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!!