here is the result.

Emma and Anna got to take part in apple camp and they each got to design their own parks. They had a great time but it isn't quite the same now that the camp isn't having kids make their own home movies. Good times though - I always appreciate the apple store folks who put on the camps.

I got asked to help out with a church calling - running activities for girls aged 7-11. My partner Emily and I planned a dinner/late-over/movie night and then suddenly Emily wasn't available. I was terrified. EIGHT little girls and I had to feed them, provide them with a sundae bar and pick a movie for them to watch. And guess what. It was awesome. We had a great time and the girls were really cute. And guess what else - no one complained about my movie choice! (Enchanted) They actually watched it. What a fun evening.

It wouldn't be summer without the zoo.

Peter and Sheri enlisted me (again.) to be the child-watcher/mover on the day of their big Spartan race. I do not love this job. I do not love navigating the massive crowds and the heat of a July day with a gang of children in tow. But I love Peter and Sheri and their kids and so I do it and it all worked out. I will never run this race. I am slightly dreading next July in case they ask me again.

Chase dyed his hair purple. I liked it more than I thought he would. I think he did this in the spring as well but this time we went purply-er.   More purple. I predict additional dyes in the future.

Troy and Chase went to Yellowstone. I'm hoping to get him to post about that but maybe I'll just post a giant string of pictures. In the meantime, the girls and I went to see The Lion King at the drive-in movie theater where we learned that our car battery can not play the radio for an entire movie without dying. Thank you nice people in the truck next to us. Next summer we will bring a battery-powered radio. We had a great time though.

We also ate gelato.

Here is a group of very very cute friends. They hung out a lot before sending the eldest of the group off to BYU Hawaii. I was very proud of my two teenagers for hanging out in the same social group. That is not something I ever experienced. At least not while in high school.

The last weekend of the summer, Romney got a birthday present, which was a ticket to see Cinderella. I looked forward to this all summer long. It was the only thing that made me feel okay about summer ending. I loved this summer more than I've ever loved a summer before.

I just want to see Cinderella one more time.