August Away!

What did we do for the last month of summer vacation?  Well (because some of us are obsessed with legos) we built a lego tower to the ceiling.

 We visited the Washington DC temple on a beautiful, sunny day...

 We admired the flowers there.  If we were Adam, we tried to pick the pretty flowers and got reprimanded.

 We picked up 'nuts' that had dropped off nearby trees.

 We waited for Daddy while he did a session and missed our Porter who was with Muna.

 In August, Leo toppled over a lot, trying to reach for toys.

 We did yardwork-tons of it!  The boys got paid for mowing since the lawn is so large.  It was hard work and they consumed many glasses of gatorade, but we were so grateful for their big boy help!

 Daddy finished the 'tree island' in the front yard after spending many, MANY hours tilting and slightly adjusting, and then re-evaluating the position of his boulder until he got it just right.  We may have teased Daddy just a little bit about this:)

 We played at numerous parks!  The big kids each stayed with Muna for a few days this summer and in turn got to go get lunch at McDonalds with her.  This was during the McDonalds Monopoly peel off game time and they got Park Place.  Apparently, if you get Park Place and Boardwalk you win the million dollar prize. For a few days this took over Porter and Andrew's every waking thought.  Andrew came into our bedroom one night at 10:30pm -he couldn't go to sleep because he kept thinking of how he was going to spend a million dollars when he and Porter won-their own house, a new car, paying off their missions, a vending machine, etc.  On our way to the Marine Corps Museum park they made me stop and 2 McDonalds so they could purchase peel off items with their hard earned lawn mowing money.  Needless to say, it was a bit sad when they didn't get Boardwalk and didn't win a million dollars even though we had already looked up the odds of winning and talked (endlessly) about how games like that work.  Thank goodness they only discovered this obsession the very week it was ending!  I think we'll all enjoy thinking back on this story:)

 And we enjoyed not having to rush through the bedtime routine.  Sometimes we just lazed in bed making funny faces, trying to get Leo to giggle and repeating funny Jane quotes. Things like: "Dad, you're right!  Your brain IS in your head!"  Mom referring in teasing exasperation at different moments of our life to our 5 children (as I am sometimes overwhelmed with it all) says: "Where did all these kids come from?"  Jane in all seriousness, immediately answers: "South America!"

Goodbye summer!  It was fun while it lasted!