End of Summer Wrap Up

(WARNING:  This may be an overload of pictures...but I promise, they are worth looking at!)

I really did try to post throughout the summer....but, well...we were just TOO BUSY enjoying summer!  So here is our complete summer wrapped up in some photos!

We began in June with a wonderful Vacation Bible School at a local church.  The theme was Cave Quest - Jesus is the LIGHT of the world!  The boys just loved it.  We all did!  The music became the soundtrack of our summer!

There was no class for littles like Joe, so we got to spend some special one-on-one Mommy and Joe time!  One night, I took him for a burger and a shake.  He was thrilled!  

The next big part of our summer was time at the city pool.  We enrolled Jack in swim lessons and he completed Levels 3, 4 and 5 - as high as you can go!  Next summer:  swim team!  (On the first morning, he got up early and cheerful and said, "Mom, today my Navy SEAL training begins!")

While Jack was in his morning lessons, Toby, George and Joe swam in the "baby pool".  They weren't quite ready for lessons yet, but all four boys gained great skills and more confidence in the water from our daily trips to the pool!  

This Spring we planted a pretty nice garden and have been learning more about what it takes to really grow amazing vegetables.  We were also blessed with lots of fruit trees and grape vines, as well as dozens of beautiful flowers planted by the previous owners...so we have been enjoying the beauty and bounty all season!

Here is just a cute picture of George and Joe in matching jammies - jammies that Jack and George used to wear!  I just love when the matching outfits cycle back around!  :-)

We have a wonderful nursery nearby where we have been able to get lots of our plants and helpful information for our garden.  We went when they had a free day for families and the boys enjoyed the tractor rides, free food and keeping as many ladybugs as they could catch! 

There are so many beautiful national and state parks to explore nearby.  We cannot get enough of the natural beauty that surrounds us!  Here is another state park we visited once Sarah arrived for the summer. 

(Honestly....Joe is just about the biggest and cutest ham there is!  He's really into giving the "thumbs up" sign now!)

We were really looking forward to the 4th of July celebration our little town hosts.  One of the things the boys wanted to do was to enter their red wagon into the kids' wagon decorating contest for the parade.  The boys were so cute as they got out the cleaning supplies to give the wagon a good scrub...

...and spend time decorating the signs they wanted to put on the sides.

We were glad to have our special friends from Las Vegas here to celebrate the weekend with us!  The boys had a blast with their friend Luke...

...and George could not get enough of baby Hope.  (He asked several times for a baby sister of his own!)

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Our proud and patriotic boys getting ready for the parade!

The boys didn't win the contest....but they sure had a lot of fun!

Afterward, there was a big celebration in our town square - foot races and activities for the kids...

The boys LOVED the inflatable slide - it was pretty high and steep...and they loved it!

Joe went about a dozen times and cried when it was time to go.

Toby had a blast.  (He loved EVERYTHING about his first 4th of July in America!!!)

And George....well...he isn't our most adventurous kiddo and he seemed to be hanging on for dear life, but he did enjoy his turn on the slide!

I just loved having my friend Megan here to celebrate with us and help prepare the meal!  (With Hope, too!)

The first round of fireworks were set off at a park just down the street from our house.  We let the boys sit up on the roof to get a better view.

But the best fireworks were set off at the fairgrounds and we had a PERFECT view of them right from our front yard!  Combined with sparklers and Jake's arrival, it was a great day!

Jake was here for 10 days with us and we enjoyed every minute of his visit!

Josh and all 5 of his little men played RISK.

The little brothers tried to crawl into Jake's bed every night for big brother cuddles.

We took Jake and Sarah for a picnic at one of our favorite places - Yankee Meadow.

And also to see the sun set at Parowan Gap.

The kids even tried to chase a herd of Pronghorn through the Utah plains.... :-)

Ah...brother sister love!  It is always so fun to have Jake and Sarah with us!

Per summer tradition, we had a dinner cook-off challenge.  This time, each big kid paired with a little brother.  Jake and George were on one team and Sarah and Jack on the other.  Toby was a judge along with Mom and Dad.

Jake and George came up with an amazing Asian-themed meal, complete with bamboo centerpiece, Asian music playing and delicious food!

He even made fresh sushi!  It was delicious!

The boys had fun trying to learn how to use chop sticks to eat their meal!

One day we took a "mystery drive" to see the Cache Valley Cheese factory in Beaver, Utah.  It was a nice drive and we got to taste some amazing ice cream and even cheese curds....but we were disappointed that we missed the operating hours of the factory itself.

Jake and Sarah brought along Pokemon Go! with them this summer.  I would never have understood what all the Pokemon hype was about if our two teenage kids hadn't informed us.  But they got all four of the little boys involved and had fun "catching" Pokemon and learning about different historic sites around town as we did!

When Toby sees a tree....he simply MUST climb it!

