The Best Summer Ever

This summer is flying by, and so far it has been the best summer ever!  I think the main thing that has made this summer so great is my state of mind and perspective.  Last summer, I was stressed, feeling down, and anxious.  The kids seemed to fight non-stop, and I felt miserable.  This summer, I feel mentally healthy and happy, the kids have gotten along great, and instead of dreading summer like I usually do, I have been so grateful to be able to be home with the kids every day.  Having a break from school, and having time to reconnect with my friends, and do fun stuff with the kids has been so great!  Spending time with my good friends has made me so happy.  I have had so many great conversations that help me to appreciate my life, and to be happy.  I have loved being able to do whatever the kids want to do.  Swimming, movies, play dates with friends...whatever they want.  Charlie has been busy with basketball the whole month of June.  Skyline has been doing summer camps and tournaments that have taken up a lot of his time and energy--which is great!  He loves basketball, and it gives him a positive outlet for his energy.  And he keeps growing like a weed!!  Charlie is 6'3" now.  I have always predicted that he'll end up 6'4"  (Chuck thinks 6'6"), so we'll see.  Charlie and Carson flew to FL this week to spend some time with my sister and their cousins.  Charlie will go to EFY with his cousin, Madeline, and Carson will hang out with the cousins, swimming, boating, and being spoiled rotten by my sister.  :)  They got there Tues night, and they have gone to amusement parks every day since then.  Wed: Magic Kingdom, Thurs: Islands of Adventure (they got to see the Harry Potter world and ride the Harry Potter ride there), and today Universal Studios. Dina knows how to show kids a good time!  They are lucky they have such a generous Aunt, huh?  She has 6 kids of her own, but she still manages to treat my kids like royalty when they visit.  :)  Anyway, then we are gearing up for a trip to New York.  My mom's summer home in the Catskill mountains is where I spent every summer of my childhood, so it is so great to be able to take my kids there (and get out of the heat!)  I just feel really grateful and happy for all the blessings in my life right now, and I guess I just wanted to share.  I usually hate summers, and feel envious of Chuck getting to go to work every day while I stay home cooped up with the kids, playing referee.  This summer, I feel sorry for Chuck, having to go to work every day while we get to stay home and have fun.  Funny how it's the same situation, but a change in perspective makes all the difference in the world!  

The Last Day of Summer

The last day of summer break I took the kids to the AZ Mills mall to check out the new Sea Life Aquarium and to get a caramel apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  The aquarium was kinda cool, but I didn't think it was worth the admission.  Luckily, we had some free admission coupons from the library, and another coupon, so the five of us got in for $40.  Even still, $8 per person to watch fish swim around in large tanks seemed kinda steep.  Oh well, it was fun to try it out, and the boys really enjoyed it (Cheyanna got bored about halfway through). 

The jellyfish and seahorses were my favorites.  

 They have these glass bubbles below some of the tanks where you can go under, and look up into the tank.  

We got to touch some starfish, sea urchins, and shrimp. 

Here's Carson in the shark tunnel.  See the shark swimming above him?

This is Cheyanna's "I'm done with this!" smile. 

We've always called the AZ Mills mall "the alligator mall" because when the kids were younger, they loved to visit the alligator outside the Rainforest Cafe.  I didn't get any pictures of the apple eating, but man--those are some good caramel apples.  My new favorite is the "around the world" apple with marshmallows and tiger butter.  It is so huge and rich and sweet that Charlie and I share it.  Cade and Carson like the oreo apple. The Rocky Mountain chocolate factory is on the exact opposite side of the mall as the aquarium, so we ended up walking the whole mall, but we managed to get out of there without any major fights and with very little complaint.  Good-bye summer break (and good riddance!).  Welcome back, school year with schedules and routines, and activities, and not being cooped up together in the house all day.  We didn't take any trips this summer, so the summer seemed hotter and longer to me than usual.  I asked the kids on the way home from the mall what their favorite part of the summer was.  Carson, Cade, and Cheyanna said Wet N Wild, and Carson added bowling and Amazing Jake's too.  Charlie said the best part of summer was sleeping in and hanging out with his friends.   My favorite part of the summer was watching Eclipse.  J/K (sort of).  My favorite part of the summer was hanging out with the kids, playing board games with them, going swimming, laughing, and watching Charlie and Carson's basketball games.

