Summer Fun

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.

Keaton took the 1st game seriously, the 2nd game was silly!

A video posted by JenB (@jenblackham) on Jun 24, 2014 at 12:19pm PDT

Jump N Bouce is another Blackham tradition. 

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?