Baseball, Youth Conference, Lagoon, Allergist, Party

Another week has gone by and life hasn't slowed down too much despite it being summer.  Sarah did a dance camp this week and enjoyed it.  We also got Daniel's baseball pictures back and he looks cute.

Aaron loved being an assistant coach this year.  It has been great bonding time for Aaron and Daniel. Their team came in second place coming in to the tournament which starts next week.  We are keeping our fingers crossed they make it to the championship game in July!!

Josh had a chance to go on his first Youth Conference trip this year.  Our ward went to Snow College for few days and had a lot of fun judging by the pictures the leaders posted.  Here's the group that went.  Josh, of course, is the tall one on the back row--haha!

 Josh said he had a great time and is excited to finally be old enough to attend.

While they were there they got to do baptisms for the dead at the Manti temple.

They got to all kinds of fun activities from riding tandem bikes and big wheel bikes to lots of water day activities. 

Lots of walking and time to dork around:

 They did go see the Mormon Miracle Pageant (Manti Pageant) one of the nights as well.  Here they were playing cards before the show started:

I am glad Josh was able to attend and grateful for the great experience it was for all the kids.

One night in between baseball games we did a family night at Lagoon.  I usually take the kids during the day which means Aaron is usually at work and Matthew is at his summer program  so they aren't with us.  It was nice to have them come with us for the evening this visit.  It was weird to not have Josh with us, but I am sure he was having lots of fun at Youth Conference instead.  Matthew was excited to go.  He LOVES Lagoon and is willing to ride any ride which I find awesome.  Here they are riding Spider:

 Here's me and my cute Bubba waiting to go on a ride together:

 One day last week we went to the park to play.  After playing on the playground for a little bit the kids wandered over and started climbing this funky tree:

 Daniel had a few baseball games this week.  Here he is up to bat:

 He got to slide coming in at home plate to make a score and I actually was able to get the camera working in time to record it.  Wahoo!

Early Thursday morning Josh did a 6 mile trail run with Cross Country.  Unfortunately when it was time to pick Josh up I was at Daniel's allergist OIT cashew updose appointment and I couldn't leave.  Josh had to start walking home from the high school and I told him I would pick him up as soon as Daniel was cleared to leave.  As luck would have it we both got home at the exact same time.  The poor guy not only had to run 6 miles up trails, but he had to walk another 3 miles home afterward.  I felt bad, but what can you do?!  As soon as we got home I had to pick Josh back up and take him back to the allergist's office to get his monthly allergy shots because he was past due to get them.  He was gone the beginning of the week and Thursday morning was the only time he would be able to squeeze in the shots.  After getting the shots you have to wait for 20 minutes to make sure he won't react.  He got the shots and ice packs put on his arms at the shot site.  As soon as he sat down to wait the 20 minutes he completely fell asleep--poor guy!

 All in all between Daniel and Josh's visits it was a LONG 2 1/2 hour morning at the allergists office as you can tell--haha!

After the allergist's office I took the kids to see a free summer matinee.  It was a fun time.  Since the movie is free I let the kids pick out a small treat to eat during the movie.

Friday morning Josh had a group run scheduled at 6 am at the high school.  Ugh!  I shouldn't be complaining, but that not only is early for Josh, but early for Aaron and I since we are the ones that have to take him.  Oh well I am glad he is enjoying it.  During the rest of the day we ran errands and cleaned the house.  That evening we had the Einzingers over for dinner and to play games.  My kids were so excited.  Since we were cleaning with a purpose (having the Einzingers over) it wasn't too bad trying to get them to clean.  They came for dinner and we partied until about 1 am--wahoo! By the end of the night/morning a lot of the kids were still awake.  However, Noah succumbed and fell asleep as did Josh about 12:30am.

It was a fun night!! I can't believe June is almost over.  This summer is FLYING by!

