I Wish Summer Would Never End.

I know everyone at this time of year is so excited for fall. Not me. Fall is fine, fall is fun, but summer forever. Especially when you live somewhere where summer seems rather short.

We have swum (isn't any occasion to use "swum" the best?) and boated and partied all summer long. We have eaten more watermelon and corn on the cob than I can describe. We have even taken our corn to a new level with elote. Dan has smoked steaks and roasts and butts (ha!) on his new smoker. 

Our neighbors are some of the best gardeners on the planet. They went out of town for a month and asked us to harvest their garden. It was amazing. I made one zillion zucchini chocolate chip muffins. Dan learned to make Zuppa Toscana. I learned how to cook beets. We had a pretty successful garden as well. We've eaten like kings.

Part of our garden:

Bounty from Lee and Earl's garden:

Lee and Earl's amazing garden:

As always, we crashed other churches' Vacation Bible Camps. Three this year.

This dark photo is June accepting an award for memorizing the required verses at one of the camps.

We hiked into Saint Peter's Village to use the rope swing and go down the rock slides.

First you must climb over all of these rocks.

Swimming, Tarzan-style!

Rock slide:

Gwen's birthday was in July. It was on the same day as a summer party I scheduled for one of our co-ops. I didn't even realize that it was on Gwen's birthday until two days before. 

Picking out which donut she wanted for her birthday breakfast.

New shirt from Grandma Sandy, plus some spending money.

Charm bracelet from Grandma Kristi:

Summer party that day. It was her friend Dora's birthday as well so we moms were able to pretend that this party was for them. Except it wasn't. 

I convinced a bunch of moms to launch a sneak attack on all of the kids with some water balloons. When they retaliated, I picked up someone's baby, hoping that kids wouldn't throw water balloons at a woman with a baby. But they did.

Lots of swimming and boating, but not lots of photos of either. The kids all love tubing, and the girls love knee boarding. I have finally gotten up on skis, but haven't stayed up long enough to count it. We are going again a couple more times before it's too cold, and I'm really hoping I can accomplish this goal before we put the boat away for the winter.

We attended a class one evening all about fireflies. 

The girls and I attended a performance by BYU-Idaho's Dance Alliance team.

June started wearing reading glasses:

The kids have loved on Gilbert. They love him TO DEATH. Like he might die of being annoyed by them. We have had many talks about how no one likes being chased down and poked constantly. To no avail.

We have been able to attend the temple a lot this summer. Two times on our vacation to Utah, and three times since coming home. I took my friend Cathyjo through for her first time. Her son was home from his mission to have surgery and was able to see his mother go through the temple. He was so sad to have to come home from his mission for a couple of months, but we now all see how it was the Lord's timing.

Dan and I attended the temple twice together this month. That is a very rare occurrence. Our ward offered free childcare at the church building across the street one of the times, which was a huge blessing for us.

This is why I love summer. This particular summer we decided not to do any sports and hardly any camps so that we could swim and go to the temple and boat. It was awesome. 

Today we had our Back to School Feast, and tonight Dan will give the kids and me blessings for our new school year. Technically, we started doing a few things at the beginning of August, namely math, handwriting, music, and some reading. But this week and next our co-ops will resume, and we will be full-fledged schooling for the next several months. I know it's time but in my heart I'll be thinking about swimming.

The End.

Utah, Boat, Dog.

 We've had some major life changes take place in the Jolley household lately. (By the way, I just misspelled our last name. I first wrote Jolly. I'm finally giving into what the world wants, and that is for the -e to be omitted from our last name.)

At the end of May, we went to Utah for two-ish weeks to see family. The first week, we stayed with my mom and did all of the northern Utah things. We went to BYU, Temple Square, took TRAX to Music and the Spoken Word, ate loads of Cafe Rio, and saw many wonderful friends.

On the flight out to Utah, Beck threw up no fewer than 10 times. Who knew a little body could contain so much spew? Dan took Beck to the back of the plane to use the bathroom, and after several minutes, a shirtless Beck came marching down the aisle, stopping at each set of seats to make sure that everyone saw that he was half-naked and getting away with it. Beck loves being naked and rarely gets away with it anymore. 

Then he sat down next to me and proceeded to barf 98 more times. When we changed planes in Denver, I was the lucky contestant accompanied Beck down the jetway whilst holding a barf bag to his lips to catch anything that came flying out on our journey. 

