Jubilus July

In two weeks, Dallin begins his night courses to learn how to web develop, Luke starts soccer followed by preschool a few weeks after that, and just like that summer is over! I suppose it seemed a little shorter with Caleb's surgery smack dab in the middle of it, but we still got to do plenty of summer fun. I mean, we had shaved ice pretty much once a week so that is a pretty legitimate summer, if you ask me.

Since we had a whole month of over 100-degree days, we tried to find air conditioned activities since our little place only has one window unit in the kitchen so it can get quite warm in the evenings when that South-West sun blares through the back of the house, unless you are laying on the kitchen floor, with a frozen rice bag on your feet. I actually do sleep with a rice bag that has been in the freezer all day. It works, guys.

We decided to go bowling one Saturday since Luke comments EVERY time we pass Bountiful Bowl, "Hey mom! I have a great idea. We could go bowling since we haven't been there in a long time." This happens quite often seeing as it is on the way to Costco (we often roam Costco for samples and the refrigerated section...) and Swig (guilty pleasure). Caleb was a great cheerleader, enthusiastically clapping after every bowl made by each player. After one game, however, Luke was beyond done, as was Caleb because he was just mad at us that we wouldn't let him chase the balls down the lane after he cheered for us. We made them both bowl one more game, since we paid for two, then let them pretend to play the driving arcade game. I'm pretty sure this is the true reason Luke wanted to go bowling.

We then went to Costco (see? I wasn't lying), and roamed the aisles, while eating ALL the samples because it was sample Saturday. They hooked us with the frozen Italian ice pops, which promptly were dumped on our floor upon returning home as Luke and Caleb attempted to help themselves.

Dallin turned 31-years-old this month! We celebrated by getting him a gift for each of his five senses, since he might be losing a few of them in the upcoming years due to old age. Joking, joking! We got him a haircut for touch, new fishing line for his fly fishing pole for hearing (hear the fish jumping at your line), car fresheners for smell, a game at Top Golf for sight and Tillamook ice cream sandwiches for taste. It was fun to think of something he would enjoy for each sense and Luke only spoiled one of them.

That same weekend was Pioneer Day weekend which meant Utah celebrates ten times as much as the fourth of July, ALL weekend. We started the celebrations with the Handcart Days parade on Friday, which happened be just down the street from us. We packed up a nice picnic dinner, blankets, water and the kids (an extra 9-year-old in tow), and made our way to watch a parade that blew the Fourth of July parade out of the water. We had clowns, jeeps, floats from EVERY stake in Bountiful, Batman, bands galore and, of course, candy. Unfortunately, we had some overzealous parents in front of us that kept swiping candy from in front of the kids. Major parade taboo, right?! One time, Luke was trying SO hard to get some candy, the adults kept swiping it up, and so he rushed to get one little box only to trip and completely face plant it on the asphalt. The adults did not even bat an eye at him, nor did they offer him any of their boxes upon boxes of candy...I'm still a little bitter. Needless to say, that was the end of parade fun (combine hot+tired+overstimulated=major overreaction and falling asleep in the stroller). Before that, though, we still had fun since it was the evening, there was shade and we were in good company with the Kloberdanz family from our old neighborhood.

On the actual Pioneer Day, we swiped the Clearlink ski passes and partied at Snowbird. We took the tram to the summit, were blown away by the beauty and explored the snow-less ski runs. Luke was completely captivated by the tram, instantly asking a million questions about how it works, how we can make one, what makes it go, why does it take us to the top of mountain, how does it carry so many people, why did they make it, why are those people from South Carolina, how come they keep wanting to talk to Caleb, how do we get down, why did it bring all those people up to the top, why did it leave us at the top, etc. etc. My dad sent me a statistic this month that stated, "An average 4-year-old asks 437 questions a day." I think they underestimated...

Anyway, Luke now thinks we need to figure out how to make our own toy tram and I have no clue how to do that and Pinterest has failed me miserably. If you have any thoughts, send them our way.

Our beloved Evans family bought a house up in Kaysville, which is only 15 minutes away, but we are sad they won't be just 5 minutes away anymore, so we have been having them over as much as possible in order to let Kayla and Bryson pack, clean and paint. All the kiddos just play so nicely together and we absolutely love them!

One morning, I drew a race track on the blacktop to encourage Luke and Parker to ride their bikes, since they both are kind of hesitant to give them a good try. They raced for about 5 minutes, then were beckoned to the dirt patch with their vehicles. I'll take the 5 minutes! Even though my butt was so sore that night from squatting down and walking backwards while drawing the whole track.

The rest of our days have been spent eating cold treats, going to Farmer's market, park visits, dance parties and wrestling. Oh my heavens, the wrestling. I think every time that it will end in crying from one involved party or another, but they just keep giggling and squealing.

It has been fun watching Luke get more confident on climbing equipment at parks. He gets so high and is just so much more confident with what his body can do. Caleb loves to explore and try to keep up and we work on building that strength so that he can be right up there with Luke on whatever contraption he has scaled.

One week at Farmer's Market, we found these darling robots and instantly fell in love. Luke has officially initiated him into the family, naming him "Road Splinter," and having him join us on all of our adventures.

One of Caleb's favorite pastimes is coloring. He is getting so good at holding his crayon and will just lay down and color to his heart content. Luke was never a big fan of coloring, so it has been fun to have a colorer. The two of them have also been really loving sensory activities. They make messes, giggle and just love exploring lots of new, weird textures. Okay. So the Cheerios were not a planned activity, but when it is Friday, you just let your kids eat all the spilled Cheerios off the ground and call it a good morning snack mixed with sensory activity because of the stickiness from the honey.

There have been later nights, which means some days Luke just has to take a nap. We cut out naps completely for him a few months ago, but sometimes he just REALLY needs a nap and I'll usually find him just curled up (or completely sprawled out), peacefully snoozing.

Caleb loves to boisterously yell under the crack of the bathroom door anytime anyone is in there and he has been locked out. He will do it for the duration of that person's bathroom visit and it cracks us up every time.

That wraps up July! Can't believe we are more than halfway through 2017. It has been filled with adventures and I'm constantly caught off guard when I catch glimpses of my babies not being so little anymore. I tell them both that they will always be my little lovebugs, to which Caleb giggles and squirms away and Luke replies, "I'm not gonna be your little baby forever, mom." Thanks for that jab in the heart, kid.

Happy last few weeks of summer, all!