Back in May when I wrote my last entry I was breathing a sigh of relief that iFamily and Shakespeare were finally finished and life could get back to quasi-normal. And it did - for about 3 weeks. I had been anticipating the summer of 2015 with a mixture of excitement, dread and resignation. Standing at the end of May, looking into the future, I told myself - "If you can just survive until September, all will be well." Well, it is the end of September now, and things have slowed down enough for me to catch my breath again. Yay!! Now that I can stand to look back and remember our Steeplechase of a summer, here are a few of the highlights.
Our summer started early - a camping trip with Lida and Alvin in May while Andrew and Katherine were away at Shakespeare Showdown. We set up the trailer at Kelly Island Campground and roasted hotdogs and got nice and sticky with s'mores. In the morning we went for a "hike" along the river and climbed on rocks.
The kids were so proud of themselves that that they managed to climb all the way up there without (much) help. I confess it was a little nerve-wracking for a Mother to watch...
Alvin's favorite part was throwing rocks and sticks into the river.
The second week in June brought swim camp at Downata Hot Springs. Swim camp is organized by a remarkable woman in our homeschool group, so there were a lot of people there from iFamily. For my kids, it was Heaven - getting to swim and hang out with their friends for 5 days! We celebrated Andrew's 15th birthday that week, and then he left early to go to Youth Conference with our Stake.
Andrew isn't normally a "baby" kind of kid - he doesn't have much use for little people. However, he was remarkably good with young Mr. Wilding. I'm not sure what the attraction was - besides the fact that he's a cute little boy...Maybe Andrew was trying to impress Wilding's older sister?
My sisters, Monique and Jada, joined us for a few days, as well as my nephew, Samuel.
As long as Andrew was there, our camp was filled with girls. Oddly enough, I noticed that after he left for Youth Conference, the girls mostly faded away. Here is a picture of the "usual crowd" - Jada, Monique (with Peanut), Emily, Emma Lynn, Katherine, Andrew, Angel and Alyssa. Katherine's BFF, Emma Lynn, left the day after swim camp to move to Connecticut. Needless to say it was a very bitter-sweet week for the two of them.
Lida wanted to go to Rigby Lake with her cousins to celebrate her birthday. So, we packed up a picnic lunch and headed for the "beach." Alice brought her kids and our nieces, Emmalee and Rebekah, and we all had a grand time splashing in the water and soaking up the sun.
Alvin has figured out that he can have a great time in the water without Mommy holding him up. Life jackets beautiful things. Of course, there is still plenty of supervision needed, but he has such a good time coming and going as he pleases.
Lida spent every minute with her cousins building sandcastles and running and splashing in the water. Whenever we did a head count, we would look around and see a line of little girls, all following each other around.
Katherine mostly spent her time with Benjamin and Joshua. She looked for every opportunity to steal my camp chair.
That night we had cake and ice cream to celebrate Lida's birthday, but most of the cousins couldn't come. They were sick - probably from too much sun and not enough water (drinking water, that is...). Katherine allowed me to bake the cakes, but managed to convince Lida that she should be allowed to decorate it. She did a pretty good job, I think.
Andrew missed Lida's birthday because he was in Pocatello for Piano Camp. He won a scholarship from the Idaho Falls Music Club to attend music camp. He played Clare de Lune by Debussy at the solo concert on Thursday evening. He performance was good, but he was so nervous, he practically ran off stage when he was finished!
I submitted a proposal to teach Debate at iFamily this semester and had to include a picture of myself as part of the mentor bio. So, Tyler took me out one Sunday morning and took dozens of pictures for me to choose from. I hated them all! But this one was deemed acceptable (except that Lida's eyes are closed...) I'm just not a very photogenic person.
Katherine and I went to Girl's Camp the last week in June. I was the camp director. Even though I took my camera, I somehow didn't get any pictures! I guess I was too busy trying to make everything run smoothly to worry about recording it...Just days after we returned home from camp, our family left on a 2-week vacation across the country.
After meeting Tyler's parents in Nebraska for a night, we all drove to Nauvoo, Illinois to spend a few days with some of my family at the Nauvoo House. It was so nice to see everyone and to get to show my children around the historic sites there.
We were privileged to attend the temple with several family members on Friday morning, and then the older kids got to go and perform baptisms for the dead on Saturday morning.
We spent a lot of time and the Pioneer Games "exhibit." It was a chance for the kids to take a break from sightseeing (and, for Alvin, from being quiet) and run and play. They tried their hand a several different activities, including the stilts.
Young and Not-so-Young alike enjoyed them!
On Thursday evening we went to watch a production called Sunset on the Mississippi. It was put on by the senior missionary couples and the Young Performing missionaries and it was a lot of fun. While we were there, the clouds opened up and poured on us for about 15 minutes. You can see in the picture that everyone is wet from the rain. I love this picture with the profiles of Dad, Stephen, Andrew, Benjamin, and Caleb. I never noticed before that Andrew has my dad's nose!
Alvin, of course, spent most of the performance sitting in the rocks. Any time not spent getting dirty is time wasted!!
Sunday after church, we drove down to Carthage, Illinois to visit Carthage Jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred. The Spirit in the room as the missionary recounted the events of that day was very strong.
We took several pictures outside the Jail while we waited for other family members to finish the tour.
Look at those big, brown eyes!!!
Sometimes convincing the older kids to be more reverent was a waste of breath. I'm glad that my kids enjoy spending time with each other and their cousins.
There were, of course, lots of interesting sites to see in Nauvoo. I took a lot of pictures, mostly because I'm trying to improve my photography skills.
Lida in the Women's Garden behind the Visitor's Center.
I'm not sure what Alvin was so excited about, but he sure had a lot to say!
Katherine in the Women's Garden. Was it the cute boy that drew her to this sculpture?
After several days in Nauvoo, we drove to Oklahoma to visit Tyler's grandparents. They are getting older and Grammy's health hasn't been good, so we wanted to stop and see them, since we were already so "close." We had a lovely visit with them and Tyler's Aunts, Uncles and cousin. However, I confess that by the time we finally left and headed home, I was ready to go. It was so wonderful to finally get to sleep in my own bed again!!!
Throughout all this excitement, Lida's cat, Twix, was caring for a new litter of kittens. Lida loved them with all her little girl heart. I told her, even before they were born, that we could not keep them - ANY of them. Nevertheless, there was great sadness at our house for a couple of days after they finally left for their new homes. Twix has since been fixed so that we will not have this particular problem again!
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