The Fireworks Holidays

In Utah we have 2 July holidays which I call the "Fireworks Holidays". I know some people can go all out, but we've never made a huge deal of them.

I do try to get everyone to dress up a little bit patriotic, and we wave flags, and maybe go to a parade or watch one on tv, but nothing else huge. Maybe we're lucky and have a bar b q. We do go to the firework show at night on the 4th of July.

Jewelia was so sad this year because her cute 4th of July dress was too small after wearing it for almost 3 years! It had to go to Macey, but I promised her I'd find her a new patriotic dress. I lucked out and found one at a 2nd hand store for like $3!

This year Caleb was asked to be in a parade with the scouts. Here is a silly picture of him "pretending to walk" in the parade.

I didn't understand what this meant at first, but I was at work and Troy and the kids had gone to see the parade but had missed Caleb so later had him pretend to be marching by for a picture.

As you can see, no pictures of me. So sad for you I'm sure, but I usually spend most of my holidays at work so I can get some time and a half $$$! Woohooo! I do get the evenings off to watch fireworks, so no big deal.

I did spend another day close to the holidays biking with the kids to the park and playing games.

It was really really hot though.

Summer

Summer is in full swing now.
Of course I had to torment the family just a small bit to take a family picture in the nice green backyard.

It is July and we actually get a break from our usual busy lives. There are no dance classes or cub scouts. The kids do still have their music lessons, but it is good to keep up the practice.

We get to take a trip to Arizona to visit family and that will be fun minus the 13 hour long drive.

Everyone is pretty healthy and happy right now.
We aren't big on swimming, so that's not a big part of summer, but we are enjoying lots of bike rides, picnics, and popsicles. When it is too hot the kids are having a good time playing plenty of board games.

They do seem to get on each others nerves a little too much. I miss them being in school just a little, but I don't miss the part about not being able to sleep in.

Ahhh....summer. And sleep. So nice.

Jewelia Learns to Ride a 2-Wheeler

Jewelia has never really had a bike. Well, she had a tricycle and then we found her a teeny little bike off of the want ads used, but it always seemed to have flat tires, and so she kept to her tricycle instead.

Now she was turning 6 and she hadn't even experienced much time with even a bike with training wheels.

So we got her a bike with training wheels, but we figured we'd take them off very soon.

We gave her a month with training wheels and then off they went.
She was going into the 2nd grade and we knew the other 2nd graders didn't have training wheels on their bikes.

At first it was pretty tough. I didn't think she would ever get it. She was totally freaked out and most of the time she was crying. Troy was telling her that she just needed to go faster and faster and then she could do it, but that only freaked her out.

We were determined, and we practiced every night outside. I sure got my exercise! The first couple of days we just held on the whole time, then slowly we began to let go, and eventually she got it!

Here is a video of Troy working with her on day 3:

And here she is by day 4 able to go all the way down the street and even turn around. (Don't look at that flabby character running down the street after her!)

Pretty good! Of course the next challenge was trying to teach her how to start by herself and how to stop.

She's been at it for a few weeks now and we're happy to say she can start by herself if there is a curb, but she isn't so great at starting without a curb. She can't quite touch the ground.

Stopping is a whole other story. Goodness it is a smash landing every time no matter how we try to teach her. We finally gave up and just tell her to stop by driving onto someone's lawn so then she can smash a little softer. Hopefully things will improve as she grows a little taller.


The next challenge was trying to get her to stop riding in the middle of the street. She is getting better at riding only on the sidewalk, but it's still a little scary, especially when there are all these bozos who have bushes growing into the sidewalk space or people who park their cars past the driveway or scary front yard fences.....

Oh, so many challenges, but she is doing great! By next summer she will be a pro!
We are having a lot of fun on family bike rides this summer! Everyone can go, and Macey just rides on the back of my bike.