Month of June

 The boys had their last week of school.  Seth had graduation on Tuesday and then a graduation party on Wednesday (I was in charge of both).  I am so glad that those are both done.  Seth submitted a poem to read with his friend at graduation and the principal chose them to represent their class.  The poem reads as follows:

We leave Uintah soon

At night I see I look at the moon

All memories come back to me

Full of sadness full of gless

We will be going to middle school

But Uintah will always be cool

When we got here to grade six

We've know this place down to the bricks

All the teachers we have we tahnk you

Ever since we have been new

We made friends young and old

All of our stories have been told

We share our knowledge with the young

You and you the people we are among

Middle school is coming

We are humming

So now I say

Our last day

Here is coming fast

For our knowledge is too vast

So, we move to middle school

Uintah was never cruel

We have to say goodbye

Now don't be shy

Uintah, we love you

We always knew

We would have to separate

We decorate and commemorate

I will miss you

Me, too

The party was a dance party with food.  Jack and I helped to decorate and Katsu came and helped to take pictures.  Even Seth got into the dancing (he loves to dance, but I wasn't sure if he would be too shy).

Logan got to have a wheels day at school to celebrate and was able to bring a scooter and go around the blacktop for an hour.  I'm not sure what special thing Noah did to celebrate.  Logan also spent a lot of time working on a marble run at school.

Noah and Jack got a membership to Discovery Gateway early for their birthdays.  We have already gone a few times.

Andrew had a last day of school (the last day was technically the 7th and a half day and Andrew didn't go.  All the other boys wanted to go) that was a graduation celebration.  Jack and I watched the festivities over Zoom and then we went over to the middle school for snacks and good-byes.  It took a long time to find Andrew and then he just wanted to say bye to a few kids and leave.  Some of the families were having big celebrations!  Afterwards, I picked us up some sandwiches from Caputos and then we watched some shows together while the other boys were still at school.

That weekend was pretty low-key.  Andrew and Seth both had end-of-year parties.  Andrew got his last Covid shot and then we went to the Cottonwood Heights rec center and bought a pass for the summer.  It's a little far, but they have a family pass and the boys really like their pool.  I wasn't sure how Jack would do at the pool as he hates baths and showers, but he loved it.  We spent a lot of time sitting at the zero-entry part just getting used to it, but also loved us holding him.  The boys love the two different slides and also the four different levels of diving boards.  We have also tried the indoor pool and really like it too.  We are trying to go at least twice a week.  It's fun because we can grab a pizza and bring it in and enjoy the pool.  Now, if only I can get them to try ice skating, too.

The technical last day of school was Monday the 7th.  Seth ran off before I could get a picture.

It was also our anniversary, so Katsu and Jack and I went to Ruth's Diner for breakfast while Andrew watched a sleeping Jack.  Breakfast was huge and delicious and it was fun to have a little date.

The next day, we took off on a little trip to escape the staining smell of the new floors in the front two rooms.  Tuesday, we drove up through Logan Canyon.  Logan got sick and threw up everywhere, but we did finally make it to Bear Lake.  We looked at it for a bit and then stopped at the classic La Beau's for raspberry shakes and burgers.  Yummy (though kind of expensive).  Then, we decided to drive out to the Idaho side for the sandy beaches.  You can park right next to the water and the water is shallow for a very long ways out.  It's hard to capture the beautiful color of the lake.  Jack could crawl around in the water and loved it until he got fussy because he was so tired and I finally got him to sleep.  The boys had fun and a little too much sun.  

We drove towards our rental in Idaho.  We stopped in Soda Springs and went to the geyser right before it was to go off.  After enjoying that fun (I didn't even have time to get Jack pants on!), we went and tried out two of the different soda water springs.  The boys were not impressed, didn't like the flavor, and only wanted actual soda!  Then, we drove to our rental, got settled in, and then went and ate at Cafe Rio.

Wednesday we were off to Lava Hot Springs.  We first went to the hot springs themselves.  The boys enjoyed trying out all the different temperature pools.  It was too hot for Jack so we just had to take turns holding him.  Noah liked the hot springs quite a bit and so did Seth and Logan, but Andrew had a harder time with the heat.  Katsu loved it and would have liked to stay a lot longer.  Everyone thought our family was pretty cute.

Next, Katsu and all the boys (minus Jack) went tubing down the Portneuf River.  It was a lot more intense than we had anticipated.  We probably should have just bought tickets for the shuttle, but we thought carrying them wouldn't be too bad, but it was pretty tiring.  We tried a lot of different combos of the tubes, but the water was really too much rapids for the younger boys to be on their own tube.  So, the best was the 4 tube and then someone on the 1 tube.  They did have a lot of fun and half a day was way more time than we needed.  Jack and I went back and forth helping carry and taking pictures of the boys.

