Birthday and Summer Fun

Ryker turned 4 this year (yes, he's 4!!!) and we decided to make his birthday quite the big deal for him. He knew wanted an Angry Bird birthday party and so I had to track down games, decorations, and a cake kit that would meet his ideal vision. We held a party for him the day before and took him bowling with Grandpa Farley. Then on his real birthday, we went to church where he told everyone that it was his birthday - they sang to him in Primary and then he got to select a candy bar from the Bishop's office.

When we got home, we let him open his birthday presents and he proceeded to play with them for the rest of the day. Later, Grandma Farley and Aunt Anne joined us for dinner and cake and ice cream. He was so exhausted from all of the celebrating that he ended up going to bed early that night!

 

 

This summer I decided that we were going to do all sorts of fun activities since Erick only gets these 4 months off before we're back in school for the next 8 months. One thing on our summer bucket list was to go to a splash pad. I found one in North Logan and so we invited our next door neighbors to come with us. It didn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but I was okay with that and so was Ryker (he's not a fan of sprinklers and water getting splashed in his face). We started out slowly sticking our feet in the water and then he noticed other kids dancing in the water so he would walk around the smaller fountains. Once he got plenty soaked, he would run and play on the nearby playground until he got hot, and then back over to the splash pad. It was such a fun afternoon.

 

 

For Father's Day, I decided to take Erick camping, since he loves the outdoors. We found a local campground, just 4 miles into Logan canyon, Spring Hollow, and reserved it a month in advance. We went on just an over-nighter because we weren't sure how Ryker was going to accept it. We kept everything really simple and just did hot dogs, grapes, and chips for dinner, smores for dessert and then cold cereal and muffins for breakfast in the morning. The day we went up was nice and warm, but then a cold front moved in that night and the temperatures dropped really fast and it was super cold.  By morning we were all freezing. Ryker's favorite parts about camping were the fire pit, the tent, and the nearby river/pond where he could go and throw rocks into the water. We ended up taking a small hike and Ryker was really disappointed that he couldn't find the "beefers".

 

 

When we got home we cleaned up really fast and then Ryker and Erick took a nap while I got the laundry done and Relief Society chores done. We ate dinner and then went to the local Logan Summer Fest, held in the square with the Tabernacle. It was fun to see the local artists with the paintings, carvings, jewelry, clothing, etc on display and for sale, as well as some of the live entertainment they had. It was a perfect evening.

Then on Sunday, Ryker was actually willing to go up and sing with the primary for Father's Day - he wouldn't do it on Mother's Day so we have been making progress. He just stood there but he smiled and it was really cute. Then we went home, had lunch and I let Erick have the afternoon to do whatever he wanted. He's been converting his Dad's old slides into digital images and storing them on the computer. It's been really fun to see pictures of his family from way back and Erick's really enjoyed it a lot. We had a dinner of tortellini soup and some lemon pound cake and ice cream.

It really has been a fun start to the summer among other things like wiener roasts with the neighbors, outdoor movies, walks, drives, water fun, etc. Here's to May and June and yay for July and August!!