High Adventure Camp: The Conclusion

Nathan finished up his high adventure camp with indoor skydiving.
He really liked it until they turned up the air flow on his last turn. He panicked and started flailing around because he said he couldn't breathe.
His poor instructor thought he had a wild man on his hands.
Needless to say, that last turn was cut short.
Other than that, it was a lot of fun and we were sad to see it end.

The organizers said they will try to do a parent-child camp next year. I'll be all over that one!


Here is Nathan on his second run. You can tell when they turn up the air speed. He freaks out and his instructor gets a little frustrated.


He missed the last activity of the session (kayaking) because he decided to stay with his out of state cousins for a week.
That was high adventure itself. He has never been away from us for that long. I think it was a little difficult for him, but he had so much fun.
Thanks to them for being such great but sudden hosts to a shy but excited cousin.

Funnies

I love kids. They are so funny and say the most hilarious things.
For instance:

We have some stray cats that hang around our backyard. Actually they hang around the field behind our backyard, but seem to have adopted our yard and our garden as their personal hunting and litterbox area.
(Hunting mice is fine, the litterbox I have a problem with...eeew. That is why Burke got a pellet gun for Christmas. He is too soft-hearted to use it, however.)
Anyway, one of the cats is expecting and we were talking about kittens over dinner one evening when Kade announced that he thought he had seen one of them "laying her kittens" in the garden. (Thankfully, it didn't really happen. I think he was just witnessing something else. Eeeeww....)

Adrienne loves swimming lessons. She thinks she is a pro. She thinks she already knows how to swim. How wrong she is. She jumped off the side of the pool with no floatie or teacher around.
Once she was rescued and after I regained my ability to speak, she told me, "See, I told you I can swim."
She has been repeating the desire to not wake up on the wrong side of the bed whenever she says her prayers. I finally asked her what that was all about when I tucked her in one night. She told me she had to move all the way over to the side of the bed against the wall because if she slept close to the edge of the bed, she might fall out and land on the floor. And that-- she said-- is the wrong side of the bed.

We had a ward pool party last month. Burke told me he was going to take Annika and Kade over to the diving pool. I assumed (you know what they say about ass-u-me) that he was going to have them hang out in the shallow area while he dived.
When he came back about half an hour later, he told me, "Hey, did you know that if the lifeguards have to rescue you, you have to fill out paperwork?"
Apparently Annika jumped off the diving board and floated like a rock.
Burke didn't realize that when I told him about the kids jumping off the diving board at swimming lessons, they always had a floatie.

Nathan keeps telling me that he thinks he has hit puberty. I hear it every day when he comes up with something else. The latest was when he left me a message on the answering machine. He listened to it himself later and then proudly told me, "See, I don't sound like a girl anymore."

Cousins and More Cousins

We have had lots of family time lately. We spent the 4th of July with Burke's family. Everyone gathered together to remember Burke's dad, as it has been one year since he passed away.
The cousins were so eager to play with each other.
Adrienne especially loves her cousins Acacia and Ava.
They are joined at the hip.
They absolutely love each other.
I'm sure they made Grandpa laugh.
We also were able to be present for the blessing of my newest nieces, Paisley and Zoey. I forget how tiny and sweet babies are until I am around them.
They were adorable and fun and I loved holding them and giving them a bottle, and everything else that comes with babies.
I am sure Grandpa would have loved to have been in the circle to bless his granddaughters, and celebrate their birth at the family gathering afterward. He was missed.
Later that week we traveled to visit Burke's brother Justin and his family. Justin was called to be in the bishopric in his ward, and asked Burke to ordain him as a high priest. It wasa wonderful opportunity for all of us to be there and for Burke to perform the ordination in place of his dad.

As we were leaving, they invited Nathan to stay with them for another week. He jumped at the opportunity, and we (a little wistfully) re-packed his belongings and said good-bye.

He was so excited, and I was thrilled for him. But I am a mother hen and have been worried about him already and it has only been one day.

Burke and I called him tonight. I reminded him to brush his teeth. Really good. Because his aunt really can't tell him they look gross the same way his mom can. Can she?
He sounds like he is having fun, but maybe missing us a little more than he thought. (Or that's what I'd like to think.)

