2018 :: week 31

July 22

Sunday evening we went for a walk around the neighborhood. It was a gorgeous night and it felt good to get out and really enjoy being outside.

July 23

Monday evening we went out to dinner at Pie 5. On Mondays you can get a personal pizza for $5.55. We ordered four, though learned that three is probably sufficient for our crew. The kids like the carbonara pizza, I like to build my own with ranch sauce, and Anthony likes the meatlovers. After dinner went went to Young's Pool again. The community center is working on the indoor pool filtration system and all water aerobics classes are outdoors for the next three weeks. I worked out while Anthony kept tabs on the kids. It was a fun night.

July 24

Elliott adores our neighbor's cat Max. And lucky for him our neighbor Jan adores Elliott. If Elliott goes outside and sees Max he will wander over and make himself at home. If Jan sees him she will bring out a bag of fruit snacks for him and whatever other kids are around. Unfortunately, Max is getting old and has a variety of health problems, the most troubling being that has been losing weight. I'm not a cat person, but Max is pretty sweet and so gentle with my kids. I will miss him when he dies. Elliott tries to feed him grass and leaves, and is usually unsuccessful.

July 25

Wednesday morning we drove to Lee's Summitt to check out the new splash pad at the Lea McKeighan park. Several friends posted about it on facebook and I figured it was worth a trip. We met the Throssells and the park and had a fun morning. We all agreed it is the best splash park in the area. It is fenced in, with lots of covered seating for parents and a neat fenced-in playground right next to it. The playground has a lot of climbing structures, zipline and musical instruments. All three John kids had a blast! The only downside is that it is so far away. It is worth the occasional drive, but with at least twenty minutes of driving each way it won't be a weekly thing.

July 26

Thursday morning we all slept in a little bit due to overcast skies. By mid-morning it was raining. The older kids played Legos for a few hours and even let Elliott join in. At noon we headed to the $1 movie of the week--Paddington 2. It was really good! I was pleasantly surprised. We stopped at the Dollar Tree on the way to pick up treats. Will and Lauren got gummy worms, Elliott got Mini Oreos and I got Kit Kats.

July 27

Friday evening we went to the pool. It was a cool evening for the pool, but we had fun visiting with friends.

July 28

Will spent many hours playing with our neighbor Curran this week. Curran is a few years younger than Will, but they have a lot in common. They will play catch for hours, pitch to each other and explore in our backyard. It's fun to see them together. We met for lunch at the Mansing's house to celebrate Blaise's birthday.

2018 :: week 30

July 15

Nursery was a little crazy Sunday. We had a full house with nine kids! We have to take the table down and lay it flat on the floor as soon as we finish snack time because we have too many climbers. Otherwise they either climb on the assembled table or try to knock over the disassembled table leaned against the wall. After church we had a meeting with all of the newly called nursery workers. We will now have teams of two coming in once a month, with Shannon and I coming in every other week and as needed. We will see how this rotation turns out.

July 16

Monday was busy, but it was a great start to the week! I got up early to go for a walk and started the laundry. I put the last load in the dryer right before we left to meet up with a great group of friends at the Splash Pad. I had fun talking to my friends and the kids had fun playing with theirs. That afternoon we folded laundry, took Will to piano lessons and went to the pool for our FHE activity. I love it when we start the week of on a high note.

July 17

Tuesday was overcast and we met the Ules for a $1 summer movie. We watched Ferdinand. It was pretty good, but Elliott and I had to take a walk in the middle of the movie to get him refocused. It's hard for a little guy to sit still for two hours. Luckily the theater wasn't crowded and we were able to get some wiggles out on the side aisles without bothering others.

July 18

Lauren, Will and Will's friend Landon started their 3 day art camp at the Kemper Museum Wednesday. Will and Landon attended together last year.  Last year they raised the age from 5 to 6, so Lauren had been anxiously waiting for her turn to go. The theme of the week was miniatures, and at the end of the week they came home with a shoebox sized "studio" of the work they created.
While they were at art camp Elliott and went shopping for school supplies. I let the kids help pick out backpacks and lunch boxes, but have found it is so much easier to buy school supplies without their input.

July 19

We signed Lauren up for a few sessions of "tutoring" with her kindergarten teacher this summer. She meets Ms. Ringgenberg and a few classmates once a week for five weeks to work on sight words, reading and math. I am working on the same things with her at home, but thought it might be a good idea to have her teacher (whom Lauren adores) reinforce the things we are working on. Lauren has loved it and the fact that they meet at the library (an approximately three minute drive from our home) has made it worth the cost.

July 20

Swimming after art camp! The best part about art camp has been playdates with Landon every day after they get home. They played at our house one day, Landon's house another and the pool the next!

July 21

Saturday was a busy day! In the morning it was our turn to clean the chapel. Then I went out to brunch at a restaurant opened by a family that has been investigating the church for the past year with some girls from the ward. While I was gone Anthony and the kids did some household chores and also figured out how to unlock our bathroom door from the outside (it had accidentally gotten locked the night before and it has a different type of lock than the rest of our door knobs). I took a meal to a family in the ward and we dropped it off on our way to the pool. It was our first visit to Young's Pool this year and it did not disappoint! The Throssell's were there, which made it extra fun. Will got to ride down both slides, Lauren rode down the twisty one twice and the both used the high dive. Due to updated state regulations, Young's is the only Overland Park pool with a high dive. Elliott loved the whale slide that is just a little bit taller and faster than the hippo at Bluejacket.

2018 :: week 29

July 8

Elliott has been using an old flip phone of Anthony's and pretending it is his phone. He often tells me he is texting his friends and Sunday morning he asked me to take a selfie with him. I tried to take a selfie of us on my phone taking a selfie on his phone. He also listens to music on his "phone" and "looks at pictures."

