Flying by the Seat of our Pants

That's what some [super organized, goal-accomplishing, Type A, by-the-book] people may call it....

I prefer to call it, "flexible" and "spontaneous," however!

Like many others, at the beginning of summer, we made a list of things we wanted to do.

There were some things that were already planned, set in stone, so to speak like:

1. San Diego in June (Matt & Suzanne only)
2. Baseball through June
3. Farmington Festival Days in July
4. Brenchley Family Outing at Timberlakes in July
5. Ward Campout in July/August
6. Fowers Family Outing at Skyline Mountain Resort in August
7. Triathlon (Aug.)

BUT, the rest of our days were open to whatever our little heart's desired. And here's what made "Our List."

• Ride bikes on Grandma's road
• Layton Surf & Swim
• Eat [steak] at Mo' Bettah Steaks
• The Peppermint Place in Alpine (for chocolate dipped potato chips)
• BYU Museum of Art presents Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic
• Cache Valley Getaway
• Raging Waters (w/ JetBlue Summer Party)
• Farmington Pool (3-4X)
• Bees Baseball game (w/ JetBlue Summer Activity)
• Raptors Baseball game
• Ride Frontrunner
• Tuacahn
• Double Tree Hotel Family Package
• Bingham Copper Mine
• Bonneville Salt Flats
• Bryce Canyon
• Bike Ride on Legacy Parkway Trail
• Parks
• Lagoon
• Cherry Hill - Batting Cages
• Cherry Hill - Mini golf
• Cherry Hill - Splash Pass
• Clearfield Aquatic Center
• SPEED Street Raceway
• Antelope Island
• Classic Fun Center
• South Davis Rec Center
• Swan Lakes golf
• Kangaroo Zoo
• Sparetime Family Fun
• Hill Aerospace Museum
• Stay-in-your-PJ's-all-day-and-watch-movies
• Harry Potter screening on opening day in the theatre JetBlue has reserved
• Fly to a city w/ a MLB team and watch a game
• ReAL Soccer Game

Out of those 35 things...we did exactly 8 of them! (1. Ride bikes on Grandma's road 2. JetBlue night @ the Bees game 3. Raptors baseball game 4. rode Frontrunner 5. Tuacahn - Footloose & Annie 6. Bike Ride on Legacy Parkway Trail 7. Parks & 8. Stay-in-your-PJs-all-day-and-watch-movies.) And half of two others (we did go to Farmington Pool, but only twice and we did go to The Peppermint Place, but they were all OUT of the chocolate-covered potato chips...All-Day suckers had to be our substitute!)

BUT, before you think we are so lame, or that we repeated last summer sans the newborn baby, let me explain. This summer wasn't spent doing NOTHING...just spent doing other [non-list] things. (THIS IS WHERE THE "FLEXIBLE" AND "SPONTANEOUS" COMES IN!)

Here's what we actually did instead:

• Grilled & had a picnic in our own backyard
• Set up camp chairs in a semi-circle around our "imaginary campfire" and hung out at night
• Dog sitting
• Cousin swaps (my kids went & stayed at cousins and other cousins came to stay w/ us)
• Gateway fountains
• Food Co-op
• Tea Party (for the girls)
• Pace's Bars @ Castle Park
• Called 9-1-1 (Kyle) and had the cops show up
• Jumpin' Jacks
• St. George RoadRunners baseball game
• Wave Runnin'
• Swimming at Nana & Papa's pool
• Lagoon Trail walks
• Fireworks from David & Kristen's "Observation Deck"
• Iceberg Drive Inn
• Boating/Tubing
• Picnic in a pavilion while it was pouring rain (3 weeks of rain in Utah's June)
• Fishing
• Row Boat
• Tried out the new Tonyburgers
• [attempted] Drive-In Movie - but there was a power outage
• Drive-In Movie the next night = success!
• Picnic in the Park w/ friends
• Went out to Kyoto Restaurant with an old mission companion & spouse (who spoke Japanese most of the time and we felt like "greenies" again, just smiling & nodding!)
• Thanksgiving Point - Museum of Ancient Life
• Desert Star Theater
• Danced the night away at a party w/ a LIVE 80's music Rock Band
• Swimming Lessons
• Summer Movies @ Gateway 8 (did you know it is now "temporarily closed?")
• Matt's 20-Year High School Reunion (Family BBQ not the $1,000 one)
• Cub Country (Kyle)
• Kaysville Parade (Ryan played snare drums in the marching band)
• Movie in the Park on a big blow up screen
• Monkey show @ Lagoon
• Free Entertainment (stage shows) @ Lagoon
• MLS All-Star Game @ Rio Tinto Stadium (one of Matt's Father's Day gifts)
• Roasted marshmallows/made S'mores in outdoor fireplace
• Scout Camp near Tetons (Ryan)
• Foot Zoning
• Redeem all the "Book It" Pizza Hut certificates that had piled up over the school year
• Birthday Parties
• Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication
• Football (Kyle)
• "Camp" out in the Motor Home

(And some of my kids still have the GALL to say, "We haven't done anything this summer!" - obviously they are a slave to "Our List" and still need to work on their "flexibility" qualities, of course!)