1. This summer the three older kids worked at Shawn's shop. Kami and Caden full time and Maddie quite often. That left me at home with the four younger kids. Besides doing a lot of fun activities, we also studied about the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers. As part of this study we read, "My Brother Sam is Dead" and "Johnny Tremain". We also memorized "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This was no small undertaking! It was a very long poem!!
Just as we finished memorizing it we had a ward campout. The ward campout always has a program and I signed our family up to do something, not knowing what, but trying to be supportive. Later, when I asked the family what we should do they all volunteered Nolan and Isabelle to quote the poem they had just learned. And - by the way- Nolan, Isabelle and I were the only ones that memorized the full thing. Abram did learn about four stanzas, though.
I don't know that it was a very exciting part of the program to other people, but I sure enjoyed it and was proud of them as they would take turns quoting stanzas and helping each other out here and there:
They never did have to look at their paper which I sent them up with just in case!
2. Our dishwasher was broken for about a month and a half this summer, and this was what caused us to begin the "dishwasher Olympics". I never would have thought that washing dishes could be so fun! Being without a dishwasher in a family of this size is no small matter, and the kids weren't overly thrilled about helping. One night the three older kids were at mutual, and Pace was fussy and wouldn't let me put him down, and that is when I came up with this fun competition. I told the kids that we had been selected to represent America in the dishwashing Olympics. We would be competing against Russia, and both teams had been assigned the exact same meal and had the exact amount of dishes to be washed! They would be judged on speed AND cleanliness. I don't know when we have had so much fun. I spied on the other team and kept the kids informed on how they were doing. Commentators and reporters (me) were constantly reporting on both teams and their progress. The boys, especially, LOVED it! Nolan was the washer, Abe the rinser and Belle the dryer/put-away person. They would all work together when the washing was done, and if you can believe it - in the end - and just the evening before we got our new dishwasher - they ended up taking home the gold for America. We had an awards ceremony where the kids got gold (chocolate) coins and stood on a podium while we sang the national anthem.
Nolan has been heard to say that he wishes that we were still doing the Olympics and didn't have a dishwasher. On the last night, though, Isabelle sighed and said, "Mom, do we HAVE to do dish washing Olympics? I said, "well, it's either do dish washing Olympics or....do the dishes. Which would you rather do?" She chose the Olympics:)
3. Kami and I went to Education Week at BYU Provo! I wanted to go to education week but the Gee family reunion took place during the one here, and Kami wanted to check out the BYU campus. We stayed with Aunt Linda - because we love to see her and because she lives right close to campus.
At a play that we attended one evening:
Another evening we went and saw the new Provo temple that is under construction:
It is so beautiful and we loved the unique look that it has!
Then we drove by our apartment that we lived in while Shawn was in law school at BYU when Kami was just four and Caden two. We lived in that second door to the right:
It was fun to go back - it sure brought back a lot of memories about neighbors and my oldest kids when they were younger!
