Time for an update! First, because it's funny. I left the thermometer out in the sun, and the needle went all the way around and then stopped because it ran out of room! The actual temperature was probably 115, but it sure feels warm in the sun!

Our first trip in June was to a regional meeting in Upper Minnesota. The lake was beautiful, but only recently recently defrosted, so we tried not to get wet. :)

 

It was lush and green and made us think of Oregon. (With a little more humidity) I came back totally wanting a lake house.

The following weekend we were in Santa Barbara for our second regional meeting. I drug the kids to the Santa Barbara Mission while we were there.

The woman from the book Island of the Blue Dolphins is buried here!

Kids during beach cleanup.

I came away from this trip wanting a beach house. Good thing I'll probably never get either. Haha

This is how we all felt on the way home.

We had a couple of weeks in between, so I signed the kids all up for swim lessons. They did awesome, which was really nice because then John and I felt comfortable with them in the pool in Mexico. We had a great time. The previous groups had some problems (bound to happen when the alcohol is free) and if it's a big enough issue you can be banned from future trips, or even lose your job. Fortunately our week was smooth sailing. Not a single problem. It probably helped that there were more kids than adults there. :) John and I staked out a spot by the pool everyday where we could keep an eye on the swim-up bar, but it ended up being unnecessary, thank goodness!

The kids had a great time. I think Jackie met every single person there! Our kids are so tan now, that several people thought they were adopted. :)

Thunderstorm moving in. It ended up being quite exciting.

Also saw a dust storm. It got pretty windy for a while, but this one didn't actually hit us.

My boys are a lot braver than they were at the start of the summer!

Let's see, what else? School starts in 2 weeks. Both of the boys are getting braces. The house remodel will be done soon. I guess I will catch back up then! Oh yeah, John got stung by a scorpion! (Scorpion season will be done when it cools down) It got him right on the chest. Somehow it got inside his shirt without him knowing. Creepy. We called poison control just in case, but he was ok. Don't get me wrong, it hurt like the dickens, but he took some ibuprophen, and some essential oil on it, and by the next morning he was just a little tender. Everyone at work was pretty surprised. Some of them have lived here their entire lives and never known anyone to get stung.

Also, I figured out that the POGO Pass Mom and Matt got us for Christmas as good at all the venues listed. You don't have to choose just one. (Good thing I waited a while to activate, so we still have lots of time left before they expire) So a couple weekends ago we took the kids to Sunsplash, which is Mesa's waterslide park. It was awesome! Even Justin had a blast. I didn't take any pictures or video because it was just too wet. They went down every single slide. ThunderBay, Halfpipe, Cauldron, and the most scary thing I have ever done, the Double Dare. You climb up to the top of the tower, and then you step into what looks like a phone booth. There is no tube to ride. You just stand there, cross your ankles and your arms. It counts down, and then the bottom drops out from underneath you and you freefall 7 stories into a pitch black tube that does a few turns and finally spits you out the bottom 7 seconds later. My heart flew up into my mouth and I didn't get it back for a good 15 minutes! The kids were nervous beforehand, but loved it after.