Summer Fun

We have had such a fun summer especially with all the wildlife roaming in our yard. Brett got the genius idea of digging a hole a few yards from our front porch and putting in one of those cheapy Walmart pools for a nice little watering "pool" for all our new "pets". It is amazing to see all the elk/deer up close. In fact, the other morning we had a brave, little elk come right up to the porch and was eating the pineapple that Brett and the kids were feeding it...so cool.

Mr. B and I had a major Candyland sesh a few nights ago. Raylee was exhausted from swimming all day and had already fallen asleep, so Bradock got me all to himself. I love spending time one-on-one. It was getting pretty late and we were all tied up, so I told him he only needed to beat me one more time to be the Candyland champ, but he said "No, mom. I want to stop with us both winning." Such a sweet boy:)

I don't know what the deal is, but the older I get the worse it is for me to chop onions. I even wear these awesome goggles to help and yet the tears still flow like crazy. I got some great tips from some friends that I am dying to try, so we shall see if we can stop the onion madness around here. Otherwise, I am going to leave all the chopping to Brett.

The other day Bradock had just finished up with gymnastics, so I decided to take the kids to the park nearby. We picked up their friend's Josie and Carson Young and had a fun time enjoying the beautiful, cool evening weather. I was helping my friend, Cami's little boy, Hazen, on the jungle when all of a sudden I turn to see Bradock do a flip down the slide and land face fist in to the sand. Oh my word tears and blood were a flowing. I picked him up and headed to the park bathroom with blood squirting all over me and him panicking from seeing all the blood. I wasn't sure if he knocked out any teeth or how deep any cuts were from all the blood and then all the sand stuck to that blood. We got him somewhat cleaned up and poor thing his face looked like raw hamburger meat. Who knew sand could be so deadly.

Of course, what would summer be without lots of pool time. I put Mr. B and Ray in swim lesson here at the public pool in Payson and Bradock has improved soooo much. He is quite the swimmer and more importantly jumper! He has conquered his fear of swimming and is having a blast at Grandma and Grandpa's pool jumping with the cousins and then going off the diving board here in Payson. Raylee, on the other hand is still mortified of being anywhere near water without her tube. She has gotten more comfortable with actually putting her head under the water, but she still needs a lot of work. Swim lessons for her were kind of disasterous as I sat on the side with a huge anxious pit in my stomach as she would claw and scream at her instructor. Needless to say I didn't extend her 2 week swim session like I did Bradock. I am hoping that maybe next year will be the year...it would be a miracle!