The End is Near

***Warning: This is a lllooonnnggg, picture filled post***

Our summer is quickly coming to an end. When we decided that this summer wouldn’t involve any traveling I was really worried about what we would do to fill 2 months. I was also more than a little sad that we wouldn’t be going to Idaho. We have spent so many summers there it just doesn’t seem possible to have fun without including a trip in our summer plans.

Well I am happy to report that we have had a delightfully relaxing and fun summer. Imagine that!

The first week we did…NOTHING. And who knew that nothing could be so fun? Well not exactly nothing, but it was a pretty relaxed routine. We would start our day with chores and taking turns playing on the computer. There were movies and playing on the Wii scattered in there also. Then in the afternoon we would sit down and read for an hour. A blessed, sweet hour of quiet. And that would be followed with a couple of hours of swimming. We followed that routine most days. As the summer went on surprisingly our hour of reading was pretty hit and miss, but swimming saved us from the heat most days.

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The first thing that was scheduled for our summer was Einstein’s first boy scout campout. I can’t believe he was old enough for that.

At least there are still signs he is my little boy.

And I have to be honest I was glad that Big Daddy went with him.

This campout was during all the big fires we had in AZ this summer so I was a little nervous, but they were in a beautiful spot.

They had so much fun, but also had a grueling hike. He earned his nap on the drive home.

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A few days after Einstein got home it was time for J to get ready to leave on his first week long scout camp.

He was excited and ready to go.

His pack was a little bigger and didn’t have anything comfy-cozy.

He had fun and I can’t believe how much older he seemed when he got home. Or maybe it was just the dirt and sunburn that hid my little boy.

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While he was gone we were still able to find fun things to do. Well actually there is a very organized Mom in our neighborhood that planned a bunch of fun activities for us this summer. She is truly amazing. One of the first activities was touring a fire station.

It was a fun little tour.

I love this picture of Roo. Notice that all the other kids are looking all over, but she can’t take her eyes off the hunky fireman. I guess that fireman crush can start pretty early.

All the kids were excited to see the fire pole.

But this particular fire station has a couple of these:

The fireman said they aren’t used because it’s a little hard to go down them, especially with all the gear.

It seems strange to have a picture with just 4 kidlets. 

~~~

Since J was gone over Father’s day we celebrated it a week later so all the kidlets were here.

Of course I didn’t get a picture of Big Daddy with all the kidlets. Duh…

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Later that week was the next neighborhood activity. We went to the Arizona Museum of Natural History.

Of course we showed up on the day where half the the city had lost power due to a sub-station fire.

About the time we planned on coming back another day the power was restored…at least at the museum.

This is one of our favorite museums.

They have this huge robotic T-rex and other dinosaurs.

Ham was not a fan of the moving dinosaurs.

The girlies didn’t seem to mind them.

There is a new display that the kidlets really liked. It is about a group of people who are doing a study on the Sea of Cortez.

These pictures make it look like the kidlets were really involved.

There is also gold panning.

That involves kidlets getting wet.

It was a fun day.

That ended too soon.

~~~

There were also a few library programs to add fun.

The first one was a singer/songwriter. He sang some great cover songs. The kidlets didn’t really like it. I loved it.

They did like playing the rhythm instruments.

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The next show was Celtic Storytellers.

LaLa loved this program.

Especially when she asked if she could play the harp and they let her.

The Boyz weren’t that excited about it.

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The final program was this insane reptile guy.

(sorry if anyone knows him, but he has really spent WAY too much time with snakes and lizards)

As soon as he rolled this bad boy close to Ham it was over for him.

Ham ran crying to me and climbed on my lap for the rest of the show.

It ended when the kidlets “got” to pet the snake.

~~~

There were also trips to the movies and a couple Diamondbacks games.

Big Daddy and the Boyz had fun cheering on the Diamondbacks unfortunately they lost.

 

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Now the school supplies are purchased

and the summer is over.