I saw so much fear in so many pairs of eyeballs as we walked on the next plane to Salt Lake City. Everyone was silently pleading with us not to sit anywhere near them. Which, to be honest, I am used to that look. But this had an extra "nobarfnobarfpleasenobarf" level next to it. A new level of desperation.

So that was a tough part of the trip, only to be matched by the other hard part of the trip, which was when Harris took a turn at throwing up, and this time it was right outside the Church Office Building. We know how to leave an impression.

The second week of the trip, we went to St. George for Dan's family reunion.

There were 28 of us in a house with a private pool and a hot tub and a large lagoon we shared with a neighborhood. We cooked and cleaned up and swam and made s'mores and watched movies and made crafts. And then we would go to bed and do the same thing all over again the next day. It was all very fun, and we were dead by the end of it.

My friend Kendra took amazing family photos for us. 

The Original Jolleys:

The Whole Huge Gang.

And Our Small Crew.

Anyone who knows Dan Jolley knows that he has wanted a boat more than anything. More than a wife, more than kids, more than financial security. I kid, I kid. But a boat has always been on top of Dan's list. So when we found one for a very used one for a decent price, we decided to splurge. 

There's been a learning curve involved. Most of the time, I'm a huge planner. But sometimes the four kids and the homeschooling and all of the responsibilities pile up on me and there isn't much time to plan, so we jump forward and plan later. Which means that we bought a boat without knowing how to get a license, and without having a hitch on our van, and without knowing how to back up a trailer. The first time Dan went to take the boat out, he couldn't remember which one was ours. That's the level of jumping ahead I'm talking about. But we finally got licensed, insured, hitched, and practiced backing up the trailer.

In fact, here is a super blurry pic of Dan backing the boat up into the water. I'm his first mate. I'm a terrible first mate. I know nothing and help with nothing besides documenting boating trips by taking terribly blurry photos.

THAR SHE BLOWS! I realize that that phrase refers to a whaling expedition and not a ski boat, but it seemed much more interesting than "Here's our boat."

June on the knee board:

Gwen on the knee board:

Captain Dan, and his loyal Sea Puppy, Gilbert! Yes, in the midst of this non-planning splurging we had going on, we also acquired a dog. Just about as much planning went into the dog as did our boat buying.

I was so against him. But I love him. I'm his favorite, which makes me like him more. He gets it, you know?

Other happenings:

The lady that teaches June how to ride horses (and who also sold us our new puppy) offered to host all of our kids at horse camp one week this summer in exchange for my cleaning her she-shed. I do love a good organization project, so I readily agreed. The camp counselor quickly discovered that the only way to contain Beck was to keep him atop a horse, so he had more than his fair turns riding compared to the other kids.

Gwen had her big annual dance show. She and her friend Heidi have been in jazz together two years in a row. They did such a great job that it almost soothed my soul from the terrible experience of having to put mascara on an 8-year-old who hates it several times in a single week.

We've had this clematis for three years, but it would never bloom. Bloom it did this year, and I'm thrilled. Now I just need a better wreath for my black door so it doesn't look like a giant bruise.

We had our second annual strawberry picking fest with our friends the Cramer's at Sauder's Strawberry Patch. We went the very last day of the season because it was the only day we had time, only to arrive and find out that all of the strawberries are free the last day. We went crazy.

I made tons of freezer jam and we ate so many strawberries that we were a little sick. 

And our church photo from today:

The End.

Beck + Josie

I recently did a photo shoot for a toddler wedding. My own toddler's wedding. 

Let me back up.

Several years ago, a man stopped by my family's table at a church activity to chat. Seeing that my kids were hopped up on goofballs (as they usually are), he made the oh-so-unhelpful comment, "I see that the inmates are running the asylum here." I wasn't mad in the slightest because he. was. right.

And that coup from many years ago remains successful today. We parents are mere pawns in our children's schemes. Sometimes I get to carry out one of my own ideas, but really it's only an idea that my kids have planted as a seed in my head and then have worked tirelessly to grow until it comes to fruition. I am the Manchurian Mother, a mere instrument through which my children are taking over the world.

Which is how I came to host a totally unnecessary and somewhat frivolous toddler wedding within the walls of my own crazy home.

