first grader...

summer recap...a really long one

Today is the LAST day of summer vacation (this post took me longer to write than I thought). Let me start over, yesterday was the LAST day of summer vacation. Here is what we did, or at least, what I can remember of our lazy days of summer.

Soccer Camp... It was a great camp and Jacob was given the Respect Award. I cried a little over that because, if he can't respect me, at least has the love for some strangers from Europe. Eddie had a blast and still goes around the house repeating "Crabby, crabby...let's get snappy!" from his favorite camp game. Eddie refused to participate the last day of camp because of a bad hair day. Seriously, I tried for two hours to convince him his hair wasn't crazy. Eddie said, "I don't want my coach to see me like this!".

Baseball...Pee wee coach pitch and T-ball. Never has three innings lasted so long. The boys loved it! Eddie knows which hand the mitt goes on now, most of the time. He played an entire game with one hand on his boy parts, running the bases and all. The whole city was laughing at me. Saren is ready for her turn to play and earn a treat.

Lots of swimming...lessons, wave pool, helper pool, the pirate pool, the slip and slide in the backyard, the sprinklers, the lake. We swam everywhere. The laundry was epic.

Bear Lake...Family Reunion...Bingham style. There was lots of swearing, inappropriate humor and witty banter combined with football and volleyball on the beach, boating and eating ridiculously good food. It was fun! And apparently I have no pictures.

Scofield Reservoir...Fishing, friends, boating, pina colada Starbursts.

Idaho Falls...Stopped to see Uncle Lee and Aunt Elaine, the Idaho Falls Temple, play in the park and to see the Body World exhibit. It was worth the admission just to put a healthy fear of smoking in my kids heads'. I'm not sure they were ready for the crosscut penis dissection, but they seemed too oblivious to be traumatized.

Bear World...Where else can you see Grizzly bears in the.......wild? (Ok, more specifically in a sparsely vegetated parking lot with corrugated metal tubes for shelter). These days, Bear World is also home to carnival rides which are awesome. The cubs were adorable, the petting zoo was fun and watching people pay $25.00 to throw powdered donuts at some of God's most beautiful, powerful creatures broke my heart a little, just like last time.

Eddie and Saren kill me in this next one.

West Yellowstone, Montana...We stayed in this little cabin. I was too scared to jog for fear of being eaten by a bear. Saren helped us shop for food and Jacob slept with a rifle at night for protection.

Yellowstone National Park...What is the one vacation destination you do not want to forget your expensive DSLR Camera? Yellowstone. All these pictures courtesy of Dave's iPhone. Even our nice camera can't do this amazing place justice, it was so beautiful!

The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center... Jacob loved hiding food for the bears, and then watching them find it! It was a fun place for kids. Eddie peed in the playground before I could stop him. These are the things that stand out in my memory.

Here are a few of our great friends who made this trip so much fun.

(By the way, I'm not short, these ladies are all over 6 feet tall)!

Also happening this summer...

I tried unsuccessfully to potty train Saren...Here she is with her diaper duct taped in place when she refused to go in the potty or wear a diaper!

Jacob kissed a girl... and he liked it. This girl. I'm not writing this because I'm proud, just to document it for his future teasing. I heard him bragging about it to a friend, otherwise I'm not sure I ever would have known. They were watching "Princess and the Frog" at the time. Sorry Mark and Jill.

Grand Junction, Colorado...We visited some of our cute cousins, went on this cool hike and ate ice cream which Eddie famously described by saying "Too bad it's cold!"

The Living Planet Aquarium...This is fun, but remind me to wait until the real one is finished!

And also, please don't submit this photo to fail blog.

The Hogle Zoo...I can still smell the fun. Here are a couple of pics of us with animals that are not at all real.

Fishing...The boys both caught their first fish by themselves and quickly afterwards caught the fishing bug.

Lagoon...Which the kids call "Magoon" or "Da Goon". They loved it. I have pictures somewhere.

Going to a couple dozen playgrounds...

Play dates with lots of friends...

And riding a LOT of bikes. I know this because I parked them back in the garage several times a day for the last three months.

Dave and I are going to miss spending all our time with these three little maniacs.