A couple of years ago I'd happened upon some of these inflatable bumper balls (see post here)... I picked up two, and they got a lot of use that summer. They only lasted that one summer though. This year, when I saw some at Sam's Club, I decided I'd pick them up again (with a couple extras, even though the price wasn't quite the steal of a deal from two years ago). Once again, the boys enjoyed bopping and bumping within the inflated ball.
The little "Batman" on the final image? It's the shadow of my phone case (it's a kitty, not Batman), taking a picture of a suspicious tear in one of the balls. I'd noticed it after one of the balls kept deflating. Not really surprising ... the boys aren't gentle. But that hole had clean lines, almost as if it had been stuck with a knife or box cutter. Hubs didn't care for the inflated ball in his garage I guess ... and FYI, the patches don't really work, at least not with intentional, large slashes. A little expensive for one day of play, but I did buy an extra!
I bought the inflatable dinosaur this year ... but that wasn't the only inflatable the boys had fun with. These bop balls weren't anything I went looking for, I just happened upon them at Smiths (the regular grocery store no less, not even the bigger store). They were $10 each. I got two. I didn't know if the boys would be interested, or if they'd last. The boys were interested, and they lasted long enough for that price. I don't know if they would have made it through a winter storage anyway. Summer fun!
The Blackham brothers bopped each other, and Cooper and his friend McKay had a fun inflatable day (enjoying both the balls and the dinosaur). Here's a little video ...
Blogger Foreshadowing ... a second round of balls appear in 2019!
Shane and Alicia had come from California for a visit, and Wendy and her three littles stopped in to connect while they were here (Rick and the older kids were booked with EFY and such). As those two families had traveled so far, I figured the Blackham Bunch could come out, all the way from West Jordan.
The family festivities actually started on Sunday July 16. Chris had been in the hospital for surgery on his colon (then complications, Grayson made a "semi-colon" joke) but managed to make it. Gray prepped pulled pork, and that was turned into tacos. No pictures from that activity, but I caught this video of the crazy Blackham Boys jumping over Grandma's front flowerbed ...
On Tuesday, Wendy and Alicia came out to my Zumba class!
Then on Thursday, the girls got together for lunch at Red Robin. Yum!
While all the cousins were in town, we all gathered at the neighborhood pool (collage at the top) for some swimming. Then we made plans to hit the parade preview (Days of 47) but I took my boys out to lunch first. Even got Landon and Callahan to join us! The family had been talking up JCWs, so we went there, but we weren't that impressed by it. Then, it was on to the expo center ...
The "Parade Preview" has been going on for a number of years now. All the floats prepared for the Days of 47 parade are showcased at the expo center in the days before the state holiday. It's a great way to see them up close and in air-conditioned comfort. And it's free!
Having the family in town was a good incentive to get everyone together a few times during the week! Summer days, cute cousins, fun with family!
I suggested he look on the blog, labels of Summer or WaterFun ... but it wasn't there. He did find my end of year (2015) post and I realized this was one of those topics I'd never gotten around to getting up. Bad mommy! So, better late than never?
Our old "water balloon fillers" had taken a beating over the years and Grayson decided to build a new one. Industrial strength! It wasn't cheap with all the parts, but it should last a while. The kids sure enjoyed it.
The "garbage can" dunk is a remnant activity from my childhood ...
We also went bowling several times this summer.
Taking advantage of the 'Kids Bowl Free" program.
It's not really free. The kids get two free games a day. You still have to pay for shoes, and of course the kids want food (which I only splurged on once) and to play in the arcade after.
Sometimes I'd just drop the kids off. Occasionally I'd stay and play a game too.
I have my own bowling shoes!
I think it was "Ckeetin" who came up with the creative spellings here.
Look at me (Mumm) - Top score. Over 100!
I may have had bumpers on ...
What else did we do in the summertime?
We bought the boys passes to the nearby Rec Center for the summer ... and they used them! Almost every day, I'd drop them off and they would play basketball for a few hours. The pass also included swimming, but they never got around to doing that. Too busy ballin! I don't know that they ever complained of being bored ...
Jacob was a constant companion to the Blackham boys all summer long.
This happened too ...
They were playing baseball.
Five active boys,
and only one broken window in all these years.
Not too bad, right?
It's interesting the things that just scream summer ... the ice cream truck, playing outside with the hose, late nights, sleeping in. Then there are the other things that you suddenly notice are "summer" stuff ...
Take the boys shoes ...
Normally, they are all wearing high top basketball shoes ... but this past summer, they all switched to simple slip-ons. I'm not sure who started it first. I think maybe it was Colton's friend Randon who had some, and Colton mentioned he would like a pair. I picked him up a pair, then grabbed some for Callahan. Then Keaton wanted some, and Cooper did too. Landon ended up with a pair as well. They were SUMMER shoes ... no one wears them anymore. So interesting to see the trends ...
