Last Days of Summer Celebration!

The time has come! ONE day left until school starts! Since tomorrow will officially be a school night and we have a lot of activities/errands to run during the day, we celebrated the end of summer Saturday and today. Here's a bit of what we did:

Because of the fires in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, we've had a "stay inside away from breathing the unhealthy air" alert for the last three days. On Saturday the kiddos were going crazy, which in turn was driving me crazy. They needed exercise desperately, so after a panicked call to my wise mother, she suggested I take them up to the BYUI campus and let them run on the indoor track there. Genuis.

Running very reverently up the stairs outside the I-center.......four times!

AFTER running up the stairs.

Amelia ran--if it's possible--like a ballerina. Her arm was held out gracefully with her fingers held as though she was doing a plie.

After a run around the track, they were sufficiently pooped, so we went home!

Sunday was a little clearer, so it wasn't as hard to entertain them. Monday morning we ran to Blackfoot for the morning, then stopped in Idaho Falls to hit iJump. For entire hour they jumped, flipped, ran, dodgeball-ed, and slid on the trampolines:

Here's a couple videos:

Cooper takes awhile to gear up for the flip, but eventually he commits.

Finally, we headed back to Rexburg and our "good-bye" summer dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe:

Stay tuned for first day of school pictures, coming on Wednesday!

And the Countdown Begins!

NINE days until school starts again! We are finishing up summer activities while we have the time, because once school starts any "downtime" will be few and far between!

Cooper has almost earned his Wolf badge in scouts. I'm learning that having a son in scouts is fun, interesting,......and lots of work! :-)  Here are pictures of Cooper completing his "make something useful with wood" requirement. Amelia did as well because whatever one of them does, the other must follow!

"Mom! It appears that using a hammer and nails is fun!"

Amelia's bookcase/ends.

Cooper's finished bookcase/ends. As soon as we took this picture, he removed the books, flipped the bookcase over, and it's been a bench for Teddy ever since.

The weather cooled off for a few days last week, and it was perfect talking-a-walk-weather. I can't wait for autumn!

We also visited the Museum of Idaho's Pirate exhibit with Mom and Dad. It was a lot of fun, even if it did change Cooper's view of the pirate world!

Standing in front of the be ship outside.

All the mannequins were very life-like.

Cooper enjoyed seeing all the real pirate artifacts, and he and Amelia even got to touch real pieces-of-eight!

Next up: Party in the Park, school registration, haircuts, and last-minutes summer parties!

Wrapping Up July

July ended quickly, and now August is filled with last minute summer activities, school registration (3rd and 6th graders!), school shopping, and general easing back into the grind. Here's how we spent our last days of July:

Eating pizza with lots and lots and lots of parmesan!

Getting two teeth pulled, and handling it........better.

Practicing baking tummy ticklers to enter into the EISF this year. They'll be going up against each other. Should be fun.

Being silly.

Perfecting brownies.

Baking white chocolate chip macadamia cookies. 

Hanging out with Katie and David, Klaus and Opa!

Taking in a Chukar's game.

Being a little disappointed baseball doesn't have a halftime show.

That's it! On to August!

July Moves On.....

Amelia and Cooper have reached the ages where they enjoy playing board games. 40-card Uno (they deal out the whole deck to each other), Life, Candyland, etc. They especially like Battleship, where the seriousness level reaches top proportions. They even try to"covertly" spy (or CHEAT) by sneaking glances at the other's board. Must be those Wilson genes! :-)

However, I bought Monopoly for them awhile back but I wasn't sure they were ready for it. Well, one of them was:

Another, not quite so much:

Cooper RULED the game, buying all the high-yield properties, dodging any jail time, and spending money so much (he was down to $11 once) I thought for sure he'd go bankrupt.

He ended up winning the whole game with $2,675 and all my and Amelia's mortgaged properties. If he's that good when he grows up--watch out world!

Another fun event was Missy having her colt:

Cooper also had scout day camp last week. He had so much fun, and it was nice for him to go somewhere without Amelia and I. He enjoyed it so much he's heading back next week for the water days!

While Cooper was hanging at scout camp, Amelia and I went to a lovely ladies lunch and spent the afternoon running errands and watching Property Brother's episodes:

She scored the front seat because we were having a "grown-up" day.

At Applebee's:

We're down to about 4 weeks of summer left, which is exciting and sad. These weeks tend to be the "dog days" of summer, but hopefully we'll get through them. Good news is the college kids will be gone for 7 weeks, so I don't have to worry about cussing out loud when we're driving around town. :-) We still have a ball game to attend and these three are visiting:

                                                            Hooray!

4th of July 2015!

After much debating, we decided to give the parade one more try this year. We attended a flag raising ceremony and breakfast put on by our ward, then sat down in our seats to wait for the parade. I chose a new place this year and it worked out really well. NO ONE stood in front of us! Of course, we were further up from the park and right in the sun. Luckily, no one was behind us either, so I could have my umbrella up the whole time. Not one burn! Here's some pictures of the parade:

This is our bagpipe brigade.

This is a giant shopping cart car.

 After we got home from the parade, the kiddos divvied up the candy:

 Cooper's pile is MUCH larger because Amelia couldn't eat most of the candy thrown. Cooper was gracious enough to take it off her hands.

After two of us took naps, we headed to the rodeo. It's the first year we've gone, and I'd love to make it a tradition. Amelia agrees, but Cooper isn't QUITE as sure. He loved the herding dogs during the mini bull riding, but wasn't impressed with the rest of the competitions. Part of the time he was trying to process the fact Uncle Ben used to ride bulls.

 It's difficult to take pictures of a rodeo, because everything moves so fast! Here's a quick on of the bareback broncs, after the cowboy fell off.

Ben, Kim, Matthew, and Conagher were also there. Things got a little crazy for a bit.....

After the rodeo was over, we stayed for a firework show. It was a fun night, and overall I think the kids really liked it. Hopefully we can do it again next year!

July So Far!

Summer is moving right along in our home. Amelia taught her summer ballet class with two friends on Tuesday. She did a GREAT job, and as I watched her I realized just how little I know about ballet!

It's been hot the last week. Really hot. So hot it's been hard to sleep at night, even with a fan blowing right on us. Amelia found a creative way to have a tent:

The heat has also made children a little silly:

What do you do in this crazy heat? Go to the spray park! Here we were having a picnic after playing. Right after I took this Cooper started chasing seagulls, waving his Go-gurt at them and yelling.

We also babysit our adorable little downstairs neighbor, Gwen. Amelia holds her while Cooper talks to her in a voice so high dogs begin barking. I wish my fat rolls were as cute as hers:

Finally, we visit family and play with cousins:

Onward to July! Here's hoping the heat dies down just a little bit!