What's Happening in June?

Here's a quick look of some random happenings in June:

 6-8

Dallin hooked the bike trailer up and gave the little kids rides up and down the sidewalk for at least an hour!  That's quite the workout!  I know, because I'm usually the one pulling them!

6-13

We went to a new splash pad one evening.  Even Dada got to come along.  We packed a sack dinner and had a lot of fun.  Too bad it's kind of far away.  It was a beautiful park!

 The boys...and Tory...loved climbing on the "giant spiderweb" as they called it.

6-20 

My favorite tree in our front yard.  Love the two colors that bloom on it.

 6-21

We tried out Bible School this summer for the first time.  Dallin had scout camp at the same time so he was only able to go on the last day.  Austin was too old to go to classes so he was a youth volunteer.  Coen and Claire had a pretty fun time.  Beckham hated it.  I thought he would think it was like nursery at church.  No.  He didn't think that at all.  He loves nursery.  And at the end...Claire got a really bad fever and was sick.  So the verdict?  Most everyone had fun.  We might try it again next year since Beckham will be a little older.  But definitely not liking the germ pass-around that happened.  We'll see.

The boys have really been getting into Monopoly.  Kind of nice.  Keeps them occupied for a very, very long time.  But why does Monopoly always end in hard feelings and frustration?  I remember that even as a kid.  But it was still always one of my favorite games.

6-25 

We discovered yet ANOTHER new park and splash pad this summer.  It's just down the road from Tory's new work.  It has a fun park, splash pad, and lots of trails to explore along this creek and through the woods.  We love it!

Fun tire swing!

How many kids can fit on one swing?  At least 5!

 Dallin at the splash pad.  It's a pretty busy one.  Lots of people.  But a great way to cool off and then keep playing at the park.

 Claire and Coen cooling off.

And the best part...a merry-go-round.  Not very many parks have these around here.

Dallin's Scout Camp

This week, June 17-20, was Dallin's Summer Camp for Cub Scouts.  The theme this year was Saluting Our American Heroes.  I got to help volunteer on the last day, June 20.  I've been to three (or four?) summer camps now and I really like going to them.  Sure, it's super hot and all but I think it's fun to see what the boys get to do and see my own kids in action.  And so far, we've always had a great group of boys to go with.  This year was great as well, plus all of the boys in our group were ours.  Sometimes boys from other packs get put in with ours, etc.  I think that made it even more fun for the boys and for me.  In church my calling is den leader for the Bears.  I was den leader for Wolves before this.  Both times were with Dallin's den.  It's fun to do and I love spending an hour with Dallin each week.  I guess it's a good thing I like scouts with all these boys I have!  I see it in my future for a few years to come.

 The whole group, Dallin getting to shoot BB guns (his favorite), and a few of the craft stations.

 One of their rotations for the day was working on a fitness requirement.  

Go boys!

 Dallin and a couple of his friends, Ryan and Neal.  

The grand finale!

Since it was the last day, the fire department brought a fire truck and sprayed the boys.  They got soaked!  Lots of fun!

Tory's New Job

It's been a long four months.  Tory's been out of work since February.  It's been stressful but somehow we've made it work.  Tory has been putting all of his many talents and skills to work and has been earning enough doing odd jobs to get us through.  When one job ended (usually before even) another one was waiting.  He's built a covered porch, tiled a kitchen and 2 bathrooms, painted, fixed ACs (and patched a giant hole in the ceiling when the hoe owner fell through the attic right in the middle of the job), painted some more, had lots of home visit chiro appts, built a custom rocking horse, dug a ditch about 200 m long and filled it with concrete, fixed computers for several people,, painted even more, did some car work, created a DVD for a chiropractor and printed and labeled 100 copies for him, and many other things.  We even managed to get some of our own to-dos done around here like clean out the garage (we're talking DEEP cleaning!), work on the back yard and remove loads of rock we've been dealing with for 7 years, and organizing rooms and closets.  He has kept very busy.  I'm so thankful for his many talents that have supported us in this time.  We're thankful for anonymous gift cards and help that was secretly delivered to us through mail or on our doorstep that was also so very helpful and appreciated.  We don't know who it was from so I am just thankful to everyone.  And we are especially thankful for all of the prayers from our family.

Although I have loved having Tory home a lot more than ever in our 12+ years of marriage (and the kids have loved actually having him drop them off or pick them up from school and even play with them while the sun is shining) we both look forward to sending him back out the door to a regular and reliable job.  Wondering if there will be new jobs from day to day gets to be a bit stressful!  If you want an exact measurement, come and check out my roots!  I'll never be the same!

During this time Tory dropped off his resume to more places than he could count.  One place in particular he had dropped off resumes even in the past.  He decided to drop off one more for a total of three.  I don't know if the guy just got tired of seeing his resume, decided that he must be persistent enough, or if the third time really is a charm but he finally contacted him a couple weeks into May.  The guy wanted to open a new office down south of Fort Worth and was interested in having Tory be the clinic director or head chiropractor on site.  Tory was very excited about it.  He interviewed and all went well.  He wanted to open the new office SOON!

