Closing Ceremonies, Car Wreck, Camp K, Sampling, Eyebrows, Soccer, Zoo, Clinics, High Altitude Camp, Sarcastic Teen

Another two weeks have flown by.  Sarah and Noah finished up Weber State Prep.  They had a big closing celebration with a ceremony.  

Before the program started you could wander around and look at the different things the students have been working on the past 6 weeks.  We got to see Sarah and Noah show us how to work the Sphero robot and the programming they used to get it to work.

Sarah came up with her own board game:

Noah showed us his mathematic Truth tables they learned about in his Logic class:

Throughout the past 6 weeks they had a photographer go around and take random pictures of the students. It was fun to go through and pick out a few of Sarah and Noah during their classes and free time up on Weber State University campus.

The above picture of the palm trees was made by Sarah who programmed a robot that holds a marker and makes designs. The middle figure made of triangles and diamonds was a pineapple.  I thought it was pretty cool.

It was fun to see what they learned and talk with their teachers.

Here they are getting their certificates.  Sarah finished the program after three years and got high honors.  Noah liked the first year and is going to return again next year for year 2.  Here’s the kids and their cohorts getting their certificates during the closing ceremonies:

Speaking of Noah he lost his last and final baby tooth.  

Matthew finished up his last week of Camp K for the summer.  He was so glad Camp K was open this summer.  He got to help them with any navigation services they needed whether they wanted them or not--haha!  He had a great time.

At the end of camp they awarded ‘GPS MAN’ with the Best Runner award--haha!

A new Fiiz soda shop opened up by us.  To celebrate their opening all their regular drinks were $1 and their specialty drinks were $2.  We stopped by that afternoon and got a bunch we have wanted to try, but were too cheap to pay full price for and did a taste test.  They were pretty yummy!

We got to chat with Josh on his P-day two days ago.  He was doing great.  He called while Daniel was at work.  Luckily, Daniel was able to join in on the call during a break.  Aaron had joined in earlier, but had to leave to go to work.

Josh is doing great.  However, he was involved in a car accident on his way to church in downtown Chicago.  It was NOT his fault.  He was driving and was T-boned at an intersection when the other driver ran a red light.  Thankfully, he and his companion were okay.  Their truck had to be towed.

Here’s the driver that ran the red light:

Josh was not even going to tell us about it. What?! He didn’t want us to worry.  Well this makes me worry even more because it leaves me wondering about what other things he is not telling us about....

Anyway, I can’t dwell on that thought so I will just have to put my trust in his protection as a missionary, keep him in our daily prayers, and hope things go smoothly.

Last week Noah, Sarah and Daniel all wanted to go to Lagoon-A-Beach waterpark.  We all had an open day so we packed up and got over there about 10:30 am.  Unfortunately, I didn’t check the water park times and it didn’t open until noon.  DOH!!  Luckily, the rest of Lagoon was open so we just wandered around and went on a few rides while we waited.  The kids decided they wanted to ride Samurai.  As you can see from the video I sat this ride out.  I didn’t want to barf...haha:

When it was time for the waterpark to open, we wandered back over to the entrance where there was a HUGE line that wrapped around the building a few times.  Unfortunately, Daniel had to go to work that afternoon so even if we got through the HUGE line to get into the waterpark, we wouldn’t have been able to stay for very long inside.  We decided to bag it and to try the water park again another day when we were able to have some more time.  On the way home I did stop by and get some Slurpees.  I am happy to say no one got ’Slurped’, but I don’t think the people that came before us were that lucky judging by what the floor looked like--haha!

We had a ward party last week.  We had it at a city park and it was fun.  They had a live band play in which two of our fellow ward members were a part of.  They did do a Limbo contest.  Sarah participated, but got out about half way through the contest.  Here she is waiting for her next turn before she got out:

Summer has been a bit slow work-wise, but it is definitely picking up.  I re-certified for CPR again a few weeks ago.  I also worked this entire last weekend.  Friday was a 7 hour shift and Saturday ended up being 12 hours.  It was at a community event--The Care Fair put on by the Junior League of Salt Lake City--that was open to everyone, but geared to lower income individuals. They offered multiple services from over 50 community partners that included free medical and dental services as well as many other services.  I got to give vaccines to those who needed them ranging from infants to senior adults.  Many of the people there could not speak English so thankfully they had interpreters spread throughout to help with communication.  I told Josh on Monday I really could have used his translating help that past weekend--haha!  It was a busy two days.  

I have always prided myself on my good eyesight.  I still don’t wear glasses or contacts.  However, it is slowly changing....We had to reconstitute the infant dose of the Pfizer covid vaccine and I was trying to read the label which was really tiny.  I have been fine in the past to read it, however, that day I had to take a picture of it to enlarge it in order to read it.  It was a sad day--haha!  In my defense the writing not the label is quite small as you can see:

Sarah tried out for dance teams this past Saturday.  She was pretty nervous, but she did fine.  She is happy with her new team and is looking forward to dance starting up again soon.

The other day we were having some fun and decided to draw some eyebrows on Sophie.  

They didn’t last very long, but they were funny.

Noah signed up for fall soccer.  Since he is starting Jr. High they do a try out type thing.  Everyone still gets on a city team, but they have the players try out to show their skills in order to make the teams even.  Noah tried out two weeks ago.  He was a bit nervous, but did fine.  Here’s some pictures from the try outs:

I had a work party Monday evening at the zoo.  We couldn’t make it until later because Noah had soccer.  We squeezed in the last few minutes they were serving dinner so that was nice.  However, since it was a work party we got to stay at the zoo a couple hours even after it had closed.  It was so nice.  There weren’t very many people there and we got to get close up to the animal enclosures to see them.  It was also cool and not blazing hot.  It was a fun visit!  Daniel had a cross country practice so he wasn’t with us, but we did have Sarah and Noah. Here’s the lions:

Monkeys--my kids included--haha!

Elephants:

Bats--Aaron’s favorites.  Just kidding he HATES them.

Sarah and Noah even got to ride the carousel:

It was fun:

On the way home from the zoo we drove by the Salt Lake Temple still under construction:

I had two other mostly Spanish speaking clinics yesterday.  I took a picture of the vacunas (vaccine) sign and sent it to Josh.  He keeps telling me I should learn Spanish.  I guess I should...

Daniel left for High Altitude Cross Country camp this morning.  Since they got a new coach this summer we were wondering if they were going to go.  They were able to put it all together in two weeks which is pretty crazy, but good.  They left this morning.  They go and camp in Marsh Lake which is about 3 hours away and 9400 feet in altitude at the campsite.  Then they do running exercises for a few days.  The main day they all run/hike 23 miles to Red Castle.  It is pretty intense.  I hope Daniel is okay.  He hasn’t been doing much running this summer so I am sure the running part is not going to be super fun for him.   He will enjoy the other activities--kayaking, game playing etc. though.  Here’s Daniel wearing the backpack as I was driving away after I dropped him off.  I hope he is okay.

We have not escaped the sarcastic teenage years with any of our kids so far.  Sarah is now in that super fun stage...You can see from our family text thread this morning.  Aaron asked her via text to do her chore of mowing the lawn:

Then we will sometimes get this fun meme:

Good thing we love them....

Noah got the chance to go to the Ogden Temple with the Deacons Quorum to do baptism for the dead this afternoon.  He was able to print of some family names to do which was cool.  He said he had a good experience.  Here’s a picture of the boys outside the temple:

I love inspirational quotes.  I came across this one a few days ago and really liked it: