Summer (June, July, August)

Ryan is out of town for a few days and so I feel like I can let the house go to hell for now, and I can FINALLY take the time to get the rest of the summer happenings posted. 
We start with June, a big month.  My Mom came down to visit and took all her US grandkids to Toy R Us for their annual shopping spree.  This covers all gifts for birthdays and Christmas so that no one has to spend extra on postage and so my Mom can watch all the kids enjoy their gifts.  My kids for one talk about it all year even though I say that it is more important to spend time with their grandmother rather than just the trip to the toy store.  As always my Mom is running all over the place doing all kind of things, visiting everyone she can so we only got to see her for a few hours 3 days out of the 14 she was here.  She says it's because she is allergic to my cats but I get the feeling it's something more.  I always give her the benefit of the doubt as I know she often tries to do too much and to please too many people, but we do enjoy her while we can. 

Then latter in June we got a trampoline.  The kids have been begging us for one since we have lived in this house but not until Mason started escaping down the street to a neighbour's house, to jump on their trampoline, while they where not home I might add, did I break down and get one.  We set it up one night but didn't get the encloser on as we figured out too late that we had put the legs on wrong.  So we had to take it all apart the next night, put it back together and then put the encloser up.  Mason jumped, and jumped and jumped until it was dark.  The poor little guy was so tired that he was asleep before his head hit the pillow that night, which in my book is worth every penny we paid for the trampoline. 
In July we had a trying time.  For the Independence Day weekend we decided to just light a few small fireworks with just our family as it fell on a Sunday this year.  Ryan had gone with the kids and picked some out at our local fireworks stand the day before.  The kids were all excited and could hardly wait until dark, so they got all ready for bed before we went out.  All was well as we went along but then went wrong.  We lite off a firework that shot a little GI Joe figure in the air then came down to earth in a parachute.  Ryan had got one for each of the kids, and the first two were great except they drifted down into our neighbour's yard who lives kitty-corner across the street from us. 
So for the last one Ryan moved a good 50 feet down the street in the opposite direction before lighting the last one, in hopes of not disturbing our neighbour's who where lighting their own fireworks.  Well this time I guess part of the inside of the firework came out of the main barrel, shoot 100 feet down the street, hit the sidewalk in front of our neighbour's house and hit one of their friends square in the nose.  Blood everywhere.... of course we felt awful.  Ryan went down and talked to our neighbour to find out exactly what had happened, gave him our information, retrieved the firework casing and came home.  That put an end to our night.  There was really nothing we did wrong as the firework was legal, we took every precaution we could but in the end it was a freak accident.  The injured man turned out to be Okay, thank goodness but the stress that the incident caused was incredible. 
Ryan ended up having a little bit of a breakdown, but in the end it was good because he was able to have a full physical with his doctor and some needed adjustments to his blood pressure meds' where made.  So all worked out Okay, although we did have to deal with the insurance investigation and claims that followed. 
Finally in August the kids enjoyed the Meteor shower with their Dad on the front lawn under lots of blankets.  They had a blast and I'm sure it earned a special memory in their hearts. 
The end of August the kids started school again with Holly starting Kindergarten, which she LOVES and Ethan entering the 2nd grade.  His biggest challenge is the pack of girls that chase him and his friends around the playground at recess trying to tickle them.  Ethan my little ladies man. 
That covers our summer and just about brings us up to date.  I have a few other things to get caught up on like our trip to Idaho last month, Holly losing her first tooth and our Canadian Thanksgiving which are coming soon.  I will post it tomorrow before Ryan gets home from St. George, UT.  He is there on business for just 3 days but I'm sure that he will have lots for me to do once he gets back so I will get everything posted before he comes home if it kills me.  So check back.