July 9

Monday was a busy day! The older kids started their weeklong summer school "Mini-Musical" class in the morning. I did six loads of laundry. Monday is my laundry day and I typically do 3-4 loads. Between all the towels we use for swimming and getting the rest of our trip laundry cleaned I was working on it most of the day. In the afternoon Lauren had a birthday party for her friend Saffi, Will had a piano lesson and then a playdate with his friend Ben at his neighborhood's pool. Anthony had to run a few "bishop's errands" and I took Elliott to the pool and visited with Emily and Stephanie. After dinner and the kids were in bed Daniel stopped by to say hello.

July 10

Daniel is an assistant coach for the BYU Women's basketball team and was in town for a few days to recruit at a tournament. The kids were happy to have an excuse to stay up a little late to say hi to him. Anthony and I had a great time visiting with him. There is never enough time to visit with our siblings and their spouses.

July 11

We went to the free lunch Wednesday after the kid's theatre class. Chicken sandwiches are a hit with the older kids. Elliott is very particular about what he will eat but he loves the milk, juice and fruit sides. 

July 12

It was extremely hot this week. The temperatures were in the high 90s all week, with the heat index well over 100 degrees. I ended up getting a bad headache and had to spend more time than I would have liked resting. Thursday evening we went over to our neighbors house for about an hour. Usually our kids play together outside but it was just too dang hot! Our kids had fun climbing on their huge chaise lounge, wrestling and dressing up as superheroes.

July 13

Friday we got to see "Go Fish!" the play the kids worked on this week. All of the kids were different fish and each fish's personality was influenced by its name. Lauren was one of four seahorse, which were the cowgirls of the sea. Will was a clownfish that told jokes. I was so proud of them! They delivered their lines loud and clear and sang the songs and did the dances. Well, Lauren did the dance moves. Will had his hands in his pockets during the opening number which made it hard to do the hand movements, but he loosened up as the production went on.

July 14

We had a lazy Saturday. It rained in the early afternoon, which put a damper on plans to work in the yard and go to the pool. I gave the boys haircuts and then we made cookies and played Ticket to Ride Jr. It was a much needed quiet day spending time together.

2018 :: week 28

July 1

Sunday was a perfect family day in Bennington. We spent the afternoon at Uncle McKay and Aunt Susie's house visiting and eating an early dinner. In the evening we went to Uncle Melvin and Aunt Dorothy's house and visited with their extended family and played with their adorable, but fiesty puppies. We stopped by Elena and Kyle's new house and admired their gorgeous views and cute broiler hens. That night as we were going to bed Anthony and I both agreed that it had been a perfect Sunday.

July 2

We realized the stars had aligned and the Maxfields and Gessells were both in Utah. They invited us to come down for the day and we did! We were only in Utah for about 18 hours--including sleeping--but it was fun to see cousins and family members we will only get to see once this year. All of the cousins were present and we had a great evening eating delicious Chubbies burgers and watching the kids play.

July 3

We hit the road around 9:30am Tuesday morning. The kids were bummed to be leaving their cousins so soon, but the Maxfields were hitting the road as well which made it a bit easier. It was a relatively uneventful day of driving. Anthony and I listened to the Slow Burn Podcast about Watergate. The kids drew countless pictures and watched several movies. We stopped at Wendy's for dinner and got Frosty's to reward ourselves for a successful day of driving.

July 4

Why is the leg of a trip always the hardest? We were all feeling the effects of staying up too late for too many nights. We slept in and got a late start. All the kids complained about feeling carsick. Elliott ended up throwing up. I guess we are true road warriors now. We stopped and cleaned the car the best we could. Luckily the vomit was mostly contained to items that we could stick in a washing machine, but the smell still permeated the plastic bags we kept them in in the meantime. We arrived home and only Tony and Will were up to watching fireworks. Usually the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays, this year I am glad we survived.

July 5

Thursday was rough. There is no other way to describe it. Reentry to life post-road trp was hard. We were all exhausted. Lauren was maybe sick. No one had energy to do much and my patience was spent. After a frustrating morning of trying to get stuff done but everything ending in tears I threw in the towel and we watched a few movies and did no cleaning. Will built this Lego "mask" while I cross-stitched. We did end up getting the van totally cleaned and we were all in better moods that evening, so the quiet afternoon and relatively unproductive day wasn't a total loss.

July 6

As per tradition, when the Red Sox come to town we try to go to a game. This year thanks to dynamic pricing and a weekend series the tickets were more expensive so only the big boys went. Anthony took Will and they had a great time. Earlier in the day Will told me he had butterflies in his stomach he was so excited to go to the game. His chosen outfit made me smile--all blue Royals gear excpet for his red socks. Their original seats were in the upper deck, but at the start of the eighth inning you can sit in any open seat and the boys moved right next to the Royals dugout. Will loves it when Anthony yells "Bon-i-fac-io!" or "Hip-Hip-Jorge!" for Jorge Bonifacio and "Mooo-se" for Mike Moustakas. They Royals lost, but it was fireworks Friday so the night ended on a happy note.

July 7

We spent Saturday morning at Crown Center. First we visited Kaleidoscope. We lucked out and only had to wait about 15 minutes to get into a session. Will and especially Lauren were in heaven coloring, taping and painting. After Kaleidoscope we visited the traveling exhibit in the lower level of Crown Center called Trivial Pursuit: A 50 State Adventure. There was a fact and activity representing each state. After a morning of free activities we stopped at Unforked for lunch. After naps in the afternoon we spent several hours at the neighborhood pool relaxing and catching up with friends.