Robert got a new (used) car

Robert doesn't get many blog posts of his own, so here's one! Robert got a new (used) Mercedes E320. He's having a lot of fun with it!

Grant - Summer Theater

This is Grant's third year doing the Act and React camp. Spencer took a year off for some other things, but may rejoin again next year. This is a four-week camp where the kids write a script, create the sets, learn songs, and put on an hour and a half live production under the tutelage of Alicia Lloyd. It's an impressive effort!!

Grant's character was King Alfalfa of Asparagon and his side-kick was Veggie Cow!

Spencer's summer

Here are a few summer shots of Spencer! Here he helped me to download some video at the Innovation Space on campus. It was great to have his expertise!

In addition to a week at 4-H camp, he and Davis did a Tri-Challenge camp at Camp Alta Mons. There they got to go mountain biking, hiking, and canoeing. The camp was only about a 40 minute drive from the house, but the funny thing is they took buses basically back past home to bike about 10 minutes from our house. Spencer came home from camp with more bug bites than I have ever seen on a person.

Spencer has done a bit of cooking this summer which thrills me to no end! One day I had some chicken in the refrigerator, he made his own marinade, fired up the grill, sliced the chicken, and grilled it to perfection! He's also made a homemade cheesecake and this dish (below) called beef bulgogo, which was awesome. Keep it up, Spencer!

Pool time!

We spent a lot of time at the pool especially at the beginning of the summer. Hours were spent playing "sharks and minnows" in the deep end. It's great to see the kids come together like that, with no adults meddling!

Derecho

I have a backlog of posts that should have gone up and didn't! This summer has gotten away from me as it's been very busy and in some unexpected ways.

This is old news, but on June 29th we had a "derecho" come through the region, bringing 80+ mph straight line winds. It hit as we were leaving a pool party at the Country Club and it was very scary to be driving and watching trees fall across the road as we went.

We had so much tree damage and hundreds of thousands were without power. We lost power (and thus, water since we are on a well) for 6 days. The kids and I moved in with Oma and Robert stayed with the pets!

It was nice to spend that time with Oma and maybe even just get out of our routines for a while, but we were glad to get back home after that. We lost a few trees and Robert and the neighbors spent quite a bit of time chopping up and moving trees.
 

Fun with Foods!

Spencer enjoyed a cake decorating class and "Fun with Foods" class at 4-H camp! I'm still hoping he will want to take over dinner making responsibilities at home, but so far no luck!

baked brie...yummm

First Swim Meet of the Season

Spencer did the 50 free and 50 breaststroke at our first meet of the season! He's looking good out there!!