All spring was a build up to what I knew would be the craziest summer of our lives. I was on pins and needles counting down the days, preparing as much as I could for everything we had coming up, crossing my fingers that it would all turn out and even looking forward to the relief of September when it would all be over! (Sad I know - to wish fun stuff over because it's so stressful at the same time!)
And then May hit and we were off like bandits! Looking back now I seriously feel like I blinked and am all of the sudden on the other side of some crazy summer time warp! I have about two billion pictures on my camera documenting all of our fun, crazy (sometimes stressful) adventures and have put off blogging about any of it until the pictures were organized (still working on that by the way...), but now we are a week away from school starting and I know if I don't get a jump on this it will never happen.
Here's the quick list of our summer (with pictures to come in small doses afterwards):
In June - we celebrated Olivia's 9th birthday (I KNOW!), Caleb finished up his last few soccer games (preschool soccer - what a riot!), we worked like mad to finish up the basement bedrooms, my cutie pie younger sister Andrea moved in with us while she's going to school at SLCC and working in Day Break, Olivia got a new bedroom in the basement, Olivia started running track 3X a week up at Herriman High School, Cameron rode in the Rockwell Relay (4 man team - 500 miles - Moab to St. George) where I met him at the finish line and we spent the weekend, Father's Day festivities, Olivia went to Girl Scout Camp-O-Ree at Trefoil Ranch for a weekend, my piano students wrapped up the season with a summer recital (good grief - words cannot describe how much I love teaching these piano kids!), Caleb started his first session of swimming lessons, and sprinkled amongst it all were lots of bike rides for Cameron, lots (and LOTS!) of YW activities and meetings for me to prepare for camp, and what feels like far too many visits to the pediatrician (because we had to have sickness thrown into the mix!)
In July - we celebrated the 4th, spent the 5th - 8th at the cabin in Alpine with friends, I went to YW camp the 9th - 14th while Livvy spent the same week at Trefoil Ranch for Girl Scout horse camp (leaving Cameron and Caleb to their own devices), jumped into rehearsals for the Kids on Broadway "Mary Poppins" show (Olivia performing, me assistant directing), celebrated the 24th at Grandma's annual backyard breakfast and then bowling with the cousins, Olivia started swim lessons, Cameron rode in the "Saints to Sinners" relay (S. Jordan to Vegas), repelled Pine Creek in Zion National Park with some of my siblings while the kids spent the weekend at Grandma Carol and Grandpa Richie's, I got called to be the primary pianist (Woohooooo!), all intermingled with lots of bike rides for Cameron, lots of trips to 7 Peaks for the kids and the stress of trying to refinance the house (if you have never done this before there are no words to describe the hell that is fishing up every old document even remotely connected to your life to send to the lender. And then doing it again. And again, etc. etc. etc.) Oh yeah - and I worked summer preschool up at Silver Crest for a few weeks out of the month.
In August - we finally relaxed a little! More 7 Peaks, late nights with friends, a family reunion, a road trip to California for two days in Disneyland and seven more at the beach in Carlsbad (oh such a needed week of relaxation!!), another swimming lesson session for Olivia, more Kids on Broadway rehearsals, school shopping, and a little (ahem - six hour....) ER adventure for Cameron who got a staph infection in his leg while in California that ended up being MRSA. P.S. - still working on closing that darn refinance!
This week (even while scrambling to get ready for school and work to start up and push the lenders along on the refinance) has been quite heavenly! We've been sleeping in, playing lots with friends (there are 7 kids in my basement right now all in dress ups making up a movie - I LOVE IT!!), doing some school shopping, getting things cleaned up around the house, rehearsing every day with Livvy for the Mary Poppins show this weekend, I actually cooked dinner three nights in a row this week (that's such a sad admission about the state of things this summer that I'm actually proud of that!) and I even got to do a little crafting last night with a few great friends!
I know that life will never plug along perfectly smoothly with no stress or unexpected excitement (and really, who would want it to?!) But BOY OH BOY have I learned a giant lesson this summer about knowing my limits, shuffling priorities and saying no to things I really want to do simply because there are other more important things needing my attention. I'm still a little disbelieving that we all made it through this summer for the most part unscathed, and I am grateful for my amazing family for being patient with me!!
2 comments:
Wow - what a summer! I was just lamenting how boring my summer has been. I guess with a 6 month old going to bed at 7:30pm that doesn't leave a lot of room for play. Maybe next summer. :)
To say that sounds exhausting is an understatement but what fun too! Don't forget to post the pictures!
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