Fishing, Smoking, Catching, Turkey, Camps, Father's Day, Behaviorist, Baseball

Two Saturdays ago it was free fishing day for all of Utah.  Grandpa T wanted to take all the grandkids fishing that day.  Uncle Bryan and Aaron went along to help drive and to help set up and maintain fishing poles.  Josh was a bit upset because he had signed up to help out at a drink station for a marathon down in Salt Lake that morning so he couldn't go, but Daniel, Sarah and Noah went as well as Bree, Tess, Miles, and Kade.  It was a perfect day for fishing.  Here's Sarah just hanging out on the shore at Lost Creek:

 Daniel messing around on the shore as well.  He really had fun playing with Miles in between fishing.

Sarah, Noah and Grandpa T getting ready to reel in a fish:

 Grandpa T:

 Noah had fun talking with Bree for a bit:

 They left at 6 am and got back sometime around 1:30pm and only ended up catching about 4 fish only two of which they could keep per regulations.  They were worn out because as soon as Sarah and Noah sat down afterward Noah immediately fell asleep and Sarah wasn't too far behind.  They had fun, though.

 Later that afternoon Aaron decided he wanted to try smoking some Armadillo Eggs which is a cream cheese/cheddar cheese stuffed jalapeño wrapped in sausage.  He also made some cream cheese/cheddar cheese stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon.  Since I am wimpy when it comes to hot/spicy things he did make me some bacon wrapped Anaheim peppers which were pretty good, too.  The armadillo eggs turned out so hot no one could stand them so we gave them to our neighbors who enjoy things more spice than Aaron does.  They said they enjoyed them.  Glad they could because Aaron couldn't handle them.

 Baseball is still in full swing--haha pun intended.  Anyway, Noah got a chance to play catcher at a game last week.  It took a good 5 minutes with Aaron and the Coach to get Noah set up to play in all the equipment.

 Noah had a hard time walking around to get to his spot behind home plate.  I would lie if I didn't say it was a bit funny to watch the poor kid try and walk around wearing all that stuff!

 The bad thing was as soon as he knelt down his velcro shin straps came undone so he didn't feel like he could run to catch/pick up the balls so he just stayed there kneeling.  Finally Aaron figured out what was wrong and why Noah wasn't doing anything so he went and helped him get them situated again, but by that time that inning was done.  At least Noah got to try it once.  I think it would probably be the last time he plays catcher for a really long time if you know what I mean--haha!

 We got Sarah's dance pictures back last week and I love how they turned out.  My little girl is growing up--that's for sure!

 Here's her Delightz dance team (Sarah is the one sitting on the ground second from the left):

Here's one picture from Sarah's dance recital I forgot to add.  It is when Sarah got her flowers from Aaron.  She loved them!

The other day Sarah was playing at a friend's house and when we went to pick her up her friend's dad offered to send her home with a turkey egg and some goat's milk.  Aaron said no to the goat's milk, but yes to the turkey egg.  We fried that up Friday night just to see what it looked like.  We let everyone try some to see what they thought.  They thought it tasted just like a chicken egg only bigger.  That's the first time I have ever tried a turkey egg.  Here's Sarah showing off her turkey egg:

In speaking of Sarah she started her week long dance camp this morning.  She was excited to go because that means she might be able to be in the parade in a few weeks.  Wahoo!

Here's Noah running to home.  At this year in baseball everyone still gets a turn at bat every single inning so they all take turns running around the bases.  It took the first few games for Noah to learn that he actually has to touch each base as he runs around them.  He is learning baseball little bits at a time.

 We did get his baseball pictures back and he looked cute.  Don't mind the mismatched socks, though--haha!

 Here's his team:

About a month ago I found out about a week long video game programming class offered for kids from 9-12th grade up at Weber State University.  In order to apply they had to fill out an application and then get a teacher to fill out a recommendation sheet.  We got everything in and he was accepted. The programming camp was this past week from 9-3:30 every day with lunch included.  It was only $30 for the camp so I thought it was a great experience for not very much money.  Josh even came home with some Weber State swag.  The first time Aaron Josh wearing it he did a double take--haha!  Josh had a good time.  They learned some computer programming and had a team competition the last day.  His team lost, but they had a good time.  Josh was also super excited to get take out lunch every day, too.  Here's Josh wearing his Weber State swag on one of the days:

Everyone always tells me that all the kids look like Aaron.  So occasionally when I see parts of me shine through I get excited--like Matthew's brown eyes and when I found Noah sleeping on the couch the other afternoon with his eyes open--haha!  That's my boy.  I know it's really weird, but I do know that totally came from just me--I sleep with my eyes open as well.  The first time Aaron saw me sleep like that he thought I was dead and tried to wake me up.  Let me just say that only happened once when Aaron learned not to wake me up even if I look dead--haha!

