June

 After such a long rainy season, finally in June, the weather started to get really nice.  Less rain and warmer days.
Arden finished his soccer season.  The Walters cousins came to his last game to support him and so did G-ma and Paka.  He was really happy to see them at the game. I was also glad the season was over.
Then, we signed up Maya to play softball.  She said she'd play if they would give her a pink jersey. On her practice days she would dress up all in pink.  It was really cute and funny to see her practice...although the day I went to her practice it got really windy and chilly.  Anyways, they had practice sessions and then the games.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to attend her games due to some scheduling conflicts. Also, at one of the practices she received her jersey...it was red...so she refused to wear it.  Too funny.
 I love lazy days of summer, although I don't love how late the children go to bed. So far, we've gone to the pool and on occasional hikes. There's a trail by our house that is paved and we've gone on several walks.  On our first walk Arden found a treasure (to him), a large lug nut.  That sucker was so heavy, but he liked carrying it around.

In Nephi's boat

On the second weekend in June, Newel flew out to Cali for his buddy Rory's graduation from Stanford.  I was jealous he got to go, but I was also happy for him...Newel hardly ever goes on trips by himself.  He hung around with some of his old buddies from FL who went to Rory's graduation.  He had a blast!
So, I was doing a 'single mom' weekend.  We had a great time here too. We went to the Museum of Church History.  They've updated the children's section and it's amazing!  We had so much fun.  Sophie and Hallie joined us in our adventure.

Playing in the creek at our picnic

Then, we went to a park nearby and had a picnic lunch.  So yummy. Remember having a totally fun and relaxing day.

Arden...on his scooter.

After our picnic, we headed over to Liberty Park where we met up with our Walters primas.  They played and played in the water feature.  That was so much fun.  As a side note...Beatrix had hurt her knee while playing in their trampoline...it turned out that she needed surgery a couple of weeks after this adventure.
On our 'Single mother' weekend, we woke up early...sort of early...on Saturday morning and went on another walk...this time it was still the paved trail...but it was on the other end of the trail.  That was a lot of fun.  We also bought Arden a scooter and gave it to him as an early birthday present, since we knew he'd enjoy it more if we gave it to him early in the summer.
That afternoon I took the kids to the Library kick off Summer Reading party they had.  It was a lot of fun for all of us.  There were bouncy houses, sea creatures, reptiles, and princesses...everything these kids like. Oh yeah, they also had treats to eat.  My favorite part was this amazing playground they had made out of wood. It looked like a gigantic castle.  That was so fun...although I was worried I might lose one of my kids, since there were so many children there.

The following Monday, Newel wasn't back from his trip, so we drove to the mountains where G-ma and Paka were working as campground hosts.  They had a great little site, with a mountain side as a backyard for the kids.  They were in heaven. Maya was so excited to ride the Gator while G-ma ran errands with her. We also went on a little hike with their cousins.  Arden didn't want to go, so we left him back at the campsite with Troy and Paka...This mischievous little boy decided to play with fire and burned Zoe's sweater.  Now, I think it's pretty funny, but not on that day because he'd been told not to play with fire.
On that same day, Troy had accidentally gotten Zoe's shoe on fire while he was trying to dry her shoe after it had gotten wet.  Poor Zoe. Our little hike was fun and it was nice to NOT see so much snow.