Chris was able to be home for a couple of days over the weekend, so we did all the playing we could. We went to try out the Aurora reservoir, we heard it is the best place to swim that has a sandy beach. We were shocked at how little the beach is and how very little water they have roped off for swimming. But we still had lots of fun soakin up the sun. Chris is very proud of me for bringing my family's luck down a generation. About 4 o'clock a wind/thunderstorm rolled in, a siren went off, everyone had to get out of the water, and we joined the crowd as we tried to scramble up all of our stuff before it blew away. Just about the same time and exact same thing that would happen to my family at Bear Lake almost every time as I was growing up. The only difference is we didn't wait out the storm, it looked like it would be there for quite awhile.
We were also able to catch a couple nights of fireworks. The kids got their faces painted and Ky was so proud of her firework on her cheek, she talked about it for 2 days. We were so exhausted by the time we got home late that night, but sometimes it feels good to be tired from so much playing.
We also went fishing 3 different times, we didn't catch even 1 fish - just sticks. Hayden was disappointed he didn't catch anything, usually my boys have better luck than that. Kyrie did a little fishing too, and the first time she reeled in her pole she was so excited to find that she had caught a worm! I'd help her cast the line out again, and she'd instantly say, "let's try again", so we did a lot of casting and reeling!
I found the perfect leg rest for my hot and tired pregnant legs.
I LOVE this picture!
I found the perfect leg rest for my hot and tired pregnant legs.I LOVE this picture! 
One of the first things Hayden accomplished this summer was to FINALLY learn to ride his bike without training wheels. He hasn't even wanted to try and Chris decided he was taking off the extra wheels, and would not put them back on. Hayden got on his bike and was able to take right off. He is so excited to ride his bike!
And Dusty was able to go to his first Scout Day Camp. I was nervous about him going - he just hasn't gone hardly anywhere without a parent and neither Chris or I were able to go the first couple of days. But I guess it was about time, he is almost 9! When he got home the first night, I found it was well worth it. He was so excited when he got home. He had a lot of fun those few days, he made a catapault, a marshmallow gun, and did a bunch of activities. I was able to go for a couple of hours the last day, and found that his group was awesome. They completed every activity before any other group, so one of the main leaders of the camp assigned them to be his nature group. Because they were so good, and made the best of their time, they were to recieve a special award, and were able to walk around the whole camp and clean up after EVERYBODY (and there were at least a couple hundred scouts)! What a priviledge, I've wondered if something like that would work at home - because you are the best, you get to clean up after the whole family! Or maybe that is why I get to clean up after everyone and I was just never told why! 
While the kids and I have been staying very busy this summer, Chris has spent most of the summer traveling. We have had a taste of what is feels like to be without him again, and that part of it hasn't been much fun. His traveling has been non-stop and it seems we have hardly seen him. We have missed him in so many ways. Once in awhile when he comes home he brings a surprise for the kids, and on one of his trips he found something great for Hayden. Hayden thinks it is awesome having a pair of glasses that is also a straw.
Chris found some frogs for Kyrie and a mini volcano for Dusty. Dusty has loved experimenting with the volcano.
And while Chris has been away, the rest of us have been playing everyday. The boys haven't done much with sports this year, so we've finally had time for their first swimming lessons. Dusty has been afraid to swim, so we want him to be more comfortable in water, and Hayden has been fearless and we thought he should learn some skills for all the attempts he makes. That boy scares me in water!
We have had lots of fun playing with our friends, making icees, eating popsicles, going to school lunch, jumping on the trampoline, playing in our pool and going to the splash park. Kyrie has the best little girl friends, here she is with Briley and down below with Loganne.
And if Dusty isn't busy doing something, this is what he looks like, with at least one hand on his heart. He has not been feeling well this summer and we are trying to get it all figured out. I hope we find some answers soon or that his symptoms go away because we are having a lot of sleepless nights. He claims he feels weird, it gets hard to breathe, he feels dizzy and his heart hurts. We have found his heart rate to be back in the 140's while he is at rest and you can feel it palpating very strong and hard. He can feel totally fine and all of the sudden get sick. Sometimes when he complains of feeling sick, he instanly looks sick. We had some pretty scary moments and have gone to the hospital twice to get checked out. They ordered a holter monitor for him but of course he didn't feel any symptoms the day he had it on. They have now ordered a month long test, and we are waiting for the equipment to come in the mail. They have reassured us that he should be fine, but we are still looking for some answers. He is most likely just my child and will just get to deal with it, and have clusters of symptoms. Last year he had an episode where his hands and lips turned blue and he passed out at the store, and his heart rate was really high. After a couple ambulance rides and a couple days in the hospital, the doctors blamed it on a virus because they couldn't find anything. I was never really satisfied with that for an answer, but he got feeling better and has been fine since until the beginning of June. We have noticed some things that make his symptoms worse, but we want to know the cause of it all. He usually feels sick when he is at rest and nights have been horrible for us. It can take us 2 1/2 hours to finally get to sleep after getting to bed. He feels worse when he lays down, but it is also hard for him to fall asleep sitting up. Then he gets scared and wants to be right by us, because he feels more comfortable being near when he feels that way. He cannot sleep and wont let us sleep, and we get upset and he gets upset and even more scared, and that makes his symptoms worse. Some nights we are really worried about him and other nights we are so frustrated and don't know what else to do, and we are really tired, and mostly tired of trying to make him feel comfortable and safe enough to sleep. I hope we just find he is too much like his mom and gets clusters of pvc's, and if there is nothing else underlying, they are harmless. Although his symptoms are a little different than mine, I know how he feels. And if mine got to be how they were last summer I would want to be at the hospital too!
Our boys are so pathetic, I don't know how they could ever survive without each other. They have been sleeping in the same twin sized bed to be close to each other. They have refused to sleep in their own beds the last couple of months. I just reorganized their room so that their beds are right by each other, but that didn't make a difference. One night Dusty was complaining that he couldn't sleep because it was hard to breathe and he felt funny, he wanted to be right by me or Chris. I kept telling him that he had to get to sleep, being sleep deprived wasn't going to help anything - only make it worse. It had been quite awhile since I had heard from him and I headed up the stairs to go to bed and found Dusty sitting on the stairs - awake and Hayden right by his side, completely out. Another night I went in to check on them after they had fallen asleep, and there was Dusty with his head propped up on extra pillows, with his right hand on his heart, and Hayden laying right next to him, also with his right hand over his heart. What would they do without each other?
