Summer Recap {a long post}

I like to get the kids an end of school year gift... this year I decided on this huge inflatable ball from Costco.... just wanted them to have something to play outside.  It was fun for awhile (until it split at the seam and couldn't be repaired)

The boys also got new battery operated squirt guns.

The first weekend of summer, we went hiking on the Dixie hill.  I had accidentally left my phone at home, so I have no pictures to share... while we were gone hiking, my van window was broken and my purse was stolen.  Not a very good start to our summer.

 Brenner joined the summer swim team.  He had practice 4 days a week for an hour and attended 2 swim meets.

We tried to have weekly outings with our friends.  This is the first one... to Ivins reservoir. (We only ended up going there twice)

 

Another outing was the skim park.  The boys have a good time there.

We went camping at Tropic reservoir with Lucas and his family, Grandpa and Grandma Blake and Craig Degen's family.

 We bought passes to 7 peaks, so we headed up north.  We went to a park in Daybreak.  We also went to a BBQ and saw lots of friends from our Oquirrh Park neighborhood.

 The boys had a blast at Lowes with their cousins.

Another friend outing to Veyo Pool.  We spent as much time swimming as we possibly could this summer.  We also went swimming a lot at a lady's house in Ivins.  She would let us use her pool every Wednesday afternoon.

 For the 4th of July, we went to Kanarraville.  Our theme for the parade was "America is Sweet"

 For the evening, we headed back to Ivins and set off fireworks at Grandma and Grandpa Blake's house.

 On July 9th, my sweet mom passed away.  She had been battling cancer for 5 years.  Her body just couldn't fight it any more.  Even with Chemo, the cancer was growing rapidly and had spread into her brain as well.  I think this is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.  I miss her so much every day.

 Since we had family in town for the funeral, we had a Sunday BBQ up in pine valley and grandpa took us fishing.

 Another outing with friends... bowling!

 We headed back up north to spend another weekend with cousins.  We went to the Discovery Gateway children's museum.

 We also went to 7 peaks again.  I don't have any pictures because I didn't want to carry my phone around with me.

We have always loved the day of 47 parade float preview.  We were able to go to the preview before we headed home.

I was in charge of our ward's primary float for the 24th (that's the reason our 4th and 24th floats were relatively the same). 

 We had our annual Scholes family reunion in the city of Tropic, UT.  We mostly got rained on all weekend.... but when it stopped raining, we were able to get a couple of hikes in near Bryce Canyon.

 Rain=muddy 4-wheeler ride.

 The day we headed home, there wasn't much rain.  We were able to stop at Red Canyon and go on another hike.

 We got home from the reunion and had a day to pack for our surprise trip to Disneyland!  We hadn't been to Disneyland since before our kids were born, so it was about time we go:)  We spend 3 days in Disneyland and had a blast!

 We were able to hit the beach on the day we headed home... wish we could have stayed at the beach longer.... the kids had so much fun there.

 Now, school has started again... I'm grateful to be back to routines....

Pioneer Day

Here's rundown of our Pioneer Day Activities:

We began the day with the Ivins parade.  The boys and I rode on the primary float.

 After the parade, we attended the booths and activities at the park.  The big boys had a blas in the water bubbles while Terek rode on the boat.

After the Ivins activities, we had plans to go to Pine Valley and have a BBQ.  Well, when we got there we realized that we couldn't have a fire or briqueets because of the fire hazards.  So, we debated on what to do and ended up heading back down to Veyo.

The Veyo pool and crawdad canyon is awesome!  There are fun bridges to cross and a rope swing that swings into the river.  There is also a deep swimming hole in the river.  And you can catch crawdads... with bacon apparently:)

We thought it would be fun to swim in the clean pool as well as the dirty river, so we took the kid to the actual pool to swim.

Then we headed back home to Grandma Rose's and Grandpa Tom's house to do fireworks (since Ivins won't let you do fireworks).  The kids had a blast setting off their own... despite the fact that Lin's raised their prices on their fireworks the day before so I couldn't afford the pack that I had been wanting to buy:(

On the 12th day of Christmas....

... we went to "Swim with Santa" at Sand Hollow Aquatic Center....

The 16 year old life guard dressed as Santa was not quite my idea of Santa.
However, it's been awhile since the kids have been swimming so it was quite fun for them.

I can't believe our Christmas countdown is half way over... the time is flying!!!

Sand Hollow

Last weekend we had family in town for their UEA weekend.... don't get me started on why our "Fall Recess" wasn't the same weekend as the rest of the state of Utah!

Anyway, so we headed out to Sand Hollow reservoir to go 4-wheeling and play in the sand.Brenner and Cierrah found the jackpot of treasure... shells. They spend countless hours looking for shells.
Mason had a fun time being buried in the sand by Matthew.
Terek just loves to get dirty.
Mikelle enjoyed relaxing and getting some sun.
Jadon just wanted to drive the 4-wheeler... and lucky for him, Joren wanted to go for a ride.
Did I mention Terek just liked to get dirty? The kids had a blast!!! And I enjoyed the chance to relax and do nothing:)

Gunlock

Last weekend the boys were driving me a bit crazy... they just kept fighting:) Ryan had gone golfing, so I decided I needed to get them out of the house.So we grabbed a few sand toys and some swimming suits and headed to Gunlock!!!
We took the short walk across the dam and played on the beach.
They had a lot of fun playing in the water and building sand castles.
We definitely need to do that again sometime!!!

Red Cliffs

This past weekend we went hiking in Red Cliffs with Brett's family (one of Ryan's brothers).
The kids always have fun with their cousins. (Brenner and Cali)
Terek was having fun throwing rocks in the water to splash grandma.
A stop along the way. (Melanie and Cali)
The little kids had fun jumping into the pool from the side (Joren, Cali, Brenner)
The big kids jumped from the cliffs (Melanie, Ashley, Alexx)

It's been fun having a lot of family in town this summer.

Swimming Lessons

Brenner and Joren took swimming lessons at Sand Hollow Aquatic Center as soon as school was over.They both passed their classes.
The last day they got to go down the slide.
Brenner can go down without a life jacket now...yeah!!