Summer Days

Oh, summer fun! I have neglected my blog for a few weeks, and I have neglected my camera, so if this is a boring post, feel free to skip it. For posterity's sake I have a bit to write, but it's more so that I don't forget these precious days than anything else.

We have been having a fun summer. I love it up here!! I am so happy that we can be outside and not suffocate in the scorching desert! Right now the boys are running through the sprinklers and I am sitting in the shade quite comfortable. Ask me again in 6 months how I feel when I am snowed in and terrified to drive anywhere, but this is sure nice.

Kaeleb took swimming lessons for two weeks, which was fun because I could take Brennan swimming in the outdoor pool while he was in his lessons inside. My quirky little guy would not participate in a lot of the events in his lesson because he hates getting water on his face or in his ears (which is why I waited this long to put him in lessons) but he had a blast and ended up passing the class so he will move up next year anyway.

We have had a little kink in our house plans and are going to be in Layton for yet another month. The loan co. Richmond Homes uses is a small lender and a week before closing the underwriter had a panic attack about loaning money to people who are self employed... regardless of whether they have perfect credit and make enough money to afford the payment... but whatever... So, we had to move on to a bigger lender who will can "afford the risk". It is ridiculous, but we started over with Chase and hopefully we will close within a month. The house is finished and beautiful, and here we sit.

It is a good thing we like it here! It has been great for the boys to have four grown ups who love them and great for me to have help with the discipline and keeping them busy. They love to be outside helping Grandma in the yard. They pull weeds and dig with spades and even helped her plant two trees.

They also love playing the Wii with Grandpa. Kaeleb insisted on getting him Wii Sports Resort for Father's Day and they have been playing the Swordplay showdown ever since.

I got Kwint a door gym for Father's day so that he could show off how many pull ups he can do and I can whine about how many I can't do.

I have been missing my dad a lot this summer. Father's day is an obvious time to miss him, and his birthday is in July, so when summer hits, with all the fun, I also spend some time thinking about him. His face and the sound of his voice are still so vivid... I guess there are some things that are so familiar time cannot dim them. I am excited because my mom brought me some old pictures of him so I can make scrapbooks for my boys to keep that are all about Papa. I treasure them so much I almost slept with them the night I got them. But I would have wrinkled them. :)

Last weekend we went to a Monsen Family Reunion (my mom's family) in Fountain Green and had quite a lot of fun. I am ashamed of myself for how little I keep in touch with my cousins and I was amazed by all the little kids and how much they look like the cousins I used to play with. It was really fun to match the kids to their parents and in some cases, grandparents... (Hello Hayden!) My cousin Mindy and her hubby put together some creative games, as well as rockets for the kids to blast off and a big water balloon sling shot. So, as you can guess, Kwint had fun too.

I have the most amazing family. My grandma must be an angel sent from heaven to have raised such a family. She had nine children, one of which died as a toddler, but all eight living were married in the temple and of her 45-ish grandchildren, all but 3 or 4 are active in the church. It makes me proud to be part Monsen. As I listened to my cousins talk about their children and the various joys and trials they have been through, I was impressed and grateful for their examples. They have beautiful children and awesome spouses.

Brennan got his first mosquito bite there. (One thing we do miss about the desert-- there are so many bats in St. George that eat mosquitoes and we had narry a bite in 7 years.) He came running to us screaming "A bee is biting me!" with the mosquito still attached to his arm. We assured him that if it was a bee, it would not have been such a pleasant experience. Kaeleb loved the rockets best and had to make one as soon as we got home from church yesterday. We are so glad we went.

Kaeleb is such a good boy. I can always count on him to be obedient. He tries really hard to do the right thing and keep his brother in line. He is also so very smart. I love our scripture time at night because he understands it so well. We ask a lot of questions and he always has an answer, usually well thought out. I am proud of my boy. Speaking of bedtime, he is earning his bunk bed. We told him we would get bunk beds for them if he was brave enough to go to sleep without Mommy in his bed. It took two nights and he was saying "Night-night Mom, Night-night dad!" and hopping off to bed. Miracles do happen!

One more story and I will stop with my ramblings, oh how I do love to ramble... it is so therapeutic. Brennan said his first solo prayer (aka without help from mom or dad)two nights ago. It was very cute and went like this: "Henly Fadder, I'm fankful for dis day, fankful for Jesus, fankful for fam-i-ly, for Daddy, for Mommy, for Me, for Brudder, for Baby Lou's (their buddy dolls), for Bear...." Amen. He is the sweetest little rascal I have ever known.

The BEST ten years!

A little piece of why we moved back up here...





This last week (June 3rd) we celebrated our tenth anniversary. We have always talked about going to Hawaii for our tenth... but then we decided to move... and the cost of a U-Haul, blinds, fencing, a yard, and all the incidental expenses associated with moving (you know, like all the things I have been wishing I could buy and am now using the new house as an excuse to spend money... towels, bedding, pillows, pans, etc) trumped our travel fund.

So, we celebrated by going to see the Red Butte Gardens near the University of Utah one night, and going to dinner and a movie the next night. We took the kids with us on Thursday and everyone loved it! It is so beautiful and peaceful. We took 98 pictures. I opted not to post them all.

Friday night we left the kids and went first, to dessert at Cold Stone Creamery (cookie doughn't you want some?), then to see Prince of Persia (we liked it so much we took the kids and Kwint's parents to see it again the next day, haha!). We finished the night by eating at Corbin's, which is a semi fancy restaurant in Layton owned by an old friend of ours who also took our wedding pictures way back ten years ago. We had a table right next to a glass waterfall. The waiter pulled my chair out, put my napkin in my lap for me, and told us our menu choices were his favorite. The food was sooooo good. Kwint got grilled salmon and I got blackened chicken tortellini. WOW, can I say WOW again? So, maybe it wasn't Hawaii, but it was memorable for us.

I sort of skipped past Memorial Day, but that was fun too. Kwint's parents took us all to see "How to Train a Dragon" which was so funny and so cute. The kids loved it! Then we went hiking up by the Layton castle where we were surprised to find our beloved Jacob's family doing just the same thing. We love 'em.

So, the only funny kid stories I can remember from the week are the ones that won't be funny until the kids are older... Kaeleb begging for Wii sports resort at Sam's club and then after I scolded him I tried to distract him and he said, "Nice try Mom. I know you are trying to make me feel better. Not working."

Brennan flooding the basement, throwing a 45 minute tantrum at swimming lessons, breaking Grandpa's model wagons, hosing me down every day when I try to take away the garden hose he is flooding the backyard with, yelling at me, kicking me, hitting me, sitting in time out for 15 minutes after punching Kwint in the face.... I'd better stop now.

But, on the flip side, they are both so sweet. They love to help Grandma in the yard. Brennan came up behind me, gently grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me right on the lips, saying "You're my mom." (His favorite term of endearment.) I do love them with all of my heart.

These are happy days... We are looking forward to tens of tens more years like these.