Odds and Ends from Summer

It's only a few more days until my littles head back to school.  This year I will have two sprites in jr high, that makes me feel a little closer to the old side than I have before.

However, before we head back to books and teachers and lunch rooms, I thought we'd share some bits and pieces of summer that didn't make it into the stream of posts yet (mostly because I want my kidlets to remember this stuff too, even if it isn't flashy and thrilling).

We made several kinds of jam (plum, apricot, and raspberry).  All are tasty and we got to share some with a few of our neighbors as well.  Every member of the family got in on the action and that made it really fun for me.

We spent a lot of time playing in our backyard pool.  This little stunt happens to be Bryce "surfing" on his father's back.  Oh the antics a pool brings out.  Good times.

We endured a couple of power outages.  We always do.  Grrrr.  This one found us without power for several hours so we ended up moving the perishable fridge items into coolers and buying some bags of ice.  Of course, the power came on -- no kidding -- moments after we poured the ice over the food.  Awesome.

We visited the library every week, and since our local library is closed we had to venture to the West Valley City library where we discovered a water feature just north of the parking lot.  The kids LOVED it and we played here on a couple different trips on really hot days.  Fabulous!

We laughed at our little balls of personality as they let themselves go wild!

We spent time with cousins a few times and perfected our bread making skills.  Yuuuuum!

We huddled around a back yard fire and roasted marshmallows.

We attended an AMAZING (seriously, it was awesome!!!) fireworks display a few days after the 24th.  Incredible! (Thanks so much to the Gull family for letting us tag along.)

We welcomed new extended family members to the group (hopefully they can learn to endure this growing pack of nut jobs we love to call family)...

enjoyed the beauty of clouds (picture by Parker)...

built back yard forts...

and I FINALLY found an inexpensive bed spread for my room that I don't hate and that isn't covered in flowers.  That was a feat!

Mostly, this summer just rocked for us.  It was full of time together and that is just the way we like it.  

As our kids continue to get older we have less and less control of their time (frown).  They branch further and further out as they work to become the independent souls they want to be.  They want to spend time with their friends or alone in their rooms and sometimes they want absolutely nothing to do with our family.  Sometimes that stings a bit.  Sometimes it isn't my favorite (ok, it's pretty much never my favorite).  

But even as everyone slowly grows up and away (which is exactly what they are supposed to do), small moments like these mean even more to me to me.  These snippets of togetherness are bright spots in life that remind me that we DO enjoy each other, that we DO remember how to have fun together, that we DO look forward to an eternal happily ever after as a family. 

I love these people more than anything and I am very grateful to have them as my partners in crime, my comedic relief, my shoulders to cry with, my moments of frustration, my kitchen help, my reluctant yard workers, my dance partners and everything else.   That is what family is all about.