When the World Wasn't on Fire

Preparing to evacuate from a wildfire was an unusual part our summer, however, we were fortunate enough to do other things that were not threatened by smoke or flames. 

Here's some of our summer in pictures:

In May, we hike the Natural Bridges Loop Trail. About 9 miles for the kids, and longer for Dad who went and got the car. We hiked under all three natural bridges.

Back at home...

Food Therapy for A1

Lots of creative play

A1 lost 2 teeth in one day!

Great Marble Race

Swim lessons

J and I baked patriotic treats

Sand sensory play

Outdoor time

Scales and Tails

K got to hold one of the snakes

They all got to touch the big one

Crafts

Parades

Grandpa's forest "tunnels"

Trampoline Park

J did swim team

Volcano and Crystal Science Kit

Stuffed animals playing chess.
Sometime this summer, the kids played chess, too.

Many paper airplanes were created and flown.

Pioneer Activities

Mud pies

Staying up way too late reading

Making fairy houses

Family Reunion

Kids played with the hatchet.
No fingers were lost.

Day at the lake

They loved seeing a duck in the water with them.

New Experience: Trying lots of canned fish.

Water play

Crafts

Mountain Goat

Timpanogos Cave

K grew a sunflower.
One of the town deer ate it.

He also grew a crystal.
No one ate it.

Later, we discovered the deck grew a mushroom.
Hope no one ate it!

K is learning to 3D print things

Made ice cream in a blender

Owl Pellets

Cat butted his way in.

Looks like this owl ate a shrew

A1 made geometric art

A2 made bracelets

K made an interactive ecosystem

Here is a shark.

The shark wants to eat the fish.

Fortunately, the fish can hide in the coral reef.

Something I don't have a pictured is J going to a writer's camp. She has been doing a lot of creative writing on her own and with a friend.  

All of the kids have had a lot of fun writing silly stories this summer. We have two idea jars, one with slips of paper that have subjects on them and one with a second half of a title, usually it's an event. You draw one slip of paper from each jar to give you the title of your story.  For example J drew out: The Evil Witch/ And the Doomed Wolf.  A1 drew out: The new kid on the block/finds the fountain of youth.   

A1 also wrote a long story about Space and the Sleepy Dragon

He accidently drew space from another jar we have to help with creative thinking. This jar has as many random nouns as we could think of. Then you draw out two words and think of how the two objects are a like. For example, we drew out "a door" and "a submarine".  The more you think, the more you'll realize, they could have a lot of similarities. Your turn, can you think of what these two nouns might have in common?