Summer 2016: Part 1

Again summer is already almost over, and I'm pretty sad about it. Derek had the whole summer off from school, and it's been sooo nice.  We've actually been able to have real Saturdays instead of study-days and I don't think I'm ready to give that up again in two weeks when classes start up again. Luckily, he was able to transfer to BYU, so he should at least get to be home in the evenings before 7:30 during the week. And I'm really grateful for the relaxing summer we were able to enjoy. And of course, I've failed to update my blog with any of the fun things we've done. So here's my annual summer recap, mostly in pictures. :)

April

April is spring, not summer, I know. But Derek finished classes at the end of April, so that was the summer kick-off for us. The week before his last class, we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point, which is a spring tradition for us. Maggie and Taylor and Haley and her roommate, Michelle, all came with us, so that was really fun.

My kids are goofballs

May 

We finished expanding our front flower bed last fall and so we were able to plant some more shrubs and flowers in the spring. I am really happy with how it looks!

Before

After.

Maren came for a visit over Memorial Weekend, and stayed almost a week. We went to both the Bean Museum (aka the dead animal museum) and the Hogle Zoo while she was here. Paul loved seeing all the animals, but he definitely prefers live ones haha (see his 15 month post for a video). 

On Memorial Day, we were supposed to hike Stewart falls with Maren, Haley, and Maggie but we got confused thinking the trail head was at Sundance and it's definitely not. So that was kind-of a bummer. So we just spent an hour exploring around the ski resort and the kids loved throwing rocks in the river. Then in the evening, we had a barbecue with Beth's family at my grandparents' house.

We spent Maren's last evening at a park in American Fork. The lighting was just perfect, so we all took about a million pictures.