Once upon a time, it was summer.

Summer tiiiimmme, and the livin's eeeeeazyyyyy. (Porgy and Bess) Except that our summertime has bee packed! These pictures are just filling in the gaps of the time when we were less busy. A detailed explanations of our excursions, vacations, and family events will follow.

This was from the baseball BYU alumni day that we have been trying to go to every year. They serve JDawgs, have a few booths for games and prizes, you get to see Cosmo, and then you go to the senior day baseball game. This year it rained/hailed/was freezing cold, so we hung around for the food and activities as long as we could, then headed out. This was the first year Evelynn was brave enough to get a real picture with Cosmo, and it turned out pretty dang cute. Eloise chickened out at the last second after all her big talk about giving Cosmo the biggest hug ever, and Michael remained calm as long as there was a 10 foot radius between him and the cougar.

Yes, we do have season passes to 7 Peaks, but since it is such a feat for me to get three kids to the pool, make sure they don't drown, and then get the home from the pool by myself, we don't go as often as they would like. What I don't have is a kiddie pool. I have a sprinkler and a storage tub, but you know what? They don't seem to mind at all. Thank goodness. This is them showing me their chalk decorations for the pool, which they also liberally applied to Michael's head.

We went up to the canyon one FHE and had dinner and a fire. We picked a nice spot with this big log next to a stream so we could have easy access to water, but unfortunately some campers before us had let their fire get a bit out of control, so the whole area was covered in soot, which lead to my kids being covered with soot as well. But they had so much dirty fun. Afterwards we went on a short hike up the trail (I forget the name of it now), which was not a big hit with the girls (It's too long! It's too hard! When are we going back!) but Michael loved it. The highlight was when we passed two horses and a dog on our way up. Michael was shocked/thrilled. :)

Evelynn has been doing a lot of art projects on her own this summer. She decorated the living room with pictures for the 4th of July, mostly of American flags and fireworks. Then she made this picture all by herself. I thought it was pretty fantastic.

Doug's summer project has been designing and building this rabbit hutch. He finished it just a few weeks ago. He designed it on Google Sketch-up and then had his dad bring down his saw in May to cut out all the boards, then he has been working on it on and off all summer in his spare time. I have been lucky enough to be his assistant many times as well, but also lucky enough not to have to go to the hardware store as often as he had to go. :) Not my favorite activity. We don't have any rabbits in their yet, but the finished product sure looks amazing in our garage!