Sunday.

We had the yummiest muffins today!  

Zucchini banana muffins.

Jackson randomly takes bites out of the muffins... 

 A neighbor gave us an 18 inch zucchini and that sucker was enough for TEN dozen muffins!  

In an effort to get my kids to stop eating super healthy snacks (as pictured below)...

I have been searching out and testing some healthier recipes. 

I especially want to find some non-cold cereal options that are quick and easy. Maybe frozen?

I have seen a recipe for blender pancakes but haven't tried it yet.  

Has anyone tried pancakes made from wheat berries?  

I'd really like to have a freezer full of good breakfast choices so Dallin and Landon don't eat toast and hot chocolate every. single. day. for the next school year.  Once school starts those boys will have 12-13 hour days every day of the week until wrestling is over in March.  They need some good healthy food!

We checked an item off our summer list and went to the drive-in a while ago.  We saw Planes.  I'm sure it was good but I pretty much spent the entire drive-in trying to get everyone comfortable.  By the time the kids settled down on our two gigantic bean bags and stopped jostling each other, the second movie, Monsters University, was half over and I fell asleep.  But it was still fun anyway!

We start our last week of summer tomorrow! Yee-hah!

Cool off

It's been hot this summer!  

I think we've had an entire month of near 100 degrees every day.  

Jackson figured out his own air conditioning method. 

Isn't Sadie the cutest puppy ever? I don't know if I have ever introduced her here in BlogLand. 

She is a first generation English goldendoodle.  Her mom is a black and white poodle, her dad is an English Golden retriever.  She will be a great mom for us in a year or two when she has her own adorable puppies!

Speaking of puppies...all the puppies have been gone for a couple of weeks and I must admit it is nice not to be a resident doggy day care!  They ended up all over the country--from New Jersey to San Francisco! We have been getting the nicest reports about the puppies we sent off.  So far they are all very mellow, easy going little guys.  And smart.  We get lists of tricks the new owners have taught their pups. 

 It makes me happy! My goal has always been to raise dogs that I would want to live with. 

Tomorrow begins our last week of summer break.  I'm handling it really well this year.  Sometimes the end of summer really, honestly gives me anxiety attacks.  I like having everyone home and I hate the crazy cycle of homework and constant activities.  I always feel like we didn't accomplish enough in the summer. This year I am excited for everyone and their fun activities.

Dallin and Landon have been busy with two-a-day football practices.  They are playing the SAM and MIKE positions this year.  That is strong side linebacker and middle linebacker.  I looked it up on the internet so I would sound educated! 

They come home and drink a gallon of milk and eat all the bananas and pineapple they can find.   It seems to be helping with the painful leg cramps that both boys were having at the beginning of the week. 

Dallin was released from physical therapy for his knee this last week.  Yea! So far he is totally healthy and doesn't have any knee pain for the first time in a long time.  He actually wrestled all last year (5th in state!) with the meniscus torn so I think it is a relief to practice without knee pain!

Of course Dal finished just in time for Landon to start therapy for a shoulder injury.  

Actually, it is not so much an injury as shoulder instability.  Apparently the humerus slides around in the socket more than expected. They think he is having subluxation rather than full joint dislocation so we are hopeful that physical therapy will help.  Lan first injured the shoulder when he took a really hard hit in rugby last spring.  It has been kind of 'popping' randomly during swimming etc., but this last week of linebacker practice really exacerbated it to where he doesn't want to move his arm and he is telling us about the pain.   Based on past experience,  if Landon complains about something hurting then it is usually injured...not just sore. So I have good reason to be paranoid, right?  

Anyway we have some fun plans for the last week.
 Actually they are just fun for me!  I'm going to make the kids help me with a bunch of projects.
Can't wait!

Tick-tock

I am sooo glad that we still have three weeks of summer left! We still have temperatures in the triple digits nearly every day but the nights have started to drop down to the 50's/60's--first sign that fall is on its way! Which means.....It's that time again....

School shopping.

I swear half my clothing budget goes to my kids' shoes.
Not kidding!
Football cleats, wrestling shoes, church shoes, regular school shoes, sandals, hiking boots, PE shoes...
And of course each pair last approximately 8 weeks...

On the bright side--Dallin and Landon haven't had their feet grow in the last year or so.  Maybe their toes will stop poking through the end of the shoes and a pair will last longer than a few months!
I can't say the same for Austin!
I predict that he will be the tallest of the Hatch boys.

How is it that our only girl is the LEAST expensive shoe wearer in our family?!

Shopping for Jenna's shoes is the most fun.  I'd rather buy shoes for Jenna than me for sure.

I make her try on all the crazy shoes in the store.

