Summer 2016

I started warning the kids when we first told them that I was pregnant, that this summer would be MUCH different from summers past. I tried to prepare them for the boredom that lied ahead. I tried to prepare them for the potential of having a grumpy, hormonal and sleep deprived mother. We didn't schedule any vacations, we knew we'd have a break from our annual camping trips. They were warned beforehand that water parks and possibly pools would be out of the question. I think it's safe to say that they were not super excited about this summer. Until Layla was born. That baby girl changed everything for them. Not a single child has complained about missing camping. The only comment I have heard about it was from Taylor and she simply said, "I wish we could go to Bear Lake this year...but I know we can't yet because it's hard with a baby." I may have made having a newborn sound a lot worse than it really has been. I was trying to prepare myself for the worse case scenario because I didn't think it was possible that my 5th baby would be just as good as my other 4 babies and be the best sleeper of them all. Had I known beforehand that we would be blessed with such a chill baby, I probably would have booked a fun trip months ago. I feel bad now that we haven't gone anywhere this summer.

The only thing that kept our kids from having the worst summer of their childhood is our new neighborhood. Boredom was rarely an option with all the kids there are to play with here. Our kids have hung out with our next door neighbors EVERY SINGLE day since summer started. Most days they would spend the entire day together and be perfectly content to only come in to use the bathroom and grab a snack. On the days that they didn't spend 8 hours together, they would at least meet in the driveway for just a quick chat, or they'd start an impromptu night game at 9:00 in the evening, or go on a quick run down to the clubhouse grill to share some fries for lunch-our kids always had something to do and someone to hang out with this summer. I am so grateful we moved here when we did. This neighborhood has saved what was left of my sanity.

Even though we stayed in town all summer, we were still able to do some fun things...
We enjoyed some beautiful hikes up AF canyon. We did a good amount of fishing. We had tinfoil dinners and s'more with our neighbors in the canyon. We had some friends over for dinner and fireworks on both the 4th and 24th of July. The boys went on a man camp with Kendrick and Dean. Taylor was able to go to 2 girls camps and a softball camp at BYU. The kids were invited to Birthday parties (another perk of being in a neighborhood FULL of kids), we went to a Bees game, Jack and Kendrick went to a REAL game, the boys took swimming lessons, Tay took a sewing class, Tay and I had a girls night and got pedicures, Kendrick's sister and her family came to town, we had a BBQ with Kendrick's co-workers, Easton and Kendrick enjoyed a few evenings of driving range practice, we took plenty of walks around our gorgeous golf course in the evenings, there were A LOT of late nights with friends, Kendrick, Layla and myself enjoyed weekly date nights, there was a lot of ice cream, and there was plenty of sleeping in and being lazy. We even managed to get the kids to the pool twice! All in all-it was not a bad summer.

The Miller Family visit

Canyon fun (fishing, hiking, dinners...)

Girls night pedicures

Man Camp

The Bees Game

A REAL game

Fishing at the local pond

Driving Range fun

Girls Camp

I am torn between being sad that this summer was so low key AND being grateful that this summer was so low key. It went better than I expected so I feel guilty for being torn about how I feel about it. I know I will never get this summer, my first summer with 5 kids, back. So even though there is only a few days left of summer vacation-I am trying VERY hard to take a deep breath, chill out and just enjoy whatever happens...