Harry Potter Marathon

The last three Summers the kids have celebrated Harry Potter's birthday by having a Harry Potter movies marathon. They came up with the idea and buy the food and rent the movies themselves. Mostly Cessie actually because she is the hugest Harry Potter fan.
Cessie has sat with Charity and read the first few Harry Potter books together the last several weeks. And they plan to finish the series together.

Amanda & Charity 7/8/17 Snuggle tutorial

Hana demonstrating a move

Andy 5k race finish line

Steve 5k race finish line

FFD 7/15/17

#2 FFD 7/15/17

Just hanging out together after being apart for 10 days

Andy Summer Bball

 

Andy has been playing lots of basketball this Summer. He has had a couple of bball camps, and has also been playing a Summer league. But I only have not taken many photos. These were taken at his tournament this weekend. 

Home Together

 

Steve had been gone for 12 days (San Jose, Salt Lake City, Vegas). I was gone for 10 days (Salt Lake City, Vegas.) Jonah for 7 days (Salt Lake City, Vegas). Andy 10 days (still in Georgetown, but staying with the Claymans most of the time and attending an extreme water sports camp too.) Becca and Hana 7 days (Chicago) dance camp. And then Charity and Sam also attended a day camp here in Georgetown for 5 days. Cessie and Eden were the only kids not up to much of anything! Cessie agreed to let us hire her to be in charge of the kids left at home. She did an incredible job. Everyone was so well cared for and she even managed to get a lot of work done cleaning and organizing the house with her extra time, as most of us were gone a lot. 

Anyhow, when we were finally all back together again, we hung out in mine and Steve's room for a long time, catching up. It was super nice to be back together! We gave out a couple little gifts we had gotten for everyone. And we talked and played.

Andy Famous

 

This Georgetown paper comes out just once a year, and they put a photo of Andy on the cover! We didn't know it until our friend Kelly Clayman told us and brought us a copy. Fun!

Ballet 5:8

 

While Steve, Jonah and I were in Vegas, Becca and Hana were in Chicago to attend a week long Intensive Dance Camp called Ballet 5:8. They flew out there and were with two of my students and their fellow Dance Company members. One of the moms accompanied all of them. They stayed together in the same hotel room and did  a lot together while there.

Each morning I got a text of them before they started their classes for the day. 

 

They also went out to eat some real Chicago style pizza.

 

I talked to them each night and they loved it and had a fabulous time.

 

That same week I attended Dance Teacher University classes in Vegas and was able to get Level 1 certified. They were excellent classes and I learned a lot! It really helped build my confidence for teaching other styles of dance other than ballet, which is my strongest. 

(Steve, Jonah and I had flown there directly from Salt Lake City.)

Sundance

 

I had to go to Utah to get another knee surgery. It was to reconstruct my tibia again and prep it for a new ACL in 4 months. This was my 5th surgery on my right knee. Steve met me in Utah because he was sent to San Jose for work for a few days before my surgery. So he flew from San Jose to Salt Lake City. I also brought Jonah with me because two days before my surgery he had another major emotional crash. It was not too exciting of a trip because I had my pre-op right after arriving, then had surgery early the next morning. But we did get to see my parents, Anna and her family, Nate and Nyah, Tim and his family, Brent and his family, and Loren. So that was really nice. 

On the last day, Steve, Jonah and I went up to Sundance to ride the ski lift. We have done this every Summer I think for several years. I don't know how many times we've done it, but it never gets old. We love Sundance so much and the ski lift is always such a fantastic ride up the mountains. 

FFD

5k Steve and Andy

 

Mine and Steve's favorite place in Georgetown is a beautiful park and preserve called Berry Springs, just a few miles from our home. It's huge, quiet, and beautiful. And it usually does not have many visitors. Once a month they put on a 5k race there for just $1 entry fee! Steve and Andy went and did it this month. Andy beat Steve by about 10 minutes, but they both did well for them. 

Pies

On Saturday we wanted to talk to the kids about what to do for Family Fun Day. We suggested taking them to the movies and out to lunch. They all decided they would rather do some kind of cooking contest and just hang out at home. So we planned out what we would make: Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Peach Pie, Razzlberry Pie, Key Lime Pie, and Pumpkin Pie. We made more than one of a couple flavors and ended up with 9 pies. After a quick run to the grocery store for all the ingredients, we quickly got cooking. We teamed up in groups and made all the different varieties. Then Steve popped us his perfect popcorn recipe. We all then sat up in the Family Room and watched "Big Trouble in Little Chine" (an 80's movie Jonah loves), and we ate and laughed through the movie. It was a lot of fun for us!

4th of July

 

The 4th was a pretty low key day for us. First, for no important reason, we tried to see if we could fit the entire family on Charity's bed. Jonah did not want to play along, so we had to use the stuffed gorilla to take his place. And we all fit.  I get such a kick out of Andy and his many faces. Here is is smolder.

 

We picked up dinner at Subway and then went over to San Gabriel Park where much of Georgetown goes to hang out on the 4th of July all day. They have entertainment, activities, vendors.  We stayed until the firework show at 9:30pm. The traffic getting out was gridlock for quite a while, so we watched an episode of Love Connection as we were stuck in the car at 10pm. 

So all in all, nothing too exciting for us. But I have to say, I really enjoyed myself and I think the rest of the family did too.