There were summer foods as well. I'd had some corn dogs in the freezer for who knows how long. They were past their prime, so I threw them out ... but then the boys requested some. I bought a small package. It was gone. I bought another. Gone again. I bought a BIG pack and they got through almost all of it and then summer ended ... and the boys stopped eating corn dogs.
Chicken nuggets were another "summer only" meal. As was Nutella! I'd purchased some Nutella here and there in the past, but Callahan fell in love with it over the summer. I had to purchase a big jar and he went right through it. I can't remember the last time he had it now...
Of course badminton was a Summer2014 thing too, it does have it's weather limitations though.
Another "summer 2014" activity for me this past year was a return to Kmart, with their "Fitstudio" program. I suddenly had points I could use each week, and I was making weekly trips into the store. My boys are now outfitted in Protege shorts, shoes and shirts. My shopping is continuing ... not ending with summer like the other summer trends! *Ü* All the shoes in the picture above were purchased at Kmart with Fitstudio points. Summer savings!
On my JenBsJourney blog do hit some family stuff as well as just fitness topics. One of the Link-Ups I'll participate in is a Friday Five one ... spotlighting five things each Friday. I went ahead and showed what we had been up to this past summer! Here on the family blog, I'll expound a bit more (and include additional photos!)
The main activities for Summer 2014 were bouncing and bowling! I signed the kids up for the KidsBowlFree summer service (two games per day, you do still need to pay for shoes). I actually have my OWN pair of bowling shoes, as this is something we've done for many summers (and my feet don't continue to grow like the kid's feet do ... we do have a men's size 9 that started out at Landon's, then was Callahan's, and now Keaton fit into them this summer). We'd hit the bowling alley fairly often. I was such a mean mom, and said we were there to BOWL, not to buy food or play the arcade games. I went ahead and splurged on a couple of trips though.
I bought a family pass (good for a month) and we went there many times over the summer. I ended up buying a second pass when the first expired because we had been using it so much. In the past, we'd gone with our friends the DiFran family. We moms would chat while the kids played. They have since moved, so on my own I moved to the upper level and would generally walk around reading while the kids played. Often I could get 5000+ steps (although the kids would generally get more with all their running around!)
As the picture collage above shows ... we did to other things in addition to the bouncing and bowling. We went miniature golfing once (Callahan and his friends did the full fledged golfing a couple of times) and went to a local sprinkler park. This was a relatively new one to the west. It was really nice. The water portion was fun, and before that, the kids played on the other fixtures before they got wet.
There was also the summer vacation to Seattle, for waverunning, swimming, sight-seeing and jumping off "the tree" on Orcas Island. At home, the waverunners were put to quite a bit of use as well. I myself am NOT a big wave runner fan. The little boys do enjoy playing on the beach and riding the waves, but also opted to stay home several times if that was an option. Often, it was just Gray and the older boys hitting Pineview for a day. It would always wear everyone right out!
The ride home ...
We finally did make it out all together as a family
... including Maga, Ana and her boys!
We didn't always have to head out to the beach to have water fun ...
We had a celebration at Uncle Clay's house ...
and Landon threw Callahan into the pool.
Callahan was NOT very happy about that!
At home, there was a lot of water fun as well. The usual stuff, water guns, water balloons, filling up the big garbage cans full of water and getting inside (they haven't been used for garbage, they are strictly for water fun). We bought some new sponges for "dodge sponge" although we never really had as many games as we had previous summers (so many kids have moved away).
There was also basketball, soccer, handball, badminton, volleyball, tetherball, frisbee, etc. Callahan and his buddies were using wiffle balls for baseball, and going through a lot of them (a few cracks with the bat and they would break). He asked me to pick up some (to donate to the cause) and I found a bunch at Kmart on clearance for $.49 (usually $5 or so). A great deal, especially as I had Fitstudio points to spend anyway. Not all of them made it to Callahan's friend's though, as the little boys decided to engage in a little baseball as well.
It was SO nice to have a full summer with all the kids (since moving the little boys to Terra Linda and a traditional schedule, otherwise they wouldn't have gotten out of school until July!). What did you do on your summer vacation?
With school starting back up, I say that "summer" is over. The long days with kids home all day. What did we do to fill the hours? Actually, it was a pretty laid back summer. The boys seemed pretty content to hang out at home playing with video games and friends. Colton, who is usually in NEED of friends was a little anti-social this summer. He also seemed to have an aversion to water (although we got him in a few times). Here's my little summary of summer ...
SNOWBIRD: This was our "big" (expensive) activity this summer. It got it's own blog post here.
