2021 :: week 31

July 25

Now that we have barstools and a kitchen island, Miles sees no need to use a high chair. He can easily climb up, but gets nervous when climbing down, so he often will call out if no one is in the room. It makes me feel a little bad that I like hearing his cute little voice call out, "Help me! Help me!"

July 26

It is the dog days of summer. I had a bad headache today so I made the kids play outside as much as possible. We didn't get to go to the pool or do anything extra. Times like this make me especially grateful for neighborhood playmates.

July 27

Elliott participated in a theatre camp a friend from the ward held. It was a small group, and all the kids that attended are in his primary class. They made props, learned about the parts of the play, then acted out the story of The Three Little Pigs. It was very cute. Elliott was little pig #1, AKA the lazy pig who built his house out of straw. I know I am biased, but his facial expressions and pantomime stole the show.

July 28

Lauren and Elliott started their art camp, and while they were at camp I took the little bros to Crown Center. We visited the "Under the Sea" exhibit, the first exhibit they've had in there (besides Santa) since March 2020. The boys had fun exploring and running around. It wasn't very crowded so it was easy to keep track of the boys. It reminded me of how I used to take Will and Lauren to these rotating exhibits back when they were the ages of these boys. We stopped at the candy shop next door and I let each of the kids pick out a treat. We walked out to the fountains and ate a healthy snack that I packed, along with their candy. It was a hot day so we went to Young's Pool that evening.

July 29

Thursday ended up being a crazy-busy day. The kids had Camp Kemper, but we were carpooling with the Wilsons, so Emily dropped the kids off. My good friend and college roommate Nikki was in town with her husband and she stopped by and visited with me for about an hour. I wish I had had more time to catch up. Tony came home early to watch the little bros and then I picked the kids up from art camp and we headed to Independence for the Mid-America Music Association (MAMA) Festival. Will and Lauren each played two songs from memory and received superior ratings, though we didn't find out until that evening. We had to wait a long time between the kid's performances, next year we will do better with the scheduling. It was again so very hot, so that night we went to Stonegate Pool after dinner.

July 30

The kids last day of art camp. Tyler was old enough to come this year and the cousins had fun doing interactive art together. As has become the tradition, I took the kids out for doughnuts at Donutology on the way home. Unfortunately it was insanely hot in the building and they were severely understaffed. It took a long time to get our treats and we were all pretty grumpy by the time they arrived. 

July 31

Saturday night we went to the Theatre in the Park production of Newsies. It was fabulous. The kids fell in love with the music a few years ago after watching the movie and also the BYU Vocal Point medley. The Lenz's invited us over for a potluck cook out and swim at the neighborhood pool so we were all nice and cool before the show started. I was a little nervous about how Miles would do, and he was great for the first 80% of the show. Towards the end he started to get a little slap happy and I followed him as he ran around the back of the park (no one was sitting back there). Apparently the state used federal COVID relief funds to create an app where families could register and get into various museums and performing arts venues across the state, so we were able to go to the play for free. We had a great time!