Goodbye July Stop 5, aka The Long One

After hitting four stops in under two weeks, we were ready for a change of pace. Our next stop was in Lehi, UT at my sister's house, and we were going to stay there for two weeks... yesssssssss! We had more than a few fun times in our weeks there, including but not limited to:

Backyard Microadventure! One of the first nights at the Reeves, the kids embarked on a microadventure sleeping outside on a tarp. Everything was going wonderfully until about 3am, when the rain began to fall... from the basement where I was sleeping, it sounded like a stampede when all five girls came barreling in with their sleeping bags and mats. At 5:30, Heather bounded through the house remembering that the sprinklers were still on, right past the sleeping mass on the living room floor.  It wasn't until after the sprinklers were safely off that she realized they could have gone on anyway... quite the adventurous night it was...

Visiting BYU museums! In one day we hit all three museums on campus: the dinosaur museum, the MOA and the Bean Museum. Bones, art, and wildlife all in one day!



...not to mention the Eyring Science center... Look out! 10,000 Ohms!!! <>


Hiking the Y! Super awesome family night activity... and apparently lots of people thought so... even at sunset, the trail was extremely busy and the parking lot was totally full. The girls and dads continued past the Y to Mouse Rock while the moms and boys headed home and made dinner, which was eaten close to 11pm. Epic FHE!

And then one day, the dishwasher started to smell funny. Heather started a load while I went to pick up Emma from band, and when I got back, there was an exciting story to tell... Electrical fire from the control panel, water spraying out of the dishwasher, Jon on headphones, breakers thrown, black thick smoke... I missed all the fun, but I got to hear about it many times. So, it was dishwasher shopping date night for Jon and I and Heather and Rob :) After seeing every dishwasher on the Wasatch Front, they finally decided on one and we got it installed on the very last day in Lehi!

Out with the old... 

In with the new!

 Food Adventures! We learned that Emma is very particular about organizing her chopped tomatoes...
 
And we also helped Abbie with some mission prep by having her try some new foods like shrimp, Mochi, and California Rolls.

We enjoyed swimming at the Lehi Legacy Center and going out to two movies, but most of the time, the kids just had a blast around the house eating sour grapes right off the vine, exploring the gravel pit, swinging and breaking the swings, and finding all kinds of good uses for the stairs:

Apparently, Jade is exactly as tall as the stairs are wide

And then everyone wanted in on the action. 

These two boys seemed to love their pseudo-brother time. Sisters just don't appreciate things like cars, garbage trucks, sewer sweepers, and gutters. Larry and Isaac were nearly inseparable the entire time. Once they even did the dishes together...though most of the time if chores were to be found, the boys were not...

And let's not forget the homework. Abbie got me all excited about picking out books for her honors English summer assignments. In two weeks we read Smile and The Secret Life of Bees.Both are excellent reads and hopefully brought some new insights about literature to our soon to be High-Schooler! The other kids all worked diligently on their homework and piano practicing and I continued on with my training. The most fun run I did was running from Heather's house to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple and then back again, covering 12 miles and amazingly, the run was mostly on a trail! Heather biked along with me on many of my runs and I even got Hannah and Dawna out biking with me one day.  Suffice it to say we got great use out of the Murdock Canal trail.

Visiting LaNae! One of my darling triplet cousins! I miss this girl so much! It was such a treat to see her with her cute boys in her cute house with two trampolines and a toy room! My kids were begging and making me promise to come back again by the time we had to go.

As you can see, Stop Five in our Goodbye July boasted plenty of excitement, accomplishments, and love, not to mention plenty of rest and relaxation in random places:

Jade hasn't quite mastered eating while sleeping, but she tries nonetheless...

No, Dawna is not sleeping with toilet paper! Those were streamers from Emma's birthday!

The Reeves home is a sanctuary of peace and love. Every moment there was uplifting, inspiring, and fun! Makes me want to make my home a cleaner, more loving, more Gospel Centered place. Many thanks to Heather and Rob for loaning out their basement to us for 14 days!!!