August!

Blue Fin Tuna

September opened up with a bang. I went down to San Diego with my brother Dustin, and my buddies, Dustin, Orie and Preston for some blue fin tuna fishing. There wasn’t much sleep to be had, and half of the group got sea sick, but it was definitely worth it. At one point, 3 people were leaning out the back puking. Sleeping quarters were snug and I swear we never dried out. My hands were always moist. My brother Dustin caught the biggest blue fin and one night Brandon Dennison was reeling in a big ol’ tuna and a mako shark came up and took a big chunk out of it. On the way back to Utah, we rented a minivan and stopped by Orie’s uncles house for a hot shower and we realized that Orie couldn’t be trusted in the back seat. At every stop light he would roll down the window and start chatting up random people, asking them how their day was going, and leaving people baffled as to what was going on. Dustin recommended that I turn on the window child lock, so as soon as Orie started complaining that someone ripped butt, I decided to lock the windows.

Heber Rodeo

While I was off playing, Lauren went to the Heber rodeo with the kids and had a great time. If you recall my post from June where I complained about the PG rodeo, apparently the Heber rodeo was a major improvement and had much more comfortable seats.

Stringham Stay-cation

Originally we were planning to drive out to Colorado for a little vacation as a fam before Ryder left on his mission to Angola, but Ryder called an audible and we decided to do a stay-cation instead. We went and did the alpine slide, floated down some ice cold canal in Heber, and went to Splash Summit down in Provo. Good times.

Roxy finally started to warm up to Gigi and she was thrilled.

First day of school

I swear every year these schools start earlier and earlier. If you want my unsolicited opinion, school should start after labor day and end on memorial day. First day of school for the Alpine school district was 8/13, which is too early. Kids need their summer. Anyways, we decided to try something different this year and do a hybrid homeschool/public school approach.

Trying anything new can be difficult and home schooling was no different, but Lauren started to find her stride and it has been a great bonding moment for her and the kids. It’s amazing how she can spend 1 on 1 time with them to help them with struggle areas, (I’m going to hop on my soapbox now so feel free to skip) and nothing against the public school system, but a public school teacher just doesn’t have the bandwidth to devote as much time and attention as Lauren does in a home school setting. With that being said, we feel that public school helps kids socially in a very strong way. It’s important for kids to face some adversity dealing with different people and students. Not to mention Donovan and Conrad enjoy going to school and seeing all their friends.

Random Other Things Going on

We also got our first blue egg from our chickens. Lauren has been loving the chickens and says she’s never not going to have chickens. I think it gives her a little taste of homesteading, with the benefits of living in the suburbs. I also appreciate that they are so easy to take care of and provide an opportunity for our kids to work cleaning the run and coup, plus the egg yolks have a much deeper orange color and taste better.

Our kids are obsessed with sleeping on mom and dad’s floor and they love snuggling each other. Even though we have plenty of beds for the kids Donovan, Conrad and Lou always share a bed. I’m not sure how long this will last, but Lauren and I always talk about how Giannis Antetokounmpo used to share a bed with his brothers, even as teenagers.

Roxy and Lou have grown pretty close. When the boys go to school these two become two peas in a pod.

Just wanted to show some Roxy cuteness

Lou is a chip off the ol’ block with his flexibility. I’ve never seen a kid so strongly built yet so flexible.

In true Roxy fashion we can’t have a month go by without her getting into something disastrous.

Ryder’s mission farewell sitting on Papa’s new deck he built. Vanilla ice cream, a hot summer day and cousins is always a recipe for a good time.

Conrad lost his first tooth

Uncle Ethan and Aunt Sarah came to visit. It’s always great to see them but even better to see their kiddos.

Lauren took the kiddos to go to the butterfly museum. If you haven’t had a chance to go, then GO! Watching a kids face light up seeing, holding and touching butterflies is such an amazing things. Kids are so full of wonder and curiosity and being able to have so many fun and creative museums so close by is a real treat.

Conrad’s Birthday

This year Conrad wanted to go golfing for his birthday and have a party at a splash pad. He went with a Minecraft theme. I still don’t even know if he’s played the game, but he loves the movie, so we got him the minecraft game to play to which he and Donovan informed us the the Switch was missing. Needless to say our kids don’t play really play video games to the point where we didn’t even know it was missing all summer long.

As parents, Lauren and I have been trying to teach our kids the principle of earning. So instead of giving our kids allowance, we are trying to teach them that there are some things you do in the house because you live here and need to carrier your own weight, i.e. clean your room, pick up dog poop, clean-up after dinner and etc, there are things you do to help you mom when she needs help, and then there are jobs you can do to earn commission. So if they clean the chicken coop and run they each get $3 for a really good job and $1 for a sub par job. Anyways, we are trying to teach them to save, give and spend wisely and so Donovan and Conrad saved up their money they earned this summer and bought a set of golf clubs that they’ve been enjoying.

I wish I were better at golf. In fact Lauren surprised me with her golf skills, even while being 7 1/2 months pregnant. I also had the best chip of my life where I chipped one in the hole from maybe 60 feet out which impressed Lauren. I don’t care how old I get, impressing my wife never gets old, even if it is pure luck.

Even though summer isn’t over until middle of September. The end of August just feels like the end of summer to me. While I will always miss summer, I know Lauren is excited for some cooler whether and another month closer to holding our baby in our arms.