Jack and Sarah were together for their food challenge and they chose a summer-themed dinner that was also delicious.  Jack even made berry lemonade...

...and created Lego centerpieces to hold wildflowers.

They did a great job!

So did Jake and his little buddy George!

Zonked out Joe!  He's so active each day, it is a wonder he doesn't crash sooner!

One of the kids' favorite activities was to play the hilarious game "Pie Face".  Jake and Sarah were such good sports to go along with it!  :-) 

We were all sad to see Jake leave - but we wish him all the best as he begins college this week!!!

In addition to Jake and Sarah, we had a few other guests come for visits during the summer.  One of my longest-standing friends, Brooke, drove through with her husband and three beautiful girls on their way home to Idaho.  It was a short and sweet visit and we hope they will come back again for a longer stay one day!

And our friends from Las Vegas came up for a weekend visit

We spent a few more days at Yankee Meadow....

...and marveled at the blooming Lupine all over the hills!

We made several trips to our local library and participated in the summer reading program.  George was the first to complete his chart!  He was so diligent about using his free time to "read" books on his own in addition to our family read alouds.

We had lots of backyard fun using the sprinklers, the trampoline...or making a type of sprinkler out of a pool noodle with holes poked in it!  :-)

And water balloons!  What fun!  Joe chose a set of water balloons with a fast filler for his prize at the library....we had over 100 balloons in about 30 seconds.  It was SO much fun!

Oh....there he is again.  Asleep with his hands behind his head!  Adorable!

Each summer, Sarah hones her sewing skills even more.  She has become an amazing seamstress in her own right and has sewn many of her own clothes and dresses and has surpassed me in clothes-making skills by far!  But this summer, she wanted to complete a quilt of her own.  She chose the pattern and fabrics and pieced each cat square together and I helped her assemble it.

The patience and tedious pieces of quiltwork were so different from what she has been used to, and she's decided she is probably not a quilter.  But she persevered and the result was beautiful! 

Not many 15 year old girls can boast of such great sewing skills!  I am so proud of her! 

We were also proud of Josh!  He ran in the 5K rebel run through our town and came in 3rd place overall and first place in his age group.  It was so fun to cheer him on as he passed the finish line.

Another fun visit was from the Baggiore family from Phoenix.  Brenda is another one of my longest-standing friends and it was so fun to be able to welcome her and her husband and five kids.  Our boys had a BLAST! 

And our 5 year olds became good buddies!  (Macie has determined she will one day marry George!)

It was quite a houseful for the week!  But what fun!

Fun for our kids - and fun for us to catch up and reminisce and be grateful for friendship!

That brought our time with Sarah to a close.  It gets harder and harder to say goodbye after each summer.  The boys adore their big sister and we all cried to let her go.  We are so blessed to have her in our family and to be able to spend every summer with her!

She looked so forlorn as she boarded the plane...sniff, sniff....

And poor Jack took it especially hard.  He cried until he fell asleep that night.

One last fun activity of the summer was attending the Military Day hosted by the Frontier Homestead State Park.  It was a day to honor military families and veterans and we had a great time.  First we toured the inside of the museum.

And then we headed outside, where each activity was centered around something about the military in pioneer days.

The boys pitched a canvas tent...

...pretended to be prisoners....

...built log cabins of their own...

....washed clothes the pioneer way!...

...learned how to use signal flags to get a message across...

...panned for gold....

...watched as a 19th century cannon was fired...

....learned how to perform close order drills...

(Joe deserted ranks...)

...tried to rope some cattle...

(or rope a toddler!)

...and wrote with real feather quill pens and ink.

We saw the old school house....

...and George thought it would be funny to put Toby in the corner!

But our Toby is not in any corner in real school!  Last week he started 4th grade at our local public elementary school.  We went to meet his teacher the day before and he brought her flowers, since it is the tradition of Ukrainian children to bring their teacher flowers on the first day of school.  (I think that won her over right from the beginning!)

We practiced walking to his classroom and finding the office, cafeteria and playground.  He was so excited to begin school!

His first day was August 16th and he has been doing GREAT!  He loves school and is happy to skip off to class and blow me a kiss in the morning, then run to the car and tell us about his day.  He loves his teacher and she loves him.  She told me he tries so hard with everything that she asks him to do.  Public school was the right decision for our Toby!

(But it was still hard to watch him walk to class on his own the first day....)

While Toby has been in school for a week now, we just began our 2016-2017 year of the Meyer Home School today!!!

We began with donuts for breakfast - a special treat!

We are all excited about what this new school year holds.  Jack is ready for 2nd grade and becoming a confident independent reader!

George is thrilled to start Kindergarten and says his favorite thing will be reading lots of books with Mommy!

And Baby Joe?  Well...the sign says it all!  :-)

We had a great summer and look forward to this new school year!