The Young and the Restless

The Good Old Days

It makes me sad how deprived my kids are. At their age I remember spending my summers outdoors from sun up to sun down exploring the mountain in our backyard, building tree huts and riding bikes around the neighborhood. So many of life's lessons were learned during those summer days outdoors and I'm beginning to realize how much my kids are missing out. Even if it wasn't a blazing 110 degrees outside, it makes me sad that we live in a time where our kids can't even ride their bikes in the front yard without having to worry about them. That reason alone makes me want to move out to a farm. Every time we visit my aunt and grandparent's in southern Utah I love that my kids can finally be kids. They disappear outside the minute they wake up and the only time I see them all day is when they want to show me the fort they built or the dances they made up or the critters that they caught (well, except when Jayden got tired of being the only boy and found a friend in the Star Wars Wii game. His favorite time of day was when Uncle Wade would come home and they would watch Star Wars together) They got nice and dirty, went on frog hunts, tried to catch baby racoons, fed the horses (and almost got stampeded)and I tried not to worry too much when Kylie and her 9 year old cousins would ride all over the place on the 4 wheelers. My aunt gave me a hard time about being a city girl when I was hesitant to let her ride down to the corner store and buy candy. Something they do all the time and something I would never dream of letting her do here. I'm just glad my kids were able to finally be kids, even if it was for only a week.

I was looking forward to celebrating an old fashioned 4th of July and was sad that their little town did all the big parades and fireworks on the 24th so we had our own little parade and the kids loved decorating their own "floats".

They did have races for the town where everyone got to race in their age group. Jayden came in first place for his age group and he couldn't have been more proud of his dollar bill grand prize. There was this sweet old man that told Jayden before that he was betting his money on him so when he won he gave him 4 quarters, it was so sweet. Jayden was a sweetheart also when he gave Kylie 2 of his quarters since she didn't win. Here he is showing off his winnings with one of my other cousins that is only a month younger then him. They had the best time playing mad scientists and making potions and he was sad when she had to go back home after the weekend.

We had the best time doing our own little fireworks show. Maddox even got to stay up past his bedtime and sat there in awe the entire time. I don't think he blinked once.
Afterwards we played my favorite old time classic: night games. I loved initiating my kids, it was like a right of passage. We dressed up in dark clothes then stayed out all night playing hide and go seek and capture the flag. SO much fun.My aunt is only 10 years older than me and has kids the same age as mine, so it's easy to forget that she is my kids' great aunt and that her kids are actually their second cousins. My grandparents built an addition onto their house a couple of years ago so they have this huge house now where there's always family coming down looking for any excuse to party. My other aunt and a couple of my brothers came down too so it was fun playing with everybody. I was excited that we were able to see my brother and his wife who were visiting from Iowa with their adorable little baby. It was a non stop party, we had some pretty rowdy card games and I think I gained 10 lbs from eating non stop. Jayden wasn't used to the round the clock eating, when we sat down one night to eat dinner he said, "but we just barely ate!"I don't know who was more excited about the riding lawn mower, Jayden or Jason. Seriously. After spending the 4th with us, Jason had to go back to work in Vegas the next week but made them promise to let him mow the lawn again when he got back. Kylie and the older girls spent all day doing scavanger hunts for everybody. The girls had a wedding for the chickens, here they are enjoying their first kiss as a married couple.

They decided to have a water day one day and had this whole back yard beach party thing going on, complete with snowcones and a show. It was seriously the perfect summer vacation....