We had a good summer - shows at the library (Savannah), ice cream outing, biking and playing at the school, bowling, beach, museum, scout trips, swimming lessons, and daily routines.
We did the Kids Bowl Free program - Alex bowled with us a few times too. His goal was to beat me. He finally did that at the end of the summer (beat me by a few points, although he got a free strike when the system was having problems...). My highest bowl of the summer was 179. I did that early on and then couldn't ever beat that score again. Savannah doesn't need the ramp to roll the ball down anymore, so it was a little more enjoyable.
Alex and Grandma Fay would be proud to know the kids aren't afraid of snakes. They were very fascinated with this one at the museum. I like snakes when someone is holding them and showing them off. However, I don't like coming across one in the wild.
Alex, Nathan, Jared, and Owen went on a scout backpacking trip. Owen wasn't technically old enough to go, but Alex asked if he could come. He was very excited to go backpacking for the first time.
This next scout trip was to Emerald Bay - Alex and Jared went on this one in August. They left at about 4:30am (the picture in the dark). He had one other early morning, choosing to go on a sunrise hike, reaching the summit at 4:30am (I think they had to get up at 2:00am).
Weston and Savannah did swim lessons this year. Owen probably needed to, but he didn't want to go. Savannah made a little progress, but I'm not sure Weston did. They were both recommended to repeat the same level. They had fun though. Watching Weston try to do backstroke was like watching a crab on its back in the water. His knees were bent and he couldn't figure out how to get his arms to move correctly. Weston overcame his fear of jumping off the diving board.
I made scones and faux clotted cream for an international night at church - pretty yummy and I finally got to use my tray from England.
The apple tree picture was actually taken by Nathan when we had an earthquake this summer. He thought it would be funny to joke about all the apples that fell off the tree during the earthquake. I don't think any actually fell off then, but we had a massive number of apples that fell on the ground each day. I spent quite a bit of time picking up rotten apples and peaches from our trees. Alex made some apple pie when he was here, but he was gone quite a bit of the summer. I didn't continue with his new pie making hobby.
The kids went running with me 3 times a week during the summer. They weren't too excited about it, but they got out there. Jared ran too, but he did his own run. Owen, Weston, Savannah, and sometimes the dog ran 1-2 miles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. They started out with just a half mile, but by the end of the summer, they were doing 2 miles. Savannah is a good little runner. Weston complained the most. Owen loved when Kai ran with us. The 3 youngest are still running before school at 6:30 on Tuesday and Friday mornings.
The last picture is the cleanest you'll ever see the Lego room. Before our friends came to stay with the kids during trek, I decided to clean it up. It took a good 2 days to get it cleaned up. Wish I had the before picture... We now have Lego boxes covering all of the empty wall space, which means we can't get any more Legos. Right?
I thought our summer routine went well. I introduced a new chart. Weston despises "the LIST" (think of him saying that in an evil voice). But the chart gave some structure to our days and kept them from being on their devices all day. They got a lot of outside time in and a little bit of reading and writing. Here's what they had to do M-F: Prayer, Make Bed, 15 minutes Exercise (MWF run), Eat breakfast/dishes, Shower, 15 minutes Scriptures, 15 minutes Reading, 10 minutes Writing, Clothes put away, Room Clean, Outside time (to earn screen time), Eat lunch/dishes. They could earn a maximum of 3 hours screen time to be used between 12:30 and 5:30pm.
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