Thursday was exceptionally cold.  We went to Craters of the Moon - a national park that we have been wanting to see for a long time.  We didn't have appropriate clothing (it was 40 and very very windy) so we ended up buying some sweatshirts at the gift shop.  It was so windy it was hard to bring Jack out, so we mostly went in shifts so that someone could sit in the car with Jack.  Andrew also hurt his ankle, so he wasn't able to see the caves.  Several of the easier hikes were closed for renovations, but we went and saw the splatter cones and the cinder cone and then we hiked into some of the lava tube caves.  Seth and Katsu went into the Boy Scout one, but then me and Logan and Noah joined them and checked out the other caves with them.  It was pretty neat.  Overall, it was a very unique place - too bad it was so windy.  I would have liked to spend more time.  But it's really out in the middle of nowhere, so I don't know when we'll be back again.

Friday, we cleaned up and left the rental.  We spent a little time driving around Pocatello, but there wasn't anything we really felt like paying to see (the kids vetoed the Museum of Clean), so we decided to head back to Logan area to stop at all our favorite food outlets.  We went to Caspers (Fat Boys) and got tons of ice cream cones, then we tried out for the first time the Creamie Outlet and got a ton of those.  Seth loved it!  The goldfish store was closed, but we tried the chocolate factory and then of course the cheese store.  It was so much fun and so much yummy food.  We are still eating some of the food now!  Finally, on the way out Sardine Canyon, we went to Mantua to see their poppy fields.  We ended by stopping at Grandma's house.

After so much fun, we were a little worn out for the weekend.  We spent a lot of time moving all the furniture in the boys rooms to get ready for their floors to be replaced.

The next week was definitely more low-key.  Seth had a mountain biking party on Tuesday that he went with Katsu to.  We went to the pool and enjoyed both the inside and outside pools.  Seth started mountain bike practices on Wednesday morning at Sugarhouse park.  Andrew had his well visit with Dr. Alvey.  Andrew had a fun evening at his friend Kanye's house.  Mostly the boys just try to get away with as much screen time as possible.  It was also very very very hot.  Miserably hot.  We went to the Gateway one day.  

On Saturday morning, we celebrated Father's Day at Jan and Lee's house.  We had pancakes and meat and fruit.  They had a little pool that Jack and the other kids had fun playing around with and mostly with squirting each other.  Katie made Jack a little smash cake.  We were getting Jack set up to eat it on the table and by the time he was in a safe position, he wasn't sure if he wanted to grab the cake or not.  He did end up eating it and enjoying it.  It was so nice of Katie to make!

Katsu wanted to take the boys out, but it was very difficult to get anyone to do anything.  Andrew in particular refuses to basically ever leave the house.  We didn't ever get to the chalk festival, but we did finally make it to the Japanese market and then to try out the fish market to get fish for the sushi we had the next day.

Sunday was Father's Day.  We made so yummy French Toast (which surprisingly everyone loved, which was surprising, because every time I have offered to make it in the past, everyone refuses) as well as fruit.  The boys made Katsu some cards and we also got him some beef jerky and a cooling cloth for when we go hiking.  He didn't seem too excited, but I think in the end he will enjoy it.  At church, Andrew finally came back and he gave a talk as well as helping with the sacrament.  He did a great job - he said he was so nervous, but he didn't seem too nervous.  He talked about brotherhood and how we should be kind to our siblings.  We spent the day doing what Katsu wanted - watching Father of the Bride.  WE had sushi - which Katsu made, but that's what he wanted - and also miracle jello, but that didn't turn out very well.

On Monday, Seth had mountain biking and was supposed to have a party, but he got a migraine on the trail and we had to come pick him up.  On the upside, he has now gone up a group to the gray group.  I had a meeting with my advisor and got my annual raise and decided on the courses to teach for the year.  On Tuesday, Logan had a playdate with his friend Alex.  On Wednesday, we went to the pool.  Seth went to do Pickleball.

Thursday was Seth's 12th birthday.  They spent time playing video games most of the day and there was just lots of angst (particularly after he lost / broke his retainer).  He had a birthday cake donut for breakfast and we sang to him.  He didn't want a cake, so I made brownies and lemon bars, which we had along with orange chicken for dinner.  We went to Trader Joes to get the orange chicken as well as lots of fun snacks.  Seth's tablet finally came in the evening, which was very exciting!

On Friday, Seth and Andrew went swimming with Andrew's friend Kanye at Liberty Pool.  We also went to the library to get more awards for the summer reading program.  And we watched the Luca movie, which everyone really enjoyed.

On Saturday, we had Seth's birthday party at the pool.  He had five friends there: James Winter, Owen Prettyman, Paul Hoffman, Liam DiGregorio, and Kai Patterson.  The rest of the kids also came, except for Andrew, who is still vetoing everything.  We got 4 domino's pizzas and brought a couple boxes of cupcakes.  The boys seemed to have lots of fun, even though the pool got shut down twice for biohazard incidence - luckily, that leaves the diving pool open and most of the boys loved diving.  Seth went off the 2nd highest (the yellow) dive several times.