Well, We (Almost) Did It All

And, the rest of the summer...

There are 80 Days of summer vacation,

'Til school comes along just to end it.

So the annual problem for our generation,

Is finding a good way to spend it.

Like maybe:

 

Viewing the volcano erupt at the Mirage

Going on a family bike ride

(to 7-11 for FREE Slurpees)

Swimming at the public pool

Having a movie night at home

(Star Wars.  I.  Will.  Never.  Get.  Those.  2.  Hours.  Back.)

Visiting the summer garden at the Bellagio

Looking at the fish at the Silverton

Making Grace's kindergarten art book

Hunting for cicada shells

Going to the magic show at the library

(Grace was chosen as assistant!)

Eating s'mores

Having a Wii game night

Going to the Pioneer Day Carnival

Swimming in Lake Mead

Eating Purple Penguin snowcones

Watching the Wizard of Oz play at the library

Observing pioneer day

(and eating our homemade taffy-turned-caramel-because-I-overcooked-it)

Celebrating Christmas in July

(with movies, music, books and our candy bar exchange)

Buying school uniforms and school supplies

(the kids were taken out individually and each given a budget and a list of what they had to buy; they chose everything and got to spend the rest on a treat)

Having the missionaries to dinner

(along with my parents and Leigh... it was a FUN night!)

Flying kites

Making homemade popsicles

Submitting entries to the Friend magazine

Having a watermelon seed spitting contest

(Mike won)

Playing dodgeball

Having family board game night

Going on a scavenger hunt

Earning prizes at the library for doing a LOT of summer reading

Eating lunch with Dad at work

Visiting a factory

(I wanted to do the Anderson dairy; but couldn't get in... so we settled for the chocolate factory)

Writing 20 postcards to the principal each and earning a pizza party at school

Going to the end-of-summer party at the library

Tie-dying t-shirts

(we reversed tie-dyed some D.I. shirts with bleach.  It worked great and cost $3.  Score!)

Visiting the temple

Taking pictures of the kids

Having a sponge fight

Going bowling

Holding our annual W* Family Summer Olympics

(Adam won!)

Having a special back-to-school dinner + father's blessings + reading The Kissing Hand

(and eating kissing hand cookies for dessert)

And because my camera kept wigging out on me and I didn't get pictures of everything:

We also had a HUGE water balloon fight with over 150 water balloons, had a science day with friends, bought school shoes, had a water gun fight, went on a hike at Mt. Charleston, bought play clothes at D.I., doorbell-ditched treats to friends, wrote a letter to some friends, made a music video, mailed letters to Elder Rice, looked at the stars, did interviews with the kiddos, and went see Toy Story on the "green" (which got rained out, but we still had fun).

***

We ALMOST did it all:

We didn't get to go camping.  With both of Mike's jobs, he only had 4 days off this summer.  And during those 4 days off, he had to go up to Girl's camp for his calling. 

We were pretty bummed, because it was going to be our "vacation" this summer and it was so fun last year.  BUT, we DID do 79 other super fun things, so we still had a pretty epic summer.

And, well, we almost did it all.