Eleven

Another July, another birthday for Henry.  He celebrated his 11th birthday in style today.  He had a bowling party at the Cache Valley Fun Park.  He and his friends had a fantastic time!

I've never done a party at the Fun Park before and I have to say I see the appeal.  You pay a set fee and just show up.  They take care of the food, drink, cake, napkins, plates, cups and activities.  They are also very flexible.  I ended up with one more kid than I originally planned for (everyone was able to come to the party, which doesn't happy too often) and they were happy to accommodate us.  I added more pizza (9 boys and 1 pizza didn't seem like enough at lunchtime for some reason) and soda and we had extra time at the end of the party and I was able to add an activity with no hassle. 

The best part - no cleanup.  Henry normally has his parties at home and by the time we set up, get everything ready, have the party and get cleaned up, I'm tired.  Not today.  I just watched the boys bowl and eat and act like 11 year old boys.  It was fun and easy.

After the party Henry wanted to spend some of his birthday money, so off to the mall we went.  He bought a new Jazz jersey (shocking, I know) and is contemplating a cover for his iPod Touch.  Jay and I gifted him an older one for his birthday.  The new ones are pushing $200 and while we couldn't see spending that much, he seems to like the one we gave him.  It's used but new to him.  He has downloaded a few apps and games and has a playlist of music that he likes.  He seems to be enjoying it. 

So happy birthday to Henry!  He is firmly in the tween years and getting ready to start middle school in the fall.  He is out of Cub Scouts and on to Boy Scouts.  I don't want to say that he is starting to be interested in girls just yet, but I will say that girls came up in conversation among Henry and his friends waaaaayyyy more than I am used to.  Oh, they still talked about sports and Nerf guns, but they also talked about girls.  And I really don't know what to say about that.

Countdown

I bet you think I am counting down to the start of school, right?  Well, no.  Not exactly.  School does start in a month or so but there is plenty of summer fun to be had until then so I'm not there yet.  Give me a few weeks.  Next week is Henry's birthday, then my birthday, then a fun overnight trip to SLC with the kids, then school starts.  Holy moly, that's coming up quick.  Oh well.  Maybe I will start a countdown, just for fun.

No, I'm counting down to the vacation that Jay and I are taking together.  Just us.  No kids.  To Paris.  Paris, France - not Paris, Idaho.  We have been planning this trip for probably 18 months at this point.  All those trips Jay has taken over the past ten years to China and Australia and Panama and Mexico and wherever in the continental US are paying off big time for the Wrights.  Well, for two of the Wrights.  The younger three will be in school and therefore aren't invited.  Actually they wouldn't be invited if there weren't in school.  They will be having a big party with their newly retired Grandma, who is coming to hang out with them while we are traipsing around France (well, Paris mostly with side trips to Normandy and Versailles).

My passport expired a few years ago (not much need for one of those lately) so I had to reapply and the government tells me that it'll be here in plenty of time.  I realized that I don't want to wear my mom jeans and hoodies while sightseeing so I've started buying a few things to wear that hopefully will class me up a bit (I've had to enlist my personal shopper Melissa to help me out here, but she's good and I know she is up to the task).  Jay is narrowing down our eating choices so that we can maximize our culinary experience.  And we are planning to walk and eat and see whatever we can while we are there.  It will be awesome.

I'm a little nervous, though.  We haven't been away from the kids overnight in several years.  I know that they will be fine and probably wish we could stay away a little longer once they realize that Grandma's fondest wish is to spend time with them like this and she will likely spoil them like only a grandmother can.  I'm just a bit of a control freak about my kids.  I have a bad feeling that I'll cry a little when we drive away.  But then I'll be fine.

Because I'll be wandering the streets of Paris with my favorite person in the world on our 15th wedding anniversary.

Only 72 days to go.

Summer Happenings

Summer is in full swing.  I can't believe it's already mid-July.  The weather tells me it's summer (it's been hot here for a week or so).  Baseball season tells me it's summer.  I guess it's summer.

Actually baseball season is almost over.  Henry is in his 2nd year of kid-pitch little league baseball.  After a rough start, his team ended up finishing with a winning season.  Henry got to play First Base (his preferred position) all year, except when he was pitching.  Yes, he is turning into quite a pitcher.  At this age you just really want them to throw strikes.  It's amazing how quickly a game can turn into WALK-WALK-WALK and before you know it you've walked a bunch of runs home.  He does a pretty good job and had a good time pitching, I think.  I still think he prefers playing First Base and honestly he's pretty good.  He could definitely improve his hitting but got better as the season went on.  Next year he'll be playing with older kids again (this year he was the oldest kid on his team) and I think he'll really enjoy it.  I hate to say it, but playing with younger kids frustrates him sometimes.  He gets frustrated when they don't take baseball as seriously as he does.  He gets frustrated when they don't know quite what to do in certain situations.  But it's good for him and gives him a chance to be a bit of a leader. 

William still has one game left to play in his final year in Coach Pitch.  Coach Pitch is so much more laid back than the league Henry is in.  The kids get plenty of chances to hit the ball - I've seen coaches throw up to 15 or so pitches to one kid just so the kid can get a hit.  It's fairly rare for kids to get any outs because they aren't that good at fielding or throwing yet.  So when they move up it can be a hard transition.  I know William loves baseball so I think he'll be OK.  He has watched  Henry play and practice so he's used to the longer games and practices.  He wants to be a pitcher but has seen how hard it can be so he's already working on pitching off the mound, even though he can't quite get it across the plate yet.  He'll definitely benefit from being the younger brother in this case.  Until then, he'll just have fun goofing around with his buddies during the game.

Jay started a new job.  After almost a decade at Icon Health and Fitness, he is now working at Utah State University as Marketing Director for Regional Campuses and Distance Learning.  He's been there a few weeks now and is settling in nicely.  The travel won't be as often or as extensive, but he has been taking some local (and by local I mean Utah) trips to visit the Regional Campuses.  Utah State has 26 (I think) of these smaller facilities around the state.  This week he made a driving tour of central and southern Utah, from Blanding to Moab to Delta to Beaver.  They even have a campus in Monument Valley, where he took this picture:

As the daughter of perhaps the world's biggest John Wayne fan, I was a little jealous that he got to see Monument Valley up close.  I grew up watching old Westerns so this landscape is familiar to me.  We may have to take a little family trip down to this area at some point.

Even though Jay has been gone all week for work, at least he's in the same time zone, which makes communication vastly easier.  I was able to text him real-time updates on the boys baseball games without worrying if I was going to wake him up. 

I think we're going to like USU.