Pool Day and Summer Musings

We went to the pool today as a family. The Scera pool in Orem. We paid $6 for Dalin and I each, and then paid for a swim diaper and plastic cover for Tenley (under one-year olds are free!) It was a blast. We left our house in shambles (but for real, it's pretty horrible right now) and just spent part of the afternoon at the pool before our evening classes. Tenley was awesome! She crawled around in the shallow water of the kid's area and even went into deeper water on her own. She stood up by herself several times (though the waves of all the crazy kids around her would knock her over) and even walked to us a few times! She still hasn't taken more than three steps on her own, but in just the last two days, she's gotten very brave. I'm so proud of her!!!! It's so exciting to see her joy at being able to walk (and impress mom and dad--clearly--from our reactions). If I wasn't in school, I would have wanted a season pass to the pool but at this point, our schedule for the rest of the summer is so full there is no way.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are a few photos taken from today!

Besides school (which ends with finals on August 14th--less than a month!), we have a Gunnell-Hill family reunion coming up the first week of August, plus my birthday the 9th, Tenley's birthday the 12th (and hopefully a little combined party for her and her friend, Audrey on the 8th), my best friend's older brother's wedding on the 8th, leaving for New Hampshire for two weeks on the 18th, our third anniversary the 19th, and then fall semester will start for Dalin and I'll be so grateful to welcome the cooler weather and--one of my favorite things in Provo--the Farmer's Market which will return on Thursdays! Can't wait to purchase myself some delicious homemade kettle corn...

Anyway, August is crazy--it always has been for my family with four birthdays in our immediate family, and several extended family member birthdays. We get kind of sick of cake. But speaking of birthdays, I'm thinking I want to stick with a rule for our kids (especially because I want to have so many;). I think the four gift rule (as seen on Pinterest) is a wonderful idea. My parents were wonderful and really spoiled us and I've always been grateful for their thoughtfulness and for making our birthdays and Christmas so special, but they also had only three kids. And I want more than twice that. And realistically, we're probably going to be lucky if we can even afford to have that many (which is Dalin's main concern so we'll see where we end up;).

In case you haven't heard of the four gift rule, there's a little rhyme for it that goes like this:

Something you want,

Something you need, 

Something you wear, 

Something you read. 

There are dozens of reasons why I like this idea, but mainly I want my kids to be grateful for what they have and to realize that material things are less important than time spent with family. So far, I have no clue what we're getting Tenley (the hard part about the something you wear one is how can anyone choose just one perfect outfit??) but I am excited to look and hopefully find something really good that she will love. As for cake, I'm sure we'll at least get her a cupcake or something (I call getting an ice cream cake for my birthday;) and maybe a real cake for her party that my close friend Hillary and I will hopefully have time to throw! 

Well, I'm very excited about August arriving so quickly here, and I hope I manage to make the most of July (particularly as far as schoolwork and housework are concerned) and that you are having a wonderful July as well! 

Do you have any plans for August or the end of this month? 

What is your family's busiest month? 

Doesn't it always seem like the most "fun" months are the briefest? August is always that way for me. 

Until tomorrow (or later, we'll see how busy I am;),