My Kids have 3 very favorite things to do....

1. swim, we have done this almost everyday day this summer and they are getting amazing at it and they are sleeping so much better I love exhausted kids....
2. riding their bikes, we tried to teach Gracie how to ride her bike without her training wheels at the start of summer and she got really mad at us it was definitely a no go, then a few days ago she came to me and wanted me to go out with her and teach her it took about 5 minutes and now she goes standing up or no hands or no feet, not to mention that she cruises around super fast all over the place.... 
3. playing in the mud they play in the mud constantly it drives me insane I cannot come close to counting how many times I have cleaned up muddy footprints across my kitchen floor and muddy handprints all over the glass door sometimes it gets so frustrating and then I just have to look at their cute faces and how much fun they are having and I melt.....

Am I the only one who is not ready for summer to end? seriously only a few more weeks and I want to cry this has been the best summer ever we have made a serious effort to appreciate and enjoy every single day and wow it's been amazing!

When Ryan and I got married we always talked about when we had kids we wanted their friends to like to hang out at our house, we wanted them to feel comfortable and have fun there are so many reasons why we wanted our house to be the hang out place and it really is just that we have groups of kids here everyday............... 

 We are so grateful for our kids wonderful friends we love being in an area with so many wonderful people we feel very lucky!

 One thing that we are trying this summer that is new for us is camping out in the backyard I cannot believe how much our kids love this we have done it a few times now and plan on doing it a few more times this summer plus we are calling it practice for our big camping trip and the end of the summer I am not a camper at all so I figure I need all the practice I can get....
   Also in the spirit of practicing the other day our family did something I've never done we went up American Fork canyon just for the fun of it for the day we played games roasted marshmellows ate hot dogs *funny little note Fin will only eat hot dogs and marhmellows cold?

                                     

  Finley is going through a crazy destructive phase I love this child but this phase better end soon everything from digging up the front yard to "fix" my sprinklers to climbing on top of the car with a saw and trying to saw down the garage door...the other day we went to my mom's house and before we left he went into the bathroom turned on the water closed the drain and left it flooded to bedrooms and their walk in closets ruined cabinets and built in bookshelves like I said I love this boy but wow.....

  I loved our 1 rainy day this summer please please can we have a few more we had a blast I originally thought it would be the perfect inside day to let my kids recover from being outside all day everyday for weeks now but no they spent the whole day out in the rain....

So far this has been the best summer ever and things just keep getting better I cannot believe how much fun life is right now with these crazy kids and my wonderful husband!!!

I wish I were better at posting on this little blog there are so many things that I don't want to forget and I keep thinking we are going to slow down but we just haven't.  Evacuating taught me a couple of things 1) everything in life can just be an adventure for kids had a lot of fun staying at grandpa and grandma's house and 2) Family really is all that matters I'm not trying to say that it's no big deal to lose your house and all of the things I have spent almost 3 decades collecting but seriously family is what matters.
Other then that we have been doing what we do best playing...

 I was trying desperately to come up with inside activities to have my kids do while Gracie was still still recovering they were starting to get so ansy we we decided to make 2 different kinds of slime and an exploding green experiment we had a lot of fun I love doing hands on science stuff with my kids!

 then Gracie's sweet friends came to visit her and brought her these cards the best part is that they brought her a "basket" of treats (probably stuff the grabbed out of the kitchen when moms weren't looking) things like apples bananas oranges the best part was that they brought it to her in a garbage can I love having a neighborhood full of little boys, it's awesome...

 I love how worn out this boy is he plays so hard and so steady he literally plays until he drops

 She is such a little model she loves posing and taking pictures of herself she even got my camera and taught herself how to set the timer and take pictures of herself.

 I figured I might as well include a picture of our fire this is after it had moved away from us originally then it swept around the mountain and headed back towards us.

 
 I don't know why but I couldn't get a good picture of this..this is Finleys first black eye this kids is so stinking tough and this one was a doosey it got super swollen and very dark black before starting to get better and the side of his eye is cut and he will have a scar there for the rest of the summer at least..sorry Fin I should have got you a better picture I have a feeling this won't be the last one..

One of the many things that I look forward to every summer is doing a slip and slide in my parents backyard I love it the kids love it the add some dish soap and it's pretty exciting.

 My favorite thing Finley said to me this week was "hey mom, I have an idea, let's pretend like you are my mom and I'm your boy" I thought I was your mom everyday am I missing something?

okay so this is just a tiny bit of our summer so far Will have to keep working on updating more regularly so that it's not so long I just really have loved this summer with all the craziness it's been a blast!