Cousin Exchange

Pace cousins have been going back and forth between everyones houses this summer.  

Ally and Matt asked Emily to come out and babysit the kids while they vacationed in Italy the first of June.  Emily loved spending time with her kids but expected more time at the beach but that dang June gloom got in the way.   She still kept the kids busy with swimming and school activities and a few play dates with friends.    It was a good experience for Emily to be the sole responsible person and a good experience for me to see Emily be that person.   Ally asked her to drive up to Long Beach to pick up William from the airport and I was a nervous wreck the whole time thinking of everything that could go wrong.   Emily wasn't nervous at all and parked, found him at the airport, stopped to get him something to eat and made it home with no problem.    She's going to be a great adult!!!!

William got out of school earlier than his sisters so when I dropped Emily off I picked him up to come hang out with us here.    Spencer especially loved having William around.     Almost immediately they set up a lemonade stand to make money to spend on "Prime" at Harmons.  William taught Spencer the ropes of maximum profit and they ended up making around 30-40 dollars.   With their earning the early birds set out each morning to Harmons for a donut for breakfast.  One day I heard them leave and then I took Aaron to baseball practice and ran an errand.  When I came back they were still gone.  Confused I wondered if they had stopped by one of Spencers friends houses but soon enough they came in with a sucker.  I asked them what took them so long and William said he got to Harmons and wanted a sucker and realized he forgot his money so they walked all the way home got their money and walked all the way back.   I laughed a the thought of all that energy just for a sucker.    William loved my new reward system of mom bucks and immediately his brain started calculating how much he could make in a week with us.   The biggest earning chore is weeding.  My kids weren't motivated by it but William convinced Spencer to help him and they could split the mom money.    

We had a morning free so made the short trek out to see the Saratoga Springs Temple open house.  Such a beautiful temple with amazing art work of the Saviors life and I loved the blue tones.  Very lake vibes!

Aaron's baseball coach treated his team and family members to a Bees game.   The boys were all about getting a game ball from a player and then getting Bumble to sign it.  They also got to run around the bases at the end of the game.  

Aaron and William enjoyed a basketball camp together as well as experiencing "Cedar Mountain Science Camp" with SUU like the girl cousins did at their age.  

A few days after we dropped off William at the Aiport I picked up Emily and Hazel.  Hazel came out to go to a drama camp in Bicknell with the other younger girl cousins.   She got to spend the night and next day with us.  Spencer was so happy to have a friend.   We crashed Aaron's friends 4th grade celebration pool party before Raquel came and swooped Hazel away.   Spencer was so sad to see Hazel go.  Hazel was so cute.  Earlier that morning they "earned" some mom bucks cleaning and bought a walkie talkie from the mom store.  Hazel as she was leaving said Spencer you take one and I'll take one and when I play with it I'll think of you.  

A week or so later I picked up Ally and Clara who flew in for a quick trip to pick up Hazel and spend the 4th of July weekend in Teasdale.   The cousins had fun swinging on the Torrey canal and making forts out of boxes from some supplies I ordered from the Teasdale house.   Grandma Becky brought out a box of Americana garb and Spencer happily showed his Patriotic spirit.   The kids loved the parade and throughly enjoyed spending the afternoon winning prizes at the Torrey town carnival games. 

Ally was so kind to take Spencer back with her for a week with the California cousins.  It sure was lonesome and quiet without my talkative shadow but Spencer was having the time of his life.   They went swimming almost every day which was a turning point for Spencer swimming skills.   He went to a few private lessons with Jane's swimming friend Lydia and helped him get more comfortable in the water but when he came back he was a strong confident swimmer who passed the swim test to go off the diving board and hasn't looked back since.   I talked to him every day but he hardly seemed to miss us but bragged that Ally took them to chick fil a and how William lets him use his switch and he's earning bank in Ally's mom store helping out.  

During the second week of July Avaya and Maddix stayed with us while Raquel and Joe went on a trip to Italy.   Avaya had gymnastics one day so we  took her back to Tooele,dropped her off and then spent a few hours enjoying some time on Stansbury Lake.  

We also spent a couple of evenings at the newly designed Draper Park.  The zip line and 3 story tower of slides was a major hit.   

We then made our way to Teasdale to help my parents work on their front yard.   Brooke was the project manager and my dad was the drill sergeant.  Dayson and Aaron didn't enjoy the the constant "military" nagging to keep working but I enjoyed not having to be the one to keep the boys on task.  They both did a great job pounding in the stakes for the black weed protector and the rock turned out fantastic. 

The younger kids spent the day cleaning the back porch and carport.  They cranked up the music and sang and danced while they worked.   It was a long hot day but Luke rewarded the kids with a ride on the front loader when most of the work was done!  Then I took them to their favorite spot, the Torrey Canal swing. 

Dinner at the Rim Rock was a well deserved tradition this year.

We spent a couple of days at Sarah and Lukes house taking Aaron, Avaya, Bergun and Spencer to a basketball camp in Circleville.   Mornings were spent in the basketball gym but afternoons were spent getting BYU ice cream at a local RV park and swimming in Salina.

I had to come back from Monroe early for a teacher convention so my boys went and stayed with parents for a couple of days.   Aaron became Dayson's right hand man helping him with sprinklers each morning and fishing, coon hunting and tadpole catching the rest of the day.   Spencer rode around with my dad learning the art of patiently waiting for Grandpa Dick to socialize with the world.  Aaron even came home with a tadpole that quickly turned into a frog.   Reptiles belong in the great outdoors so after a few days we drove it over to Sunset ponds and released him to live its best life.  

Allyson came back to Utah with her whole family so we had a mini Pace reunion at "Splash Summit" in Provo and enjoyed the day.    I was so happy all the "Older Fabulous Four" as Grandma Becky likes to call them made an effort to get work off and spend the day together.   The younger kids spent a ton of time in the wave pool and enjoyed all the many water slides.   The adults enjoyed tending the meet up spot and having kids old enough to come and go as they pleased while we chatted away the day.  

 

Ally's family spend a couple of nights in the Salt Lake Valley before heading on to Matt's parents house.    We thought about taking the kids on a hike up Little Cottonwood Canyon but a crazy storm lasted most of the night and thought trails would be too muddy so instead we spent some time at the Temple Quarry site (fully paved).  Then while Ally, Emily and I went shopping the cousins hung around the house playing with lots of Legos.    Once again Spencer got so sad when we had to say goodbye.   He loves his cousins so much and gets along so well with them.