Some of our closest friends are the Whitlocks. My June and Gwen and their Charlie and Raelyn have been talking about pairing up our Beck with their Josie for the longest time. I didn't mind this a bit as the girls could be entertained with the planning of this for hours, and it bought me a lot of time during our playdates. 

But then they started asking when we could host this thing. And I balked. "That's ridiculous," I said. "We aren't going to be weirdos who have toddler weddings."

It turns out that's exactly who we are going to be--weirdos who host toddler weddings. I don't remember the exact moment I changed my tune but what started out as an adamant "NO!" turned into me at Dollar Tree blowing 15 bucks on toddler wedding decorations.

Beck, at his destination wedding beach spot, eagerly awaits his one-true-love/playdate-partner-he-often-refuses-to-play-with, Josie.

The blushing bride, scampering down the aisle to see her beloved frenemy. 

Harris, the sole shy resident of this family, chickened out of officiating, so Head Bridesmaid/Wedding Planner/Wedding Dictator June jumped in to save the day.

The solemn union was solidified by a hug. They exchanged ring pops. (Note: Dan made fun of this whole thing for a long time and kept giving me a hard time for giving in. But then an hour before the ceremony, he went to the store to buy ring pops because he said "they have to exchange rings!!" Everyone is guilty over here.)

And a KISS! 

The happy couple departed on Harris's borrowed big wheel, complete with streamers and a "Just Married" sign June made and affixed to the back.

And then we had pizza and a little white cake I had made. The best part was that the parents weren't allowed to participate in the actual wedding, so we all wore sweats. 

The End.

All Sorts of Out of Sorts.

 I've been sick. The wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-chills-and-aches sick. The throat-so-sore-you-can't-tell-if-you-are-drinking-water-or-shards-glass sick. 

Now I'm a terrible patient. And a terrible nurse. Conversely, Dan is a great patient who asks for nothing when he is sick and who will also do anything I ask plus think of extra things to do for me when I'm sick. It's why we are so good together.

When I'm sick, I never think to take medicine. I'm not a pill popper. Dan always has to bring medicine to me and remind me to take it. This time I feel like he gave me 32984729837 different medicines and didn't check if they go together or not. I have been downright loopy. Also I read in the Book of Mormon this past week where Amalickiah has Lehonti poisoned by degrees so that Amalickiah could become the king of the Lamanites. Coincidence? I think not. I brought this up to Dan, and his retort was, "But remember, Heather, what Amalickiah stood to gain by being the king. What kingdom am I inheriting if you die?" and motioned to the four hungry and squabbling children around us, the piles of laundry spilled over everywhere, and the general disarray of the house. 

He has a point. 

I'm on antibiotics now and feeling much better, but still somewhat foggy and dizzy and definitely super disorganized. I learned the acronym "EHAP" last year--Everything Has A Place--and despite my calling it out to my children in a range of tones--playful and sing-songy, sadly and full of sighs, irritated and saracastic, and then just downright frightening--no one seems to care about my awesome EHAP ideas. Things are out of order at the Jolley house. 

Now the photos:

I had to take photographic evidence of this amazing exchange between June and myself. June is in the process of being evaluated for vision therapy. As part of the extensive paperwork I filled out for her was the question: What behavioral problems does the child experience at home?

Now June is a great kid, but she is stubborn as all get out (obviously inherited from Dan's side of the family) and she will argue with you until you pass out. I have waved the white flag of surrender with that child more often than I care to admit.

So I wrote "Lots of arguing." June was sitting next to me reading her book while I was writing this all up and of course, she happened to look over and said, "What did you just write about me?" and then realized what I had written and got so upset and yelled, "I do NOT argue with you! I never do!" and then proceeded to take my pen and cross out what I had written. So then I wrote another note, pointing to what she had crossed out and explained my side of the story. 

I cannot make this stuff up.

We also hosted a laser tag party with our neighbors at our church building. I don't know what kinds of amazing pictures I was hoping to catch in the dark but here is the fabulous photo evidence of said event.

The End.

This is Wonderfully Weird.

I'm experiencing something very weird right now. The plan for today was the normal plan--drive 45 minutes to drop the girls at their fine arts co-op and entertain the boys for 3 and a halfish hours while we waited for their classes to be finished.

But the local school districts are out today for President's Day. Harris was invited to a friend's house. Dan worked from home and offered to keep Beck so that Beck could take his afternoon nap. 

