August

The long awaited day finally came for our patio cover to be built, our hot tub to be delivered, and new patio furniture to arrive- all within 3 days.  We are loving the results, and are wondering how we ever lived without everything.

 
 Around this time we were excited to welcome Jess and Brad home after their summer in Texas.  They are staying with us for three weeks until Brad goes to Peru for 3 months to do his internship and Jess will live with us until November when she leaves to spend the last month with him.  It's been so much fun having them around. We've probably had more fun in the few weeks they've been home than we have all summer! 

 One of the funnest things we've done was having an Olympic party at the Call's with almost everyone in attendance.  It was a blast!  Teresa and Brad had so many fun activities planned, and since they had just gotten home from attending the Olympics in London, they had some great ideas. First off everyone had to jump into the pool from the rock and try to make as little splash as possible.  Then we all had to come down the slide as creatively as possible.  Next was wrestling on the paddle boards, then a relay race and team paddle boarding. 

 Next was gymnastics on the trampoline.  Everyone did a great job- and it was fun to watch how impressive most were- especially Hannah who won the gold medal.  We had a cookout and sat around the fire and looked at pictures of Teresa and Brad's trip on their laptop while the kids kept swimming.  It was such a fun day and great to be together with everyone.

 The next day the 6 of us went to Bear Lake for the afternoon.  We rented a wave runner and had a great time playing on that.  Sadly Mike fell off the jet ski (driven by Jake) and lost his perscription sunglasses in the lake.  Boo- those weren't cheap.  It was awesome to come home and take a soak in the hot tub before eating dinner out on the patio.  What a life!

 The next day we hung out at the Hess's pool (the family that Jess and Brad always babysit for) while they were all at work.  The Skeens, Linny and girls, the Pete boys and my friend Janae all came to laze around with us, swim and eat munchies.
 

 The next day I was back at work in the computer lab at the Middle School, and the day after that Cam started his first day of his Junior year.  Why does summer have to be so short?  It seems like the last day of school was just a few weeks ago. . .  Jake started USU the following Monday and is enjoying only having classes a few hours a day and riding his bike to school with some friends.

 
 After thinking about attending WICKED again (my 4th time :) for almost a year, I was so excited for the day to finally arrive.  When we went 3 years ago, everyone was on board for wearing black and green, but this year only Ann and Jess made an effort. . . and me as you can see.  I made quite an effort.  It was so much fun to show my wicked spirit!  I did get many stares and several comments from people.  What made the production so fantastic this time was having 2nd row seats with Lindsey.  We decided to splurge $150 for them, and we didn't regret it.  The others were sad that they weren't even given the option of upgrading- so I apologize for that. 

 We had a tree in the backyard that our tree man suggested we cut down because he wasn't impressed with it.  It was so tall and skinny that it wasn't really serving any purpose.  So Mike and Cam took care of it one evening in about 15 minutes.  Unlike the other trees that got chopped down, we don't even really notice this one is gone.

Last Sunday we had a fun progressive dinner.  We started at the Skeens with salad and rolls, then went to the Searles for potato bar and ended at our house for dessert and our first beach volleyball game of the summer.  It was a real hassle without the trees to keep the ball in and so about 10 times someone had to jump the fence to retrieve it from the neighbors yard.  We'll have to fix that problem somehow- and soon.