End of June and the Fourth of July!

Well it has been HOOOOOTTTT this last month!!! We actually finally broke down and put in central AC. Josh is pretty excited about it. ;) When we bought the house it was all prepped for AC but we decided to wait and see if we really needed it down the road. Well, the end of the road came this week when it was in the high nineties for about a week straight.

We have been keeping busy with lots of fun, lazy Summer days! ;) This week we start soccer but other than that, the boys really haven't had any planned actives up to this point. They have been happy just playing outside with friends! Avery had been in preschool up on campus (that ends in a couple weeks) and she also just started this little weekly "Imagine If" class at the gymnastics center. We spend a lot of time outside with the neighbor kids, Kendalyn (Milner), Harper (Hemsley), Chloe (Boyter), and more. We often set up sprinklers and kiddie pools and the kids have lots of fun. I also have been pretty busy with Etsy, and Josh has been busy working lots of 12 hours shifts, so it's a balancing act. ;) Some of these pictures are from a day we spent in Island Park at a friend's Cabin (actually the Ball family.. a friend of a friend..) using their boat and giving the boys their first experience tubing! They loved it! There are also some of us on a little hike we did by Bear Gulch, in which we decided that if we ever had to survive in the wilderness, Caleb would be the first to go. (As in… he can not hack it.)

For the Fourth of July we had a pretty perfect holiday in my opinion. Both Josh and the boys rode in the parade, but on two different floats! Josh was asked to ride in one in his police uniform for Klim (a snowmobiling company that our home teacher works for) and the boys rode on Devin's for iSource again. They liked throwing candy I think. ;) Me and Avery sat in front of the Family Crisis Center on Main street with Brittaini and Kendalyn and watched. Then after that, our family all met back at home, changed into swimsuits, and headed to Ashton to float down the river in tubes. Well, the boys were in tubes, but me, Josh, and Avery were in a big raft with Jake and Jenny and Ava. Michah and Asher (their kids) were also on rafts. It took about two hours to float the river and then on the way home, our three kids all completely zonked out in the backseat of the van. It worked out pretty well because then they were all charged up for fireworks. We decided to just stay home and watch all of our neighbors (who probably spent LOTS of money on big fireworks)! We were the lame ones that just pulled up our lawn chairs and watched. lol

It was pretty perfect if you ask me! Great Fourth of July! Now we just have to get our yard back in shape after the giant AC re-do. Since we were adding a pad for the AC, we also decided to add some extra concrete to move the dog kennel over, add some bushes, etc. But Josh decided to puncture a sprinkler pipe with a wooden stake in the process…. so it's a work in progress… ;)
Here are some pictures of our last two weeks!

Kids just playing outside…

Pony ride at a Fat Cats event...

Kiwi Loco...

Dairy Queen for a Family night… (we eat ice cream a lot…)

 Avery looks adorable in my heels...

Bear Gulch hike...

On Bill's Island in Island park, tubing with the Reynolds and Smith families…

Getting ready to leave for parade…(the scouts put out flags in front of our house) I also just realized Gabe wore this same shirt on the 4th of July 2014… hahaha sorry Gabe. Time to buy you a new shirt!

Fourth of July Parade...

Floating the River…

Right after the tube floating trip… (yes, she was in a posing mood apparently…)

All tuckered out after floating the river on the way home…

Recharged and ready for fireworks...

Sunday, July 5, 2015… Caleb was not in the mood for a picture….

End of the School Year, Caleb's 7th birthday, and Good-bye to Truck

Well I have some sad news to start off with. Josh's K-9 partner, Truck, was put to sleep on Sunday evening, June 7th. His health has been deteriorating for the past few months and he was having trouble jumping in and out of Josh's SUV. But things really went downhill this last weekend. He threw up in his kennel on Saturday night a few times. Then on Sunday morning we had to go to Driggs for Gemma Bollinger's baby blessing (Ben and Heather's daughter.) Josh had asked out neighbors, Brittaini and Jay, to keep an eye on Truck while we were gone. Around 4pm they texted Josh and said they had tried to let him out to go potty and he couldn't even get up. He limped over to a patch of grass in the shade and laid down. When we got home at about 6pm, he was still laying there and didn't look good at all. He even threw up a couple more times while we were standing there. Josh and another neighbor, Ryan Hemsley, managed to get him moved to a blanket. Then they carried him into the back of Josh's K-9 SUV. It would be his last ride. :( I didn't even have Caleb or Gabe say good-bye to Truck because I wasn't sure what was going to happen and they were out playing with neighbor kids. But sadly, once they got him to the shelter, the decision was made to put him down. I don't think it was the wrong decision, but it was just sad the boys didn't get to say good-bye… :(
Josh will be getting a new dog in July. We have heard it's a yellow lab as well, but a girl this time, named Piper. I wonder if Truck realized he was officially retired and wouldn't be going to work anymore with Josh and decided that was it. He was giving up.
We will miss you Truck!

A happier thing that happened just before Truck passed away, was that we celebrated Caleb's 7th birthday! We went back and forth a lot about what we were going to do. At first we were going to take him and two or three friends just to Squealers. (We had taken Gabe and two friends to iJump for his birthday so we thought that would be fair) But then Caleb was having a hard time deciding which two friends would be best to take. So we ended up convincing him that a family day trip to Jackson to go swimming would be better. Berrick, Wylder, and Asher and Micah (and Ava and Gemma) all came with their parents too, so he had lots of cousins to swim and have fun with. It really was a fun day. We ate at Pizza Hut for dinner and then drove home. (And then went back to Driggs the next day for the baby blessing… and then Truck died…. so the weekend kind of ended on a sad note.)

But hopefully Caleb had a Happy Birthday! It was lucky that Truck didn't die on his birthday! :\ Oh and he also picked out an ice cream cake, which we ate on Saturday night.


I am kind of working backwards here…
The last day of school was on Friday, May 9th. the boys had such AMAZING teachers this year. It went SOOOO fast. I am so sad it's over. I just can't imagine they would ever have two such wonderful teachers at the same time again. It was just an awesome year. The last week of school was filled with partying for the boys. They had a field day, reading camp out day, game day, pajama and breakfast day! I mean, Mrs. McCoy was even wearing an apron as she waved good-bye to Caleb. Come on, it just doesn't get more picture perfect woman than that! lol Mrs. Burt actually cried when she said good-bye to Gabe. lol These teachers were amazing. I just loved them. Now they are all mine for the Summer and I am already half way to crazy town. Caleb is going to be the death of me, I swear. If I can get that kid raised to be a responsible, happy, well-adjusted contributing member of society, I will just feel SOOO relieved. lol He is so smart in school and can be so sweet when he wants to be, but I already know he will be my most difficult child.

Here are some pictures of some other Summer fun! We have been outside with neighbors TONS and doing other fun things like going to parks, Josh took the kids horseback riding, etc. I have also had a VERY busy Etsy month (I am pretty sure my busiest ever. That is the stack of envelopes in that picture - that is two day's worth of orders.) I was getting like 20 orders a day…. yikes!