Summer Vacation 2025 - Week Two - The real start of summer

Our second week of Summer Vacation was soooooo much better than the first week. For one I felt like I'd actually been able to rest and relax. So I was in a mental space to actually do stuff. 

Second the kids had reached their TV/Movie saturation point during the first week so they were looking for other things to do. (Some families start the summer off with a screen free week. I find it's best to let my kids watch AS MUCH TV AS THEY WANT during the first week. Then they get board of TV and want to do other stuff.)

And third the pool was open. No matter what else is going on - I'm always a good mom at the pool.

Also there was just a lot of fun stuff going on. So let's dig into this recap because I'm excited to write about a lot of this stuff. 

On Monday I got up and went to work at like 8:00. This was so much better than going there in the afternoon like I had the last week. I was able to get so much done before people started showing up at 9:00. It felt good to start out like that. I was back to actually liking my job. 

I came home around 12:00 and took Derrick and Veronica over to the park for Lunch in the Park. We usually don't go to this a lot because it's such a gamble to know if the kids will like the food or not. But this year my friend Kori found some menus posted online somewhere. Suddenly we knew what the food would be each day. This was a GAME CHANGER. 

So I took Derrick and Veronica so they could have chicken nuggets. We were only going to stay a little bit, but there were a few ladies from my ward hanging out - including Jori. So I hung around a while talking to everyone. And Derrick and Veronica ran around playing with Jori's kids. It was fun to see even Derrick playing their game. (It had something to do with running from tree to tree and pretending the trees were portals.)

In the afternoon I took Charlotte and Lydia clothes shopping. They have outgrown most of their shirts and a lot of their shorts so we went to DI to get more. I also found a new hoodie because I HATED nearly every picture of myself in the pink hoodie I wore to Yellowstone. There was just something off about that one. 

Back at home I took a nap. 

And then I picked strawberries. 

All the plants I moved to the front yard 18 months ago are producing like crazy. It's great!

Look at this bowl!

Peyton's mom is in a play that was in tech week. And her dad was doing the lights or the sound or something. So I offered to have her come over to our house again. I told her we'd be going swimming that night so she brought all her swimming stuff. 

Saturday had been in the 90's, but a cold front had come through on Sunday and so Monday was something like 73 degrees. Not exactly the best weather for swimming, but we HAD to go because this was opening day. 

So everyone got in the water - including me. 

We had fun playing games like Mr Shark, Mr Shark What time is it?  Then the big kids wanted to play on the wiggle track. Peyton wasn't sure about doing the swim check to go on the wiggle track so I stayed in the shallow water with her. 

I told her that if she wanted to do the swim check she just had to do it one way to play on the wiggle track. She didn't have to swim down and back. 

She started practicing swimming across the pool - and she did it on the first try!  I was really excited for her. Last summer when she came to the pool with us she hadn't been able to swim that far. 

She tried about 4 more times and then said she was ready for the test. So I got a lifeguard to come over and do the test. And she passed!  I was really proud of her. 

So then she got to play on the wiggle track with the big kids. 


Here's Derrick.

He could run across the whole track without falling. 

He wanted me to take a picture of his "big splash."

Here's a video of the kids all playing on the wiggle track. 

And here I am. Yep, I'm a good mom at the pool.

We came home and the kids at popcorn while watching a movie that Peyton picked out. Around 10:00 Brandon took her over to the Orpheum and dropped her off. 

He'd already been at the Orpheum earlier when we'd all been at the pool. He was there for a meeting with Alexandra about the set for Much Ado About Nothing. He'd also ended up talking to Suzy about Sweeny Todd. She's the director. Brandon mentioned that he'd bought a script off Amazon. She was like, "Wait, why don't I have a script?"  So later Brandon photocopied the pages he needed and let Suzy borrow his book. 

Jared was also there and came up to everyone while they were standing together. He said something like, "Here are all my directors."  And Brandon was like, "Whoa, not me?"  And Jared said something like "not yet."

