22 June-5 July

This week, Monday was pretty good but Tuesday, well my goodness. We had three orthodontist appts. at two different Dr's and one dentist appt. all going on at the same time as swimming lessons. So this is what we did. Mike took Michael to get his braces on while I took the little girls to their swimming lesson. I came home and got Hans for his lesson and everyone else (except Michael) got to go back to the pool with us for that. They played in the gym while Hans had his lesson and them we all headed to the Orthodontist and Dentist. Brittany and Allison had regular Ortho appts. and Aunnika got two cavities filled. This only took abt two hours. While we were there, Mike dropped Michael off at home and Michael did some piano practicing and math. We got home from all that and had lunch. When we started to eat, Michael discovered that his back teeth could no longer touch so he was unable to chew his food. That made for an interesting few days while he figured out how to eat without being able to chew. The day ended with youth activities and Michael deciding that he definitely does not like braces.

Wednesday we had swimming, some school and piano. Brittany had a birthday party that night that was a sleepover so she got to stay till 11:00. Mike and I were brilliant and stayed up and watched a movie till it was time to go pick her up. Mike then took her back to the party early the next morning. She had a marvelous time. We were stinkin' tired. Thursday was more of the same but it was the last day of swimming lessons so I was happy about that.

Friday was another super busy day. I took the kids up to the Academy for a fun tour thing that they do. We left here at 8:15. We spent until 2:30 on the tour and everyone had a yummy lunch and a really good time.

We got to see and feed the horses and Michael got to try on a parachute pack while we learned all about the parachute team at the Academy. He decided he'd like to join.

We got a very neat tour of the Academy Chapel and learned lots of cool stuff about it's history and the structure itself.

Following all of the adventures on the tour, we went to see the firefighters challenge. It started to rain though so we sat in the car for about an hour waiting for the rain to stop and them we got to go watch the challenge. It was really cool. The firefighters had to run an obstacle course with stuff that simulated obstacles they would encounter on the job. About 6 runs into the "show" a wire got hit and fell down so while they fixed that they had the kids come out and do some of the stuff on the obstacle course. Michael, Allison, and Aunnika all got picked to participate and they had great fun. The best part though, was that there was a kids course that was set up essentially the same and the real one and all of the kids had a fabulous time participating in that. They even got to dress up!

Mike met us at the firefighters challenge then we all headed home and as quickly as possible, loaded up all of our camping gear, made tin foil dinners and headed back to the base. We had a very late but supper yummy dinner and then all slept very well.

The following day, Saturday, played at the campground for a few hours, smashed pennies and paperclips on the railroad track that runs about 100 yds from where our tent was and ate yummy camping pancakes. Why do I always like pancakes so much better when we are camping? We came home and again cleaned up from camping and then worked in the garage and yard for several hours. We got all of our huge water barrels filled, threw a bunch of stuff away and got a lot of the new fence posts around the garden. We finished off the day by having Ammon and Allison over for dinner and then after putting the kids to be, all four of us went over to our friends house and played games. It was super fun.

Sunday we did finally relax a little. Monday Ammon and Allison came here and they, I, and all the kids drove up to Denver. Dad and Mom were there on the Tabernacle Choir tour so we decided to go spend the day with them. We had lunch and visited and then went over to Red Rocks amphitheater and watched/listed to the sound check. They sing through parts of the songs and get the sound all set for the show that night. It was pretty cool and super hot. We then came back home where Mike had dinner almost ready for us all. It was a good day.

Tuesday we had library day, get ready for trip day, kids go to friends and lots of friends come here day, and grocery shopping day. Ya, kinda crazy but hey what's life for anyway.

Wednesday we finished getting ready for our trip and then as soon as Mike got home from work we drove to Cheyenne Wy. where we spent the next two days with our good friends the Burns Family. We played lots of games, fished, flew kites, toured the base, visited lots and played lots more games. It was really a fun few days. Friday after dinner with them, we headed back to our own home.

And finally, the Fourth of July. We got the house cleaned up, the yard cleaned and ready and then the fun began. We had our friends the Leonards with their four boys plus a friend, our friends the Freys and they ended up having a friend and his little girl too, and Ammon and Allison with Allisons friend Jennifer, all over for our BBQ. I love having parties and I really believe the "more the merrier". We got our lunch in and a little visiting before it started to rain. It than proceeded to rain the rest of the day so we played lots of games and visited and the kids had a great time also playing games and watching movies. It was again, a wonderful day.