First Day of Summer

Yesterday was the last day of school for eight of our kids, making this the first day of summer break!  (Poor Cali is in a year round school and has to go for four more weeks:(  The kids love the days of staying up late and sleeping in, reading, going to camps and family reunions.  They are not so much in love with the chores.  We had the "beginning of summer" talk today.  We talked about fun things we want to do during the time off school.  Christi and I also talked about some projects we wanted to accomplish and set up some rules regarding bedtimes, screen time, etc.  For the most part the discussion went very well.  There were definitely some scowls and exaggerated sighs, but by the end, we got really good buy in.  I love my kids!

Tonight we went to the rec center and swam.  Taylor chose to stay home (he said it was so he could mow the lawn and get that out of the way for tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it had more to do with the NBA finals game he wanted to watch:)  Graci also wanted to stay home.  But the rest of us had a great time.  Other than me coaxing Lex to go down a bigger slide than she wanted to (and her conking her head on the side) everyone was all smiles and giggles and splashy fun.  Parker and I did some flips off the diving board.  For some reason, he looks much better doing those than I do.  He adds twists to his and looks awesome.  We jumped off the high dive and went down the big slide.  For the last 20 minutes or so, all of us were together in the mini lazy river.  The little girls LOVE that.  Sophi was particularly sweet.  She just wanted to cuddle up to me as we went around and around and around.

The home continues to progress, although not at the rate our builder was hoping for.  The framers are still there, but will hopefully done soon.  One major thing happened yesterday.  As we had looked at the plans, it appeared that the elevator would not be able to go up to the bonus room.  Once they had framed upstairs, however, we saw two things:  1.  The loft/bonus room is much bigger and cooler than we had thought, meaning Cali would most likely be wanting to go up there more than we had anticipated.  2.  It was actually possible to have the elevator go all the way up to the bonus room!  So, we've modified things a little bit, and Cali will be able to get to every room in the house!  How awesome is that?

We continue to be amazed at the home.  It is really a dream come true!

Jer