Swimming at Aspen

They had a really nice pool at Aspen Grove.  The kids loved the slides. 

Here is Olivia coming out of the slide. 

Devin coming out of the slide to be caught by Jeremy.

 The kids got to go swimming everyday with their group.  Plus on one day they had activities called Water Follies where the kids and the adults played games in the water.  The best game was with a gigantic big blue ball that you had to keep out of your section of the pool.

While we were waiting for classes to begin after lunch we discovered a small stream.  It was really cold but it was fun to wade in it and to have stick races down the stream.

Aspen Grove

The Brunner's had a family reunion with all the all of Jeremy's Brothers and Sister and their families. We went to a family camp called Aspen Grove.  It was a lot of fun.  Each day there were family activities and each day the kids could go to activities with their age group.  There were lots of fun planned things to do if you wanted to or you could choose to do what you wanted.

Hazel, Malachi, Garrett, Alex and Devin

Alex and Devin.  They loved playing on the swing while waiting for activities to begin.

The bear was a favorite of all the kids.


Here is our cute cabin that we stayed in.  We got special permission to park up at the cabins because it was so hard for me to hike back and forth from the cabins to the rest of the camp.

While we were there we played miniature golf, shuffle board, swam, played in the creek, painted, played horseshoes, participated in the planned activities, played badminton, ate lots of food, got BYU ice cream, lounged around, went to the rock wall and ropes courses. It was a good week.

Here are the kids getting with their groups:

Olivia was a panther.

Garrett was a Wild Cat and Devin was a Stomper. Though Devin wanted to be a Wild Cat.

You know the kids are busy and having fun when they fall asleep at dinner.

The kids loved painting at the Art's Center.  They went to the Art center each day in their group as well.

Inside Day

It is summer and we are loving it. We have spent a lot of time outside. Yesterday it was a nice day outside but we decided to have an inside day because we are all burnt! On Wednesday we went to the outdoor pool and we all got burnt. So on our inside day we still had a lot of fun. We made sand art, did puzzles, read books, did spelling words, played math games on the computer, and went to Arctic Circle for lunch and ice cream.

The kids were excited about the puzzles because we had just gotten rid of all the old puzzles that were missing pieces and got new puzzles. They were excited to have complete puzzles.

Funny Story about the sand art:
We were putting the sand into the clear containers.  We had done something similar to this with colored sugar.  I was sitting at the table helping all three kids.  All of the sudden I hear Devin making a weird noise.  I look over at him and he has his mouth open and his mouth is full of blue sand. He doesn't know what to do.  We quickly washed out this mouth and I told him it wasn't sugar.  But it was still funny! Afterward he told us how yucky that sugar was.

Rollie Pollies and other pets

Devin loves animals. He told me the other day he wanted a bunny. Jeremy asked, "Where would it stay?"
He said, "A cage."
Jere asked, "Where will the cage stay?"
Devin replied, "My room."
"Why do you want a bunny?"
"They are soft and cute."
Of course we told him no on the bunny. He looked so sad.
The next day he asked if he could have a baby duck! "They are so cute and soft." He has been watching Curious George and gets these ideas. Then today he asked to have a monkey.
Since he can't have a monkey, a bunny, or a duck he settles on these.

Lots and lots of roly-poly bugs.  I don't know why he wants these-they aren't soft and cute!

Every morning when we go on our walk he takes a cup and picks up every roly poly bug he sees. He wants to keep every single one of them as pets.

Where to Sleep

Devin doesn't like to sleep in his room. He would rather be downstairs with his brother and sister but since we don't let him do that very often he will settle for other places.  Here are a few places we have found him either at night or the next morning:

My bed.  Can you believe how big he looks.

On the couch or chair.
 

We have also found him in the pink room, in our closet, and in the hall way. We wonder sometimes why we even bought him a bed.

Just passed 5,000,000

On average, Google pays me one cent for every 12.5 views. It actually adds up pretty nicely!

Love it!

We were watching a t.v. in the morning and I looked down at these two. It made me smile! I love when these two get along. They fight sometimes but Devin copies Garrett a lot and he loves Mario because Garrett does.

Daddy Daughter Race

For Activity Days this past week it was a Daddy Daughter Date. They built a car out of a box from Costco together and then went and had a race against other girls and their dads.

The flashlights for headlights was pretty clever.

She even added a license plate. "Chica 1"

They had a really fun time and according to them they won the race.

