A decent portion of July

Okay, as you might remember we ended June and began July with Chuck up at Scout camp - which meant we had a lot of time to kill and oh man it was hot. Thursday night we found ourselves over at Settlers Park and the kids had a great time - Carma enjoyed the splash park muuuch more than she had the previous month in Utah, so I was glad.

In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we didn't blink an eye at going back the next night with the Swensons! The fact that Carma had a different swimsuit that I wanted an excuse to put her in played only a minor role in the decision ;).

I generally attempt something of a craft-like nature while Chuck's out of town; on this occasion it was a sign for Jack's room. He was excited about the Star Wars reference and not excited about the noise that the Cricut made, whoops! And please enjoy the 'after' picture, which is really a picture of Carma crawling all over Jack while he sleeps :).

More pictures while Chuck was gone - we ate a lot of ice cream, slept wherever we dropped (aka Carma on the floor, Clyde on a couch, Will in Jack's toddler bed with him hahahaha), Clyde made jewelry out of silly putty, we took lots of selfies to send to Chuck. Not too different from our regular daily lives, honestly.

We were very excited for Chuck to come home though, and busted out the paint and crayons for a welcome home sign.

The Scout campers got home on Saturday morning, July 4th - just in time for the ward breakfast and bike parade, wooo! The rest of the day was spent unpacking and hanging out and then we headed over to Middleton that night for the fireworks.

A couple nights later we found ourselves hanging out at Grandma Pam's while Chuck and Cody worked on Cody's jeep a bit. The kiddos really love Grandma's new house (and its proximity to the park!!) and it's so fun to see how she's made it her own and all the cute little touches here and there.

Chuck headed out later that week for a three day Super Activity for the youth - then went to the Twin Falls area, stopping first at the temple there to do baptisms and then camping and swimming at... Thousand Island? Thousand Peaks? Thousand Brain Cells I've Lost Since Turning 30? WAIT, THOUSAND SPRINGS. Nailed it.

Whenever Chuck and I bust out that elusive post all about his summer adventures, we'll cover this one in more detail ;). Chuck was in charge of the food and holy moly I was so happy when that was done!

Three days without Chuck was much less daunting that the six we'd done the week before, and happily we had lots of fun adventures lined up, including an afternoon at the river with Grandpa!

I very happily stayed on dry ground and let my dad handle all water-related activities. That day was also the debut of Carma's little pigtails!!

The kids got to spend some time the next day at Grandma Pam's while I went to the temple, aka my happy place. (it even outranks Savers/DI/Target/Costco... which is obviously saying something...)

And Chuck got home safely the next afternoon, despite the randomly intense rainstorm that took out our (recycled) welcome home sign and proved too much for the boys to weather out on the trampoline, even with their towels hahahaha.

They must not have been too traumatized because the next night we ran over to Grandma's to get some energy out and they hit up the park despite another quick rainstorm. Cute little crazies!!

Oh, once upon a time I got a groupon (still my only one to date...) for the local roller skating rink and Chuck and I took the older two boys and it was soo fun and funny and basically we just acted out the frozen pond scenes of Bambi over and over again. Highlights were Chuck and I getting to hold hands and take a few laps (I may have closed my eyes and pretended I was back in 4th grade and actually skating during the 'couples only' songs of Liberty Elementary skate night...) and Will including himself when referencing kids who are 'really good at skating'- what he may lack in skill he makes up for in confidence!!

That same night was girls' night, which I almost skipped and am so glad I didn't! All seven of us were together (which hadn't happened since our March day trip) and it was one of those real emotional nights with tears and love and support and pie shakes and I'm grateful I was there.

In other news, sometimes I lie down on the couch and I guess I make it look really fun? and then children join me.

Carma got to visit a pediatric endocrinologist in July to discuss why her length has randomly fallen wayyyy low on the growth charts. She's still growing, just at a much slower rate than she was before. It was a good appointment, we talked a lot (hence handing Carma my wallet to keep her entertained...) and decided to keep watching her for the next few months and then re-evaluate. And their office furniture had jokes on the upholstery and it was basically the best thing ever.

Oooh, I got to take Naomi on a Sunday School kids adventure in July!! So, so fun. We wandered around Hobby Lobby forever (it was honestly my first time ever in that store - it's huge! and fun!) and then got lunch and frozen yogurts at Costco and just had a great time talking. Naomi was one of the girls in our van on the Oregon trip a couple of years ago and she is just the most genuine, nice, caring, helpful fun girls you'll ever meet. Love love her!

Chuck and Clyde sneaked out early one morning for some target shooting. Love Clyde's little eye patch while he works out coordination with closing one eye and using the scope!

 These pictures (along with the ones from shooting) were from Chuck's phone, which makes sense because he's loads more fun than I am and would coordinate the sprinkler and trampoline!

July brought more swimming lessons, wooo! The boys were in different levels and both loved it.

 Aaaaand another little Izatt boy joined the fun! I told Jack earlier in the month that if he made the choice to switch from diapers to underwear, he could take swimming lessons. He thought it over and agreed and somewhere a heavenly chorus broke into song :). It took a couple follow-up incentives (aka he could only wear Star Wars shirts on the days he wore underwear hahahaha) but it was seriously such a pain-free process. Yay for waiting until a kid is 3 1/2!! And awesomely, he ended up being the only little swimmer in his class so he got the amazing Claire all to himself for two weeks! She was so good at helping him overcome his initial anxiety and hesitancy. Loved her.

And of course Will designated himself as the sideline coach - despite my repeated reminders that he was to just sit and WATCH and refrain from calling out helpful tips and pointers hahaha.

We got to have the ridiculously sweet Alyssa over a few times at the end of July/beginning of August, and one time we grabbed all of her brothers too! The Cunninghams are some of my favorite kids around and we loved having them here.

And finally, some random shots: Will and Carma on the trampoline, me and Carma, the kids at a movie while Daddy was gone (spoiler alert: Carma and I spent the whole time in the lobby. in a power struggle re: eating old popcorn off the floor), Chuck sending me selfies of the younger kids sitting nicely on the bleachers at swimming lessons WHICH THEY NEVER DO WHEN I'M WITH THEM, Clyde Monster and his legos, and a post-Board of Review selfie I took because why not.

YAY July! At some point (possibly here in 2016) I'll post about our mid-month trip to Lagoon with Chuck's family and then it'll be onto August which is inside of six months ago, sooo I'd say that's pretty recent!