Summer in Utah - part 2

Nathan, Hyrum and I spent 9 days with Hailey and Madelyn at the Boyd house in Lehi while Kellie and Shawn were child free in D.C. It was a bit of an adjustment for me to go back to diapers, bottles, cutting food into tiny pieces, binkies, getting up during the night to baby cries, and caring for girls in general (hair, bows, PINK, lots of pink).

It took some adjusting on the boys part too. No longer could they roam an acre of land for the day, riding bikes on the empty open road or digging holes in fields, but they did find bugs to collect and we had taken their scooters . . . to ride in the garage. It was a good reminder (as we consider moving from Rexburg) that we are country people.

Occasionally, the boys would hit a point where they needed some alone time. Hyrum would disappear to the basement and hide in a closet to "think about stuff" (he usually does that in our back yard but there was nowhere to be alone in their yard) and Nathan would take off with his book to a his own hiding place. When I was in need of personal space I would go to the bathroom.

Kara, Max, and Zane also stayed with us for 5 days. The kids all played very well together, having lunch breaks together, movie time together, bedtime routine together and occasionally, arguments together. It was good to see the kids all play and live together, learning to compromise according to the varied personalities.  I hope that they will always remember their cousin time and have them for friends as they grow older.

Movie time
(and waaay too much red eye for the computer to even attempt correcting).

The long dining table became the frame for their fort.

Madelyn had her own fort in the empty kitchen cupboard. She would climb up on the shelf, hide her toys in there and eat finger snacks in there.


We took a couple of field trips to get out of the house. Kate, Korben, Logan and Brooklyn met us at Discover Park in Pleasant Grove.

(photo borrowed from the internet)

I had my arms full with a very tired Madelyn so not one single picture was taken but if I ask them about the park their eyes light up and they ask when we can go again.

Another day we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity near Thanksgiving Point. We could have spent days there and not covered all the exciting, hands-on things for them to do.

Nathan and the Musical Waterworks ~ Hyrum and Max taking x-rays at the Vet Clinic

And that is the extent of the photos I captured inside since my focus was on Madelyn in the stroller and keeping an eye my three kids (Nathan, Hyrum and Hailey) among the hundred of kids running around. I was so grateful to have Kara there with us, though she too was watching her own kids.

For our museum finale we ended outside on the playground where the boys each had a couple of turns on the zip line.

We will definitely go to this museum again!