Parentheticals

Alison took the kids to the park pretty much every day this week. They have been enjoying the pool and spending time out of doors. They also got physical library cards, so they have been enjoying checking out books on their own. Mike got Friday off this week to celebrate the fourth of July. We went shopping and did things together. Tim and Mike played "Planet Crafter", and also went food shopping for Saturdays dinner. Alison, Mike, and the girls went to the thrift store. Elsa played with the Wilson's.  On Saturday we went to some garage sales and then had everyone come over for the traditional Brown family firework celebration, however, this year the mayor declared a city wide firework ban (because the fire danger was very high). Because of this Alison came up with a wide array of firework adjacent activities such as: ooblek with pop rocks in it, blowing colored bubble snakes, shooting Redcoats with silly string, slingshot launched parachutes, confetti poppers, a dry ice ...

This week Rea and Sara went to girls camp. They had a fun first night, and then the next day it was raining and there was lightning so they ended up having to go home early. That was pretty disappointing, however, to look on the bright side no one got struck by lightning and they did end up with chickens that they could balance on their heads. Rea went a day early to do ycl stuff. She enjoyed canoeing and thought that the storm was exciting. They did secret sisters too, and they enjoyed that. On Thursday we went to Taylorsville days, which is a Taylorsville themed festival that they have this time of year in Taylorsville to celebrate Taylorsville. There were lots of food trucks at the park and lots of rides and amusement park games that you could play. Gideon earned 10 free tickets by working hard helping them set up while we were at the park during the week, and we bought some more tickets so we went on various rides. Gideon and Elsa had a blast and Timmy felt like he was a little bit...

Last Sunday we celebrated Elsa's birthday party because the older kids would be gone on her actual birthday. She got a doll, a huge squish-mallow, a bike, some clothes for her doll, and a few other gifts. She had fruit pizza and ice cream for her meal, which came out pretty good. Overall it was a fun birthday for her. On Monday Rea, Sara, and Tim went to Trek. They had a fun time, and were all safe and healthy. The weather was fairly mild, and they all wore enough sun-screen that they didn't get sun burnt. Also on Monday we took Rocket to the vet because he had been acting very lethargic and not eating or drinking. The vet took some blood samples and told us that he had diabetes. He prescribed insulin, and said that we needed to get some food in him, and then give him the insulin. We took him home and then tried to get him to eat. On Monday night he finally ate some food so we gave him the insulin and everyone went to bed except for Alison, who stayed up with him. When Mike wok...

We skipped a week, so this is for 2 weeks. I thought that I was getting good at doing this again, however, (in my defense), I was sick last weekend, so I guess that that is enough to break a frail habit. Between doctors appointments, dentist appointments, and the aforementioned being sick, we had a really busy two weeks despite not doing anything that was really terribly interesting. Mike has been finishing up a second version of Grandpa Mike's website. As of last night it is entirely working, so he is ready to show it to Grandpa and see what feedback he gets this time. Some time soon it will be feature complete. Tim went to the stake's boys camp the last few days of last week. He had a marginally fun time. He said that there were a lot of annoying things, however, there were also some fun things. For the first time in his life he said that there was too much meat and that he wanted a salad. Rea, Sara, and Timmy will be going to trek on Monday, which should hopefully be fun for...

On Monday we celebrated Memorial Day. We invited a lot of people over, and had a moderate turn out. The Rogers, Poulsons, and Caitlyn et al showed up as well as the Waters kids. We had a lot of food, talked an played. It was a fun and fairly successful barbecue. Friday marked the end of school for the year, so the kids are really looking forward to summer. Monday will be the first day of summer schedule, so here's hoping that that goes well. Alison has plans to do an organized simplicity run, and then have the kids visit the pool and park pretty much daily. Most of the kids are doing well in their schooling, so there isn't much summer work they will have to do. The kids tried to organize a sleepover for Friday night to celebrate the end of school, however, they were disappointed that no-one could come over. They are trying to reschedule it for Monday night, so here's hoping that that goes well. They really want to try staying up all night long, so here is hoping that they d...

This week the oldest three kids went to a meeting where they learned about which kids are going to be in their Trek families. I don't recall hearing anything about Sara's family's, however, Timmy was excited to have Dustin in his family. That's really good because Timmy was concerned about not liking anyone in his family.  Now all we have to do is convince Tim that it will be okay to dance during the dancing activities in Trek. Despite not knowing anyone in her Trek family Rea is excited about it. She says that they all seem nice. At school this week Elsa received an award for having such good attendance. They gave her a golden medal and everything! She was very proud of herself. She also had a party where she got to dress up in a car outfit that Rea helped make for her.  After school and work one day we all went to the DI to buy swimsuits for all of the kids and we also bought the kids birthday presents for Alison. Alison's Birthday this year was on a Sunday. We st...