The Last Day

Today is the day. The best day. The last day.

Next year, I'll have a sixth grader, a fourth grader, a first grader, and a pre-Kindergartner. We're still not sure what to do with Easton next fall (he misses the kindergarten start by 19 days with his five-year-old birthday on Sept 19th), but we'll figure it out soon. He'll do great no matter where he goes to school. I love him so much!


We are all so excited for school to be out for the summer. It's time to take a break from the Mon-Fri early morning rush getting the kids up, dressed, fed, hair fixed, lunches made, last minute homework signed, and promptly to the bus stop by 7:17am.


It's time for no more late night homework sessions, no more packing lunches, no more cleaning out the daily backpacks.

It's time for mom and dad to be able to sleep in until 7:00 if their hearts so desire (and if the bright 5:30 am sunrise or their pre-wired internal alarm clocks don't get us up at the crack of dawn - more a problem for me as the morning girl and not so much for Ryan as the perpetual night owl).

It's time to not have to cram the workout in before the crack of dawn and before the kids are up for school. Yet I know that since summer is here and they don't have to wake up at 6:30 for the next 10 weeks, that they'll likely be up even earlier. Crazy how that works. Hopefully they'll let us sleep if we want to.


Ahhh....yes, I'm beginning to relax already.

Yes, we are excited for the reprieve from the routine, even if I know it will fly by so much faster than I'd like. We are looking forward to staying up later if we feel like it, more time for leisure reading, time by the pool and lots of playing. Of course, there will still be chores and instruments to practice here and there, Thursday morning yardwork days with Grandpa Steve, and a few summer projects that I have in mind, but mostly, it will just be a break for all of us.

Our Hatch & Weaver cousins are in town this week and weekend, visiting from Colorado, Utah and Virginia. It was planned as sort of a last harah for the Hatch crew to gather before Matt goes on his mission and before the Weavers move to Washington for Derek's residency. All five of the Teeples' sisters (my mom, Pauly, Laurie, Nancy and Krissie) and all of their kids I think (except my cousin Phoebe who lives in Alaska) will be together this weekend for a family reunion. We are pretty excited about that. And it's our style of reunion: a big BBQ Saturday afternoon by the pool, visiting, hanging out, eating, shooting some pictures, kids running free with their cousins, all of us catching up.

No games.
No skits.
No matching t-shirts.
Yes, perfect.

My cute cousin, Brittany, and her four awesome kids (and one on the way) flew in Tuesday night so that they could spend a few extra days with our family. They are staying with us and my kids couldn't be any happier about it. They stayed with us last year, too, and our kids have asked no less than 20 times over the past year when they were coming back. So when I told them a couple of months ago that they'd be here for Memorial Day, our kids were so thrilled. My cousin Nick's wife, Jenna (who is such a doll), and her unbelievably adorable baby, Siena, are staying with us too. Our kids love love love having so many cousins in the house and have been counting down the days. Good thing we have plenty of room!

So...Hooray! Summer and cousins and free time....they're finally here.

Since Easton graduated from preschool last week, he's been our lucky kid to be home with the cousins the past two days while our girls have endured the two final days of school. Yesterday, all the kiddos picked apricots, swam, swam, swam, went the library, swam some more, and then we all ended up at Grandpa Reid's for pizza and playing. Today, they're having a picnic and playing at a water park in Fountain Hills, then swimming some more I'm sure.

Tonight we have a movie planned in our backyard. I'm stoked to bust out my new projector and set up the movie outside on the big screen! A little popcorn, a little moonlight, a few lawn chairs, hopefully no scorpions. Should be a blast.

Here's to summer! We're so glad you're here.