Fun Visitors

In the middle of July, my parents and my grandma (grandma chocolate),  came for a quick weekend trip for the kids' baseball tournaments. 

When our visitors arrived, the kids had their brackets ready for their tournament for our visitors to fill out. 

We had a wonderful and fun packed weekend.

Grandma was so sweet and even brought fun presents for the kids.

Emmy's favorite part was having grandma chocolate do her hair and scratch her back.

 Of course we had to make some Papa pancakes while they were here!

We were lucky to have such fun people come for the weekend to cheer us on in our fun adventures.

Swim Team

This past summer, the kids participated on a swim team.  Hyrum started swimming last year, but took a break for football and then rejoined the team in June.  Ben and Emmy decided to join in July.

Hyrum was able to participate in a couple of  swim meets during the summer. Hyrum did such a wonderful job. The particular event that he swam the most was the 50 back.  He even qualified for regions with his time! However, he got disqualified for an illegal turn.  He actually was disqualified a couple of times during various meets. We look at these opportunity as a time for learning correct habits and technique of swimming.

The whole family went in July to cheer him on at his regional meet.  He did a wonderful job! We were so proud of him.

At the end of the summer the kids had a swimming banquet and even received some awards for their participation on the team.  Emmy received the sunshine award for being always happy and friendly to others. Ben received the best dry land performance award. Dry land is when the swimmers do exercises on land to help them be a better swimmer. Hyrum received the award, "Is there dry land today?"  Hyrum wasn't a big fan of dry land, but he stuck with it and continued to improve and be better. 

It was a fun season of swimming for our kids!!

Bike Wash

One of the things the kids really enjoy doing each summer is having a bike wash. 
The kids fill up buckets with soap and water.  The kids make sure to ride their bikes through the muddle puddles on our road to make them nice and dirty!  The kids then line up their bikes to get them all washed down and clean!

I only took one picture of their grand adventures with the water, mud and bikes.

There is usually lots of water and fun!

Fourth of July Fireworks

Brandon's favorite holiday is the Fourth of July.  The main reason he likes the holiday so much is because of all the fireworks.

Brandon is always eager to share his love for explosives with everyone.

The kids were excited to wear glow sticks and play with sparklers.

It is easy to see in these pictures that the kids had a blast all day long!

The only bummer of the day is that when the time came for the huge firework show, it was raining hard.  We opted to watch from our car. The fireworks were still amazing. 

Blanding Fun

There is always something to do at Aunt Julene's house and many people to play with.

The kids love playing outside on the swing set and trampoline.

Also, there are other fun games to play outside.

We also spent a lot of time playing card and board games with all the cousins.

Plus, Aunt Julene always has an activity or too planned.  This year, she planned for the kids to make their own play doh! My girls love it!!

We always have a wonderful time at Aunt Julene's house!

Diving for Dollars and Swim Races

 One of our favorite part of the festivities, for the Fourth of July in Blanding, is the dollar dive and swim races.

The kids were anxious to participate and were ready to go for the dollar dives.  Since we had practically lived at the pool during the summer, the kids were very comfortable in the water.

Lucy even participated a little bit this more this year than last year and ended up with a few quarters.
 Lucy insisted on wearing her goggles for the dollar dive, but she never put them over her eyes...silly girl!

Emmy and Ben's age group was next for the dive for dollars. 

Ben did a great job and ended up with a few dollars.

I didn't even see Emmy before the dive for money.  She was able to find the most money out of my kids.

Hyrum went last and found a great amount of money too.

Next, was the swim races.

Emmy took third and Ben took second in their age group (they had girls and boys race together).

Hyrum won his heat and then he had to swim immediately after he his first swim for the finals. He took third and did an awesome job.

I was so proud of my kids and how well they did in the races. They swam hard, had good form and had fun.