July 15

 Can you believe that July is half over already?  It seems like this month has gone by crazy fast. That means it's my Birthday soon (hint, hint).

The first week of July I was gone to YW Camp, and Drew was holding down the fort by himself.  Camp was SO fun.  This year was stake camp, and we went to a big Air Cadet campground by Athabasca.  It is so pretty up there.  I thought it was funny that instead of Deer Crossing Signs, there were Moose crossing signs.  It also didn't get dark until well after 11.  It was hard to get the girls to get to sleep while it was still light out.  We spent our time playing in the lake, doing crafts, doing Archery, Hiking in the rain, eating lots of good food, and playing on an Obstacle course that the Priesthood made.  At the obstacle course they had an adult sized jolly jumper, and it was so fun to be a sling-shot.  It was also great to spend lots of time with the girls from my ward, and to get to know the other leader that came better.  I also had fun getting to know some of the other leaders from our stake, and I played lots of rounds of Dutch Blitz with them.  We were gone for 5 days, so it was nice to come home and see my family and have a shower.  As soon as I got home the boys came running up to me and gave me huge hugs.  Taylor was asleep when I got home, and when I got her out of her crib I was greeted to a big smile, and she gasped and said "Mama!!"  It was so great. 

This past week has been super-hot.  I even saw on the news that we had record temperatures.  We don't have air conditioning in our house, so we have tried to spend as much time as we could outside playing and having water fights.  We ended up moving everyone into the basement so that we all could get a better night's sleep. 

On Monday we met up with some people from our ward at one of the Spray Parks.  The boys had lots of fun, but Taylor didn't leave my side.  Just after we got there she stepped in a big mud puddle, and was ready to go home after that. 

On Monday night we went downtown to the Street Performers Festival.  It was so cool.  We stayed long enough to see three acts.  The first was break-dancing which was really cool, then a comedic magician which was terrible, and the last was a guy who did stunts on bicycles which was really good.  Phoenix thought that the guy on the bike was so funny.  He was laughing really loudly through the whole performance. 

During one of the performances Taylor made friends with this really nice girl.  She was letting Taylor play with her fan and her phone. 

 

Our friends Ron and Liz have the nicest back yard.  It is huge, and it has big pine trees all around it.  We have been over a few times, and the kids always love to go over to play.  Liz and her sister-in-law built a ``kid wash`` that the kids all love to run through. 

They also have a really big sand box that my kids love to play in.  

 

We have also spent lots of time in our backyard running through the sprinkler, and throwing water balloons.  I like to go out too and get cooled off from the sprinkler on some of the hottest days.  

Marcus and Phoenix like to get our sleds and use them as shields as the run through the sprinkler.