Unplugged

The girls school advertised for a program called Cache Valley Unplugged.  It's a program in which different local businesses sponsor a "brag tag" that helps get kids out doing things instead of sitting home bored or in front of the tv.  The different activities vary from making a fire escape plan to thanking a veteran.  We decided that we want to try and accomplish many of the activities on the list as well as complete all the items on our summer to do list.  This will give us more than plenty of things to accomplish this summer.  There are a few brag tags that Kadence is unable to earn, but there are a total of 60 and she can do most of them.  Both girls are so excited and motivated to get as many as they can.  They immediately sat down and wrote an essay which will earn them their first brag tag.  We had a trip to the dr spring on us and so we weren't able to turn it into Utah State in time to get our brag tag but we'll go pick it up on Monday.  A few of them are date specific and we're hoping to be able to get all of those.  The first one was today, the first official day of our summer break, and it was a car show.  The even was Hot Wheels and Hot Dogs.  It seemed like a fun experience and David really likes trying different kinds of hot dogs so it made him happy to hear they are supposedly the best around.  We invited Jeff up for the event too because everything is better when Jeff comes.  The girls had to fill out a paper as they went through the car show and when they were done they were awarded their tag.  (It goes on their unplugged lanyard)

Here's Shelby in front of a Shelby...

 Both girls in front of a Chevelle...

 Kadence is such a good daddy and let Kadence use him as a table to fill out her sheet since she can't get on the ground very easy...

 Kadence and a Nova...

 Kadence took a picture of David and the Nova, which is the car he hopes to restore one day...

 YAY they earned their very first tag!

 The hot dogs were delicious!  The girls didn't like them because they were a more quality dog than they are used to.

We stopped by the Hyrum library on our way back to the car and signed up for their summer reading program.  This earned us another brag tag!  It is an amazing program where they get a sucker every hour they read and tickets for drawings every 6 hours.  If they get a sucker with a star on it they get to choose a prize from the cabinet.  We had fun exploring all of the amazing prizes and the girls are so excited!

 We then decided to earn our "Little Free Library" tag.  We didn't even know one of these existed in Cache Valley and there are two!  You leave a book and take a book, or you can borrow the book.  The girls left these books...

 And took these books...

 David and I think it's such a great idea and actually want to purchase one and start it in our neighborhood.  We just have to wait until we get our tax return or something first.  Unfortunately when we went to pick up our tag, they didn't know where they were so we have to go back another day to pick it up.  No biggie.  We then decided to go wash my car for the "car wash" tag.  The girls owed me one from Mothers Day and now that the weather is better we figured no time like the present.  Plus, we parked in a sprinkler at the Hot Wheels and Hot Dogs event.  

 We couldn't find where to pick up our tag, but we called the number on the building.  I guess we must have come at the exact wrong time.  There's always someone out wondering the bays UNLESS they are filling chemicals.  We went back and got our tag AND a $2 off carwash coupon.  We used it because the girls aren't the best car washers in town and it gave us 4 free minutes of vacuum time.  I have to say that we will now be going to Cache Car Wash for future car washes.  

We went to the Logan library to get some new books for all the different reading programs we have enrolled in.  One of the programs is asking each child to log a total of 3,000 minutes and my girls are determined to finish.  This also crossed off an item on our Summer to do list....Library! We also had a BBQ which is on our to do list but we don't want to cross it off at the same time as library.  We're hoping those are two frequented items on our list.  Here are the girls while we were cooking making a path between their bonsais...

 Entertaining themselves with rocks....

After dinner we read A LOT and are bummed it doesn't count toward any of our programs.  One starts tomorrow, another on Monday and one a week from Monday.  Oh well, reading is great without the reward.  The girls started a 10 day "no screen" challenge in which they can't look at any electronic screen for 10 days.  It will earn them another brag tag.  They also started a 7 day "food log" challenge where they need to log one serving of fruit and one serving of vegetables each day for a week.  The fruit will be easy, but we don't like veggies in this house.  They did eat some veggies off their kabobs at dinner though just to satisfy the requirement.  

After dinner I realized that I haven't made it to Childrens Place to look for a denim jacket.  Kadence picked a new outfit for her baptism pictures and she chose a denim jacket.  I was thinking that Childrens Place would have one that fit better than the one at Old Navy.  While at the mall we also earned the "Window Shopping" brag tag so it was a very successful trip.  We had to go to all the stores and write what we liked or didn't like about each one.  (Some of them required signatures) It made the hunt for a better fitting denim jacket a little more time consuming, but we found a great jacket and earned a brag tag so it was worth it. 

In our first day of summer vacation we earned 5 brag tags (although they only physically have 4 right now), crossed off an item on our to do list, started two challenges toward more brag tags, had some great new experiences and got a lot of reading done!  Now I'm sure most of our summer days will be spent lazily lounging around the house in PJ's with our hair a mess...but TODAY was a success!!