So that was the first visit. On this second one when Brandon dropped off Peyton he decided to go in and see if he could bug anyone. That was a good decision. 

Mathieu came up to him and was like, "Hey I'm directing _______ next September. Will you build the set for me?"  And Brandon said "Sure!" (I can't tell you the name of the musical because it hasn't been officially announced yet. Also this is September 2026 we are talking about. Even I don't plan that far in advance.)

Then Brandon saw Crayson. He asked Brandon if he was planning to do Anastasia - actually wait we need to talk about this for a second because I just realized I haven't written about it yet. About a month ago the March play for 2026 was announced and it's going to be Anastasia and I nearly died with excitement. I was already saying I'd do the March play no matter what so to have it be ANASTASIA is just perfect. When I saw Anastasia at Tuahcahn last summer I was like, "I have to be in this play."  I knew that Ivan wanted to play Vlad in the play so I figured there was a good chance it would eventually make it to the Orpheum, but still its like a dream come true that I could be in this play. 

I want to be Alexandra, but I will accept even the tiniest ensemble role for the opportunity to be in this play. My special skills are that I have absolutely no ego at all. 

I'd literally been talking about all of this to Brandon (again) about an hour before he ran into Crayson and Crayson asked Brandon if he wanted to be in the play. Brandon was like, "I'm not sure, but Valerie wants to do it."  Crayson told Brandon he wants families to audition. He wants it to be a family play. We were already tentatively planning to have me, Charlotte, Lydia, and Veronica do it. (I even planned Veronica's next theatre class around rehearsal dates for the March play.) But now we might have Brandon involved too. That just leaves Derrick, but we've always said he can watch youtube just as easily from the Orpheum as he can from home so he might just tag along for rehearsals. 

So anyway, that was a very productive visit to the Orpheum.

Working in the morning had worked so well on Monday that I did it again on Tuesday. I was really starting to feel caught up. 

Back at home Lydia had been making a whole cosplay outfit out of PVA foam. It was some elaborate armor. But she didn't let me take a picture. 

Veronica had used some of the left overs to make bracers. They were pretty cool looking. 

Charlotte and Lydia were going to start their online drivers ed program on Wednesday. We spent about an hour getting them signed into the driving school account and the driving scheduling account. Brandon had left his laptop at home so one twin could be on my laptop and the other on his. 

That afternoon Peyton came over again. There was some sort of dinosaur themed thing at the science museum for $5. Derrick is really into dinosaurs so I wanted to take him. And Kerri thought it would be fun for Peyton. So I too Derrick, Veronica, and Peyton. The event was a little lame (especially for $5) but the kids liked it well enough. Here they are digging for dino bones. 

Whenever Derrick squats like this I think he looks like Schroeder from Peanuts. 

Meanwhile, Brandon took Charlotte and Lydia to Lowes to buy paint for the long awaited mural project. This had been something I'd tried to make happen the week before, but I was just too burned out. This week it was actually doable. 

This is the before picture of the back of our garage. You can see where the old junky shed used to be attached to the garage. It's been an eyesore for ever and we've talked about letting the kids paint a mural on it. Well it's finally happening. 

Lydia worked on scraping off the old peeling paint. 

Brandon was trying to fill a hole with expanding foam and somehow ended up blowing the can up all over Lydia. 

That ended the mural work for the evening.

I was working on weeding the pathways in the garden. It looked really good when I was done. 

Wednesday was a really big day. It started at 6:00 when I woke the girls up for their very first job. They are on the weed crew at Tubbs Berry Farm. The job is from 7:00 to 10:00 every Wednesday morning.

