We have been keeping busy. Last Saturday, June 8th, was free fishing day where you could fish without a license. Grandpa T took Josh, Sarah and Noah out fishing early that morning. The started at 6 am. It was a bit chilly, but they had fun together. It helped that Grandpa brought along a package of Oreos, too--haha! They weren't very successful at fishing, but still had fun. They did catch a nice catfish and three trout, but released them after reeling them in. Grandpa T is a very patient man, too!
They went to Steed Pond which isn't too far away from our house. Luckily, they got there early so by the time they were finishing up it started getting busy.
Daniel didn't go because he was on a scout campout instead.
Josh learned how to play poker at Cross Country Camp and really enjoyed it. He was at the store the other day and saw a poker set with chips and bought it. He has been teaching the kids how to play poker. Aaron and I will play with them sometimes. It is purely for fun--we don't play with real money because you actually have to have real money to play with real money--haha! It's probably not the most spiritual thing, but as long as they aren't on their screens I am happy about that! Here's Sarah and Noah getting ready to play a game with Josh:
June 7th was national donut day. Krispie Kreme was giving out free donuts that my kids were all about. We went to two locations and the kids loved it. Aaron was at work so I saved my donut and gave it to him so he could enjoy some National Donut Day, too. Here we are waiting to pick out our donuts. Daniel is doing summer PE and they were going swimming that day right after we got home. That is why Daniel is wearing his swimming suit. Matthew was at his summer program.
Last Saturday was Aaron and my wedding anniversary. 19 years has gone by pretty fast. I still feel like I'm young, but you can see Aaron and I have definitely aged somewhat these last 19 years--haha! I guess kids will do that to you. Here we were young and naive:
2000:
Then Matthew came along 2001:
2002:
2003:
2006:
2009:
2010:
2011:
2012:
2013:
2014:
2015:
2016:
2017:
2018:
2019:
It has been an interesting journey with lots of ups and downs and even more humor as you can see in the picture above, but I am glad Aaron's always been by my side. We make a pretty great team! I wonder what the next 19 years will hold!
Last Monday I took Sarah in to get her labs drawn as per her liver doctor's request. Her liver enzyme levels are trending down which is a good thing!! The doctor is hoping it continues to trend downward until it comes into the normal range. We are hoping for that as well. The doctor said that they ruled out hepatitis with the liver biopsy which is a good thing! The doctor thinks that she has a virus that is just hanging out in the liver which is what is causing it to be inflamed. However, if the labs continue to trend downward then the body is taking care of whatever is going on. If it starts trending higher again they will have to do more testing because they are at a loss of what is going on with her. She does tend to be difficult at times at least that is what I told the doctor--haha! All kidding aside we are hoping it will just take care of itself. The next blood draw will be in a month.
Last Monday it was also finally decided that Josh's car would be totaled according to the insurance company. The frame was bent and it was more to fix than the car was worth. I am sad because that was a pretty decent car. We had to go over to the wrecking yard and empty everything out of it. I took one last goodbye picture just for Josh. We are now on the hunt for another car for Josh. Oh the joys.....
This is what all the airbags look like after they were deployed if you were wondering. I am just glad no one was hurt in the accident. Cars can be replaced, but people can't. Hopefully, Josh will learn from this going forward and be extra cautious.
These past few months have been a bit stressful for our family. I haven't stayed steady and calm the whole time, but my family still loves me. When I showed this meme to Aaron we both laughed because it was so applicable--haha!
I can definitely tell the kids are home for summer. They are eating me out of house and home. I thought I would be saving money since I wouldn't be buying school lunch--I am not so sure I am saving anything. What is it about summer that makes everyone so much more hungry?!
When I bought this sign I knew something like this was bound to happen. I think Josh is to blame, but I am not certain. I just know whoever did this couldn't find the actual Scrabble tiles that came with the board so they raided the tiles from the actual Scrabble game upstairs--DOH!! It originally said, "Love one another as I have loved you" but someone changed it to, "Fart on one another as I have farted on you"...Sigh--I don't know whether to roll my eyes, laugh or do both.
Last Thursday morning I had a meeting with Matthew's care coordinator and his staff for his after school/summer program. It is a meeting held annually to discuss issues and to make goals to work on throughout the year for Matthew. It will be an interesting year since so much will be changing. We carried a lot of the goals from last year over as well as coming up with some new ones. Matthew got to lead the meeting with some help from his care coordinator and he did a pretty good job staying on task with prompts. We will be meeting with the behaviorist for a more in-depth goal setting later, but other than that he is good to go until next years meeting.
Last week Sarah and Noah started a summer school program at their elementary. It is a summer enrichment class that is held for 3 hours M-Th. They do lots of experiments and hands on things so Sarah and Noah have really enjoyed going. They will be sad when it ends at the end of this week. Daniel is still attending Summer PE and liking it. However, they had a field trip to a pool last week. I mistakenly thought it was an indoor pool so I didn't send any sunscreen with Daniel. That was a HUGE mistake. It was an outdoor pool and he is pasty white just like me. He got FRIED. His poor shoulders and back were so sunburned. I felt horrible. He is going back to that same pool this Friday and you can bet that I will definitely be sending him with sunscreen this time. He was so miserable last week that I don't think he will forget to reapply it throughout the day! Poor guy...
Last Tuesday I got to do my first nursing shift giving TB (tuberculosis) skin tests down at the zoo. An amazing factoid is that elephants, gorillas and monkeys can be carriers of TB so the zoo staff has to be tested every year for it. Who knew?! It was an interesting shift.
