Assorted Summer Shennanigans

Even though we don't have kids in school yet and can still pretty much travel whenever we want, we still seem to end up doing more adventuring in the summer. Some of that is probably because it is too hot to do our normal activities, so we get creative. One thing we will need to do again is visit Phoenix's incredible children's museum with Mary.

The gold standard of play structures

Apparently on Saturdays they have special foam messes for kids to go wild in. Annie got to go during the designated toddler time. We decided to skip it for the big kids because we didn't have towels or swim suits and there was PLENTY of other activities to keep them busy. 

They had these neat face paint crayons by some mirrors

Cousin crew- Benjamin, Andrew, Elliot, and Ally

Elliot was WAY into coloring this summer. He spent up to 3 hours a day churning out art that he taped at eye level around his whole room. We have since added a second row 

Elliot did two rounds of swim lessons- one through Rancho Sahuarita and one with Kate Brady from the ward. He went from freaking out at the thought of blowing bubbles to being able to doggie paddle if there is a noodle under his armpits. 

Annie and I did a "Mommy and Me" swim class that I thoroughly regret.
Annie LOVES the water, but for some reason screamed through most of the classes. 

Elliot's first talk. He was very focused on picking marker colors for me to use as we wrote it together, then he wrote "I <3 Mom" all over the margins for decoration

We had to spend an unfortunate amount of time playing with the mysteriously sticky toys at the mechanic

Our first exposure to Bookmans! How cool is this book throne?!?

Elliot did a free "Be Well" day camp at the clubhouse that included a field trip on a real school bus! He was more excited about that then the museum of miniatures that they went to 

Elliot teaching Annie how to give me a foot massage. #momwin

Aaron spent an afternoon reliving his childhood by making stop motion lego movies

We revamped our worm bin! Elliot still refers to them as pets and enjoys tossing them a banana peel every few weeks. 

We ordered 100 live worms on Amazon. The fact that we can do that baffles and delights me. 

This sweet potato went crazy in the pantry while we were in Seattle!

Elliot is going through a phase where he wants to color for about 2 hours a day

We have finally figured out how to efficiently make prickly pear jam! It is all about freezing the fruit and let it thaw on top of coffee filters so that we collect filtered juice with minimal interaction with spines. 

Making cactus fruit jam makes me feel like a rugged homesteader

Glad to have prickly pear ice cubes for our smoothies again!

Elliot showing Annie all the pictures in a book

Aaron took Elliot out for ice cream. He said it took him 0.5 seconds to choose the most colorful flavor they had. Never have his eyebrows been higher...

Except maybe in this picture with this lovely dead Giant Mesquite Bug.