June

It's hard to think about anything else that happened in June other than battling this fiery little munchkin to keep those undies dry.  Oy, potty training.  It will be the death of me.  I don't want to get into the details because I don't really want to remember this part so much but it's been rough.

We did do some other fun things though.  We have rediscovered the Spanish Fork river and has it blessed our lives in an enormous way.  It's close, it's free, it cools 5 sweaty, grumpy kids off in a jiffy, and we always leave in a good mood. 

We've also been doing a bunch of story time activities at the library.  I remember like 3 kids ago I thought story time was never going to be possible for us again.  Too many kids, too much stress to keep them all close and relatively quiet and happy.  But we've reached a point where it's actually really fun.  In fact, this is probably the last summer it will work since I bet Jack will be too cool next year. 

We've been playing a lot with cousins.  Lots of kid swapping and sleepovers.  Have I got the luckiest kids or what!?! 

My Charlie is absolutely crazy.  He climbed up this structure in the first 2 minutes after we arrived at this park in Eagle Mountain.

Here's a better perspective of how huge it is.  It's one of those times where I just have to look away and pray for the best.  Moments like that happen more often with Charlie than the other kids.

Lots and lots and lots of ice cream.

And swimming.

And snowcones.

We went to the Summerfest in Orem.  We love this parade because it's at 7 at night so it's a little cooler.  We never make plans to meet up with any of the family there but somehow we always find each other.

Then the big firework show.  My kids did so awesome this year.  No crying, or quiet whimpering under blankets like last year.  It was really fun.

Fathers Day was good too.  The kids drew pictures for John and then wrapped them up like real presents.  It was adorable.  Ivy drew 2 pink lines on a big sheet of construction paper and then had me wrap it around her head and tape it like a huge pope hat.  Then we wrapped that up and gave it to John.  The other gifts were pretty simliar.

This picture was a particular favorite from Jack.

Then we realized that Charlie had a little dark spot on one of his back teeth.  We were sad to see a cavity on our spotless record so far so we took him in to get it checked out.  Turns out he needed 7 silver crowns put in and that little dark spot tooth couldn't even be salvaged with a root canal and had to be removed and a little metal spacer bar put in it's place.  What an ordeal, poor little guy.

 Then every once in a while I catch the kids doing something adorable like reading to each other in a blanket fort before they go to sleep. 

Then John tried to lift something much too heavy for one person into a dumpster and it fell back on his hand and crushed his finger.  We decided to get it checked out to make sure it was going to heal ok and learned that it was broken and after some x rays and specialists he ended up getting surgery on it.  They had to remove his nail and stitch the nail bed back together then put the nail back as a splint to make room for a new nail to grow.  What an ordeal, poor big guy.

Between check ups for the girls and physicals for john and I we spent a good portion of June at the dr.'s I hope not to see the inside of that office for a while now.

Also, Ivy has decided to stop taking naps.  Oy...

The kids picked grandmas cherries and then sold them for a dollar a bag.  They made a killing and sold out in about an hour.

We took the $20 to Parleys and got milkshakes.  That was a fun day.

More time in the river.

Chamaine got a couple of free tickets to see Cinderella at the Scera so we each took our oldest girl.  What a fun night!  Lottie was in heaven with just big girls.

I've got to do more of that with that girl.  She is such a mystery to me most of the time.

And back to the river. 

We seriously love it there.  We've been criticized a little for doing our river trips on a Sunday here and there and here's what I think about that.  We have spent years now hating and dreading Sundays more than any other part of our life.  It's a day where we drag them through 3 long hours of sitting and being quiet which is not the natural state of 5 kids 7 and under.  Then we come home and we force the older 3 to do something quiet for 2 more hours while the babies sleep.  We read, we play a game, if we're lucky we can get them to watch a family movie so John and I can take turns closing our eyes for 20 minutes each.   By this time they are starting to lose it.  We all are. So a couple weeks ago we walked along the river trail to burn off some steam and we found this spot where it's very shallow and you can get your feet wet and and it's safe for the tiny ones and they asked us if they could get wet and John and I looked at each other disapprovingly.  Isn't there a rule about letting your kids splash in rivers on Sundays?  It seemed a little strange but we decided to let them and suddenly instead of all of them yelling at each other and fighting and crying, this was happening:

These two holding hands is not a normal thing for us.  We spent a couple hours there and left feeling so happy to be a family.  We tucked them into bed that night and they begged to go back soon.  So yes, we've been back to the river many times since then.  Sometimes on Sundays if the kids are acting particularly punchy that day.

That's all I have to say about June.