Summertime.. and the Livin' is....

I love Summertime.  I always have.  The peak of my love for the warm season was probably when I was in college.  I just played SO HARD all Summer long.  It was great. I had backpacking trips and road trips and day trips to hike and swim and cliff jump and perfect BBQ weather.  Of course, I went to college in Flagstaff, AZ where the average high for July is 81 degrees F.   In Buckeye, where the average July high is 105, Summer is still a great love of mine but we have to be a little more creative to get our play time in. As a side note, we have been keeping the thermostat in our home at 80-83 degrees (after just one $300+ electric bill you'd probably do the same) and it's amazing how good 83 degrees feels when you come in from outside.  This is my second Summer in Buckeye and the second time we have moved to a new house in the Summer.  My garage is still full of boxes because I just don't want to go out there to go through any of them. Last Summer seemed to drag on for me.  But this Summer seems to be flying by!  Here are a few of my new rules to live by for Summertime.
*Travel.  We have always been pretty big travelers and especially in the Summer.  But now I am tempted to really change the way we travel the rest of the year.  It makes a lot of sense to me to travel OUT of Buckeye during the Summer to visit family in their cooler climates (I never thought I would think Kingman is so pretty and has such nice weather as I do now) and not travel so much during the holidays when the weather here is so perfect.  Also, we are so blessed to have the cabin in Vallecito.  If only we could just move there for the whole summer.
* Air conditioned activities.  Two local movie theaters have free or cheap movies in the morning and early afternoons a few days a week.  We've only gone once but I love stuff like that.  I love to get the kids out of the house AT LEAST once a week for some sort of activity geared towards them.  The Buckeye community is pretty great and they have had some sort of presentation each week for kids.  Owen doesn't sit through it yet but Emma sits in the very front row with rapt attention.  They've had a ventriloquist, a guy with a ton of reptiles, a magic show with a ton of dogs doing tricks..  I'm glad she loves it.  I also started going to the gym again now that Owen is over his big separation anxiety phase and it has been great for the kids to run around and play with other kids for an hour or two while I run around burning calories and stress and boosting my endorphin level.  Win win, I say. EXCEPT Owen has a hitting and pushing problem.  I have no idea where he gets it from.  I think he may be getting better now though.. I hope.  He really is so sweet sometimes and other times he is just a bully!  Another problem is that I think I seriously bruised or maybe even broke my tailbone in spin class!  sheesh!!  Who does that?
* Water.  I don't have a real pool and I don't want one.  We do have a good size kiddie pool that is great for the kids in our back yard.  We also did two rounds of swim lessons for the kids (two weeks each round).  Emma did great.  She now goes underwater holding her breath and kicking and paddling, swimming several feet.  She is fun to watch.  She looks like a dolphin or mermaid hopping in and out of the water.  I can't believe the high amount of energy she has when she is in the water.  She is non-stop jumping and diving and squealing.  Owen had John or I in the water with him in his classes.  He did great.  He is very comfortable in the water, blows bubbles, splashes and kicks.  We just need to get him floating and holding his breath.  We have also gone to Goodyear to visit their splash pad a couple of time and Estrella with some friends at their awesome community pool (that actually made us want to move there instead of Verrado down the road).  The zoo also has a great splash pad that we have gone to a couple of times.  The zoo opens at 6:00 am for us this Summer.  That is great.. if only we got up earlier.  Yesterday John and I floated down the Salt River with the Young Generation of Engineers from Palo Verde.  (Did not bring the camera). It was great and relaxing (minus the red neck drunks and the pot-smokers).  We'd like to do it during the week day when it's not so crazy and maybe bring the kids.  I haven't done it since high school and this was the first time I didn't get sun burned to a crisp.  I'm proud of myself and my sunscreen applying skills! ;)
*Stay home.  This one works as well.  Emma does a lot of coloring and drawing and building legos and playing on the ipad.  Owen loves movies (especially Cars "ca chow" and Toy Story "story") and the Brio train stuff and to throw rocks and dirt in the pool even though I hate it.  I let the kids watch too much tv (they don't really watch tv, just disney and pixar movies and sometimes approved netflix cartoons like "spiderman and his amazing friends" from the 70s) and I spend too much time on the computer.  I am trying to work on that.  I have also been trying to formulate a good routine that works for us to make sure I stay on top of the housework and that we eat together as a family for dinner and that we read the scriptures together and that I get some exercise in.. or a lot of exercise in.  I lost 4 pounds this week, thank you very much! :)
What are we looking forward to when it cools off?
* hiking
*walking and running when it is later than 5 am or earlier than 9 pm
* being able to leave the back door open... and windows.  I love fresh air!
*cleaning the garage
*painting furniture (it dries way too fast in the hot garage which is where I like to paint)
*yard work.  Our back yard is the most sterile piece of land I have seen in a while.  It is sad.  Nothing but dirt and rocks.
*cool showers and washing my hands in cool water.  I have always liked my showers to be tepid or cool.  Not a possibility right now.  John on the other hand loves a flesh melting, scalding hot shower any time of day so he is happy!
*baking bread.  Well.. I still can bake now but it's pretty awful to turn the stove and oven on in the Summer (even though the warm house is perfect for the bread to rise.. I guess I should build that sun oven after all!).. I still think I am going to bake some bread today if I can find the box that has my carefully handwritten bread recipe in it..
*Emma's friend Rachel to come back to town.  They have been in Idaho for the Summer and Emma misses her friend.
*Emma to start her second year of preschool!  She is getting so big!
*Bob and Amy's baby to be born so I can go to their house once a week and calm my baby cravings. :)

Here are a few more photos of our summer adventures. 

I gave Emma the cookie cutters, play dough and flour to make shapes in.  I guess she got a little bored.

 

My mom and I went to Flagstaff a few weeks ago to attend Buddy Hopkins' funeral (so tragic and heartbreaking for Heather and her children).  Afterwards I met John and the kids at Lake Mary to do some fishing and playing.  We didn't catch a thing but we had a great time.  

At the end of June we went to Logan, UT for my dad's wedding.  It was BEAUTIFUL in Logan.  All of Utah is beautiful.  We did a little walk with the kids just around his old apartment.  I really wish we had more time there to do more fun things outside. I got a bunch of cute pictures of the kids all dressed up for the wedding which was in my dad's backyard.  

 

 

 

 

 
I love this picture of Owen in front of the man who married my dad and Cindy.  He is the mayor of Logan and also a former Bishop.  I love how they are standing the same and almost making the same expression.

 
It was great to see my siblings in Logan as well as so many of my Shupe cousins and uncles and aunts.  It has been too long since we have been at a reunion.  A lot of these pictures of Emma and Owen remind me of these cute pictures I have of Bob and I when we were about the same age in our Sunday best at our Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen's house.  I'll have to scrapbook them together.  :)


Happy Summer!