Sophie was keeping a lookout for Noah while he slept:

Last Monday it was a really hard morning.  It was Matthew's first morning of his Summer Program since he had spent the last week at Camp K.  It was a pretty rough morning for him and me because of his rough morning if you know what I mean.  By the time he left for the day we were both in tears.  Thankfully, his support company has gotten a new behaviorist who wanted to meet with us to update Matthew's behavior plan.  She came for a visit Monday afternoon and realized that his behavior plan was only for his time during the summer program and not for at home which really concerned her after hearing about that awful morning.  Anyway, she visited with me for over an hour asking question upon question upon question about Matthew and his behaviors.  She then offered to update his behavior plan to give us ideas on how to combat the tantrums and physical aggression from Matthew at home.  I was so happy to hear that.  She, hopefully, will train us on that new plan in the next few days and I can't wait.  I had heard that autistic kids could get a lot harder during puberty and it is true and then some.  He is a hard one to know how to best work with him.  Hopefully we can find something that will work!

The next day we also had a meeting with some of Matthew's staff, his support coordinator and the summer program managers to update Matthew's goals while he is in their program.  It was a good meeting and we were able to update his goals for more age appropriateness.  It was also good to hear that one of the program managers say that Matthew is one of his favorite clients since he is so excited about everything.  That was really nice to hear since the day before was the downer meeting with the behaviorist--haha!

We did have a fun surprise last week.  As we were getting ready to start Family Home Evening our doorbell rang.  When the kids answered it was our friends who surprised us with 7 Frosties from Wendy's just to be nice.  It was pretty awesome.  The kids had fun talking/playing for a few minutes before our friends had to leave to go home and eat their Frosties before they melted.  It was a sweet surprise since the behaviorist had just left about two hours before they came and I was a bit upset still.  That made me feel a bunch better.

Matthew has been enjoying his Summer Program.  He has been able go swimming and participate in Arts in the Park, among other things.  He is loving getting out and doing so many activities.  I am glad he is able to participate in this program!

In other things Josh has started running with the high school Cross country team.  They meet twice a week for runs and then the rest of the days Josh has to work out on his own in addition to running anywhere from 4-6 miles every day except for Sunday.  Josh seems to enjoy it.  Every Sunday night they have to email the coach with their weekly miles log in along with their additional workouts and other bonus points like helping at the aid station for a marathon, running in an organized race longer than 3 miles, etc.  Josh has been doing really well.  He is at a bit of a disadvantage since he is only starting 9th grade and not officially going to school at the high school that starts at 10th grade, but he is doing all the runs and workouts like everyone else.  If he does well enough there is a chance that he will qualify for a special high altitude training camp at the end of July and possibly a meet in California in December.  We will see what happens as the season goes along.  So far I haven't needed to nag Josh about anything he just sees what he needs to do for the day and does it on his own which is nice.  Not all of my kids are like that.....I am excited for him and impressed by what he has accomplished so far.  Wahoo Josh!!

Yesterday was Father's Day and in preparation I tried to get easy foods for the kids to fix for Aaron's breakfast in bed.  I found out yesterday morning that I really need to learn how to read labels a bit closer--haha!  I was woken up when I heard the microwave not turning off and the kids arguing.  I got up to find that what I had though was precooked bacon was not precooked and needed to be microwaved.  The kids had microwaved so much bacon they had overheated the microwave and it was now out of commission until it cooled down.  Seeing as I Aaron probably wanted breakfast in time for breakfast instead of lunch I came out to help them finish cooking it using the stove and the griddle.  I thought I had bought precooked sausage as well, but it was not precooked so that needed to be cooked on the stove anyway.  Josh helped me cook the sausage and bacon, Sarah helped make the toast, Matthew got the eggs out to be scrambled and Noah and Daniel made Aaron's drink, supervised  the cooking and made Father's Day cards.  By the time we finally got everything cooked the microwave finally shut off from trying to cool itself down.  Just funny at the timing of it.  Anyway, after all that we were able to finally give Aaron breakfast in bed.  I don't think it came as much of a surprise because my kids don't know how to be quiet and our bedroom wall borders the family room wall which doesn't filter out much noise--haha!  Anyway he was glad to finally eat his delicious breakfast and open his presents.  Breakfast in bed usually turns into party breakfast for all on mom and dad's bed, but that's ok.  That's why we cooked a ton of bacon, sausage and eggs.

