Hectic

I don't even know where to start catching up, so I guess I'll just jump in. I learned a couple things from our busy, busy June. First, don't sign the kids up for the 9:30 a.m. class of the first session of swimming lessons. It was just too chilly. Most days after lessons I had to send someone into the boys' locker room to get Adam and Ryan out of the warm showers. And we made hot cocoa several times to warm us up when we got home--in June! The second session went a little better--summer finally showed up for real, and I changed their lessons to the 11:50 a.m. class. Second, don't sign up for swimming lessons before baseball is over. We did swimming lessons every morning and baseball almost every night and tried to squeeze the rest of life in between. Swimming lessons ended two weeks ago, and baseball finally ended last Wednesday. Phew.

I thought maybe we could stop running, but it hasn't happened. We spent four days in Cedar and Glendale, visiting with my family and catching "Two Gentlemen of Verona" at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. The kids loved playing with their cousins and Jeff and I enjoyed a little down time. We caught the new Indiana Jones movie one night after the kids were in bed. It was fun and we were glad we saw it on the big screen. Jeff was a good sport to watch nine kids by himself one day while my sister and sister-in-law and I took a break to do lunch and a little shopping. The Slip-n-Slide helped! My mom provided the Shakespeare tickets. She wanted Adam and Ryan to see their first play, so we opted for a comedy. It was a little slow and not as impressive as some other Shakespeare productions I've seen, but the comic fool (Brian Vaughn) and his dog made them laugh, so they weren't too bored. I think they'll be willing to go again in the future, but we'll try to find a more exciting play to keep their interest. Of course the highlight of their weekend was the marshmallow gun fight--thanks Uncle Enoch! (I'll post photos when I get my camera software re-installed.)

I got unpacked and got the laundry done just in time to turn around and go to Jeff's parents for the 4th of July weekend. We had a great barbecue and fireworks with extended family. It's really been a blessing to be close enough to spend time with grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins again. While there though, we learned that Jeff's Grandpa Jo had slipped into a coma in Idaho. He passed away yesterday morning. We will miss him, but congestive heart failure had made his quality of life so poor for so long that his passing was a blessing. Again, I'm glad we are close enough that traveling to his funeral this weekend won't be difficult, but we're off and running--again. I have this faint hope that my life will slow down when the kids go back to school in August. Whatever happened to slow, relaxing "summertime and the living is easy"?!