I don't really care much for shoes myself.
I don't know why.
It probably goes back deep in my psyche from when my size nine/ten 4th grade feet couldn't fit in the shiny little girl shoes they so desperately wanted.  It was traumatic. Now they make cute 'young' shoes in all sizes!  Yea for my large-foot-destined daughter.  Actually, the other day the shoe store guy told me that the average size shoe for women now is a 9 1/2.  I really didn't have that big of feet!

Today I have a big project planned that will make my future mornings infinitely easier.  At least I hope it will! I'll try to finish it and post pictures tomorrow!

Checking off our list...

We went camping this weekend. 

Though I'm not sure it counts as camping if you get to stay in a cute little cabin...

 

It was built in 1946 and it has a cool wood cook stove and an ice box.  There is still a type written paper of instructions on the wall about how to start the stove and where to find the coal oil. 

 "And don't forget to empty the pan under the ice box..."

It was cute.  

Dallin and Landon came up late Thursday night after work. 

Just in time to stoke up the fire after the 'youngers' were asleep.

Can I just mention?--I started that fire with one match and NO PAPER.

Thankyouverymuch.

The kids reluctantly saved them s'more stuff. YUM!

 Friday we took the 4-wheelers and motor bike and rode down to Ross Falls for a hike.  It is more like Ross trickle this time of year but we all had fun on the hike up and climbing around on the rocks.

Afterward this cute girl learned to drive a 4-wheeler all by herself.

I am the official sit-behind-and-teach-the-kids-how-to-shift kind of mom.  Probably because the slow speed of the learners is right up my alley!

Benson also moved up to the driver's seat.  He has a harder time shifting--especially when he is wearing his big sister's sandals (because his are MIA...). He will be a great driver though. No doubt!

Paisley didn't like being left behind.  She followed us on a couple of short rides.  

She is one athletic dog!

 Of course the dogs had plenty of play time in the dirt.  

Sheesh. 

So. dirty.

 Saturday morning we all loaded up to go to the hummingbird feeders.

 We actually put Austin and Benson behind Rustin and Jenna and I rode little Red.  I suppose we need another 4-wheeler...
Landon's bike lost one of the pins that holds the handle bar to the frame just after we headed out, (Rustin went back to check on him when we all stopped and he wasn't with us...)
so Landon stayed behind at the cabin.
We were so grateful he didn't lose it while riding! 

Someone started this hummingbird feeding area 20+ years ago and now there are dozens of different kinds of hummingbirds buzzing around at any given moment.  We could hear the thrumming of their wings.

We went on a great ride up to the top of the hills.

The view of the valley was a patchwork of fields and little towns.  

We could even see the temple way off on the horizon.  

Beautiful. 

When we got home Jackson cried and cried to have another ride on the "mow-tow-cy-ko." 

I think he was mostly just tired.  As were we all.  

And we definitely gave our hot water heater a workout--I think we had a tub full of sludge 

after every bath (dogs included!)!

A perfect weekend for sure!

Still here!

Whew.
Our puppies are all sold and all but one has shipped off to new homes in New Jersey,
Seattle, San Francisco, Texas and lots of other places.

I think I forgot how much work puppies are!  We had 13 dogs at our house for most of the summer.
Two words pretty much sum it up--pooper scooper!

Actually it wasn't that bad.  These puppies were really quick to learn.  They all used the dog door to go outside from 5 weeks on.  They learned to sit at the gate to be picked up or fed with very little effort.  Lots of our families were surprised that the dogs already knew how to sit.  Two families said their pup has had no accidents in the house.  Yea!  My goal was always to raise dogs the way I wish mine were raised.  Goal accomplished!

Jackson has been in an alarmingly naked streak.  He is hilarious with the pups.  When they were nursing he would crawl all around and under Paisley with the pups.  There is one picture in particular that my sister took that has my parents renaming Jackson Mowgli.

Yes,  they are all drinking out of the same bowl of water.

 He just got in there and pushed puppies out of the way and said "hey guys--move!"

I think it's safe to say that it was time for puppies to go!

We are into August which is one of my favorite times of the summer.  At least the first two weeks before football starts are my favorite. Once the actual start of school gets closer I panic for a minute.  I feel really unsettled when the kids leave.  I'm not kidding.  My heart beats faster and I get a little sick to my stomach when I think about it.

Some of our last weeks of summer plans:

Go camping with just our family.
Make s'mores.
Have a giant back to school picnic with all our friends.
Go to the drive-in--again!
Sort out closets and get school clothes ready. (okay this one is totally my goal...)
Throw away all the mismatched socks. (I can already feel the relief!)
Sleep in.