JUMP: We had a family month pass to JUMP at the start of summer and did get out several times. We went with the Gunderson Gang and the DiFran Family, and our bouncing buddies Bailey, Jacob and Travis got a month pass and came with us often too.
CLASSIC: We hit Classic and the kids had fun on the waterslides (photo below). The DiFran Family kept us company (we were missing Callahan).
SWIMMING: We didn't get much swimming in. We didn't hit KOPFC once (although Callahan went for a birthday party) and I neglected to get the little boys in swimming lessons. We did hit Maga's pool a couple of times, and Grandma and Grandpa's pool once. We didn't make it out to any of the local splash pads.
BASKETBALL: Callahan got a pass to Gene Fullmer and he spent a LOT of time there playing basketball with his buddies. I'd drop him off in the morning and he would stay for hours. Often I would pick up a carload of boys and take them from the rec center to their basketball practice at a local church.
GAMES: Video games are always popular of course. Pokemon made a BIG comeback this summer. The Wii also got a lot of use ... the Xbox not so much. But it wasn't just video games. Travis introduced the boys to The Great Dalmudi (which they liked so much that Landon requested it for his birthday). The was also "The Game of Mal" (which I really liked because one of the rules is NO SPEAKING ... all the other games could get really loud!), "SuperFrog" (which reminds me of a game I played with my high school gang) and Rat-A-Tat-Cat also made a big comeback. As always, there was basketball and soccer in the front yard, but Hand Ball was the new favorite. Gray introduced "Dodge Sponge" at a youth activity, and it was also played in our front yard.
So ... we didn't get to Lagoon again. July is just really, really HOT. I signed up for the free bowling certificates, but we didn't make it in there either. The boys all went on their scout camps, Gray and the two older boys hit one final one at the end of summer, but we didn't get out camping as a family. No hikes either (just a few years ago, Gray and I went on a LOT, that was the summer of hikes!)
Summer has come to an end ... looking back on the past six weeks, if I had to sum up summer, I think I would have to say July was for Jumping! Going to Jump 'N Bounce with friends was probably what Summer2011 will be remembered for. We went a LOT. We also discovered Fun 'N Motion and made a few trips there. We went to Classic for the first, but hopefully not last time. We did a few trips to the pool (Grandma's house, and once to KOPFC), bowling, the park ... but there was a lot we didn't do. No camping, no hikes, no Park City ... and no Lagoon, again :( The boys had their scout camps, and Landon and Callahan both got to go to Lagoon with school ... it was a good and busy summer.Aand of course PARACORD PASSION hit, can't forget about that! It was also the summer of jump ropes and hula hoops ...but not as much biking, as we had two bikes stolen from the bike rack in front of the house :(
If you have young kids, there is a good chance you are familiar with Phineas and Ferb. These two crazy kids want to make the MOST of their summer vacation ... and so do WE! A friend posted a list of fun things to do on her blog, and I thought it was a great idea. A good reference for those days the boys say "there's NOTHING to do" and hopefully with a list in black and white, we'll make more of an effort to hit the various activities. If their school teacher assigns the "What I did on my summer vacation" essay, I want them to have SOMETHING to write about. So here's a list of hopefuls ... and I might continue to add to it as I (or the boys) think of more things. What do YOU do in the summertime?
Go out to breakfast
Mountain Mikes
Chuck-E-Cheese
SubZero
Lagoon
The Alpine Slide
Bowling
Swimming at Grandma's Pool
Swimming at Kearns (KOPFC)
Splash Pads
Water Balloon Slingshot
Water Rockets
Jump and Bounce
NickelMania
Go to a Movie
Go to a Drive In
Host an Outdoor Movie at home
Go on a Hike
Play Tennis
Miniature Golf
Make Homemade Icecream
Roast Smores
Go Camping
Make Flubber
Family Bike Ride
BBGun Shooting
Go Fishing
Go to the Park
Days of 47 Float Preview Party
Daybreak Docks
Drive by the "UP" House
Launch Rockets
Kong Cones at Maceys
Jumpropes & HulaHoops
Car Show
Then there's Boondocks, Classic Fun Center, Hollywood Connection, Cherry Hill ... many other places I'm sure, although with five kids it tends to get a little spendy, so I'm not sure they are really on MY list ...
I'd have to say, it was was swimming, Seattle, Sports and Scouts
Swimming: There was a LOT of swimming ... multiple lessons for the little ones, the neighbor's pool, and we discovered Kearns!
Seattle: A family vacation ... minus Mom and Cooper
Sports&Scouts: Callahan did summer basketball, but Colton, previously only on the sidelines, was now a summer soccer star! And the three older boys (and Gray) did scout camps.
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