Splish Splash

I finally got our disposable water camera developed this week. We bought the camera to take on our cruise last November, and we took a few pictures then, but the water at the beach was so sandy that the underwater shots didn't really work. I remembered to take the camera with me a couple of times that we went swimming this summer, so here are all the pix from the water camera, starting with our cruise--swimming in Magen's Bay on St.Thomas. My mom and Cade

Cheyanna is pretty fearless. She loves riding roller coasters, jumping off of high places, and doing anything dare-devilish. Here she is loving being thrown up into the air.

Here's Cade, enjoying the tropical paradise.

Here are some pictures from a local pool we went to with some friends this summer. It is so nice to have so many great pools nearby that are really inexpensive, and have lots of fun features. This one was 50 cents per kid to get in, and it had two big slides, a lazy river, two diving boards, a whirly swirl, and a kid's jungle gym/slide. All the kids were happy, and because they had friends there, they didn't get into any fights either. Always a plus. Here's Carson with his goggles on.
Grace, Cara, and Cheyanna had fun playing together.

Grace and Cheyanna in front of the jungle gym. Cade bonked his head right above his eye on the play area, and had blood streaming down his face. About 10 lifeguards converged on him, and they had to take him into the first aid area to clean him up and examine the cut. Luckily it wasn't very deep, so he just had to ice it and stay out of the pool for a little while. Of course if there is ever drama, it involves Cade! Thank goodness my friends Sara and Shanie were there to keep Cheyanna happy and busy while I was dealing with Cade's drama.

Cheyanna loves slides. She must've gone down this slide 100 times. And she loved it every time.

It is hard to get a good picture underwater, because you can't see through the water to see what you are taking a picture of. So for all of these underwater shots, I was just guessing how close to get, and where to point and click. Some turned out OK. Here's Charlie underwater.

Here are some pictures from the Wagner's pool the day before school started. Our friends, the Wagners, are so nice to let us swim in their pool anytime. And my kids LOVE their pool. The basketball hoop, slide, and rock ledge make it tons of fun. Both Cade and Cheyanna got to be really good swimmers by the end of the summer. They both were finally able to go down the slide by themselves, and jump off the rock ledge without any help. It is much more fun and relaxing for me to go swimming with the kids now that they can all swim well. It looks like she's just sitting on the slide, but she came wooshing down, and I just happened to snap this one at the right time.

Cheyanna waving from under the waterfall.

Charlie loves to ham it up. He also loves to stir up trouble. I think almost every time we went swimming this summer, it ended with the older kids getting into a big fight. Reminds me of growing up. My sister and I went swimming all the time in our backyard pool, and I think we got into a fight every time. Ah, the good old days. I guess my kids fighting is payback. My mom is probably enjoying my struggle now trying to keep the peace. :)

Cade is always worried about getting water up his nose, so in just about every picture, he's holding his nose. This last time we went swimming, I worked with him practicing swimming underwater without holding his nose, and he was finally starting to get the hang of it. Now he won't have to swim one handed anymore.

Swimming is about the only thing you can do outdoors in AZ in this heat, so thank goodness for water fun!

Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

Long, hot summer days with four kids at home CAN be lots of fun! What do we do all day? I'll tell ya... On hot afternoons, we break out some crafts and games. The kids had lots of fun working on this Lite Brite masterpiece. If they aren't in a creative mood, we put on an afternoon movie or have a Wii session. The kids are way into Mario Kart right now. Cade has been waking up before 6am lately so he can sneak downstairs and have the Wii all to himself until for a little while.

We also have friends over a lot. The kids spend lots of time in the hot tub (we keep it cooler in the summer, so it's refreshing).

June was not nearly as hot as it usually is, so we took advantage of the cool mornings, and spent some of them at the park. We had fun trying badminton.

The younger kids had fun on the playground, while the older boys and I played basketball.

And of course, we LOVED getting free donuts at Krispy Kreme. I found out through a friend's blog that Krispy Kreme gives out a free donut for every A on the kids' report cards (thank you Crissie!). We'll be taking advantage of that offer more often, now that we know about it. What a sweet deal!

We've also been reading a lot. The kids have been doing the summer reading program at the library, so they look forward to reading so that they can get their prizes. I've been reading "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" with Charlie and Carson. We're aiming to finish it by July 15, when the movie opens in theaters. It is actually fun to get to spend all day with the kids, and I am trying to really enjoy every minute of it, since my life is about to get a whole lot busier when I head back to school Aug 24. It is nice to have the luxury of no deadlines, projects, homework, etc. Did I mention that the boys are all playing basketball too? That's a post for a different day!