I asked Aaron what he wanted to Father's Day dinner and he said smoked burgers.  Seeing as I know nothing about smoking anything I told Aaron he would have to cook them which he was fine with since he LOVES having a reason to smoke anything.  He ended up smoking 22 burgers and we only had 5 leftover burgers.  Our kids really like burgers if you can't tell.  He also smoked some corn on the cob which was really good, too.  He is a great dad and husband.  I couldn't have asked for a better guy.  I am so glad we could celebrate him for Father's Day!!

I am glad to be able to celebrate my own Dad, too.  He was a great example to follow growing up and even now.  Love you, Dad!!

This morning we sent Josh off to Youth Conference down at Snow College which is where I went for one of my youth conferences way back when.  I had a lot of fun the time I went so I am sure Josh will have a great time, too.  After getting Matthew off to his summer program and Sarah getting back from dance camp I took the kids for another round at the batting cages.  Here's Sarah and Daniel having their turn.  Sarah is in the softball cage and Daniel is in the slow pitch baseball cage:

 Noah had a few turns in the slow softball cage.

I took a few turns in the baseball cage, too.  I really like hitting the balls.  Way back when, I was good at softball, but I never followed through with it.  It is still fun to play, though.

This summer has started out crazy and doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon.  We are in for a wild ride--wahoo!!

Camp K, Family Fun Day, Recital, Minnetonka Cave, Geodes, Etc.

 The last 10 days have flown by!!  Here's what we have been up to.  In finishing up wood shop class Josh made Aaron a really cool cutting board for Aaron's birthday.  It is made from cherry, oak and walnut and turned out pretty neat looking.  Aaron doesn't want to use it because it looks too nice--haha!

 The last week of school was pretty packed with the kids' end of year activities.  Josh had his band concert.  They have really gotten better as the year has progressed.

 Noah had worn himself out that day and tried to fall asleep on Grandpa during the concert:

 The next day was Noah's luau for the entire first grade classes.  Every kid was supposed to bring some fruit to share.  Since the first grade has gotten so big with so many classes, they did not invite parents to come watch this year.  That made me really sad.  That is one thing I have LOVED seeing is my other kids at their luau.  I REALLY wanted to see Noah so I stopped by after school one afternoon and asked the teacher if she needed help with cutting up and serving the fruit.  Lucky for me she did need help so I was able to see Noah at his luau.  Yay!  After getting all the fruit on to the plates we helped serve it to the kids while we listened to Hawaiian music.

 Here's my cute boy!

 After eating they performed the Hukilau dance, hula, or whatever it is called.  They followed along with one of the teachers.  Noah is front and center jamming out to the hukilau.

 They made grass skirts and flower leis for the occasion.

 After the hukilau they did a fire stick dance.  They had a movie of a fire dancer on the big screen and had the kids try and copy his movements.  It was pretty funny and cute to watch.  Noah really got in to it until one of his paper 'fires' fell off the end of his stick.  He spent the rest of the time trying to get the fire paper back onto his stick.

 I was so glad I was able to go!  Noah is my baby so I am trying to savor it as much as I can before he outgrows thinking that having his parents around is cool.

Speaking of Noah I think he has springs in his bum.  I tuck him in at night and no sooner as I go to sit down he is peeking at me from the hallway because he wants lubs.  How can I refuse a cute face like that?!