This past weekend Aaron's family had a reunion. G&G M hit their 50th wedding anniversary this year so they wanted to celebrate with their entire family. Aaron found a big enough AirBNB house to rent that would fit everyone and their families in Millcreek. It started Thursday afternoon/evening and went through Sunday. Friday everyone went and walked around Temple Square and took a few pictures. Here's all the cousins except Matthew. He was at his summer program instead. I stayed back at our house with Matthew because he does not do well with big crowds of people for extended periods of time. It was just better for everyone if he wasn't there the whole time.
Since it was just me and him Friday night I took him out to McDonalds and let him order whatever he wanted to eat. He ordered a 20 piece chicken nugget, two spicy chicken sandwiches, and large fry and a large drink. He ate all of that food by himself!! I think he really does have a hollow leg!
We came over and spent Saturday with everyone, though. It started off with some pictures. Here's everyone in the Mancil family:
Everyone hasn't gotten together fully for 8 years so this was a monumental fete.
Of course Aaron can't be serious for very long so we ended up with this stellar family picture of just us. Keeping it classy, right?! Haha!
After that we grabbed some lunch and then headed up to Snowbird ski resort. Jill was nice enough to buy everyone a multi pass to participate in their summer activities. We got to do the Alpine Slide, the Gondola up to the top of Snowbird, the Vertical Drop, the Ropes Course, the Obstacle Course, and the bungee trampolines. It was a lot of fun. Here's Daniel riding the ski lift up to the top of the Alpine Slide:
Aaron and Matthew were in the lift behind me:
I got to ride with my buddy, Noah:
The Alpine slide are still just as much fun as I remember! Noah was too scared to ride by himself so he rode with me the first few times. Here's Daniel, Matthew, Aaron and Josh finishing up their turn at the bottom of the slide:
We then rode the ski lift back up to do the Vertical Drop activity. It is kind of like bungee jumping only you aren't attached to a rubber band. You jump or walk off the ledge and free fall for about 5 feet when the rope catches and then slowly lowers you to the ground. Matthew had no qualms about going first which really surprised me. He did great! Here he is getting ready to walk off :
Here he is from my perspective walking off the 3 story ledge:
Noah went next and did great, too:
I was supposed to go next, but chickened and sent Aaron instead. He stuttered a bit, but it didn't take him long to walk off the ledge.
It took me a long while to get up the nerve to do it, but I eventually did. However, I never repeated this attraction while we were up there, though. It took me a few minutes being on the ground before I stopped shaking from fear.
Josh and Daniel had their turn:
The kids had fun jumping on the bungee trampolines. Here's Noah and Daniel:
Sarah liked the rock wall:
Here's Sarah and Josh riding the ski lift up to do the ninja obstacle course at the top.
We then all rode the huge aerial tram up 2,900 vertical feet and 1.6 miles to the top of Hidden Peak. There was a definite temperature difference when we got to the top. There was still quite a bit of snow left, too. Here's a few of the cousins on the tram ride:
Here's Aaron and me at the top with so much snow!!
We were sorely underdressed and COLD!! Josh even did a snow angel. He didn't find it funny when I threw a snowball at him while he was doing his snow angel, though.
Daniel and Noah:
We didn't spend a lot of time at the top since it was so cold and snowy. When we got back down we did some more activities. Matthew really liked the Alpine Slide:
Aaron and I rode up the lift to do the Alpine Slide and he thought he'd be goofy again:
They won't let people race anymore which is probably a good thing, though. However, it didn't stop Aaron from trying to go as fast as he could which ended in disaster. He was going really fast and didn't clear a turn. His sled flipped and he slid to a halt down the slide on his shoulder, elbows and knees. I am sure it was a spectacular fail because he even put some holes in his shirt and had a HUGE burn on his elbows. This is the third time he has been to the Alpine Slides and three out of three times he has done this exact same thing. You think he would learn his lesson--haha!
The picture doesn't even do his wound justice. It really looked huge and painful. He has to keep it bandaged because it oozes and is gross:
By the end of the day Noah finally got up enough courage to ride down the slide in his own sled. When he got to the bottom he LOVED it. Unfortunately by that time it was time to leave which he was sad about--poor guy!
Josh and I got to do the ropes course together. Then Josh did the Vertical Drop:
Sarah did the Vertical Drop:
Daniel and Noah trying out the other set of bungee trampolines:
Daniel even got fancy and tried a flip:
I even tried the bungee trampoline. I got my old body to do some front and back flips. I felt pretty fancy even though after about 4 flips I was done--haha! Here they are hooking me up on the trampoline:
After a fun afternoon it was time to go. We stopped by and all had dinner at Cafe Rio in Salt Lake. Then Matthew and I headed back to our house while everyone else stayed at the AirBNB in Millcreek.
On the drive home is when I discovered I had forgotten to put sunscreen on. DOH!! Owie!!
Matthew was exhausted and quickly helped me get his gear together for Camp K which started for him Monday morning.
The rest of the kids enjoyed watching a movie and staying up way late:
Everyone had a nice time together and made lots of memories.
Aaron made it home Sunday morning with the kids. We had a few hours and then went to my brother's house to celebrate Father's Day with my side of the family. We had LOTS of family togetherness this weekend to say the least, but it was a good time for all.
Monday morning Matthew got to check in to Camp K for his week of travel camp down to Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon. He was pretty excited. It was all I could do to get him away from his counselors so I could get a picture. I am glad he loves Camp Kostopulos!
I guess Daniel and Josh got a hold of my phone and tried their hand at some panoramic pics or I should say FAILS. Looks like they had fun with it, though--haha!
