Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! My camera is back! You just wouldn't believe how much I missed it. Jef finally called his sister, even though I was positive I hadn't taken it out of the car at her house, but it turns out that I did. Just another sign of my age and consequent senility setting in. So Melica mailed it back to me, and it arrived yesterday. Hooray! It was fun looking at all those new cameras, though, and it did make me kind of want one. But in the meantime I can go on madly snapping pictures as usual. Hooray!
After a long night of putting stickers on ribbons - way back during swim season - funny things can happen. I was with a group of friends, and we were all tired. We were all hot, and we were all getting a little silly. Almost everyone had gone home, but we were still waiting for the last few stickers to put on ribbons so they could be passed out first thing in the morning.
So what do you do while you're waiting? You start daring each other to do stuff, of course. Stuff like pushing someone into the pool, or like pretending to fall in the pool. So when Mindy offered me $10, I thought sure. Why not?
So did a fabulous job of "falling" into the pool, pretending to be shocked and half drowned, and pulling my soaking wet self out.
But then my good friends said they hadn't gotten a very good picture, and could I just pose on the edge as if I were falling in so they could get a picture? Oh sure, no problem.
Let this be a lesson to you: Never trust your friends. Especially near water. And most especially if they think they've earned $10 of entertainment out of you.
So here's a picture of me going into the pool. The second time.
Soccer season has begun at our house! This means that we have four soccer games every Tuesday and Thursday.
Or at least that was the plan...
On the first day of soccer, the schedule said that Robyn, Ben, and Emily all had games at 5:00, and Cannon's game was at 6:30. But, I was running late (surprise, surprise) and so I sent Jef up to the soccer field with a few kids while I finished getting the little girls ready. I told Jef that Cannon would just hang out with him until I got there.
Well, Jef must not have been listening. Because when I showed up at the soccer fields ten minutes later, I noticed Cannon playing in a soccer game on the K-1 field! But his game wasn't supposed to be until 6:30! Turns out that Jef thought Cannon had a 5:00 game like all the rest, so he just pointed out the right field, and sent him on his way. (Did I mention that there were three different games happening on that field, and Cannon had never met his coach or his team?) But that didn't bother Cannon! He just found a team, and started playing! He had a great time! Thankfully he had picked a team with a nice coach who just let him play and figured his parents would show up eventually.
So we finished watching that game, and went our rounds to the other fields to watch all the other kids. Until...
Robyn had a band thing to rent instruments and stuff at 6:00. Her game got over at 6:15. Cannon's game (with his real team) started at 6:30. I had fifteen minutes to get over to the middle school and back, and I figured I could make it a lot faster without the five extra kids. So Jef took Lydia to his class with him, and I told the others to sit tight, and I'd be back in ten minutes for Cannon's game. Nice plan, don't you think?
Too bad it didn't work.
When I returned ten minutes later, my children were nowhere to be seen. But never fear! I had taken Jef's cell phone, and given the kids mine, and all I had to do was call them. So I did. Boy was I surprised when the voice that answered was not one of my children.
Apparently, in my absence Ben had decided it was time for Cannon's game, and he'd better go get started. So Ben took him over to the 2nd-3rd grade field, found a game, and put him in! Cannon's such a trooper, he just ran right on to the field, and started playing! (Keep in mind that Cannon is one of the shortest kids in the K-1 league. He would have been painfully out of place with the 2nd and 3rd graders.)
Thankfully, my friend Nicole had a boy playing in that game, so she managed to get Cannon off the field before he was trampled, and then noticed that the phone in Cannon's pocket was ringing. (Correct me if I've got this story wrong, Nicole. And have a I thanked you yet?) I had her send Cannon over to the other field, and we finally - on his third attempt - got him into the right game with the right team. Whew!
Good thing Cannon loves soccer so much. His comment on our way home was, "I wish I had another soccer game to play in tonight!" Apparently three wasn't enough for him. But lemme tell ya - it was enough for me!
My camera is missing. Can you hear the sob in my voice? I'm so sad! The last time I saw it is when we went to the wedding in Heber City. While in Heber City, I did run into a grocery store for a second without locking my car. Could it have disappeared then? Or did it happen after we were home again? I'm not sure, but I haven't seen it since last Saturday. So, my blog will be picture-less for a while, until my camera is either found or replaced. I know, I can feel your sorrow from here. But it's going to be ok, because maybe I'll get a new camera!
But, of course, the whole problem with replacing my camera is that I probably wouldn't be satisfied with a similar camera to the one I lost. Oh, no no. Times have changed! It's time to upgrade! I need more zoom! More megapixels! More features! Which, of course, all adds up to... More money! >Sigh<
On the morning of the first day of school, I was busy doing something, ( I can't remember what), and decided I would just take first-day-of-school pictures after the kids got home. Jef was horrified at the thought, so he took the camera and took pictures of three oldest as they left.
So here are Ben and Emily on their way to 4th and 3rd grade: Robyn off to 6th grade (Middle School!) Cannon's first day of Kindergarten was a few days later. He has been loving it so far. Except for the day he had a substitute. He didn't like that at all. And, of course, if Cannon is getting his picture taken, then Jennie and Lydia will want in, too.
One day when it was still summer, I got up early and went out to work in the garden before the kids were up. Well, you know how it is. There was a lot to do, and time just got away from me. But I knew the kids were up when Ben came out to the garden, and said, "Hey Mom, I just took a picture. Wanna see?"
