Grace and Grant did a bit of reading this summer. I never have to ask Grace to read. She would lay and read all day long if I didn't interfere. Grant needs to be prodded a bit, but has really taken interest in the Harry Potter series, which helped. He finished the first book and made his way into the second. One afternoon, Grace and I got to chatting about everything she had read over the break. As the list grew, I asked her to gather up the books from her shelf and bring them down for a photo. This was the stack as of the Friday before the first day of school. It does not include the half-dozen Nancy Drew books she read, nor the two chapter books she polished off that weekend.
We got a membership to the Children's Museum.
Daily chores were done first thing in the morning along with worksheets and reading time. Cori worked out a new system where Grace and Grant checked each other's work before having the chore marked off for the day. They were harder on themselves than I would have been! Our floor has never been cleaner. (I'm really missing this now they are back in school...)
The construction of our pool was finally completed while Cori was in Alaska. I'll post more about the backyard project soon, but suffice it to say for now that this whole process took much longer and was more painful than what we did in Phoenix. We are very happy with how things have come around though. The pool took 3 days to fill, and then nearly 2 weeks to cure. There were another couple of days spent getting the chemicals balanced and then our builder finally gave the thumbs up. Grant and Eden jumped the gun on the inaugural jump in. Their second jump went better.
We have done a little venturing and came across la Madeleine. The kids still talk about our dinner there. We spent nearly as much again buying goodies from the bakery/patisserie to bring home.
Cori and I participated in a little competition at the end of August called 'Summer of Seals.' It is a 12-week-long local fitness event run by members of a neighboring stake. At the beginning of the 12 week period, each person weighs in and then begins training. On the day of the event, each competitor completes a 500 meter swim, followed quickly by as many pushups as he/she can do in two minutes, then as many sit ups he/she can do in two minutes, then as many pull ups he/she can do in two minutes. Then there is a 1.5 mile run. Points are calculated based on athletic performance, number of work outs during the 12 week time frame, and amount of weight loss. Competitors can participate as individuals or on teams of 5. Cori and I were both invited onto teams (Which is honestly the only reason I ended up doing it. I had the worst attitude about it all summer long!) And we ended up having more fun doing it than we thought we would. Driving up early that morning I swore there was no way on earth I would be doing this event again. I left feeling excited to train and beat my numbers when I do it again next summer...
My team, the MissFits.
Cori got through everything ahead of me and was able to take a couple pictures. This is at the finish line.
