Not sure where the summer has gone

There are only 12 days left of summer vacation...something that the kids are not very excited about. The past month just seem to whiz by and for a while I didn't think we had done much but then I started realizing how much we had actually done and it helped me figure out why I have been so tired this month...we have been going non-stop and plan on sprinting to the finish of summer as well. So here is a quick recap of our awesome July! 

Free Slurpee Day

When I was a senior in high school I remember going to get a Slurpee every day, it was a staple in my life at that point. I mean who doesn't love that cool sugary   bit  of heaven? My kids seem to feel the same so we celebrated free Slurpee day with most the rest of the city, we did limit ourselves to only one visit though, something to celebrate. 

Abby takes selfie 

Abby loves phones and she loves the camera on the phone. When going through my pictures a couple of weeks ago I found out that she had taken her first selfie, definitely a child of the 21st century. 

Swimming at the Murray Pool

We had a fun morning swimming with our neighbors and just having a blast. All the kids love the water and Matt was even brave enough to go on the slide all by himself. 

Abby is our water baby, she might be part fish

In addition to swimming we made pyramids and James found a kindred spirit in his friend, Bear, when it came to picture taking. 

Block stomp

Our neighborhood is super cool. Once a year one of the neighbors hosts a neighborhood stomp. There is music and dancing and just all around fun with our great neighbors. 

Aquarium 

We haven't been to the aquarium in a couple years and we sure hadn't been to their new building. It was so much fun, the kids loved it and I loved the extra room to explore and play in. Abby loved the fishes and would cry when we moved her away from an exhibit until we reached the next one. 

Pioneer Day- our own special Utah holiday

My brother Adam and his family came in for a visit from Florida. It was so nice to see them, we hadn't seen them in a couple of years and it was fun to watch as cousin bonds strengthened and  grew. We had two days of Pioneer Day celebration both of which included good food and fireworks. Oh and lots and lots of glowsticks. These two days of celebration also kicked off the biggest stay-cation I have ever done. Activities every day, cousin sleep overs or late overs almost every night. By the end of the week we all needed naps but we were happy. 

Zoo Trip

We decided to tackle the zoo on a 100 plus day, not sure if that was our best idea but everyone was a good sport and we had fun.

Abby decided that she liked her Uncle Adam a whole lot. She even let him carry her. 

We got all of them looking at the camera, a great feat. 

Abby the amazing escape artist, Poor James was a bit sad that she
ruined the picture with his super cool pose. 

 Laine and Ezzie were great friends. Ez adored her and Laine seemed to reciprocate. It was fun to watch their interaction each day. 

Since it was so hot the kids decided to cool off in the splash pad, they might have had a bit too much fun.

This boy loves being wet. Look how big that grin is

Abby decided that she had quite enough of  the zoo and
decided that it was nap time-right as we were leaving. 

Alpine Slide 

I had never done the Alpine Slide despite living in Utah all my life. It was a fun adventure, even if I was the slowest down the mountain. The kids loved it though and I am sure we will be back. 

Thanksgiving Point

Grammy and Poppa decided to buy a grandparents pass to Thanksgiving Point so that meant we got to have a fun time playing at the Museum of Ancient Life and the Museum of Natural Curiosity. The kids had so much fun running around and learning then later zip lining and making a big water mess. 

Lagoon 

It had been about ten years since I last visited Lagoon and my had it changed. So many fun roller coasters and places to visit. Matt had a blast, even if he got a bit nervous on some of the rides. We decided to visit on a day when it was 102 degrees outside, not the best idea that we ever had but we survived, mostly due to a ride on Rattlesnake Rapids about 2:00 where we all got drenched and were wet until we left that night.  Some of us were even brave enough to try Cannibal, best roller coaster I have ever been on. 

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This is James' grumpy man face. I can't decide if he is Carl
from Up or Mr. Magoo. 

Waterfight

Our last night together we went to Grammy and Poppa's for a pizza dinner. The kids then had an epic boys vs girls water fight. 

It was pretty evenly matched until James and Boston decided to turn on Poppa and they learned the greatest lesson in a water fight....

Don't mess with the guy who welds the hose. 

Abby and Sam avoided the water fight and just had fun playing together

It was a pretty successful July one for the memory books!

There's 81 days of summer vacation...

We are big Phineas and Ferb fans around these parts. We love singing the theme song with each episode, and even though we aren't the best at all the words we get the first part down pretty well:

There's a 104 days of summer vacation

and school comes along just to end it

So the annual problems for our generation 

Is finding a good way to spend it....

Well, as you can see from the title of this blog,  there are only 81 days of summer vacation (don't tell my kids because  they will feel that life is unfair) and after having a family home evening plan we now know how to spend it so here's how we have spent the first 14 days of our break...