 Memorial Day weekend we ended up not going anywhere.  Saturday we did a major house clean while Aaron put the garden in.  The house really needed it so it ended up taking all day to get it cleaned up.  I spent a big chunk of time cleaning out Sarah and Noah's rooms.  Their closets really needed to be cleaned out.  Noah still had 3T shorts in it--haha!

Since we did chores all day Saturday we decided to go have some fun on Monday.  We drove out to the Dugway Geode Beds which are way out past Tooele and then some.  It was quite the drive, but it was worth it. Once we got out there, there were TONS of geodes to crack open.  Sarah was quite the geode finding master which riled Daniel up since he is a bit competitive.  We only brought two hammers which one broke half way through our visit.  We really did have a lot of fun out there!

 There were all kinds of geodes.  Most of them were smaller, but they were still fun to crack open and see what was inside.

Josh was good at spotting geodes, too:

 Matthew had fun trying to find geodes with some help.

 Matthew also needs to learn how to rub in his sunscreen a bit better--haha!

 When my hammer broke Aaron became the hammer guy so all the kids brought him their geodes.

 The beds were bigger than I thought they would be.

 Here's Daniel on top of one of the geode bed hills looking for the best one:

 It was out in the middle of nowhere, but did have a really pretty view:

 On the way back everyone fell asleep except for Matthew.  He kept me company on the drive home.

 Daniel did a bit of accidental body surfing when he tripped and fell while walking across one of the beds.  He was not happy, but in his defense it did look like it hurt:

 Here's a few of the geodes we brought home:

 It was cool to see how different all the insides were:

 Here's what the geode looked like before you split it open:

The next day we celebrated Aaron's birthday a bit early since they actual day of his birthday was going to be crazy busy.  He got one of his favorite foods for dinner which was Firecracker chicken.  He then had birthday cake made by Josh.  That's a lot of candles--haha!

 Good thing he was able to blow all the candles out the first try!

 I went to check on the kids before I went to bed and found that Noah had tucked in his Minion.  He can be so sweet sometimes!

 As school came to a close I can't believe how fast this year went by.  Here's all the kids on their first day of school (top row) compared to their last day of school this year (bottom row).  You can see the changes which makes me a bit sad...

 Noah came home with a thank you note from our trip to the zoo that I was a chaperone for.  Included was this cute picture of me with the kids I chaperoned:

 Daniel came home with the 'Marketing Award'.  I guess he incorporated pickles into each day somehow.  What a crazy kid!

 Saturday Camp Kostopulos had a Family Fun day that we were able to sign up for which was free since we had a child with disabilities.  They served us lunch and then let us try out all they had to offer.  Sarah and Noah wanted their faces painted so while we were waiting for that everyone else played basketball and Bocce:

 Noah wanted to be a ninja:

 Sarah got flowers:

 Afterward we went over and did the ropes course where we met with Smokey the Bear:

 Matthew was excited to do the ropes course:

 Sarah and Josh were excited, too:

 Daniel did the rock climbing wall first:

 Then Noah tried the rock climbing wall:

 Josh and Matthew did the ropes course:

 Sarah did the rock climbing wall after doing the ropes course:

 Daniel getting hooked up at the top of the ropes course:

 It was pretty high up so the kids were pretty brave to get up and do the course:

 HEre's Sarah repelling down from doing the high ropes course:

 After the ropes course we tried to ride horses, but the line was pretty long so we went fishing instead.  It was nice to have the counselors help since there is only me and Aaron versus 5 kids--haha!  It took all of us to keep the lines untangled, bated and fishing the whole time.  Here's Sarah:

 Here's Noah, Aaron, Sarah and Matthew:

We got a few bites, but didn't catch any fish while we were there.

There was a photographer there the same day so he took a few pictures of my kids and posted them on their Facebook page.  Here's Daniel on top of the climbing wall:

 Here's ninja Noah climbing the wall:

 After we finished at the Family Fun Day we came home and had a quick dinner and then headed off to the semi annual swimming free day for kids with autism and their families down at the South Davis Recreation Center.  A company rents out the pool for two hours in the evening for all the families.  The kids had so much fun.  Noah was especially excited since he realized he is tall enough to go down the slide by himself.  That made me a bit sad, too, but it made up for it to see how excited he was to go by himself.