Maybe we're missing him a little more than we thought too...

Summertime

Nathan has been keeping busy with plenty of summer activities.

He completed his second year of robotics camp and had so much fun, again. We are truly a bunch of nerds. When we went to pick him up, the rest of my kids were excited to see what he had programmed his robot to do each day.

He is also involved in a High Adventure Kids Camp that goes through mid-July.
The kids meet once per week and get to try "adventurous" activities.
The first week they did rock climbing:

The second week it was surfing.
Kind of. It was indoors and probably safer, although Nathan did get pretty banged up. He toughed it out and ended up carving some bodacious waves by the end.


Nathan has also been involved with city baseball. His team did very well and were undefeated all season. They have been invited to the county playoffs next month. Nathan played in the family place of honor: right field. He was excited to be on a team that won more than they lost.
The last game of the season was a blowout, so Nathan's coach let him have a turn pitching. He was so nervous and excited that he struggled. But we were so proud of him and glad he had a chance to try.
In the midst of all this, he is also doing piano lessons. He really enjoys it and tends to practice longer than is required just because he likes it!!!
I don't know how much longer that will last, but I am going to make the most of it while I can.

We have all been doing swimming lessons, going to the splash pad, and reading some good books. I just finished the first in the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series-- Captured. Nathan is reading the Red Pyramid and can't keep the information to himself. He is going to make sure I don't need to read it to know the plot.
I don't complain, though. I am just grateful he is enjoying a book. He is so picky about what he reads.
I am trying to figure out what to get him to read after Red Pyramid is over. It looks like we will pass that milestone tomorrow.

Catching Up

Since my laptop died and the kids got out of school for the summer, it has been really hard for me to keep up with blogging.
We are keeping busy with summer activities.
Here goes:
Everyone is in swimming lessons,
Nathan is participating in a High Adventure Kids Camp,
He also started piano lessons (better late than never),
Kade's dojo is closing,
But we are looking for a new one (to start in September),
I spoke in the Saturday evening session of our stake conference,
Had a conference related hair emergency,
Which led to being able to visit with my newest twin nieces,
Burke still has a job,
and nobody has even gotten a sunburn yet because I have been on top of the sunscreen this summer!
Yea me!
That's it in a nutshell.
I will try to post photos later, once I figure out how to do it with my new camera on my old computer.

Summer Fun

We are furiously making plans for the summer.
The kids are working on the fun stuff.
I am working on getting more organized and teaching them how to help around the house.
(A nice way of saying they better be getting their jobs done before I end up yelling.)
I have some ideas, but haven't implemented them yet.
I will let you know how it goes.
But probably not for a few days because my beloved laptop is now officially a glorified paperweight.
I have to go alllll the wayyyyy downstairs to get on the internet now, and I am basically lazy, so I am only down here every few days.

But I am getting more accomplished around the house.
Hmmmm.....
Could the two things be related?

Struggles

I have been thinking about the struggles we all have.
I had an epiphany with the help of a friend the other day.

She told me that I sure seem to "have it together".
(Then she said that since she knows me better, and knows the things I struggle with, she also knows I am indeed not perfect).

It made me feel good, in a strange way. Apparently, "fake it 'til you make it" works for me.

In the past year, I have learned a lot about struggles.
I have helplessly watched my own children struggle with their problems, seen my sister deal with hers, and watched my father in law in his fight for life.
It is so difficult to watch others suffer and know that there is little, if anything I can do to help.
Then I remember that is what we are here for.
To struggle.
And to learn.
And to become stronger as we go through our trials.
We learn to accept help, learn to be supportive, and be supported, even when we don't like it.
We learn that we are not alone as we struggle.
Life is good, even if it is difficult.

I recently had the opportunity to hold a sweet baby girl who was born just shy of 28 weeks.
She was 2 weeks old and 2 lbs and 8 oz at the time this photo was taken:

This little girl has had to struggle each day of her life. But she is strong and beautiful and and has an amazing mother and a loving father to help her through every day.
I am trying to be the same type of mother: supportive, loving, and involved.
But I cannot take all of my children's struggles away.
Because they need to learn from them.
I can only run by their side and cheer them on as the work toward the end of the marathon.
Then we can celebrate together.