Camp K, July 4th, Parade, Date, Checks, Hamburgers and S’mores

We have been just doing our thing.  Matthew was excited to attend another week at Camp Kostopolos two weeks ago. Camp K is a camp for special needs individuals of all abilities ranging from wheelchair bound to cognitive disabilities to other special needs.  It is an amazing program that Matthew has participated in for over 10 years--minus the two years they didn’t hold camp due to Covid.  Anyway, this time it was 5 days of Travel Camp.  In the past they will go to different spots around the area and camp for 5 days--like Zion National Park, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, etc.  However, this year was different. It was still a Travel Camp, but they stayed local.  He spent every day down in Utah County, but instead of camping at a campground in a tent, they came back to Camp K at night to sleep in a cabin.  I am guessing since they are just barely up and running again this year after a two year Covid break, they probably wanted to play it safe due to the still unpredictable nature of Covid.  Matthew was excited either way.  When I checked him in he was bouncing off the walls.  He kept running around trying to chat with all the camp leaders to tell them he knew all the roads they would need to take and that they needed to consult him, The Human GPS, so he could tell them which roads to drive on.  They knew exactly who Matthew was because as soon as we walked through the camp to check in A LOT of the camp counselors kept saying, “Hi, Human GPS!!”  I am assuming he left an impression from his last residential stay two weeks ago--haha!  Here’s Matthew as I dropped him off:

Matthew’s house manager at his group home has accepted another job and will be leaving.  We are sad to see him go because he was so good and patient with Matthew.  The new lady taking his place seems very nice and good with Matthew.  Hopefully, she will be just as patient because Matthew is a bit high energy/maintenance--haha!  We had Matthew’s annual meeting with his disabilities providers.  We reviewed his last years goals and revised some goals set some new ones.  He is really enjoying his independence.  The decision to have him move out was one of the toughest decisions Aaron and I have ever made, but it had really been one of the best decisions for Matthew.  He is thriving!

Last weekend we had a double date with G&G T.  We went out to dinner and then to see the play ‘Legally Brunette’ at The Desert Star Playhouse.  It was a fun night.  Here we are the play:

Grandma T even got to participate when the actors came out into the audience.  One of the guys put a lei around her neck.  It was funny.  We had a fun night.

Daniel’s car has a slow oil leak.  It still runs fine, but you just have to check the oil level a bit more often than usual.  I guess the last time Daniel checked the oil he forgot to put the oil cap back on.  He realized he was missing the cap when he checked under the hood during a break at work and there was oil spilled all over everything under the hood.  DOH!  Good thing we found the cap on the floor of the garage still intact. Fun times....Needless to say his oil level was low--haha!

Meat prices have been so high lately.  Aaron did find a good priced brisket two weeks ago.  So he picked it up for Sunday dinner.  However, a brisket is a ton of meat.  Ever since Josh left we don’t go through nearly as much food.  So after Sunday dinner there was still quite a bit of meat leftover.  Aaron was awesome and made some beef enchiladas with it that were really yummy:

It was finally Sarah’s turn for a physical/check up from the pediatrician.  She is doing great.  She is 5’and 5.5” which she found disappointing.  She wants to be taller than me, but hasn’t hit that quite yet.  She finally finished her second round of the Hepatitis B series immunization.  She didn’t get an immunity to the first round so she had to repeat the series again.  Hopefully this time she will have an immunity.  Keeping my fingers crossed.  She made me get her ice cream on the way home since she had to get shots, too.  She is just like Noah and Daniel!  We stopped by and tried the new strawberry Frosty from Wendy’s.  I highly recommend it--it’s pretty good!

Sarah also had a visit to the dentist.  I am trying to get everyone’s check ups in during the summer so they don’t have to miss any school.  She is doing great and had not cavities which was good news.  She also found out that she is in Weber State Prep with the dentist’s son.  They are in different cohorts, but still chat quite a bit.  That was a random coincidence.  Sarah is loving her ballet Pointe Class.  She is starting to build up some calluses on her feet which are sore but worth it.  Noah, Sarah and I also got to have an orthodontist appointment together.  I feel like I really stick out at the orthodontist’s office since I am about 30 years older than everyone else there....Oh well it will be worth it when I finish with my braces--at least I keep telling myself that--haha!

Noah had a young mens activity last week.  They did a Nerf Gun battle.  Noah was having a lot of fun and got really into it.  That was until he was ducking down during an attack and bonked his head into a metal chair.  He came home with a nice bruised goose egg on his forehead:

He said he had fun, though.  The picture doesn’t do it justice--it looked pretty ouchie.