They got up and ate and then we drove over to my friend Megan's house to pick up her daughter Addie. I'd told Megan about the job and told her I was willing to drive Addie there and back. Addie is the oldest of 4 and she has some young siblings. I knew what it was like to be the oldest with younger siblings. I also knew what it was like to put little kids in a car at 6:30 in the morning. I didn't want Megan to have to worry about her little kids when she drove Addie to work every week. So I was willing to do it. Also, through the quirks of how the neighborhoods don't quite line up with the old part of Twin Falls it's actually easier to get to the berry farm from Addie's house than from our house.

So I drove all three girls to the berry farm. They did employment paperwork and showed their ID documents. I took the documents home and left the girls there. 

I dropped things off at home and then went to Castle Therapy. This was such a good time to go to work. I was able to get so much done. And I didn't have to rush off to do anything else so I was really able to focus on stuff. That worked really well. 

At 10:00 I went back to the berry farm to pick up the girls. I was there a little early so I watched the work crew move down the rows of berries. They sat in the grass and pulled weeds. Honestly it looked really relaxing.  

The kids said it was fun. They liked talking to the other teenagers and getting to know them. 

They had weeded pumpkins, garlic, and finally the raspberries.

When we got home Lydia said, "We get paid for that!" over and over again. 

I took some of the kids to lunch in the park because what ever was on the menu sounded good. It was a big deal that we went twice in one week. A bunch of ladies from my ward were sitting on a blanket so I joined them. Megan wanted to know about getting stranded in Yellowstone so I told that story. 

That afternoon Charlotte and Lydia had another first - they started their online drivers classes. They each took a computer into a different room and worked on watching videos separately. The course is done by a guy who has been teaching drivers ed since the 90s. He's created videos as if he was teaching a class. But the girls can work through it at their own pace. 

We also scheduled a time for the girls to drive. It would be the next Tuesday at from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. They had to finish two units before then so they were really motivated to get through all the lessons. They worked on drivers ed stuff in the afternoon on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week. 

I went around and took more pictures of my flowers. Look at how beautiful this lark spur is. 

I love these fluffy poppies growing in the middle. 

I was very happy that I hadn't killed my potted flowers. 

Here's the catalpa tree. 

And a little rose bush. 

Brandon took Veronica to buy her pocket knife that she'd earned by lighting a one match fire all by herself. She came home and started whittling right away. 

Lydia was back to work scraping off the old paint. 

I went around and took some pictures of my garden some more. This is the very back garden bed. 

This catmint came back from last year and looks amazing. 

Thursday was kind of an intimidating day when it started but it actually worked out really well. I needed to do work for Castle Therapy, Gaining Perspective, and Aspen Grove. During the school year I would go from each place without coming home between. But things are a little different in the summer - mostly because I don't have to worry about dropping the kids off at school or being home when they are home. 

So I went to Castle Therapy at 8:00 and did about an hour of work. Then I came home for about 45 minute and made a grocery shopping list. 

Then I went and met with Cassy at Gaining for 30 minutes. Then I came back home and picked up Veronica so we could go grocery shopping together. And when I was done with that I took the kids to lunch in the park. It was hamburger day and we were NOT missing that. Plus it was fun to see my friends there for a minute. 

I went to work at Aspen Grove from like 12:30 to 4:30. It sounds like a lot of back and forth, but it actually worked really well.

I might do that every Thursday. 

That evening the girls worked on the mural more. They'd done a coat of primer on Wednesday night and they finished touching that up on Thursday. Then they started sketching out the mural. 

Derrick helped me get the car packed for the ward campout on Friday night. I love packing for the ward campout because we take two cars. We fold down the back seat of the van and there is so much room. We don't have to be strategic at all. We just toss it all in. 

Brandon went grocery shopping for the food for the breakfast on Saturday. He'd done such a good job with the breakfast last year that he was in charge of it again this year. 

I told the kids we'd go swimming at the pool. So we drove over to the pool . . . and found out it was closed for swim team races that weekend. So we drove to Dierkies Lake. It was really peaceful there. I'd brought a book so I read while the kids swam. 

Then we came home and went to bed. 

