Summer Days

These busy summer days sure are exhausting at times!!

 

Double digits!

Nolan turned 10 years old on Monday, June 28th. He is now in double digits which is so hard to believe!! He enjoyed lounging around with "Tortoise" and opening some fun presents.

That evening we went out to eat at Chick-Fil-A and then came home to have some cookies and cream cake to celebrate this special boy. Nolan is such an inquisitive child and really loves to learn about nature and the outdoors. His favorite thing to do is go exploring somewhere outdoors and loves to collect sticks to build things with. He has also become quite the rock and gem collector! We sure do love our Nolan boy!

The next day we continued the birthday celebration at Greenbrier with the Ladners who brought donut holes to help celebrate. 

The following Saturday, he invited his friend Carter along with Landon and Jason to go to Tree Trekkers in Frederick. It is a huge ropes obstacle course set up in the trees. They were harnessed in the whole time, but still took some balancing and gripping skills to make it across on all those ropes!

They picked up some McDonalds on the way home and Nolan loved this version of a birthday party!

 

Boys Camp

On June 25th Landon went on his first young men's overnight camp without his Dad. I was a little worried how he would do on his own, but he got his tent all set up and managed to have a good time. His cousin Coldon went along as well and they had quite an adventure camping near the Potomac River and canoeing on it the next day. I am grateful for good leaders who plan out these fun activities for the boys to enjoy!

 

Activity Days

We got to make another visit to Marty Snook Park for Activity Day boys in June and saw some more items that they had added to their whimsical creature playground. 

The Activity Day boys and girls enjoyed playing around the park and doing a soap carving of their own.

 

City Park

With these nice June days, we have enjoyed getting outside and enjoyed spending time at City Park. We played for a while on the playground equipment and then fed the ducks and geese with the corn seed we had brought with us. I'm always a little leery about these aggressive geese, but Hudson had no fear!

 

June Happenings

Some fun June happenings included a fun day at the Discovery Station playing fire station...

Our ministering brother brought over some huge LEGO sets that his son had outgrown. Needless to say Landon and Nolan were both thrilled with this hand-me-down and ended up taking the whole plane apart and rebuilt it just for fun!

And the big news was that this little man was finally able to start going to nursery. I wasn't sure if he would even be able to go to nursery due to Covid but they started it back up again in June so he will get to go at least for the next few months until he ages out into Sunbeams in January. He LOVES nursery and begs to go all week long, but especially during Sacrament meeting. It helps that they have several cars and fire trucks that he enjoys playing with.

 

Fishing Camp

During the first week of summer break, Landon was able to participate in an outdoor/fishing camp through his middle school. He really enjoyed the camp but the highlight of the week came on Friday when they were able to go fishing at Antietam Creek and he caught a fish! He caught one other fish that day and is now "hooked on fishing!" It was a good start to summer break for him!

 

Last Day of School!

I am so proud of all these kids who survived this crazy school year. They handled virtual school so well and really worked hard to make it a good year. Maylie got to go back in person  for about 6 weeks in the fall (October-mid November) and then went back to virtual over the winter months while everyone else just stayed virtual that whole time. Then in February Nolan and Abby started a hybrid schedule where they were virtual some days and in person the other days while Maylie went back full-time in person. Landon decided to stay all virtual during that time. Then finally in mid April all the kids went back to full-time in-person learning. Despite all the changes and crazy back and forth schedules, they all survived the 2020-2021 school year. 

They had their last day on Monday, June 7th. I didn't snap a picture of Abby or Landon before high school/middle school, but I did get one of my kindergardner and 4th grader. They had matching shirts for all the kids to wear on their last of school at Paramount Elementary. Way to rock this school year!

 

Another teenager!

Well it is now official...we have another teenager in the house!! Landon turned 13 on Friday, June 4th and had a good time opening presents, going to dinner and enjoying cake that night with the family. 

The next day Jason took him and a few friends to an Escape This in Frederick where they ventured to solve the "Mob Boss" room. They had a great time and solved it with just seconds to spare!!

Here is Abby, Nolan, William, Bridger, Landon, Coldon, and Bennett with the item they had to find...a crystal!

I'm sure Jason helped out a bit too!!

After the Escape Room they came back for some lunch and cake to celebrate his big teenage birthday!

Landon is a great kid who has a fun sense of humor and is so smart! He has done really well this past year doing online school and actually preferred it to in-person middle school. He is just about to finish the 7th grade and it's hard for us all to believe he will be the oldest in the school next year. Here's to hoping his teen years are his best yet!

 

New Park

Marty Snook Park added a new section to their recreation area based on carved whimsical creatures. They are still in the middle of building it, but we went over one Saturday to check it all out. Hudson was a little frightened of a few of the creatures including this big Viking ogre!

The attention to detail was incredible and so interesting to see what creative minds can do with tree stumps!

We can't wait to see how it will all turn out when it is finished!