The End of Summer

It's a bit misleading..that whole "end of summer" thing.  That would truly be delightful, but it's gonna be summer here for about 3 more months.  BUT, school has started so it's the end of summer VACATION. So here's what we rounded our summer out with.  

 Cow day at Chick Fil A!!  This is a tradition and when it started, there weren't many who did it, but now it seems everyone is on board so it's always a crazy busy day there.  The deal is that if you dress like a cow, you can have any meal for FREE.  What we won't do for a free meal.  

We tried to take full advantage of Pogopasses this summer, but I kinda waited till the end so we did lots of stuff the last week or so.  This is Laser Tag.  Chelsey and Spencer came with us as well as my Mom.  She is the sweet one to always sit out with Brynlee so the rest of us can duke it out inside.  This time we were all on the same team though.  And I'm sure I have to tell you that "I won the whole game!".  Ok, so there were lots of little kids in there, but I still won!!  Rhett took me 2/3 in air hockey games though.  

Before we played laser tag, we went to Happy Joe's for pizza.  This is a place that is big back in Illinois.  Many fun birthday memories here (or there).  So when they opened one in AZ, I was very excited.  But I must say, it was a bit of a disappointment.  First, it was really expensive!  Our very favorite place to go is Barros and it's like almost half the price.  Now, they don't have the taco or BLT pizza, but it was still a bit of sticker shock for me.  Plus, what you see in the picture is pretty much the whole restaurant.  Super tiny.  But, we went and it was good.

Sunsplash!  This one outing is what we say makes the pogopass totally worth it.  Last year was the first time the kids had been.  We had a blast.  This year, I don't know...they just seemed really bored.  Not sure why.  We left and got dinner at McD's and stayed till it closed, but honestly, it was a little "clouded" by the amount of nakedness there.  I know, it's a pool, but my kids had lots to say about it when we left.  Even Katy was uncomfortable with how many peoples boobs she saw that day.  That's a whole different post though.

 Three Days of Service.  That's what the youth in our ward did one weekend.  They were supposed to do as much service as they could find.  Dalin went all out the first day.  Brooklyn did tons of stuff too. Rhett, well let's just say he could have done a little more.  This is Dalin making rubber pancakes for everyone.

In case this is news, Chelsey is having a baby!  She is due the beginning of December.  She was lucky enough to have her ultrasound on her birthday so she found out what she was having that day.  Fun bday present!  So, she's having a girl.  I guessed it!  I know, it's 50/50 but I still guessed it.  She brought over chocolate cake and we sang to her and enjoyed celebrating her loveliness.

 On the last day  before school started, the little kids had meet the teacher, of which I took no pictures.  Both kids got the teachers they wanted and are very excited to start school.  After, we all went to Mod Pizza for lunch with Gram.  After that, the big kids and some friends of ours all went to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead.  I took them for ice cream after to finish out a fun last day of summer.  

This is Glow Golf at Fatcats.  Another pogopass outing.  I wasn't in love with this one.  This concept is cool, but it's really hard to play golf in the dark!  I can't tell you how many times I hit the ground before the ball cuz there's no depth perception.  If I wasn't so competitive I may have been able to enjoy it.  Besides that, it was really noisy and chaotic.  We'll go back and do their glow bowling another day.

Cherries!!   I always buy the 30lb boxes of fruit and then get in a panic and have to do something with them in a hurry so they don't go bad.  So we all pitched in and pitted them all and got them canned.  This same morning, I wasn't letting anyone on the "screens".  I had found an old bag of flower seeds in my closet so I gave them to Bo and Katy and told them to go find a place to plant them.  It kept them busy for about 30 whole minutes!  They each picked a place, raked it, threw down some soil and planted their seeds.  I'm fairly certain they won't grow or that they will even remember that they planted something, but at least they were up and doing something!

This is what I'm left with now that my big kids are moved out and I have Rhett as my lead.  Wrestling all the time!  Oy, I hate boy behavior.  Really, we can't sit and play barbies or dress up?  Its always something physical where I'm sure something is gonna break.  But look at those faces!