7 Things we did this Summer

This summer was short and busy and not at all like I pictured, but there were still a lot of great things that happened.

My 4 oldest kids all had different camps that they attended throughout the summer. Braedi attended Legacy Camp with a bunch of other 16-18 year old girls from church, a piano camp, and another church camp with a friend. Corbin attended a similar camp with 16-18 year old boys up in the mountains and went to San Diego with some boys from church. He and Ephram also went with grandma up to Idaho to visit cousins. Dyllan attended a church camp and a week-long EFY camp up at NAU. Besides going to Idaho, Ephram went on a 4 day camping trip with some boys from church. Faythe was the only one who didn’t attend any overnight trips. Their trips were all challenging and fun in their own ways. Sometimes only one kid was gone at a time and sometimes 2. It’s weird for me to have any kids gone. I’m so used to having them home with me all the time.

I went on an overnight backpacking trip with about 20 14-15 year olds and 6 other adults. For some reason I was super nervous going into the trip. Maybe because I only knew a handful of the girls. Maybe because it’s been about 16 years since my last back packing trip. Maybe because I didn’t really know what to expect. Jonathan said it was good for me to be nervous because I can’t grow inside my comfort zone. The trip was definitely outside of my comfort zone! I packed my own pack, slept in a hammock under the stars, helped nurse a sick girl through the night, ate backpacking food that was healthy, carried my pack down a mountain, talked to and got to know strangers, and helped motivate the girls to do the same. Overall the trip was good and I’m glad I went. 

My sister’s kids and mine held their 5^th (maybe 4^th, maybe 6^th) annual Free Snow-Cone booth. It’s something we do every year and we look forward to it.

Because this is probably the last summer for some of the grand-kids to be around, we decided to have a mini family reunion with my side of the family. We planned a bunch of family games and activities then spent a day at the water park. I encouraged my kids to use the time to build relationships with their cousins, and they took it to heart. I loved watching them make memories with their cousins. 

Dyllan and Faythe participated in a free summer dance class. The classes were about 30 minutes away and almost every day, so this meant a lot of time in the car which meant we listened to a lot of audio books. They had a good time.

I spent 3 days in a very intense training with this group of ladies. We shared the same of experiences of learning and growing together, getting out of our comfort zones, being vulnerable, and having the desire to inspire the youth of our homeschool groups. 

Another of our favorite summer traditions is making ice cream for the 4^th of July and watching a movie together.

What did you do this summer? I hope it was memorable!