On Friday I went to work and stayed until about noon. Then I came home and started getting the last few things together for the campout. 

I picked strawberries to bring. I had three containers nearly full. 

Derrick, Veronica, and I drove up to the campground in the south hills. Charlotte and Lydia stayed home to work on Drivers Ed stuff and then they came up with Brandon when he was done with work.

We got there at 2:00 and already so many people were up at the campground. Nearly every spot was taken, but the volleyball court was flat and level so that became a little tent city. 

We parked by Jori. 

And then went down a small trail to the volleyball court. We had our big tent for me, Brandon, and Veronica.  Veronica and I set it up together. Derrick wanted to sleep on his own so he brought one of Brandon's little tents and set that up by himself. He was so excited. And when Charlotte and Lydia arrived they put up their orange tent.  The grey and orange tent in the back is our friend Brad's family. His wife Shaylee was out of town so he was there with three of his kids. Later another couple showed up late and they set up a tent by Charlotte and Lydia. 

Jori had brought her watercolor paints and had a whole painting station set up. There were a bunch of kids painting. 

The adults were hanging out in the limited shade. 

I'd brough Lydia's backpack and was sewing patches on it again. I'd worked on this last year and had planned to finish it at home - but I didn't. So here I was sewing patches for the second year in a row. 

We all hung out for a long time. The kids ran around and had lots of fun. Someone had little dirt bikes and Derrick got to ride on one. 

I needed a little break from all the people so I went for a walk around the group campground. I went around three times and counted different things every time. The first time I counted cars. There were 21 cars. Then I went around and counted trailers. There were 7. (And another one parked further away that I couldn't see.) Then I counted tents. There were 19. Later another couple showed up so we had 20 tents total. 

Brandon showed up around 5:00. He had fun talking with everyone. Someone got the big fire going and people started cooking dinner. 

I love this campground because of all the big picnic tables around the fire pit. Last year everyone had been kind of sticking to their own family's table at first. This year there didn't seem to be as many boundaries. There were still tables for each family - but people were sitting all over the place. It was great. This ward has a really good sense of community that has been strengthened a lot since the last year. 

Around 7:00 we had a little devotional. I was slightly late to it (I didn't think they were serious when they said we were starting in 10 minutes.) So I took a picture as I arrived. 

And then I got on my table and took more pictures. 

Brandon counted and there were 72 people and then 2 more showed up. 

It was so great! This was about 20 more people than last year. 

I love this ward so much. This was a good group of people to be with. 

I'd taken a little break from the patches because the Yellowstone patch was giving me issues. But I felt like trying again. So I worked on that during the devotional and other activities.  

Phil had brought his ukulele and we sang some songs with him. The kids and some adults had a bubble gum bubble blowing contest. There were some big bubbles. 

But the funniest part of the night was the tortilla game. The rules were that two players took a drink of water and filled their mouths with water. Then they played rock paper scissors. Whoever won that then used a flour tortilla to slap the other person in the face. The idea was to make the other person laugh so they spit out the water in their mouth. 

Yes, it sounds dumb. But oh my goodness was it hilarious to watch. 

Brandon and Jeff got into a long drawn out battle. They were both keeping straight faces so the game kept going and going. 

It was so funny. 

I realized I had to film it. You can hear me cackling all through out. Brad joined in with Jeff and Brandon and it just got funnier. 

The evening started getting darker so some families peeled off to put their kids to bed. Some people went home because they weren't staying the night. 

My kids love to stay up late so we were all around the fire with some of the other adults. Last year the theme was jokes. This year it seemed to be embarrassing stories. Jeff asked someone, "What was your most embarrassing moment and why did it involve farting?" There were a lot of funny stories shared. 

Derrick got tired around 10:30. I went with him to his tent and helped him get situated. He was really excited to crawl into his tiny tent. 

I came back to the fire and heard Brandon telling his "Grandpa in the hotel story."  People were laughing so much. 

