I was looking forward to the girls being done with school but at the same time I was dreading summer. We have gone to Utah almost every summer, and we've moved twice in the last 3 years. Plus we couldn't be with friends or go anywhere! Luckily, Julie had a brilliant idea that completely saved our summer. She created a list that had ideas for things you could do and a point value was assigned to each one. Mom and Dad said they would give a prize to anyone who reached 100 points and it just filled our summer with so much fun and creativity! My kids shot out of the gate like rockets and Kaylee reached 50 points before the first week was even done! It was fun to see her enthusiasm for it. It filled our time with puzzles, kite flying, flower arranging, marshmallow temple building, chalk, learning to draw, yoga, and much more.
We also had our first Battle of the Books with the Andreasons. Emery was supposed to go to a state-wide competition after his team had already won at their school and at district but it was canceled. So we decided to do our own! We read the book Inkheart and made heart cookies and heart-shaped chocolate covered strawberries. It ended up being really fun and the kids wanted to do more battles. 
One day when McKenna and Brooklyn were wrestling, McKenna said, "Let's fight for real". She sat on top of Brookly and pinned her down so Brooklyn reared her head back and slammed into McKenna's eye. That real fight ended pretty quickly! McKenna's eye immediately swelled up and turned blue and over the next few days it turned all kinds of bright colors. It was so bright, that most people thought she was wearing makeup only on one eye.
We had the unfortunate pleasure of having our A/C stop working in the middle of a sweltering heat wave. The first night everyone but me decided to try sleeping in a tent in the backyard because it seemed like it would be cooler than inside our house. It might have been slightly cooler but with dogs barking, A/C units turning on and off, the heat, and cicadas/birds, I don't think anyone slept much! We tried our best to survive our very very hot house for the next few days until our landlord found someone to do a temporary fix on it. I need to be much more grateful for a usually cool house; it made such a huge difference in all of us!
We also had to say goodbye to the Solanos as they moved to Florida. They made us feel like family right from the start and made the last 3 years so much better. We had a farewell BBQ in our backyard and were so glad we got to hang out with them one last time. It was incredibly hard to say goodbye!
Kaylee was supposed to get her braces off in March, the day before her birthday. But that was the week that everything shut down and she had to wait 3 extra months! She never seemed to mind them too much but I am glad she doesn't have to worry about them anymore. And she looks even more gorgeous without them!
Some days we seemed to be handling everything just fine and other days the anxiety and stress would overwhelm us. I desperately needed something to help my anxiety and we decided to go walk through the Park of Roses. It was so peaceful and beautiful and just what we needed! We went at the perfect time to see most of the roses in full bloom. 
We continued exploring different Metro Parks around Columbus and went back to one that I loved going to with the girls but Richard had never been to before. They have a zipline that is really fun and the girls will do over and over again. They also have a natural playground where everything is made from wood, including this giant seesaw. We spent the most time at this little creek where the girls collected slate and had fun breaking it up and wading up and down. They finally only got out because we dragged them away for lunch.
Remember how I said Brooklyn started to love makeup? Sometimes she will ask if she can use my makeup on her own. One day, she came out like this and I was laughing so hard that it turned my sweet little girl into a punk rocker. I kinda loved it though! Ha ha ha.
Another thing we did from the list that ended up being really fun was a fairy garden. We all worked together to make different things for it and I thought it ended up so cute! We made a hammock, clothesline, seesaw, firepit, a river and lake, and multiple houses. 
One of the girls' favorite things we did all summer was go to Lake Eerie on a quick day trip to Cleveland. They actually stayed in the water for most of the time, which surprised me, but they had fun digging in the sand too, especially Brooklyn. 
One of the ladies in our ward had been in the hospital for months and was slowly getting worse. Her friend had the idea to have all the Primary kids made cards for her to hang up in her hospital room to brighten it up. We had fun one Sunday making colorful, happy cards to hopefully help cheer her up. 
Another thing on the list was to learn about a temple and then visit it. I knew there was a story about the land that the Columbus temple is on but I couldn't remember it and neither could Richard. We searched everywhere online but couldn't find the story or hardly any details at all. It made me really sad that we couldn't share some great stories with the girls about the temple but we decided to go see it anyway. We pulled up and there was one other car in the parking lot. Someone from our first ward was there and he had just randomly decided to go water the plants in the garden outside the church building and just happened to be there right when we came (he was only there for about 15 mins total!). We asked him if he knew the story about the land and he launched into the story plus a bunch of other details that he knew after being in this stake for 30 years or so. I thought it was so cool that we had that little tender mercy from the Lord that he sent this man to help teach us what we couldn't find on our own about His House.
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