Summer days

Don't let the cute face fool you. 

This kids is like the Tasmanian Devil.

After too many incidents culminating in John and his friend tearing through every last item of our 72 hour kits I lost it. Aaron was unfortunate enough to witness it and now has officially seen me at my worst. Friends+John= Trouble. I'm around when John is playing with friends but have to tend to Will as well and John gets into serious trouble seriously fast. I decided I'd had enough and  so for the last six or eight weeks John has been grounded from friends. Instead we went places most every day. 

Will and I at Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum

We went to reservoirs, pools, splash pads, and parks. We fed ducks, we fished, and went down water slides. We've to the BYU Creamery, Bean Museum and the Museum of Art where we saw their current display of original movie costumes including Jack Sparrow and Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean and Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr's costumes from the Sherlock Holmes movies.

BYU Creamery

We've been to fairs and festivals and dollar theaters and I don't even think I can remember what all. Everything we did was either very cheap or free.

Some of my friends have commented that this is rather a punishment for me and I can see where that has sometimes felt like the situation but dealing with John at home was frequently much more punishing. When you leave the house with the kids there are several benefits:

--When you leave the house you leave behind the TV, the Xbox, and the computer so I don't have to constantly fight with kids about how much screen time they can have.
--Dragging children around everywhere wears them out.
--Less people in the house makes for less cleaning.
--Nobody gets to complain that they're bored

 Will gets a drink at a park in Salt Lake

Sometimes I can get Rebecca to come:

 Provo Rec Center

Feeding ducks

The one thing I did invest in recently was a pass to Thanksgiving Point because they just opened up their Museum of Natural Curiosity. This is basically a kid's fantasy land with all kinds of hands on things including water features, a play town and a huge ropes course. There are over 400 interactive displays so you can spend hours there.

Sarah and her friend Veronica (who are running their first half marathon on Saturday!)

Occasionally I can get other kids to come, especially if I let them bring along a friend.