Free Flying

Since I'd bought a Tracy Aviary year pass to get the discounts into other places, I decided we better go see the actual Tracy Aviary too. So, with a few friends from our ward, we ventured to Liberty Park and the aviary. The kids had fun seeing and chasing the birds, but the things they liked the most was the bird show and the park time afterwards. They thought it was fun to have this bird take money from their hands during the bird show. It was for a good cause, but I they had to share holding the one bill I gave them. I guess that's the bummer of being from a big family. Oh well. Anyway, it was a nice day, and we were glad we went.

Dinosaur Fun with the Fishers

We had a special surprise this summer when our good friends the Fishers came to visit. We only got to hang out for part of a day, but we were happy to get what we could. We know that when you are on vacation visiting family, time can be tight. We were just grateful they came to see us. We wanted to do something fun, so we braved the crowds at Thanksgiving Point to see the Dinosaur Museum on $2 Tuesday. It was crowded, but the kids didn't seem to care. They just had fun hanging out with their friend. Thanks guys for coming to see us. Ashley and Emily were especially happy to see Ellina and Alexi.

Lava Hot Springs!

We were doubly blessed this summer with two family reunion activities. The week after the whole Blair Reunion, we went to Lava Hot Springs for a second Blair reunion. Only part of the family was able to go, but we still had a lot of fun. Lava is all about going down the river and playing in the tubes, so the kids had a blast. I'm hoping we get to go a least one more time when I am not pregnat, so I can go down the river again. Thanks again to those who coordinated this one.

Blair Family Reunion

There seemed to be a farm/cowboy theme going on this summer. We'd visited two farms, and then we went to our family reunion where the theme was cowboys. It was fun! Thank you to all who put so much work into making it a great reunion. Anyway, Jeff's cousin graciouly let us use her home for the party, which made for a fun evening because she has a pool in her backyard. All of the kids and Jeff swam for awhile. I opted to watch. After swimming awhile, we had a yummy dinner and had fun games for the kids. Finally, the evening ended with fireworks, literally. It was a great night even though Carter started running a fever. Thank goodness for Tylenol and Advil.

Wheeler Farm

We spent a lot of time checking out things to do in our new area this summer, and one of the places we picked was Wheeler Farm. It's a free, working farm that was interesting to walk around. We didn't get there in time to see the cow milking, but the kids had a lot of fun feeding the ducks and sitting on tractors. Carter was mostly fascinated with the cows.

Swimming

(Since I am using my blog as my scrapbook for the time being, I'm going to be posting the rest of the summer activities so I can get caught up.)
Summer isn't summer without swimming. Ashley, Emily and Parker all took swimming lessons this summer and did really well. I like having them take swim lessons because it's something they have to have to be safe later on in the water. I don't like having to pay for the lessons, but I was not really in a position to take them to the pool and teach them myself, so I gave in. They seemed to have fun, and even learned some things that they tried to practice in our small kid pool at home. Getting in the pool means staying cool, so they didn't seem to care how big the pool was.