Boys Camp and Girls Weekend!

Summer is almost gone! It has been a blur the past few weeks.

Full of fun,

neighbor swim parties (Nelson's and fireworks and Harwoods),

birthday parties (Nicole had 7 families over because each had someone celebrating an August birthday and had one big party),

visiting Daneise and Murray friends (Daneise was here for a few days so we all got together for lunch and a lot of talking! Miss them!)

Lunch with the JS,

Amanda's first girls camp,

Brandon's swim lessons with Madie McCleary - she was awesome with him and he is doing so great! (This kid hated swim lessons before cute Madie was his teacher),

Ballet starting again,

Amanda tending,

Amanda strep throat and also doctor visits to get her knee feeling better,

soccer tournament,

mountain vistas days (will be another post)

one more surgery for me (oh boy, maybe I'll talk about this one later down the page)

and piano lessons!

We just toured the new jr. high last night and it is amazing! I'll have some pictures of it in another post. Mikey's birthday was during all of this and Amanda was at girls camp, so we celebrated from the time he and Brandon got back from Boys Camp to his birthday day.

Anyway, Mike and Brandon went with the Teachers and Priests on their High Adventure Camp to Flaming Gorge. Mike went last year and thought Brandon would love it this year. The Bishop said Mike could bring Brandon since he isn't a YM leader and they were using our boat! I'll have to get some pictures from Mike's phone, but they had a blast! Brandon loved hanging with his Dad, sleeping on the boat and doing boy stuff!

(This picture should be at the end, but I can't move them. We were on our way to another 'house' to see and saw this up on the foothill in Draper! It's Ceasar's Palace! The picture doesn't do it justice, but it is so decked out and HUGE! It was fun to see it)

So, while the boys were gone, we girls decided to have fun, too! I spent all day Thursday with Daneise and Cherri while my girls stayed home, held down the fort and went to their ballet classes. I did let them have a sleepover that night. Amanda had Maddy and Susie sleep over and they didn't go to bed until 4:30AM, and Sydney had Abby sleep over. They went to sleep about 1:30AM. I went to bed and got woken up a few times, but it's all in good fun.

We stopped by the school because class lists were posted that morning. Sydney got Mrs. Snow for 4th grade and Brandon has Mrs. Clark for 1st grade. We are happy with these teachers!

Then, we decided to go to the Salt Lake Parade of Homes! We wanted to get some decorating ideas for their bedrooms and see if there was any new and innovative basements that we could copy.

We weren't too impressed by anything this year! They had some cool houses, but nothing new we hadn't already thought of. Like this weight room.....we hope to do a workout room that has mirrors on one wall so the girls can practice their dancing. I have always wanted to put pictures of our family doing 'stuff' skiing, boating, etc. on the walls, but these people also had vinyl inspirational sayings. That was cool.

I want these mirrors for over our bed. It took me years to find a picture I liked for over our bed. I found one about a year ago. Then, we replaced our furniture and the picture didn't fit. It was too wide for the space. I have decided that I want a mirror, but everything I have found that I like, is too big.....these would work if I can find them!!!

Amanda loves this closet! We saw about 7 to 8 houses, then stopped for dinner at Cafe Rio. We picked up a Mrs. Backer's birthday cake on the way home, stopped at Target for a couple of things and then came home and watched Soul Surfer.

We had a great time!!

Just an update on the surgery...again for journaling purposes only....This is to repair a little birth injury. I had to be on a liquid diet on Mikey's birthday and then do a full bowel prep! UGH! If you haven't done this yet, you will when you turn 50 and get your colonoscopy...I'm dreading ever having to do it again. It's awful! This surgery was done at McKay Dee. I handled the 'sleepy medicine' just fine and was out of surgery by 9am fully awake. The recovery has been rough. It's been a week now and I'm not back to normal. I'm still taking percocets! I have never taken this much painkiller even with my c-section! Mikey stayed home with me all day Thursday and came home early on Friday to take Amanda to the doc (we later found out she has streph). Poor guy has had to pick up the slack. He's been working so much that it took him 3 days to mow the lawn (he would start it after coming home later from work, but it would get dark before he could finish)! But, he's found time to take the kids for fruzils (really frazils) and that's what is really important!

I'm about done (read sick and tired) with the recovery and so is my little family. I have a follow up appointment on Tuesday, so hopefully the doc will say it was successful and I'll be back to normal. Cute Nicole and my friend, Mirissa took pity on us and brought us dinner. Andrea Richards brought us zucchini bread. The Baileys bosses sent me flowers. Elise has been checking on me as well as Nat. I'm well taken care of! My Mom offered to come up, but it's so far away and I knew that I could call on friends for help. Thanks you awesome people!

Now, school is just around the corner! I'll try to get the rest of my posts updated.....