Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Dawson Summer



Dawson Summer
The Dawson's spent the summer in Colorado this year and it was sooo much fun to have them here.  We did so much- went to the county fair, went boating, went swimming, went frog hunting, went shopping and soo soo much more!! 

A couple times I got to go to the Rec Center with the kids.  We had so much fun swimming in the deep end (yes, this is an accomplishment for me because I have just felt confident swimming this year- thanks to Mat, Jasen and Andrew's expert lessons); jumping off the diving board in weird ways, playing underwater telephone, playing basketball and much more.  We spent hours swimming and playing and it was so much fun (and great exercise).

I took Andrew, Mylie, Emma, Spencer and Wyatt frog hunting at Golden Ponds.  Last time Emma, Spencer and I went frog hunting we caught a lot and saw a ton but this year we did not see a single frog.  The kids did jump in the river and get to swim for a bit though.  It was fun watching them (no, I didn't get in because I did not have extra cloths and didn't want to smell like a river all day) and seeing their pure youthful joy.  It made me happy to see them out in nature being kids.

Emma is what we might call a 'tween' aka between childhood and teenhood.  She is starting middle school this year and is starting to care about how she looks but at the same time... isn't.  This tween-hood was causing Andrea some 'back to school shopping' woes, so Emma and I had a girls date (Aug 8) went shopping.  We didn't buy anything but we went to two stores and tried on cloths/modeled for hours (with a lunch break at Smash Burger).  It was fun to see Emma get so excited about different things and a little sad to see how big and grown up she is getting.  


 Michael Angelo did his Eagle Project while they were in Colorado on August 10th (I am so proud of him).  He restored an old cemetery in Boulder that had some water damage that made some of the grave sites sink.  It was a really old cemetery and before we started working a lady from the Park and Rec came and told us stories about the cemetery and some of the people buried there.   We had four big piles of dirt to be moved in wheel barrows around the cemetery to fill in the holes and honestly I thought it looked pretty easy when we first arrived but it ended up being exhausting and a lot of work.  But in the end it was fulfilling to know we had helped and great to have helped Michael with his Eagle project.

(Ben tripped over a gravestone while we were working and hurt his back pretty bad.  Everyone was teasing him that it was a zombie coming from the graves to get him. I am glad he is okay but.... that is a pretty crazy way to hurt yourself). 

We also went back up to Evergreen (Aug 16) and got to go boating (we tried earlier in the Summer with Michael and Taylor and got rained out).  The Evergreen lake is beautiful and it was so much fun taking canoes, kyacks and paddle boats across the lake.  Afterwards we walked around the lake to downtown (so cute and fun) and got icecream.  That night we had hotdogs and smores at Mat and Andi's house.  We had super gormet smores with brownie bites, graham crackers, chocolate chip cookies, three kinds of oreos, chocolate, reeses, rollos and marshmallows..... YUM!!




Right before the Dawson's left we had Andrew and Gwyn's Birthday Party (Aug 17).  Andrew is 12 years old and is getting the priesthood.  He is so helpful and grown up that I have felt like he was 12 for a while but at the same time... he's 12? When did that happen? Speaking of aging quickly Gwyn is turning 1!!  It feels like life is going in ultra drive...everyone is getting so big!  For the party we all went down to Cathy's house for a pool party.  It was fun to see everyone and play in the pool.  This was also Elizabeth's first time in a pool (we didn't have a swim suit so she is in a onsey but she does have a swim diaper on).  She didn't hate it but she didn't seem to love it either.  If I had to pick one word to describe her reaction it was just 'meh'- she kept looking at me like I was crazy for thinking it was SOO COOL.  






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