Summary of our Summer So Far

Summer has been flying by! I find myself without much time for blogging or e-mailing or going on facebook, activities I usually do when I have 'alone time', but I love having the kids home from school. It's going pretty smooth so far and we haven't had nearly as much fighting as I thought we would. Of course, my children are always surprising me. They are much better than I was at their age. We've been having a lot of late night movie nights and doing a lot of sleeping in. It is even hard to get Isaac and Rebekah into bed when they know that the older girls will be up late talking, playing, watching a movie or just goofing around. This summer I bought a season pass to the big indoor pool here in town. It is the cleanest public pool that I have been to in Las Vegas and I LOVE the fact that I don't have to put sunscreen on myself and four children every time we go swimming. We have been going about twice a week on the days I don't work. Isaac has been playing with friends quite a bit but for some reason we've only been able to coordinate one play date for Bekah so far. Poor kid, I am sure that I feel worse for her that she does for herself. She says whenever she calls anyone they are sick, going out of town or have company in town. Good thing she is such a good independent player. One great thing about Rebekah is her ability to have a positive attitude regardless of what is going on. Needless to say she had a blast with her cousins Daphne, Tamsin and James at our family reunion. Emilee has been training with the fourth year girls campers for the big hike they had this last weekend. I know she wishes that she could have gone with them, but she'll get her chance next year. She has also been doing volleyball clinic and student government activities. This week she is attending volleyball camp from Monday to Thursday at Legacy High School. She is learning a lot and has fun playing even though it is a challenge for her. She is the only freshman at camp from Legacy this year. Isaac has finally lost his very first baby tooth. He has been wanting to loose a tooth all year long. According to Isaac he was the only one in his class that didn't loose a tooth in first grade. So sad!!
We were in Vernal, Utah for our Christensen family reunion the week of the Fourth of July. The kids all had a great time being with cousins. It is really special when they can all get together because we live so far apart. We camped at the KOA in Vernal where the kids swam and played mini-golf. We hiked in Dinosaur National Monument and saw the Fourth of July parade and went a real indian pow-pow at Fort Duchesne. We didn't get many photographs out of respect for indian tradition. Some believe that having your picture taken can steal away part of your soul. The one we did get was because Rebekah went up and asked a little boy about her age if he would take a picture with her. She has no fear! How could he refuse such a cute girl? A highlight of the trip for Emilee was in attending the Stadium of Fire with her cousin Hannah where they saw the Jonas Brothers perform. See some of the pictures of our trip below.