In August, 2018, we got to do so many fun summer things! Here’s a quick recap.
Tanner gave his approval for a new Hormel product.
We had beautiful weather and lots of rain. We couldn’t figure out how this cloud was making a shadow in front of the sun!?
Matt came to visit Austin again for part of his internship with Hormel. Jeremy was able to introduce him to lots of neat people and he got to watch Matt’s presentation at work.
Jeremy and Matt played golf.
Tree climbers.
Lazy mornings were a joy!
Bike ride with their uncle Matt.
Jeremy really liked this chicken divan I made with curry one night.
With my team of leaders, I hosted a primary scripture camp for our children’s ministry. It was on a Saturday from 9-noon. We had a huge turnout for our little group, it was so exciting!! The day was called a Jaredite Journey. We did lots of activities that helped tell the story of the Jaredite family from the Book of Mormon. We enjoyed crafts, a journey to the promised land, STEM activities, understanding and memorizing scriptures, a sock war and lunch. It was a huge success!
The County Fair! We really took advantage of the fair this year. Our first day we got poured on the minute we arrived. So we hung out in the fish and game room for about 45 minutes waiting for the storm to pass, then went home. The boys were really good sports about it. And we got to know a LOT about fishing and gaming in our county, haha.
That evening, we enjoyed the animals and the dirt bike racing.
Another day, I took the kids to see more animals, and to buy ice cream with their own money.
They were thrilled!
One evening, Jeremy took the boys on their bikes to see the tractor pulling at the fair. They had a lot of fun together, but the consensus was that the actual tractor pulling event was not that exciting. Seems that Dallin’s silliness was much more entertaining!
We enjoyed some softball games that Jeremy was in. This was his 4th or 5th summer doing the softball city league, on a team with a bunch of coworkers. I took a picnic dinner with us.
Our boys will do almost anything to be able to play Super Mario.
Our house with new paint and roof! We used these pictures to update the AirBnB profile.
I love it when we get to do a bonfire in the backyard. Dallin tried using his telescope to look at the fire. He was very proud of himself that he could see blurry smoke. So adorable.
Nap in the grass on a Sunday afternoon. Yes, Dallin and I really fell asleep like this.
Hmm, a fort with tree clippings and a blow up mattress with a hole in it. They tried hard, but it didn’t really work.
Picnic dinners on the porch are my favorite! Jeremy and the boys don’t like it so much because of the bright sun and many bugs, but we were able to use tree clippings to shade us and that actually worked!
Jeremy snuck a picture of me teaching a song to the children in church. I am so glad he did!
This is Tanner’s school for 1st through 4th grade. They took out the playground to build a new one. We thought there was going to be no playground for this school year because they were not even close to collecting enough money to pay for it. But luckily, they decided to put the playground in and pay for it as donations come in. Tanner was getting very excited to start 1st grade!
Flyer for one of the classes I am teaching this year.
Swimming lessons! We were able to find a private swim teacher for Tanner. Denise Wood is amazing, we highly recommend her. She and Tanner did lessons during open swim, and Tanner made so much progress in such a short time. These are pictures of the boys playing before and after Tanner’s lessons.
The boys got to play with our nieghborhood friends quite a bit this summer. One day they built an obstacle course together and then had all of us parents watch them do it!
I had the honor of accompanying Alainea on her first temple trip to do baptisms for the dead with our youth group. It was a big week for her. Alainea earned her Faith in God award, which she worked on a lot at our home over this year. She turned 12, which means she graduated from primary. And then she was able to go to the temple!! I am so blessed to know this amazing and beautiful girl and to have her in my home so much this year from January to August!
Twins game! Jeremy took the boys to a Twin’s game in Minneapolis at Target Field! It was their first time going to a major league game in over two years. We actually made this a reward that they had to earn on a 100’s chart. It helped with a lot of behavior problems that we were having and seemed to make the event more meaninful for them.
Jeremy parked far away, and they rode their bikes to the stadium. I’m told this was a big highlight of the whole experience.
NawBaw’s son had a birthday, so we had a party at our house to celebrate!! Lots of people came, and Naw Baw made a ton of Karen food for us; I was in Asian heaven. The kids all played well, and the birthday boy seemed to have a blast. This was his first birthday party ever, and I hope he remembers how much we all enjoyed being with him and his family.
I am blessed to know Naw Baw. She is an amazing example and friend to me.
One afternoon while I was teaching piano lessons, the boys found a baby bird!! After 10 minutes or so, it hopped and flew away.
We still rock it with stories every night.
Tanner’s scab looks like a little alien man.
We tagged along with Jeremy again up to Minneapolis. While he was doing a work assignment, we explored the Wildlife Refuge next to the airport. It was beautiful. We walked around the museum and a little trail. I would have liked to do more there, like go on a real hike with the boys, but Tanner was a mess of anxiety the entire time we were there. In these pictures he was yelling at us about how we are using the binoculars wrong.
Some people might think that I should not write about my kids being difficult or about my challenges with being a parent when they are difficult, that I should focus on the positive of what we do. But I can’t bring myself to do that with every post. I need to write the truth to remind me and others that the struggle is REAL! Much of the time, being a parent is NOT fun! And if I leave those parts out, then I am not recognizing a huge part of my life, my family’s life.
This was one of those very difficult days where I did not like parenting. And that should be okay. The truth is that being yelled at by a seven-year-old for a constant 45 mintes for things like walking on the right side of the path instead of the left and getting punched and kicked for trying to comfort and talk on his level about what he needs is never something I will like doing. I hate it, actually. And the biggest thing I am learning is that it is okay to hate those times. It really is okay to hate the un-fun things about parenting.
We got lunch and headed over to the rose garden along the Chain of Lakes to meet up with Jackie and Serious. The boys were off-and-on happy, which was nice, and I had a very nice visit with these ladies! After looking at the roses, we sat on a dock by the lake and the boys enjoyed making boats out of leaves and sticks and exploring around the shore.
Serious and Tanner
My phone died while we visited, and then when we all needed to leave, we realized that our keys were locked in my car! Bummer. So it took me awhile to get ahold of Jeremy with Jackie’s phone, and then Jeremy was able to call a service guy to help us. Since we were in a weird location, we had to wait about an hour for the service guy to come open our car. The boys got restless, hungry and tired by this point, but thankfully Jackie and Serious kept them entertained on more walks while I waited at the car for the helper to find us. What a crazy afternoon!
That evening we enjoyed a nice dinner at the hotel. Between our morning meltdowns and the key problem in the afternoon, I was pooped. We got in bed early because the next day we would be getting on the airplane for our trip to Colorado!!
