July 2014

 Swimming at the pool. I couldn't believe he liked wearing these goggles.

 He looked so funny, I had to get a picture!

"You don't say?"

 Fourth of July.  Singing "Take Your Hat Off When the Flag Goes By."

 The Meldrums came to visit and we met up at the Meldrum-side picnic.

Jay is not a fan of the tuna salad. 

"Maybe if sit here quietly and wear these sunglasses 

the big kids won't know I don't belong at the cool table," Covey reasoned with himself. 

 Finn and baby Jay.

 Game Night at our house...(looks like someone's refusing to play)

 Telestrations has done it again!

Faye's 7th birthday party. I believe they call this the "golden birthday" because she turned 7 on the 7th. And so rightly so, she was given the rental of this amazing contraption. Covey's climbing up and Finn looks like he's in time-out waiting to go in. 

 Matt playing games with the kids per the norm.

 Finn did get to go in. Here someone is giving his rear a boost up.

On this awesome evening, we got Mitchell and Faye all to ourselves for a game night.

 I sure love these hilarious kids.

Sunday walk through Wheeler trail.

 "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

 Dad gave the boys a little show of strength, pushing a log off the trail. 

Afterwards he taught them all about herniated discs. 

 Finn didn't think that looked too hard and accomplished the same task.

Still in jammies? Oh well, go out and enjoy the rain!

Rain dance. 

 Mmmm... he loves the feel of it on his face...

 ...or does he?

 We got to take a break from riding the bike and train to school!

 Once our 60 days were up to sell our house (in order to build in Farmington), we took the house off the market and bought a second vehicle instead. A 2010 Chrysler Town and Country. It felt so luxurious when I first started driving it. So, the last week of school, we could drive! Yay!

A day at the zoo with all the cousins and Papa Mike.

 These kids had never even seen a ball before, let alone touch one. 

  I always feel like, somebody's watching me. (sung like Michael)

During this little educational presentation, the zookeeper picked Covey to come up and help her. Finn thought of course that meant him too. 

 Petting the armadillo afterwards.

 Everyone find a buddy.

 Oh kitty likes a scratch! 

 The kids loved the new splash pad at the zoo. 

 And that's when he saw it. Lurking in the shallows. Mere inches from his naked, exposed feet. 

Finn wasn't sure how it happened, but at some point in his first 2 years of life 

he'd developed a paralyzing fear of starfish. 

Finn is a nervous wreck, frozen in place at the top of a big slide 

and Covey's trying to get him to go down with him.

 Something tells me this logjam was all a part of Faye's diabolical plan. 

YW breakfast at our house!

 Here's the bad part of the summer. Matt took the boys camping near Evanston with his family. I stayed home for the aforementioned YW breakfast. They hadn't been there 30 minutes. Matt had just barely gotten the tent set up when Finn tripped over the opening of the tent. He was holding a little pole in one hand so he used his other hand to catch all his weight. He screamed and cried hard for a little bit but then amazingly calmed down and didn't cry about it again. Matt could tell it was broken right away and called me. Thank goodness we had just bought the van! I had a way to drive to Evanston and meet them at the ER. I was so sad for my sweet baby the whole time. But when I got there, he was perfectly happy playing an iPad. The crazy doctor there put a splint on it and I took Finn back home with me and Covey and Matt went to finish their campout.

 Playing tractors with one hand just isn't the same. 

"But can a guy with two good arms do this?"

 Uncle Nick and Aunt Stacey had the cutest idea to bring him a "boo boo bear", like the one Nick got when he was little and broke his arm.

 See it's little cast?

 He still loves his boo boo bear!

The Monday after, we went to see good old Dr. Tensmeyer, Matt's old preceptor, for an awesome green cast.

 Poor little guy. He had a ROUGH summer for injuries.

 He had this above-the-elbow cast for 2 weeks. Then a shorter orange cast for 2 weeks. And then a blue one for another 2 weeks.

Last day of school with Miss Gayle and Miss Rachel.

 In all my "spying" this was the first time I saw Covey engage in a sport during recess. I had to snag a picture of him playing soccer!

Here's Covey riding a horse at the ranch during the campout. He spent most of his time playing in the stream there. And don't judge, boots are boots man!