The other day I just happened upon a killer deal on cheese. I also just happened to be on the phone with my mom when I found it, and so I had to get some for her, too. I ended up buying 23 pounds of cheese! (At about .41/lb, in case you were wondering.) My kids thought it was great! What a nice mother I was to buy them some new building blocks.
Also during the last couple weeks of summer we had a couple of violent wind storms. One of these wind storms knocked a branch out of our tree and smashed the trampoline. Once again, my kids thought this was great! Our trampoline has never been so popular. Thankfully Superman (aka Jef, but don't tell) came along and bent it back into shape for us. Thank you, Superman!
Because of Jef's crazy schedule this summer, it became obvious that if we were going to get a camping trip in this summer, then it was up to me. So the kids and I went up and explored Castle Rock and picked out the perfect spot. The next week we packed up, hitched up the tent trailer, and off we went. Just me, six kids, and a tent trailer for three nights. Not one of my more sane moments, I'm afraid.
But it turned out great, because I managed to back the trailer into just the right spot, only hitting one tree in the process. Then Jef got so nervous that he ditched on of his evening classes and came up to set up the ten trailer for me. Yes!
The best part about our spot was the little creek running right past it. Ben and Cannon spent most of their time floating things. But then Ben made himself a home-made fishing pole, and really really really really wanted to try it out in some deeper water. So we headed down-stream and found the coolest little spot for Ben to fish.Unfortunately, he didn't catch anything. This could have been for two reasons. One: he didn't use any bait. Two: His brothers and sisters were swimming and being crazy about twelve feet away from his spot.So Ben soon gave up and got in the water. He was very proud of himself for being able to do the butterfly against the current and actually making progress.
Robyn spent most of the camping trip reading. The only part that got a little lonely was in the evening. But luckily we only had one night like that. Both of the other two nights we had guests. My family one night and some friends the other. Thanks guys for a super time!
We couldn't possibly pass July without mentioning swim team. Ben has always been half fish, and I'm so glad we've found an outlet for his obsession with water.
(This being the exact opposite of Robyn, who still doesn't like to get her hair wet while at the pool.)
Ben did an amazing job, even completing his first 100m IM at his last meet, and getting second place!
And of course, the rest of us had a great time. Spending half the summer in a sweltering hot indoor pool without being allowed to get in the water. Who wouldn't love that?
Since I'm behind anyway, let's just pretend like the 4th of July and the 24th looked exactly alike. Since they mostly did.
So for both holidays, we sat and watched a parade. The kids got tons of candy, but more on the 24th.The best part of the parade was Robyn playing the cymbals with the high school band. No, you haven't lost track of time. At least not that much time. Robyn will only be in 6th grade next year. But the band was lacking a cymbals player, and since we're friends with one of the percussion players, she recruited Robyn. But the best part of the 4th was The Field of Stars, a locally written and produced patriotic musical. I must say that most of the play was incredibly long and boring. There were 33 songs, which was at least 20 too many. But the feedback I got from everyone was that Jef was the best part. I'm glad the whole town agrees with me. Jef was hilarious as the King of England. He was obviously meant to be royalty. Which works for me, since if he's the king, that makes me...Emily was also in the play, and did a fabulous job of knowing all the words to all 33 songs. Of course she would forget her hat on the one night I remembered my camera, but at least it makes her easier to pick out in a picture.
OK, I have my weird computer quirk worked out so that I can once again shrink my pictures without huge hassle. Whew! So... what did I miss?
I guess most important is that Robyn had a birthday way back in May. She turned ELEVEN!!! She got an mp3 player, and it's hardly been out of her ear since. She had a fun party with her friends, where she was pampered and painted and fussed over. Perfect birthday treatment.
Then, of course, there was the dance recital. My girls danced beautifully, as usual. Sometime in there, the boys took a trip to Wah-Wah Hard Pan, which is a vast expanse of... nothing. Absolutely nothing.But it's great if you need a nice big place to ride your scooters
.But I couldn't possibly leave out the super fun trip I took at the beginning of June with my three sisters and my mom. I even had a sister-in-law show up for a day. It was so fun! We took a "before" picture (Katie is NOT supposed to be smiling, here)...Then we went and got our hair cut & colored, got manicures and/or pedicures, did lots of shopping, and then took an "after" picture in front of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.
Wow! I seem to have missed all of June - the best month of the year! Don't worry, I'll catch up. But right now I have a story to tell you. The other day the kids went over to the playground at the elementary to play. I went over a little bit later to check and see how they were doing. The bigger kids were running through the sprinklers, so I just sat down by Jennie, who was picking clover blossoms. (Armfuls of blossoms of blue. Except they weren't blue.) Anyway, so Emily gets done and runs over to where we are. Except that half way to us, she suddenly slows way down and starts acting really weird. She's looking at the grass, looking sideways at us, coming toward us in a wandering way... Finally when she was about 35 feet away, I said, "Emily, are you looking for something?" She looked up, squinted at me, and said, "Oh, it's you!" and ran over.
One of those stomach-dropping, someone-just-sat-on-my-chest moments.
So we took Emily to the optometrist, and sure enough. He said anything past about 10 feet is probably very blurry in Emily's eyes. I asked her if she could see the board in school, and she said no. As in "No, of course not. Can anyone?"
Guilt. Guilt. Guilt.
Jef and I have never needed glasses, so it's not something I've been watching for. But now, after a long two-week wait, she can finally see, and she looks so cute.
By the way, if there's anyone out there who also wears glasses, I highly recommend zennioptical.com. After paying shipping costs, Emily's glasses cost me a total of....
(drum roll, please)
$12.95
Which definitely helped to ease the pain of this experience.