More people went to bed, but Brandon, Me, Charlotte, Lydia, Veronica, and Jori stayed up. Later Hanah joined us. The 7 of us stayed up until 1:15. We probably would have stayed up later, but one of Jori's kids came and found her and needed to be put back to bed. So we raked the fire out and went to bed. 

Last year had been one of the coldest nights of my life so I was NOT playing around this time. I had two pairs of pajamas, wool socks, a hat, and a stick on body warmer. I was so warm all night. 

I slept pretty well. At 6:30 Brandon and I got up to start making breakfast. I thought we were some of the first people up, but there were about 10 kids down by the fire - including Derrick. Derrick was like, "Me and this kid lit the fire with the coals." He said they'd been up since like 5:30. 

Last year the morning had been really cold so I think a lot of kids just stayed in bed until breakfast time. This year it was warmer and so there were kids running around everywhere. There were maybe two other adults around. Brandon was aiming to have breakfast at 8:00. But we were ready around 7:20. I went around to each campsite to let people know we'd be eating in about 5 minutes. I didn't see a single adult. Instead there were like 3 roving bands of orphaned children. I went back up to the fire area and told Brandon, "we need to pray over this food and feed these kids NOW."

So that's what we did. 

We had a lot of good food. There were fruits like strawberries, pinapple, and catelope. Then there were eggs and sausages. We also had lots of muffins that we cut into quarters. Hanah had brough a bunch of her sourdough bread. And we had orange juice, water, and milk. One of the bishobric members had talked about the ward campout in sacrament meeting. He'd said, "We'll have the best breakfast you've ever had."  And I think we delivered.

Here I am in my hat. I was warm all morning and then all of a sudden I was HOT. I had to go change into shorts and a teeshirt. But I left my hat on because my hair was really scary by that point. 

We hung around and talked for a while. Veronica got to go on a ride on a four wheeler. It was really fun to see everyone having a good time together. 

But eventually it was time to start packing up. Lydia wasn't feeling very well. She told me she'd thrown up twice so I figured it was time to get going. I threw most of the stuff in the car. Brandon was still working on the tent and he said he could get that packed without me. So Lydia, Derrick, and I left. 

I did one last lap around the campground in our car so we could say goodbye to everyone. I especially stopped at Joe and Megan's spot and told them thank you. Joe is our Elders Quorum President. Jeff, the previous president, had scheduled the campground, but Joe made sure that this event happened again. He'd done a very good job. 

We drove back down to Twin Falls. Derrick took a shower first because he can take super fast showers. Then it was Lydia's turn. I worked on unloading the car and putting the camping stuff away very well. This was our last scheduled camping trip for a while so I wanted everything put away right. 

I took this picture of Lydia's backpack. The only patch I still need to sew on is the one for Golden Spike. That one is just pinned on right now. I'm hoping to get this done before the next ward campout. 

We were pooped the rest of the day. Brandon and I napped a lot. Which was understandable since we'd only had like 5 hours of sleep the night before. Also it had been a long week. Also we'd both been drinking Celcius drinks on Thursday and Friday. Those drinks work, but I call the effects Pewter Dragging after something that happens in the Mistborn books.

In the evening I watered everything really well. I was admiring my catalpa tree.  

The blossoms look like popcorn. 

On Sunday morning we all slept in until like 10:30. It was hard to get up and go to church. Derrick was especially having a hard time. He was nervous about a camp the next day and he was so tired from the campout. So he did not want to go to church. I told him he had to go, but he didn't have to pass the sacrament. so this was the first time he didn't pass the sacrament since February. 

At some point I went outside and looked at my flowers. The BIGGEST bee was living it's best life in the larkspur flowers. 

Seriously, it was so big. 

We started season three of Sweet Tooth. I'm not as big of a fan of this season, but it's still really interesting. This show has been really fun for all of us. 

And that's the end of our second week of summer vacation. This week had been what I want out of summer vacation. I think this was the real start of our summer.