Summer in Vermillion

Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

Other than avoiding doing the dishes and listening to Owen keep himself awake by counting (Vun! Two! Fee! Foh! Fi! See! Veven! Ey! Ni! Den! Beben! Eh! Ni! Den!), we've stayed pretty busy so far this summer.

Camille is enjoying her Little Explorers class. I'm also enjoying her being at Little Explorers. It doesn't seem to run very smoothly, but I can't expect much from a program that costs $80 for three hours a day, four days a week, and runs for nine weeks.

Camille is also enjoying swimming lessons. They were also a bargain--$15 for 8 lessons. She is the youngest and smallest in all of her classes because she just barely turned four.

We have also been going to the free lunch program at the elementary school. They give free school lunch to anyone under 18, M-F through the end of July. I also found out today that they leave trays of day old bread and buns at the door for anyone to take. It's always white bread, but hey, it's free.

The library had a huge summer reading program kickoff  that involved popsicles, and a bouncy house, and a cardboard box maze, and a little ball pit. They also do free weekly movies at the little movie theater over the summer, but we probably won't go to that because it's during Owen's nap time.

A lady in the branch put together an "adventure club" where moms take turns leading a field trip to some nearby locale. We skipped out on the splash pad last week because Owen was just getting over his barfiness and it was thundering. I am planning on taking the kids to tour the recycling center this week. Super exciting stuff. I still need to think up what adventure I should be in charge of.

I'm starting to see the same people at a lot of these things, so it's also a good way to get to know some other families. All the members always go to these things, so it's been nice to get to know them outside of church and nice for the kids to make friends with them outside of church.

It has also made me really happy that for most of these things (library, pool, free lunch) we can walk or bike. Lots of other people walk or bike, too. The bike rack at the library was overflowing with kids' bikes this week, and I've seen lots of people using bike seats and trailers to transport kids, which I never saw in Provo.

I'm loving the summer here, except for the excess of mosquitoes and the fact that it is going to be super hot for the next two weeks. I thought I was getting away from that by moving to South Dakota.

I spotted these free desks on the side of the road when I was out running yesterday. Last night I wished I had gotten them, so I made Brian go see if they were still there. They were! I know our kids aren't going to be desk age for a little while, but I can't pass up free good-quality desks.

Memorial Day Weekend

We decided to drive up to Aberdeen after church and spend Memorial Day with the Aberdeen Allreds. It's a nice drive, just under 4 hours, and I always love driving through the "lake district" in South Dakota. I really like calling it the lake district; it makes me feel like I'm in England.

Owen really took to Great Grandma Allred. Every time he came downstairs and she was sitting in the living room, he would drag out this truck and climb up on her lap to play with the truck together. The kids also liked playing with the Johnsons. Hannah brought her old Polly Pocket collection, and Camille loved it and played with it almost every free moment. Hannah was nice enough to even give Camille a couple of the Polly Pockets, which Camille now takes to bed.

We visited Storybook Land. I was just planning on enjoying it and maybe paying for the train, but Brian splurged on the 10 pack of tickets, so we rode the train, the rollercoaster (Camille was terrified of it), the carousel, and the spinning balloons. Sadly, they took out the barrel that you spin in like a hamster. It was probably super dangerous, but also one of the most fun things there.

Every year the Allreds have a little Memorial Day thing at the cemetery, so we joined in that. It was very nice.

On the way back we stopped at a children's museum. Camille has been dying to go since she sees a commercial for it on Brian's pbs channel. (Mommy!--the South Dakota Children's Museum is just a short trip away in Brookings!) I consider this part of her birthday present.

This was the coolest part: you could dig for dinosaurs bones in the sandboxes.

We got home at 4:30. I hadn't planned well for Camille's birthday, and Brian wasn't feeling well, so he went to lie down. I put on Little Einstein's for the kids to watch and ran to the store. I bought a birthday cake. I feel bad about it because bakery cakes are so stinking expensive, but I didn't see how I would be able to make a cake and celebrate her birthday that night otherwise. She was really happy with the cake though, and we managed to get them to bed somewhat on time.

Her expectations for future birthday cakes might be a little too high now.

She got some kids furniture for her dollhouse and a couple books, and the Cinderella doll on the cake. She is happy with it all, although I still don't think she ever plays with her dollhouse.