Trip to the Museum  of Natural Curiosity 

We made our first trip to  the Museum of Natural Curiosity on Memorial Day, we were lucky that the crowds weren't too bad and the kids had a riot exploring and running around trying out things, and touching, and just having a great time. I loved that they had something for everyone (something hard to find when we have a 12 year span between the oldest and youngest). 

The boys loved playing with legos, they both thought that this huge lego mat
was the best thing that they had ever seen. 

All the kids took turns hanging like a sloth, Laine made it the longest
quitting after two minutes but I am sure that she could have gone a lot longer.

In each area we went to there was a place for Abby. She loved the water table the best
I was just grateful I had a change of clothes for her when we were finished.

 Trip(s) to the Library

It should be no surprise to anyone that my kids are readers, James goes through at least 10 books a week in the summer so we keep our local library busy. 

Matt went right up to the librarian and asked, "Can 4 year olds have library cards?"
They told him yes and so he is now a proud owner of a library card! 

 Swim Trip

We put our swim suits to good use during the summer and we had our first trip to the pool already. 

This was Abby's first time at the pool,
after this visit I am pretty sure she is part fish

  The Leonardo 

I love the Leonardo, the hands on exhibits are awesome and my kids can spend hours there...they loved it so much that we ended up getting a year pass. The kids were super excited that they can keep coming back. 

James actually wanted to take this picture,
that was awesome. 

Eve found a mural she could sit and color.
I think she could have stayed in there for several hours.  

Matt again loved the big legos, This was the robot that he made,
he hopes it is still there when we come back. 

 Park Days

Our neighborhood visits a park each week. The kids love to play at each of the parks and with all their friends.  

Abby and her friend Simon, they kept trying to share each other's
bottles. 

 Pia Family Reunion

My grandma's family reunion was held at Hogle Zoo this year and the kids couldn't have been more excited. We had a so much fun, even if we were walking in the rain. The weather was nice and we got to see the otters (after about ten trips to the zoo this was a first sighting), we also got to see them train the seals, Christian does a great impression of the sea lions dance he would be happy to show. 

A yummy brunch at the zoo...or in Matt's case a doughnut, brownie,
cookie, brownie, and pineapple because pineapple is healthy. 

We loved seeing the new lion cubs, and we still love posing on the statues. 

It was fun to see the zoo with our cousins and do silly things with them. 

This little princess left the zoo with two new lovies, mainly because
mom and dad are suckers. She seems pretty proud of herself. 

December Fun

This post is late in posting, I meant many times to put this up in December...yeah we were just having too much fun to do that. December is always a busy animal and here is just a glimpse of what we did over the holiday month:

CRAFTING

We did a lot of crafting in December. In fact Eve went to town with her 100 rolls of washi tape.  Matt did quite a bit of it in preschool. He was enamored of his gingerbread house and was upset at the end of the month when it was time to go the great gingerbread house in the sky. 

ZOO LIGHTS! 

This is one of our favorite traditions and we were lucky to go at the start of the month before it was too busy and too cold. 

Um, James has gone missing....it's like Where's Waldo here. 

The kids were so happy to have Grammy and Poppa with them this year....and to walk down the light tunnel. 

It was Star Wars Night! Matt was so happy to get to see Darth Vader

BRADLEY FAMILY PARTY

We love this party with Christian's extended family every year. This year it was at a roller rink. The kids had fun skating and I had fun visiting. 

Abby and Grandma matched that day. 

Christian was a good sport and helped Matt out skating for the first time. 

CHRISTMAS EVE

After a week of playing with our cousins, going to the trampoline park, ice skating, and sledding it was time for Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Bradley's- complete with tamales and the nativity. 

The Angel chorus

Little Shepherd boys. James was their sheep but wouldn't hold still long enough for a picture

The kids came home to the traditional PJ gift and picture. I was super excited that I found matching PJs this year, it is hard than you would think when you have to get everything from a 13 year old down to 6 months. 

CHRISTMAS

Christmas morning got off to a rocky start. I had been up with a vomiting baby at 3 am and then the dog and Matt decided that they too needed to throw up. Once that was all taken care of and everyone seemed okay we got to have fun seeing the packages under the tree. 

The kids all got blankets this year and had fun wrapping up in them right away

Abby seemed happy with her new seat and playing with the super cool paper. The other kids seemed to have fun helping her open her gifts. 

We spent Christmas afternoon at Grammy and Poppa's house. Abby was happy about that...so were the rest of us. 

NEW YEAR'S EVE

We had a fun week between Christmas and New Year's being together. Christian took the week off of work and we took the kids to Star Wars and they enjoyed playing Disney Infinity all week long. We also played plenty of board games.  On New Year's Eve we had the traditional Bradley dinner of fondue...Christian even did a chocolate one this year, 

Sticks to poke bread...sounds like a great idea. 

After playing some games we came downstairs to watch Doctor Who and Super Girl, we told the kids they could stay up as late as they wanted, Matt made it till 11:58. The rest of us toasted the New Year together and then all wandered to our beds. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERY ONE!