August fun

Let's start off with some August Crazy Christian pics from Aug. 1st. This boy is always asking me to snap his photo! Here he is using a pajama shirt as pants:

and using bubbles as his five o'clock shadow.

On August 4th we went to the condo in Park City. We did our usual shopping and swimming, but instead of going out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, on the 6th my dad took the entire family swimming in a volcanic crater! We drove the little ways to the Homestead Resort in Midway where you can go swimming or scuba diving in a naturally 94º hot pot inside a domed rock mountain. It's not very big around, but it's 55 feet deep! Here are the kids just before donning the required life jackets:

Tony is afraid of deep water and didn't want to go, but dad paid for him anyway and I pressured him to try it. He stayed on the floating entrance platform that was submerged only about four feet or so, but I'm proud that he even got in there at all! My dad was pretty excited that his entire family got to experience this together. It was so awesome!!

Several weeks afterward, Christian was still excited about getting to "swim in a volcano" and drew this cool picture. You can see the sides of the rock going up, and the orange dots at the top represent the grate that covers the top opening. The orange balls in the water attached by chains are the buoys that hold platforms at different depths for divers. I think the red at the bottom is the lava that Buddy imagines is geothermally heating the water.

Just after leaving the Homestead, we noticed this mama deer and her twin fawns catching a quick bite in someone's front yard. Awwwww.

 We came home on the 7th and cooked up snow crab legs for a special dinner.

On the 8th we met up with my parents, sisters and their families at Lagoon. The kids love having fun with their cousins!

Because we were gone the day before, we celebrated Crumpet's 16th birthday on the 9th. Faith made her the cutest cake!

Of course, Crumpy couldn't actually have any, but it was darling! I love that it had dog food and water in bowls and even chocolate sprinkle dog poop :D

On the 13th Tammy and Lana took the kids school clothes shopping. Can I just mention again that we are the luckiest people on earth because both grandmas and Aunt Tam keep these kids rolling in style!! They picked out some darling clothes and shoes:

On the 14th the kids wanted a sleep over in our bedroom and, for some reason, Christian became the princess in Princess and the Pea. He loaded all the cushions from our couches in and stacked them up into a very tall bed!

On the 18th we visited the Kaysville Farmer's Market where the kids made pencil shaped bookmarks and we bought corn, beans, and apricots.

On the 20th we went to the Davis County Fair. I love that it's free and even got $2 off the $4 parking fee by bringing in two cans of food for the food bank. The petting zoo had some amazing animals this year!

baby camel

baby zebra

baby miniature horse

lots of adult and baby sheep and goats

big desert tortoise

big, super soft rabbit (which they are petting) and a calf

And we love the animal exhibits, too. Especially the bunnies

and the chickens.

We . . .

Afterward we stopped for a treat at YogoTogo.

At mom & dad's house on the 21st I had to get a side shot of Joy's ginormous belly :) (Hi, Brandt!)

 The 22nd was Faith's first day of fourth grade.She was so excited!

The next day I went out to lunch with my Kaysville girls at the Layton Brick Oven. Christian loved his giant cookie.

On the 25th I volunteered to help with Dibels testing (where kids have to read aloud for a timed period) at Faith's school. The principal bought Subway meals for the helpers and, because I could only eat the meat and cheese out of half of my six inch sub, Buddy got nearly the entire thing to himself. I even ordered root beer for my drink. He was so excited! And he truly deserved it for hanging out in the school library, entertaining himself by copying the titles of books he liked for three and a half hours! He's my little volunteering buddy :)

On the 26th we had a little baby shower for Joy. She got some cute gifts,

and there was delicious food plus games for the adults and kids.

On the 27th we did a fun school locker craft at Lowes,

then went to a promotional event at Menchie's Frozen Yogurt shop. The kids got little prize bags, this fun picture,

jumping in a bouncy castle,

and their picture with Menchie.

That evening we used a gift card to eat at Chili's. We had a coupon for a free kids meal, plus we did the $20 deal that included two meals (we did ribs, of course) plus an appetizer. Plenty of food, with leftovers to take home--score!