July iMoments

I took this picture the night before Joey was blessed. He was all bathed and sleeping in my bed and my heart just wanted to freeze the moment. He's growing up way too fast.

Joey is determined to be a thumb sucker! And I caught the little stinker in the act! :)

And this was too adorable. Joey held on to Danny's ear for almost a half hour while he watched our show with us. This kid is so cute it almost hurts!

Can you tell a lot of our moments are Joey Moments? :) Johnny absolutely loves his little brother. Every day he asked me to take a picture of them together. I love it.

I've been working hard to involve the kids in the kitchen more. They are all so interested in cooking, and they want to help all the time! I'm just not very patient and would rather do it myself. But Sophie wanted to handle dinner one night, and she made us grilled cheese all by herself! They were the best grilled cheese I had ever had.

Our older kids know who rules to roost around here. Claire decided to make it official one morning. "All Hail King Joseph!"

We haven't been able to make it to the garden nearly as often this year, but we still try to go once a week and help Grandma and Papa out. Watching these kids work on a garden project in their swimming suits was just too cute!

Johnny got his first bee sting while we were swimming at the school one afternoon. It was highly traumatic for him, since it really came out of no where! I was glad to know that he's not allergic to bees, though. :)

Early on in the summer I bought popsicle molds, and the kids and I have put them to good use! We made Healthy Strawberry-Lime popsicles, Airhead XTremes Rainbow posicles (pictured), and Cake Batter popsicles. It's been so much delicious fun!

Claire, Sophie, and Johnny all completed their next level of swimming lessons this month, which makes two completed sessions this summer. I was told at the beginning that all the kids would likely have to repeat the level, which was normal for every kid. But all my kids passed!! Little fishes they is. :)

And with the garden producing, the zucchini and summer squash are coming into my kitchen in force! We've had a lot of sautéed zucchini as a side with dinner, as well as plenty of zucchini noodles. But we've done A LOT of baking this year, too! We've made a few batches of Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins and a Browned-Butter Zucchini Coffee Cake which were both huge hits. But my personal favorite is the Glazed Lemon Poppyseed Summer Squash Bread. It is to die for! I love summertime!

Dad and John Hike

Johnny has been insistent since the snow melted that he wanted to go on a "Dad and John Hike"...just him and Daddy. And he wanted to make it to the top of Adams Canyon, all the way to the waterfall. Well, the perfect night presented itself when Claire and Sophie were invited to a birthday party and Danny didn't have any meetings scheduled! They packed some PB&Js and some yummy treats for dinner, leashed the dog, and headed out! 

It was 100 degrees when they parked the car and started their ascent. Johnny did awesome, though! They managed 4.37 miles round trip in 3:18 hours. Johnny is developing quite the love of hiking, and both he and Danny enjoyed the time together. I'm sure there will be many more adventures in store for these two!

While Dad Was Trekkin'...

Daddy was going to be Trekkin' for four whole days, so the kids and I were on our own to entertain ourselves. We started out our adventures with an afternoon of swimming with our good friends the Ellsworths. We swam and played for almost six hours with these wonderful people!

And it tuckered us out! Our mornings were slow, since we had only our own schedule to maintain. I love lazy summer mornings in front of cartoons. :)

On Thursday we had Aunt Jenny, Isabelle, Eli, and Ava meet us at the pool for another afternoon of swimming. But after we were done swimming, the kids weren't done partying! So we stopped at McDonald's for some 59 cent ice cream cones, and then the kids came home with me and played the rest of the afternoon away on the slip'n'slide.

By the time Friday rolled around, we were missing our Ellsworth friends, so we met them in Ogden at the Treehouse Museum. It was a blast! Sophie got to participate in the "participlay" as a crow, and she did a spectacular job! Joey and I followed the kids around while they made art, pretended they were POTUS, constructed buildings, and ran diners. It was an absolute blast!

 

 

Finally, Saturday came and our Daddy was coming home! We knew he was going to be hot, sweaty, and dirty...and we could only assume that he would be needing a good home-cooked meal. So the kids and I worked all day on some Moochie's-style meatball subs. When he finally walked in the door, we were all overjoyed! He definitely looked the part of the pioneer, but we were so glad he was off the trail and home again!

And dinner was incredible, if I do say so myself! Danny had an amazing time at Trek, and we had a really good four days at home. But I'm not going to lie...I'm totally okay that Trek won't be for another four years! :)

Trek 2016--"Remember"