I. Was. Free.

Now what kind of terrible thing is that to say? I mean I love my kids. I choose to homeschool them. But I have just sat at a coffee shop for the past couple of hours sipping my bottled water and have gone through my to-do list and crossed thing after thing off.

Tax return approved, emails sent, Relief Society assignments completed, forms filled out, play tickets bought, rental cars priced, homeschool science classes scheduled, etc. 

I feel alive! I feel like I could run a marathon. Or probably just drive one.

We had our annual Valentine's Day party. We exchanged valentines with my brother Mark's kids. As always, we sent them some crusty and falling apart valentines, and they sent us amazing and beautiful presents. Thank you, Shayla, for continuing this tradition with me year after year though I'm sure I give you zero incentive to.

Speaking of having a bit more time lately, I'm very pleased to announce that basketball and wrestling seasons are both over. For some reason, I love signing my kids up for things, but love it even more when they are canceled or finished. Why don't I just NOT sign us up to begin with? It's a deep question, and the answer is: I'm not okay upstairs.

Aren't my girlies so cute and affectionate in this little impromptu team photo. My favorite thing about this basketball league is that the team photo session consisted of a bunch of us parents aiming our cell phones at the girls and giving the ol' click. No picture forms, no $45 for the smallest package, nothing. My favorite. Our coaches were amazingly nice and helpful to my non-baller girls, but of course that didn't keep me from razzing them about their Eagles allegiance when the Chiefs beat them in the Super Bowl. Zing!

And I will leave you with the disturbing image with which I was met whilst exiting my bedroom one day. This is Gwen. I was quite startled. I gasped at the sight of her, and then she whispered, "I. Am. Death."

The End.

Things Were a Little Off.

We had a slightly "off" week. I took the girls to their fine arts co-op Monday and brought my laptop with me to get some work done while they were there. I then accidentally left the laptop at co-op when we went home. The co-op is 45 minutes from us. In order to get my computer back Tuesday, we had to skip a lot of our regular plans. So instead of the usual Tuesday stuff, we had a field trip day and saw a dairy farm near co-op.

Add baby cow to the list of animals June thinks we should own.

It was also a different week because of Groundhog Day. We celebrate every year with pancakes and watching Punxsutawney (that just might be the hardest word to spell in the history of the world) Phil make terrible predictions I don't agree with. And what's with the whole "shadow" business not happening? That may be what other groundhogs do but P-dawg picks a scroll. Even less scientific than that shadow biz. 

We only live 3 and a half hours from Punxsutawney, and every year I suggest to my kids that we actually go one year. I always think they will jump at the thought. But instead, they look at the people on TV who have been shivering for hours and would rather stay home. 

Another "off" thing was that Forest School was canceled this week due to crazy cold temps and high winds. So we cleaned the whole house and went to the library to play with the toys.

Something that wasn't "off" at all about this week but instead was just so special was attending the temple with some dear friends. One of the things I love about the church is that I am friends with so many women who are in a different life stage than I am. I took Grace, a freshman at college, and Marilyn, a women a few years older than I am, to the temple. Marilyn was baptized in December, and this was her first time. She was able to perform baptisms for the dead and also was able to have one of the young men in our ward be baptized for her husband who passed away a year ago. It was one of those experiences that puts all parts of my life into perspective--what is important, what doesn't matter, and how I want to spend my time.

 

And today, trying to get back to having nursing home visits be a part of the "on" schedule. We are striving to play for the residents one Sunday a month during lunch. Of course, one of my meetings after church ran late, and most of the residents had headed back to their rooms already. But we were able to play for a few of the men, and they were so kind and appreciative.

Harris started piano a few weeks ago, and I tried to get him to play something and he said NO WAY.

Church photo today:

I came home from the temple yesterday to find out that Beck had been sick all day and that Dan hadn't wanted me to know because he didn't want me to rush home. He had a hectic day of watching the girls play at their basketball game while also monitoring a sick Beck in the car (who didn't appear sick until they had arrived for the game). Poor Dan. So Beck stayed home today and Dan stayed with him. Another "off" thing but hopefully just for this week.

A funny Beck-ism from this morning: Dan, when Mom leaves can we watch movies?

Dan looked at me in horror as he exclaimed that he doesn't just let the kids watch movies as soon as I leave the house.

Sure Dan. Sure.