Okay, this first photo has nothing to do with summer, but I just thought it was funny. This pretty pink stroller has become one of Matt's favorite things.
And now to summer fun:
We hit the ground running last Friday. It was the last day of school, and the kids had a half day. So we went to the store to load up on a weekend's worth of snacks, laid out 14 pieces of bread for a stack of sandwiches (which Ben says is my favorite thing to do -- make rows of sandwiches), and packed up the cooler for an afternoon in the mountains. Our favorite little lake is called Wild Bill. It is a cute little man-made pond up behind Red Lodge. It has several piers with benches, good outhouses, and tons of stocked fish just waiting to be caught.
Almost every time one of the kids cast, they caught one. Occaisionally one would get loose, but we caught dozens. We released most of them -- not always because they were too small, but because we just didn't need that many in the freezer. And Grace named each and every one of them. It's harder to gut the darned things when they are named "Joey", "Gracie", "Andrew", etc. Although, Haley was a little put out when Ben released one of hers, and it promptly died and floated to the bottom of the pond.
(Side-note: Grace is busy drawing with her new bag of goodies from our neighbor. She told me to come look at her lips, because she just put chapstick on. It was actually a glue stick.)
So we had a great time catching fish after fish, eating our cooler full of loot, and driving back home. We saw what appeared to be a wolf crossing the road at a million miles an hour. We're not sure, though. It was a blur. We were back home in record time.
The boys are at basketball camp (Joey's first one). They also have First Tee today. Next week is volleyball camp for Haley (who is at work right now), and Cub Scout camp for Andrew, along with swimming lessons (by Aunt Kelsey), and two more golf camps. It sounds like we're over-scheduled, but we're not. We just have a lot of kids.
Oh, and before I forget, I must say "thank you" again to our friend, Chris. He was in Primary on Sunday with Joey when the latter decided he needed to stick himself with his EpiPen because he thought he stepped on a peanut. So he did. Chris quickly confiscated the needle after Joey plunged it into his thigh. Joey had only held it in for one second, not the 10 seconds it takes to get the full injection. Thank goodness. At least we know he can do it, right? We had a long discussion on what it will feel like when he really needs his EpiPen. I think we've got it straightened out. Lesson learned: I need to not only inform his caregivers on what anaphylaxis looks like, but inform Joey what it will feel like. The last time it happened, he was only a one-year-old, so he doesn't remember. But good job to Joey, for wanting and being able to save your life, and good job to Chris for being there so we didn't have to take Joey to the hospital for an unnecessary injection of epinephrine.
I had to throw this one in, too. I came down the stairs last week and saw that these two (Andrew and Grace) had decided to take a nap. It was pretty cute. Grace was sacked out on the trunk. They both woke up sopping with sweat, and they were up until 10:30. No more naps for these two.
