July 2011

In a desperate effort to just catch up, there won't be much narration to the following pictures from July. I'm sure many of you will appreciate that. Maybe I'll come back later and do more....but who am I kidding? I'll just do the best I can now. 

July was a fun month. I sure do love summer. It sure was a HOT summer here. Maybe it wasn't really all that hot, but when all you have for keeping cool in your house is one little window unity, it feels like a blistering summer. We managed to survive by hanging out in our little kiddie pool as much as possible and by getting into the hills, camping and hiking, etc. 

On this particular campout we tried a new campground that we enjoyed immensely. I thought we were crazy for camping with 3 little ones...and indeed we were. Not the best night's sleep ever, but oh well. We had fun while we were awake! The lake that was a short little walk from our campsite was fun to swim in, as well as good for turtle-hunting (courtesy of Sam/dad!).

This pose can be seen by Samantha in any picture where the sun is shining. I hope she doesn't have a problem with her eye, but I think she just really hates the bright sun in that particular eye. Sure do love that girl!

Samantha actually REALLY loved floating in the water like this. I thought she was going to be a cautious, shy, timid little child when she was a baby, but she is proving me wrong. She is one surprise after another!

The hammock is always a hit. They love it. But they always fight over it too. Is there any form of entertainment that 2 kids, 18 months apart, won't fight over?

More bowling to take advantage of our free summer bowling passes. WE LOVED IT!!! And look how strong LucyMae is....

Our garden did pretty dang awesome this summer. We tried some vertical gardening.....some wisdom for my future gardens that I gained was to never put winter squash as close together on vertical gardening as I did here. And this was after a couple of pretty brutal hail-storms had done their damage.

Another of our attempts to find some refuge from the heat was to hike to these little pools. It was really fun. We should have gotten there a little earlier. We didn't do it until the evening, but mid-day would have been ideal. And it was GORGEOUS to boot. This summer, we will hit this spot more frequently and mid-day:) Here, we were joined by the McCormick family, which have been awesome friends since they moved here.

OH, and I can't forget the slip-'n-slide....between it and the kiddie-pool, we spent MANY of our waking hours cool and comfortable outside. And we surprisingly avoided any major sunburns as well, even with my 2 red-heads and a blondie.

And even though we weren't able to go camping as often as we would have liked, we tried to get out and do evenings at picnic areas with tin-dins and marshmallow roasting, and the works. It is just so beautiful in the Black Hills here, and we can't resist getting out and enjoying it as much as possible. And I am happy to say that our kids seem to love it too!

Isn't this kid the cutest? He is such a joy. He was such an easy baby at this point (at least from what I can remember right now, as I am writing this in January 2012). As long as someone is smiling at him, paying attention to him, pushing him in his stroller, he is a happy camper.

And then it was time for Girl's Camp. During the week, I drove up to the camp-site every evening so that I could be there with the girls. I would take Ben with me, since he was still nursing, and we had a great time. One day I had a friend watch the girls for me so that I could go on the hike with the Young Women, and participate in the other activities that day. And then on the Friday of that week I left all the kids with Sam, took my pump with me, and camped over-night with the girls so that I could be there for the testimony meeting and all the fun. And then we all came home on Saturday. It was a long week, with a lot of driving, but it was worth it. I'm glad I got to spend all that time with these wonderful young women in the great outdoors.

Bath-time is always picture-worthy right? Especially when there's THREE of them in there and they are all happy! Man, to be a kid again and get such pure, unadulterated joy out of a bath!

More pool time....aren't these kids the cutest?

We also enjoyed Story-book Island and the guest musicians they had for a concert one evening. I like to take advantage of as many opportunities to expose my kids to good music, especially LIVE music, as I can. They were actually pretty well behaved too.

And the 4th of July.....although we missed the Evans tradition of being at the cabin, riding horses, and attending the finals of the Oakley Rodeo, we still had a pretty enjoyable time. It was SUPER hot that day....I feel faint just looking at these pictures, remembering the heat. We attended the pancake breakfast at our church and participated in the bike parade, which was hilarious....

This is our bishop...he's a character, and a great man.

Isn't she adorable? Think her helmet's a little big? hmmmm....

LucyMae loved ripping around on her little pedal-less bike. She does pretty good on it!

We then spent the hottest part of the day basking in the beauty of Pactola Reservoir with our friends, the Polickys. THANK YOU!!!! We had a great time swimming, tubing, eating, sailing, escaping a storm, being with good company. A good time was had by all....including Benjamin:)

And then we spent the evening with some other friends, the Houghs, enjoying delicious BBQ and wagon-rides, and spectacular fire-works. It was a LONG day, but wonderful! We are so glad to have wonderful friends here in Rapid City to share wonderful days like that with.






And that's about it for July, unless I find some more pictures somewhere. Loving summer and anxiously anticipating a wonderful, nearly-month-long trip to Utah.....

Here are some more pictures from my phone:

Good times at the park

Poor little Ben went from a cold, to this rash, to another cold that wouldn't let go this summer. He was sick for over 2 months straight. But still such a happy guy:)

Chillin' in the bumbo....that thing saved my life!

Staying cool at the pool. LucyMae stood in line and went down this slide OVER AND OVER AND OVER...like 264 times. She loved it!

And she's getting pretty good at pretending to talk on the phone. She cracks me up with her pretend phone conversations.

The beautiful scenery and and vistas from the hike we did for Girls' Camp. It was really fun to get to go. And Ben was such a trooper in the heat. I love being able to take my babies hiking in our Kelty Pack.

More good times at the park

And some videos: