Back to School

Don't you just love back to school. The kids have something to do. Although, Connor did go to summer school, so he really only had one month off, but he did make good use of the month.

Mikah is now a senior, so we have to worry about all the things that go with that, senior pictures, prom??, graduation.

Connor is starting high school, ninth grade. Wants to take driver's ed this fall. We should be able to work it in after lacrosse.

Alexia is in fifth grade, Mr Dearing's class. Loves school and all the social activity that comes with it.

Trevor is third grade, Ms. Barry's class. He is now old enough to begin lacross, so that will be an adventure.

Snowmobiling

James' dad called early last week and gave us a snow report. Code for, do you want to come snowmobiling? So James loaded up the kids and went to Firth over the weekend. I unfortunately had to work. (wink, wink) It was soooo quiet over the next few days and the house stayed clean. They went up the Big Spring to play.

First Day of School

Yea, school is now in session. Our first day is never a full day so I don't ever count it. Mikah and Connor are riding their bikes to school, at least for now. The bus comes an hour before school starts and they would rather sleep. Alexia and Trevor walk down to the bus stop. This gives me a full 8 hours to do whatever I want. It does take long to fill it up. I did have a little twinge as Trevor got on the bus. All my babies are grown up. :(

We don't need no stinkin' fair!

I really enjoy going to the State Fair. Basically, it's the food. We had hoped to go this year but they raised the cost so we decide to bag it, but the kids found a way to have their own fair ride.

Pioneer Trek

In our stake, every three years, they put on a pioneer trek for the youth, handcarts and all. Mikah participated and James was portable support. (You can ask him what that means.) They wanted me to go, but they didn't want to deal with the other three kids.

They were bused in to a wilderness area just north of Boise, that was the last of the air conditioning. They were put into families and started off. Along the way they put them in a few situations similar to the pioneers. After the first day, it was put to them that they should turn back, that they wouldn't make it. No one wanted to turn back. I don't know what they would have done if they truly wanted to turn back The next day, they took all the men for the Mormon battalion. They lined them up along the sides of one of the steepest hills they had to climb and had to watch as the women pulled the handcarts up by themselves. The last day just outside of final destination, they allowed them to enter in to Placerville with no shoes on, just as the pioneer entered the Salt Lake valley. They had family and friends waiting to greet them.

They had a fireside after they got back and showed a slide presentation of what they did. I don't know if I would have been able to do what they did. 29 miles in 4 days pulling a handcart. I guess you just have to remember that the pioneer didn't have the conviences that we do now. There was no other way they were going to get to the Salt Lake valley. For those of you that have a copy of James Leithead's story, he does have their account of their handcart trek.

Back to School

The kids go back to school in one week. YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! Can you tell that I'm excited?! They will all be in school full time. I can't believe how expensive it is. I have never paid this much to get them ready for school and we didn't go school clothes shopping. When I was in Junior High and High School we didn't have class fees. They make you pay for an activity card, yearbook, certain classes have fees, publishing fees, parking fees, locker maintenance, lock maintenance, pe uniforms and I'm sure there a few others that I forgot. Can you say a few hundred dollars? School supplies and shoes are pretty much the rest so that was another car payment worth of money. I'll stop whining and just focus on the seven hours of NO KIDS!

Kids and cell phones

Well, we've seen them all. The little kids walking around with a phone attached to their faces. Our boys have now joined them. With riding bikes and other activities, it was the easiest way to keep track of them. They did buy the phones and have to pay for the service each month, but if they don't do their daily chores they lose them for the next day. Its been so wonderful not to have to fight them to get things done. We added the unlimited texting to be on the safe side. It was so much fun to let Ashley, my sister, know that we added it. She had been paying $5 a month for 200 text. I sent the message in 5 text messages, she freaked out and called me. I had told her that we would probably be doing it. She was ecstatic.

Mikah, of course, has found all the ins and outs for texting and interneting without internet connections. Did you know you can text a phone with email?

Memorial Day

Will it ever be spring? You would think we live in Seattle with as wet of a spring we have had. Trevor wanted to go camping but the weather didn't cooperate. So they camped in the basement.

A Day at the Zoo

Trevor and I had a great time at the zoo yesterday morning. His kindergarden class went for school, along with many other schools. The day started off fairly cool but warmed up fast. We were partnered with Fernando for the trip.



Trevor and Fernando visiting the Tiger.








Trevor trying the shell on for size.






They were letting the boa out for some exercise.

Lacrosse

Connor finished up his last game of the season. This was his fifth season playing the game. James was able to help coach. The first three seasons (spring, fall, spring) was with the YMCA and was not full contact. Last year, started league lacrosse. He's got 'MAD' ball handling skills and continually improving.

The first year in league, his team may have scored one goal the whole season. This year they won two out of the eight game season, and they were really in the hunt for all but two. He also scored a total of five goals, three in one game. They lost the tournament game and Connor was really upset. It was really hot to be playing at 11:00 am.

Alexia has shown an interest and we will be having her try it on for size this summer at a summer camp.