And its been a whirlwind of activity. I feel so exhausted in my soul today. I think I am just worn out in all the ways. I hope so, because I never like when I feel like I have the last few days.
School ended with a bang and Haylee Dangerfield stayed with us that weekend. In the last two weeks, Hallie went and spent a week in Boise with Paige and she said that is all she ever wants for her birthday for ever more ;). they had so much fun at the waterpark, hiking, YMCA, lots of swimming, watching movies, they stayed up till 2:00 a.m. making a fancy dinner together (I think they went to the store and each chose meal, dessert and appetizer and decided and bought with their own money and then went home nad made it later after everyone had gone to bed).
We have gone to the Rec center pool several times, had a lemonade stand, Lucas has done 2 weeks of swimming lessons, went to the Straewbery Days rodeo, mission shopping, Aubrie started work up at Brighton camp, Robbie started football 7-9 AM every morning and then goes straight to do landscaping for Sandy City on a crew until 3:30- every day and we have done a lot of yardwork, hosted a huge end of year party that all the kids invited people to that was so fun and also just nuts. Lots of outdoor games.
This past week Hallie and Blake ran a kids camp here at our house. They did a morning and afternoon sessoin-both 3 hours. They really did such a fantastic job. They had planned it all out so well, Blake and I got all supplies while Hallie was gone and they just were so patient and fun with the kids the entire time. They did space day, Olympics day, Colorful day and water day. I think they had about 25 kids between both sessions and it was $60 for the week per child so it was a good way to make money for Hallie and BLake too. I think this was the 7th or 8th summer one of our kids has done kids camp here. I think its so good for them to do.
I also had plenty of time to clean and organize the house as well. They don't need my help mostly but I need to be around for them.
Ryan and I took a 4 day trip to South Dakota together. It was so great. It really was. I loved it. We hiked BLack Elk peak which is the highest mountain peak in SD and it was raining or thundering most of the hike but it made it more exciting nad the mini fort at the top of the peak where the Lakota Indian tribes do a lot of their rituals had really cool signifigance. It was a beautiful hike and felt so good to just hike fast and go hard. Ryan swam in Sylvan Lake right after we got down. We ate dinner and then biked the rail line trail that is converted to a horse/bike trail for 109 miles up and down the Black Hills area of SD. WE biked about 10 miles and it was just incredible. We were in the middle of no where and it was so green nad lush and great weather. We loved it!
We toured around Deadwood and ate diner there, but opted out of the PBRC rodeo that was that weekend since we were going to Strawberry Days in a few days.
We drove 2 scenic byways and went to several museums and hiked to three beautiful waterfalls in Custer state park.
Mount Rushmore was pretty awesome. I have always wanted to go there. We did the hike through/around the monument and stayed for the patriotic show at the ampitheater. It was pretty touching. We paid to do a self audio tour which we both really liked alot. I felt like I learned a ton. I love history soooo much!
We went to Crazy Horse Monument which was much less professionally done but so cool in its own right. We took the bus up to be closer and learned a lot on that mini-tour about how it came about. The museum was so awesome. After we saw a woman from teh Lakota tribe do hoop dancing which was so cool. And all the talkign in between really helped me appreciate what life is life when you are in between two worlds. It was fascinating to me.
tomorrow Hallie and I leave for girls camp Mon-Fri. This morning at 5:00 Anna, bo and Henny flew in from Alaska and I drove to the airport with Clara and Lucas and we swapped kids so that they can be at Annas house for teh week. They were SOOOO excited! And Bo will be here with Blake and htey are planning to go to Lagoon for 3 days in a row.