We really wore the kids out that day.  WE didn't get home until 10 pm and then everyone had to shower so bedtime was late for everyone.  It took its toll because the kids were all trying not to fall asleep in church the next day--haha!

Monday Matthew went to his first week of summer camp at Camp K.  He was so excited.  He tried to get our bishop to announce in priesthood that he would be unavailable for this week since he was going to be at camp.  I went and told him he didn't have to announce that.  Anyway here's Matthew after checking in and it was time for me to leave:

 His camp counselor nicknamed Small Fry showed him to his cabin and he didn't even look back:

 I came home and fed the kids lunch and we headed out to go bowling with our free coupons.

 After bowling we went and picked up flip flops for a few of the kids and I was reminded why I HATE shopping with kids.  Noah and Daniel thought it was funny to run around and hide in the racks of clothes--ugh!  Anyway, we made it and now we have proper summer footwear--haha!

The next day we went to Lagoon.

 Wednesday Aaron took a day off of work and we headed up to Minnetonka Caves up in Idaho.  This is somewhere that I have wanted to go for a long time so it worked out perfectly.  It is up by Bear Lake and so beautiful.

 There was even a big snow pile next to the mouth of the cave which the kids were fascinated with.

 They kept climbing to the top and sliding down.  It was pretty crazy to see that much snow leftover in June!

 Good thing we brought jackets because it was 40 degrees inside the cave.  The jackets/sweatshirts sure looked funny with our shorts.

 There were LOTS of stairs--over 800 up and down.  We sure got our stair stepper workout in!

 I guess porcupines frequent the cave and there were some leftover bones to prove they were there.

 There were bats inside the cave.  Aaron was not happy about that.  He hates birds, but HATES bats even more.  When I was reading about the caves it said that although there are bats, you never see them during the day so I didn't relay that information on to Aaron.  He got a bit upset when a few bats came flying within 5 feet of his head while we were inside the cave.  Whoops!  Good thing he still loves me.

 The cave was really pretty.

 How do you like the jacket/sweatshirt shorts look?

 We did learn about stalagtites (hangs from the top) and stalagmites (builds up from the bottom).

 Did I mention the many stairs?!

 When we got out of the cave outside seemed really HOT compared to being inside the cave.  It was a pretty view:

 Driving home we drove by Bear Lake and you can't go by Bear Lake and not get a famous Bear Lake  raspberry shake!  We stopped and enjoyed our shakes which were delicious!

 Bear Lake was really pretty:

 The next day Daniel wanted to practice hitting baseballs so I took the kids to the batting cages where we all took multiple turns.  Here's Sarah practicing with the softballs:

 Josh with the medium speed baseballs:

 Daniel went between medium speed and slow speed baseballs:

 Noah did the slow softballs and actually hit a few which was pretty awesome!

 I took a few turns on the medium speed baseball and got about a 50% hitting average--wahoo!

That evening it was Sarah's dance recital.  She always loves getting dressed up, hair done and makeup on for these things.  She's a pretty girl even if I am a bit biased:

 Here she is stretching out before the recital started:

 In one of Sarah's four dances she got to do a lift which was pretty awesome!

 They did a dance with all the performance dance teams which was cool to watch.  Sarah has the Capri black pants on:

 Here's Sarah in front pulling the white fabric across the stage:

 Sarah was excited to see G&G T after the performance:

 Aaron gave Sarah her flowers on stage, but Sarah gave them back to him so she could go pick up her costumes--haha!

 Here's my pretty girl:

 Since she is on a performance team she got her head shot put in the program--wahoo!

That day also happened to be Aaron and my wedding anniversary.  Even though we were celebrating our anniversary there is no other place I would rather be than going to Noah's baseball game and Sarah's dance recital that night with Aaron.

The next morning it was time to pick up Matthew from Camp K.  Here's the picture of his group he was in while he was there:

 Matthew got the 'Being the best rocker at the talent show in Group B' award.  I guess he really rocked out to some songs for the talent show.

 They also sent him home with a journal of the things everyone in his group loved about camp.  Matthew loved swimming which is no surprise!