Noah is still undecided if he likes Weber State Prep.  But he is enjoying the field trips.  He did a bottle rocket field trip last week and today he gets to go to the Hill Air Force Base museum.  Sarah got to do the Rock Wall last week on her field trip.  I think Weber State Prep is an awesome program and I am glad they get to participate.  Noah also is loving learning how to cook.  He made a double batch of cookies and they didn’t last very long in the house.

Josh’s companion did a video for a Chicago Facebook page for the church.  While watching the short video I spotted Josh alongside his companion walking in downtown Chicago.  It wasn’t hard to tell which one Josh was--haha!

Speaking of Chicago did you know that the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day off takes place in Chicago?  We watched it as a family just to see if we recognized any landmarks.  We did send Josh a picture of this beach on Lake Michigan to see if he recognized it.  He is currently serving in a Young Single Adult ward and they do play beach volleyball occasionally.  He said he didn’t recognize it, but who knows.  Here’s the scene from the movie with the Lake Michigan beach:

Josh got a new Mission President and Companion this past week.  He is sad to see President and Sister Shumway leave, but excited to get to know the new President and companion coming in--President and Sister Chase.  They had their first meeting a few days ago.  I did get to see a picture from the Illinois Chicago Mission Facebook page.  Again Josh isn’t hard to spot. You just have to look at the tallest kid usually on the back row and 99% of the time it’s him--haha!

July 4th was this week.  We celebrated by doing our usual things.  We went to the parade in the morning and then the local city celebration where we played BINGO.  We didn’t win anything this year, though, but it was still fun to play.  Then we had a yummy dinner and watched fireworks.  In the morning we had to get up early to get Sarah ready to be in the parade with her dance team.  Daniel wore some patriotic red, white and blue that just so happened to by a Ferris Bueller’s Day off shirt--haha!

Speaking of Daniel he has been working a ton.  He got in over 40 hours last week and is hoping to get quite a few hours this week.  He likes getting the big paychecks.  On his off times between shifts it is usually just me and Daniel since Sarah and Noah are at Weber State Prep from 8-3:15ish.  Last week we went and played some Pickleball.  We also went to the library to check out a few books, but we got to play a game of Battleship they had laid out, too.  Then Daniel was able to go out to lunch at Cafe Rio and Aaron and me.  Even though he is getting the big paychecks he still expects Aaron and I to foot the lunch bill which we do--haha!  

Anyway, back to the 4th of July...Here’s all the girls that Sarah got to be in the parade with:

We were ready for the parade to start:

Matthew was a good candy collector, but got super excited when someone came through that he knew like this Sheriff on the motorcycle who gave him knuckles while saying, “Hi, Matthew!”  We still don’t know who he is, but obviously he and Matthew know each other--haha!

Here’s my cute girl in the parade:

Afterword, we headed over to the city celebration and played BINGO.

We also ran into our friends the Einzingers who hung out with at BINGO for a while which was fun.  After bingo was over we started heading home and walked by this working life size replica of Lightning McQueen.  That was pretty cool to see:

 G&G T were able to join us later for hamburgers and then outside around the fire pit for some s’mores:

Then we went over to watch the fireworks.  

All of us were pretty exhausted and short tempered with each other by the end of the day, but it was a good day.

Sarah had Girl’s Camp bright and early the next morning.  We had packed and dropped off her camp gear the previous afternoon on the 4th.  She met over at the church at 7 am to leave for Heber Valley Camp.  She was excited to go since this will be her first time ‘camping’.  Yes it will be in a cabin, but I am just glad she is able to go since the previous years were shut down due to Covid.  I am sure she will have a good time.  Luckily for me they asked Aaron to provide lunch for the girls today.  That means Aaron has been smoking 4 pork shoulders for pulled pork sandwiches since yesterday afternoon on his smokers.  Aaron and I will get to drive up to drop it all off today and hopefully be able to check in with Sarah.  I am sure she is doing fine, but I will feel better to see her with my own two eyes.

The first night she was gone I went to tuck in Noah for bed with Sophie.  After tucking in Noah, Sophie went and jumped on Sarah’s empty bed and didn’t move until I went and picked her up.  I think she misses her.

Sophie loves this pumpkin toy.  She has already pulled out the squeaker part and some of the stuffing, but she still carries it around everywhere.  What a weird dog!

In our family’s spare time we have been watching the show Stranger Things.  It has been interesting.  I am undecided whether I like it, but the rest of the family loves it.

As for me I finally made an appointment with the dermatologist for a cancer screening.  Skin cancer runs in our family with one person even having the very beginning stages of a melanoma.  It was caught before it was bad so that was good.  However, that means that the family history is now there.  As humiliating as it is to be checked over I am glad I got it done.  There was only one suspicious mole which was removed.  I got the biopsy back and thankfully it was benign.  I need to be better at wearing sunscreen, though.  Here I am in my make-up-less glory waiting to be looked over:

I am so glad that is done and that everything looks fine.