So things were moving quickly.  The guy who was selling the practice was motivated to sell quickly as well.  He is from France and wanted to get back there soon.  Well, obstacle after obstacle appeared and the bottom line was...the French doctor wouldn't be able to sell because of the type of loan he had.  So the whole project was scrapped.  This was just a week ago.  But by this time the doctor who was interested in Tory was still VERY interested in him and decided to put him in charge of his decompression clinic which he had up for sale.  He had been through 4-5 doctors in the past year or two and they just couldn't make it work.  We were a bit sad.  We had visited the other area south of Fort Worth which had a small town country feel with plenty of space.  A dream come true for us.  But...we were thrilled to have a job even if it meant staying here.  Because after all, we do love it here where we are as well.

Which leads us to TODAY!  Tory's first day at his new job was actually yesterday, June 17.  But I went and took pictures of him today.  Right now he is the only one there.  He's going through resumes to hire a front office person.  Very exciting!  We are so thankful for this opportunity.  And it is so close!  He comes home for lunch everyday and it's only a 10 min. drive away!  His last job took an hour each way.  It's so nice to see him while the sun is shining!  So here are a few pictures of Dr. Tory in his new office!

Coen is 7!

Happy Birthday to Coen Grant!

Our happy, easy-going, cute little red head is 7 years old!  We are so thankful for this boy.  He's the perfect middle child.  Gets along great with the big boys and the little kids.  We call him our peacemaker.  He is fun and energetic and always happy.  

We love you, Coen!

An orange monster cake for the birthday boy!

Hurry, blow out the candles!  The frosting is melting off the lollipops! 

Looks like his wish will come true!

Pizza and orange cream punch for dinner!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad ever!

 I wanted to get him something special and found the replica of this stone that was from Scotland, where Tory served his mission.  Pres. David O. McKay found it and it is now located in the MTC in Provo, UT.

It says:

"What e're thou art act well thy part."

Good words to live by!

 One nice thing about having church at 2:00...you can have a nice breakfast in the morning!

We had blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, and cantaloupe for him.

 The kids went all out making presents for Dada.  He got cards, a wood shelf, a stand to hold his woodworking plans, and a sword.  I just don't think you could top that!

Kisses from everyone!

That's one lucky father of five right there!

And salted caramel cheesecake for dessert.  

Yep, it was good!

We love you, Dada!

The Long, Long Hike

We decided to go to Dinosaur Valley State Park and do a little hiking and exploring...and of course jumping in the water!  We started on our "little" hike and chose a few random detours along the way.  Before long we realized we were on the very long outer loop and a trail we had never hiked before.  It just kept going and going!  We were all doing fine except for one thing.  We did NOT bring enough water!  We just had one water bottle each and they went quickly.  Tory and I were rationing ours out towards the end just to make sure the kids still had water.  It was well into the 90s and very windy that day.  And it was straight up noon!  Hottest part of the day!  Not our best planning.  The torturous part was knowing we had a huge 5 gallon cooler in the car filled with ice water.  Just about the time I was ready to send Tory on alone and wait for him...we saw people!  Back to civilizaton!  We made it!  The boys jumped in the water right by where we were parked but the rest of us bee-lined to the car for WATER!  And boy, water never tasted so good!  I was drinking and it was like that feeling where you can't get enough water fast enough and half of it is just pouring down your face...but who cares!  That felt good, too!  We checked the map after we got back and we had hiked 7 miles!  That's a lot for little people.  Moral of the story...always bring PLENTY of water.  Too much is much better than not enough.

1st Day of Summer Break

For the first day of summer break we did what any three boys who had been stuck inside a classroom for the last several months would do.  We spent the whole day at our neighborhood park exploring, building dams, throwing rocks, having a picnic, and just getting muddy and sweaty in general.  It was a fun day and thank goodness there was plenty of shade!  It is HOT in Texas by the beginning of June!

School's Out!

It's the end of 5th grade, 3rd grade, and Kindergarten for the three big boys!  They made it!

 Austin and some of his friends on the last day of school.

Marcus, Jackson, Austin & Max

 Dallin's 3rd grade party

 Doing a little sidewalk chalk drawing.

 The boys brought some popsicles for their friends.

 Since Coen's birthday is in the summer and he doesn't get to celebrate at school, he also brought his birthday treats to school.

 Coen's Kindergarten splash day.  

 Lots of water games!

 Coen and his best friend, Luke.

Slippin' & slidin' in shaving cream.

 Dallin & Coen heading off to their last day of school.

Austin had already left earlier on the bus.

 Off they go with Dada!  They look a little excited!

The boys and I celebrated that night by going to the first "Movies Under the Stars" showing at the park.  

It was super fun and an unusually cool night for June!

Happy Summer!!!!

Coen's Kindergarten Graduation

Coen's Kindergarten graduation was June 4th.

He sure looked handsome all dressed up for the big day!

 Singing songs with his class during the program.

 Coen with his teacher, Miss Leal.

 A special dinner out to Chick-fil-A with just Mama and Dada!

 I love this little graduate he made.  I love the orange hair and freckles especially.  So cute!

It says:

Kindergarten was...osum (awesome).

I'll always remember...my fens (friends).

This summer I plan to to...go to the poc (park).

The school has pictures taken of the graduates that you can order.  We didn't order any but this is the proof.

Super handsome little boy!