Water Fun

Since we are on Summer break the kids have been begging to fill the pool. Well I didn't get the pool filled but they were happy to fill a bucket full of water and play in that. It was great for the squirt guns too. They have played outside everyday since summer break and they are burnt but they are loving summer. I did fill up the pool but it had a leak somewhere and it was pretty pathetic.

It is comical that they are wearing goggles to put their head in the bucket.

They are seeing how long they can hold their breath.

A new routine

School is out and Summer has started. So we have a new routine that we are going to follow until we go on trips.

7:00 Eat Breakfast and watch T.V.
8:00 Go on Walk/Bike Ride (I know this isn't a lot of time but this all I can do)
8:30 Read
9:00 Spelling/Math
9:30 Chore for pay
10:00 Snack/Then play or other activities
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Quiet Time for Devin/other kids play
2:30 Snack and more playing
5:00 Dinner
After Dinner:
Chore No Pay
Writing in Journal and write funny story
More Playing
Watch a movie?
9:00 Bed time!

Now the times aren't exact and there are plenty of play times that I can plan other things. Today at 1:00 we are going to the summer dollar movie so probably no quiet time for Devin. He will sleep in the car on the way home. But I am trying to not have a lot of T.V./Computer/Wii. At first I was going to do NO screen time but didn't think that was realistic. The last two days went well. The kids like the "School" activities and the free play time. During the free play time they have played with friends, rode bikes, jumped on the tramp, played with water guns, collected rollie pollie bugs.

Even when we go on trips they will be required to read everyday.

Last Day of School/Dance Festival

For the last day of school this year the school did a dance festival. I was lucky enough to be able to go. It was a beautiful day and the kids did a great job.

Garrett getting ready to go and perform.  You can see his teacher Mrs. McDaniel at the front.

Both Olivia and Garrett had a great year. They both learned so much.  Garrett got the "BEST READER AWARD" for his class and he is reading on a mid second grade level.  I told the kids they had to read everyday this summer. Garrett moaned and groaned. Then he came home from school and said that his teacher said they had to read everyday this summer and he was willing to do it.  Thank Goodness for good teachers who teach, love, and inspire my children.

Blast Off

Olivia brought home an assignment due the next day to build a bottle rocket. Jeremy and Olivia went beyond the instructions that were given and had a blast making a rocket for her to take to school to launch.

I think it looks pretty spiffy!  Especially with the cute astronaut picture of her on it.  Hope that it flies.

As I was taking pictures the boys wanted in on the picture taking.  They were too cute not to add.

Caught a Mouse

I am upstairs and I hear the kids yelling that there is a mouse. They are shrieking, "A mouse A mouse." Garrett comes running upstairs and asks for a cup to catch the mouse with. I told him that he wouldn't be able to catch it. He said, "It is just running in circles." So I let him take a container downstairs. A few minutes later they bring up this: 

I think he was sick because he still running in circles.   The kids wanted to keep him and get him healthy again.  I told them, "NO."  They needed to let it go.  So they took it and released it behind the fence.

But this story reminded me of when I was a kid and we had caught a mouse and wanted to keep and my mom said, "No." So we built a raft out of Popsicle sticks and put the mouse on the raft and released it down the river.  Hoping for it a better life a long way away from our house.

New Dinner Recipe

I had left over turkey from Sunday dinner and was trying to decide what to do with it.  I was at the store and saw raspberry vinaigrette.

It sounded really good. So I decided to make a salad that used raspberry vinaigrette. The salad had:

Romaine Salad Mix
Almond Slices
Chopped Strawberries
Cooked Turkey
Grated Mozzarella Cheese
Topped with Raspberry Vinaigrette.

It was so tasty! We decided that this was going to be a keeper at our house. Well a keeper a least for Jeremy and me.  We are thinking next time try a different type of cheese.

Do you have any good recipes that use raspberry vinaigrette?

TV on Netflix

After the kids go to bed Jeremy and I have been watching some TV series on Netflix Instantly.  We finished the series called Firefly.  At first we started watching it because we really like Nathan Fillion from the series Castle.   We really enjoyed this series even if it only lasted 1 season.  It is about space cowboys who do illegal jobs and help people along the way. 

Now we are watching a series called Eureka.  This is a show where a new sheriff comes to a town that is scientifically advanced and all the citizens are geniuses and all the problems that this causes.  So far we are enjoying this show too.

If you want to watch some good shows we would recommend these two. 
Are there any shows that you like to watch?