Summer Living

I have so many ideas and thoughts I'm sifting through. Leland told me my last post was hard to follow, so I'll try to make this one more coherent. (Leland is my editor at this little blog, he takes his job very seriously :) ) I've decided to take a step back from Instagram, for many reasons, but one being that  I really don't like having to put hearts on our little boy's faces. Still I want to record our family life here on the blog. So I'm going to try to do that...with less pictures...or something... (The heart pictures here are from ones I've previously posted on Instagram) Luckily we should be adopting O within the next few months, and Baby Boy is supposed to be out of foster care either way in the coming months. When we do adopt O I will update these old posts and probably go back to posting on Instagram. Unless the compelling hold Instagram has over me sucks me back in sooner...

It has been a little colder this June than normal. Things aren't exactly back to normal yet either. But it's still summer. We finished up school for the year the first we of June. We didn't "finish" everything per say, but we needed summer break so we stopped. That's the nice thing about homeschool. We have been getting out of the house more and having more time to play. It's been nice. The pools around here are still closed, but luckily the splash pads are finally open. We will be going to those this week as soon as it is warm enough.

June 7th was our first week back at church. They divided the ward in half and each half goes every other week. It was Sacrament meeting only and everyone had to wear a mask. It was really small numbers and we were the only people there with little kids. Still it was so nice to go back. I'm not really on board with wearing a mask but I will wear one for church. Now if only the temple would open. I think that one will take longer but I am eagerly awaiting the day. 

After church was rainy. We put the kids in their rain gear and played in the puddles for over an hour. 

For our first annual End of School Year Party, we took the kids to a trampoline park for the first time. The kid LOVED it. They had a half of deal going on and it was practically empty because of the pandemic. Apparently I only got pictures of Israel, but Esther was in heaven. She loves trampolines. Leland too. I on the other hand held Baby Boy most the time, and when I did try and jump I ended up hurting my back. #soold I was sore for a few days but I'm fine now. 

Baby Boy is 11 months old now and crawling all over. We just love him. He is getting cuter and happier everyday. 

Israel loves to cuddle to sleep still. I love it too. 

He is also constantly getting into something, like here with this floss. He is the messiest child I have ever encountered, with toys, food, anything. If five children didn't guarantee that our house is in perpetual state of disaster, he makes sure the job gets done. 

Good thing he's so adorable. 

Last weekend Leland went on a hike and I took all five kids to a park with a creek to play. For about two months going anywhere alone with five children seemed really daunting, but suddenly it wasn't anymore so that's another reason we've been venturing out more. 

Aunt Kel gave Esther a mermaid headband which has worn everyday since. 

The girls have been begging for a campfire and trying to make a campfire in the back yard. (They didn't get far.) So last weekend we took them (and the boys) to the mountains for dinner and a campfire. I was a little wary of so many small children by a fire, but we kept the baby in the stroller and then I kept these three on this rock and fed them s'mores. It was really fun and peaceful. And a nice compromise between Leland and I, who hate and love camping, respectively. 

This picture isn't pretty as the others, but  I feel like it is an accurate representation of motherhood lately. Everyday, someone spills their cereal. Every. Single. Day. Sometimes I try to spare myself the agony and give the messiest children toast instead. It doesn't matter, if a child is having cereal it WILL be spilled. Why do I even buy cereal? I tried to ban cold cereal from this household and the rest of the family revolted. At least I have perfected the art of cleaning it up. A squeegee and a dustpan. So much better than trying to soak this up with a rag or paper towels. Really a squeegee and dustpan is my go to for all kitchen messes. A child breaks an entire jar of pizza sauce on the floor? A toddler dumps a bowl of yogurt of the floor? A child throws eggs out of the fridge? Squeegee and dustpan for all of them. You can thank me later. 

This past week we met up with a homeschool group for a hike. It was mostly a disaster. But I did get to see some of my homeschool friends I haven't seen in forever so that was nice. I'm learning that just because I can take all the children out by myself doesn't mean I should. Some things just need to wait until they're older. 

Today we did two hikes for Leland's work challenge. Lakes Mary Martha and Catherine and Silver Lake. Here is a post from last year when we did these hikes. Israel and Baby Boy were so tiny!!and here are some other years we did these hikes:
Silver Lake 2017

Lake Mary 2016

Silver Lake 2015

The kids did so good on these hikes! We all went up to the first lake, and then Leland went up to the other two with Baby Boy on his back while I stayed and played with the kids at the first lake. 

It was about 1.5 miles up to the first lake and pretty steep. O and Adele hiked almost that whole way up and down themselves! Esther did too. It took forever and we got so many comments but we got it done!

The kids played in this little clump of trees and played house for over an hour while we waited for Leland. Seeing them all playing in nature so nicely together made up for the hardness of it all. 

Israel fell asleep on my back which usually never happens. He was tired. He stayed asleep for more than an hour too. That was quite the workout. 

By the time we got to Silver Lake we were pretty much done, so we just piled all the kids in the triple stroller and got it done quick. It was really crowded too so we were just ready to get out of there. Then we got shakes for dinner and called it a day.