Summer at a Glance

So, yes, I've been MIA from the blogging world this summer.  It's been on my list of things to do-- but so have a million other things!  It's nice to know that at least two people look at my blog-- so Melissa and Kim-- this update is for you!

It's hard to condense a whole summer into one post, but we're going to try.  Beware: lots of pictures ahead!

We started off our summer making a Summer To-Do List.  Things ranged from Seven Peaks, to camping in the backyard, to getting slurpees and ice cream.  So to make sure the kids were able to do some of these things, they had a lemonade stand to earn money to pay for it.  We sold lemonade, cookies and otter pops and made plenty of money!

June was our annual family vacation with Brent's extended family.  This year we switched things up and went to Eden for the weekend.  Despite the rainy weather, it was a lot of fun.  We just had to be a little more creative to keep entertained.

Things like dominoes...

...cars...

...The Lego Movie...

...and when it warmed up enough-- swimming, swimming, swimming!

Backyard campouts are always fun!  The kids also wanted to camp in the mountains, but it just didn't happen this year.

Smores!

This year was the Summer of Inflatable Slides.  We kicked that off at Sandy's 4th of July celebration.  It was followed with bounce houses at a couple of birthday parties and White City's End of Summer celebration.

 The Draper Parade is always a favorite for the Buchanans.  We go with Brent's family and make a whole day of it.

Since we're together, we also celebrate Kirstie's birthday after the Draper parade.  This year's birthday theme was Barbie.  Everything was decked in Barbie pink and purple.

We ended the busy day with fireworks at Draper Park-- us and everyone else in the surrounding area.  Man, was it crowded!

We love to visit the floats for the Days of '47 Parade each year.  I love seeing them close up and all the little details put into them.

 Kirstie then celebrated her birthday with friends from the neighborhood and school.  8 little girls (and 1 little boy) dancing around singing Barbie songs. It was a lot of fun!  But I don't know where the picture of all of them went!

Happy 6th Birthday Kirstie-girl!  We had a party with the Olsen Family.  The next night she chose Chuck-a-Rama for her birthday dinner.

At the Olsen party we swam, soaked grandma, grandpa and Melissa with water guns, had a bbq, opened presents, ate cake and ice cream and finished the night off with fireworks!

This summer has been a very wet one!  Good thing the kids got the own umbrellas just in time for all the storms!

 Kirstie learned to ride a two-wheeler this summer!  She's doing so well with it.  We just need to practice starting on her own and stopping better. (Don't just jump off the bike!)  It's sometimes been hard to find a good time to practice since she wears her eye patch 4 hours a day now.  Can you imagine trying to learn to ride with just one eye?

A Bees game was on our summer to-do list.  We're lucky to have gotten free tickets from Grandpa Buchanan.  Not so lucky that we weren't told the game was postponed an hour.  We had lots of time to explore the ball park!

 End-of-Summer Fun at Lagoon with the Olsen family!   We had perfect weather and not too many crowds!

Kirstie was brave and rode Bombora this year-- a new favorite ride for her!

My mom and I didn't get onto too many rides, so we had to have proof that we were still there having fun!

I think the Log Flume was the most ridden ride of the day.  Ian was too scared to go on it.  But ever since Lagoon, he's been talking about it and wants to ride it next year.

Everyone fights about who gets to ride with Aunt Melissa!

 We love our cousins!

Ice cream, cotton candy, and giant crayons.  What a great end to a great day!  And we stayed so long, we were one of the last ones to leave.  Only a handful of cars left in the parking lot.  We made the most of the day!

What a great summer!  In addition to these things we also got lots of slurpees, swam at Seven Peaks, went bowling, went to a movie each week, the zoo at night, ate breakfast, lunch and dinner outside (not all in the same day) and 

played, played, played!!