Back to School

Henry - 7th Grade

 William - 4th Grade and Tessa - 2nd Grade

Back to School!

The Abyss of Dentistry

William informed a neighbor that I took him to the Abyss of Dentistry.  I'm sure it feels like that to him.  And he only had to have one cavity filled.

Poor Tessa had to have two cavities filled and two more teeth pulled.  Bless her heart.  Her cute little mouth just isn't big enough for all her teeth to come in without a little help.  She did really well.  Well, kind of.  She resisted the nitrous oxide and then threw up all over the place after gagging on the numbing gel.  It was kind of disgusting.  Then she agreed to do the nitrous and didn't even flinch the rest of the time.  Not even when he pulled her teeth.  Magic stuff, I tell you.

Next up is Henry, who needs a cavity filled (I swear we brush our teeth around here) and two teeth pulled. His permanent teeth are coming in in front of and above the baby teeth and they need room to move into the right place.  He doesn't seem too upset about it - he is working on getting them loose and after seeing Tessa yesterday realizes that it won't be that bad.  He might even be able to get them to come out before his appointment in two weeks.  I have a feeling it won't be hard to talk him into using the nitrous oxide.

Then we don't have to go back until February.  Thank heavens.  Out of the abyss until then.

So Cal 2013

Another odd number year, another trip to Southern California for our little family.

Highlights:

1 - Three fun-filled days with the Royal's of Yucaipa, CA.  We played games, shopped, ate, and went to The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  The aquarium was a big hit with everyone, but I would say William enjoyed it the most.  Who knew he would get such a kick out of petting sharks and sting rays?  He was so wet, he might as well have gotten in the pool and swam with them.

2 - For the boys (including Uncle Philip), a Yankee win at the San Diego Padres.   They got to see one of their favorite players, Mariano Rivera, close it out for the Yankees.

3 - Disneyland!  We did three days at Disneyland and it was great.  The weather wasn't too hot at all (it felt hot, but was only about 80 or so during the day) and we were there early every morning to beat the crowds.  We rode everything we wanted to ride multiple times, including the new fun Radiator Springs Racers.  You have to plan ahead to ride this without a long wait, but I stood in line every morning to get Fast Passes and we were able to ride it with only a 15 minute wait instead of the posted standby line wait of 120-150 minutes.   The favorite consensus ride among our family is Star Tours.  We rode it multiple times and had a blast.  William was even the "Rebel Spy" on one time through!

4 - World of Color at Disney's California Adventure is amazing.  We saw it our last night at Disney and it was a great way to end the visit.  Again, you need to plan a bit to get a good spot but ours was good and we really enjoyed the show.

5 - Our new strategy to drive back over two days was great.   We drove from Anaheim to St. George on Friday and from St. George to Hyde Park on Saturday.  Lots less pressure for us to hurry home and a much more relaxed drive.

Lowlights (because of course, there are some during a 9 day family trip):

1 - So Cal traffic.  On the day of the Yankees game Jay, Philip and the boys went to a restaurant in the Pasadena area for lunch and then down to San Diego.  It took them over three hours to drive what should have taken half that.  They actually missed the first have of the first inning.  It was crazy.  Traffic was just busy most of the time - it made us really appreciate our Cache Valley traffic.

2 - Crowds at Disneyland - It was a summer visit and we expected crowds but it seemed even more crowded than our last visit.  It wasn't unbearable or anything and we had a great time, but we noticed by 11 am every day it was really crowded.  Thank goodness everyone in our family was on board with getting up early on vacation because it really paid off in terms of weather (overcast and cool) and the crowds.

3 -  Motion sickness - Tessa got car sick on our way home.  Bless her heart, she has learned her lesson not to eat Spicy Doritos in the car, that's for sure.  She was fine afterwards though and fine for the rest of the way home.  Jay suffered a bit on our first day at Disney - he made the mistake of riding California Screamin with Henry and had to sit out a few rides afterwards until he felt better.  

4 - The mountain of laundry after a 9 day road trip.  I even did two loads on the road but it still took me a while to catch up.  Sigh.  I hate doing laundry.

I'll post pictures when I get them organized and sorted.  We used Photopass Plus at Disneyland so I have over 100 pictures that were taken of our family, including Tessa's official picture with Ariel at Ariel's Grotto and all the ride pictures from Splash Mountain, California Screamin, and Radiator Springs Racers.  We get them all on a CD that is on it's way to our house as I type.            

Next up, school starts!  Yay!

Big H Turns 12!

Today is Henry's 12th birthday.  I think he has had a pretty good day so far.

1 - He woke up at 6:20 (par for the course for Henry) and opened his gift from the family with Jay - a new NY Yankees jersey that he is saving for the big Yankees/Padres game this weekend.

2 - No party this year, but he did invite a few friends to the Logan Aquatic Center for fun and swimming.  We got pizza and had soda and snow cones.  The kids came home tired but happy.  We decided against the party because A-he couldn't really think of anything that he wanted to do for a party and B-we are leaving for So Cal on Friday and it just seemed like a lot to organize a big party (Henry usually invites 8 - 10 kids to his parties) and then leave two days later.  Anyway, this was a good compromise, especially for me.

3 - He is going to his last 11 year old Scouts meeting, followed by dinner with Jay.  We usually let the kids pick out a fun dinner for their birthday,  but William is going to be gone hiking with his Cub Scout group and we had pizza for lunch so we were just going to do something else.  But Jay is feeling bad that he had to leave for work early and hasn't been around for his birthday so he is going to take Henry out for a little Father/Son bonding time.

Henry is a great kid and fun to be around.

Happy Birthday, Henry!  We love you!

Camp Grandma

Camp Grandma has come and gone.  It was a fun two weeks with Grandma (and Granny) hanging out in Hyde Park with us.  Once again, no pictures because I am really that lame.  Sigh.

Some highlights - 

1 - Everyone got their own lunch with Grandma.  William picked Cafe Rio, Tessa picked Olive Garden and Henry picked La Beaus.  Not too shabby.  

2 - Despicable Me 2 - apparently very cute and funny.  We may have to get this one on DVD when it comes out.

3 - Bowling - Not one, but two games - followed by Pink's Shaved Ice.  Grandma has much more patience than I do to allow two games of bowling.

4 - Hyde Park Days Parade - Once again, the Hyde Park 1st Ward Primary showed up to ride on our awesome float.  This year we had music and bubbles and all kinds of fun.  

5 - Swimming - We went to the Aquatic Center and to Sky View pool for swim time.  Grandma just watched because she forgot her swimsuit but she enjoyed just hanging out.

6 - Games - we played multiple games of Uno and SkipBo and Life.   The kids played Mario Kart with Grandma on the Wii.  Tessa especially loves this because Grandma is the only person she can actually beat at Mario Kart - they usually come in 11th and 12th.

7 - Jay's birthday!  Jay turned 47.  He didn't want any gifts because he had spent thousands (not really, it just seemed like it) of dollars on camping and backpacking equipment this summer but we had a nice cake and ice cream.    Again, no pictures.  Come to think of it, I better find our camera before we leave for our vacation next week.

So a good time was had by all with Grandma and Granny here for a visit.  Although we are sad that they live so far away, it sure is a good time when they are here.

Oh and look what I found - a video that was emailed to me of our parade float.  The song that we played is from the movie The Croods and is called Shine Your Way:

So July is almost over.  Coming soon - Henry turns 12.  Gulp.

Scuba Steve

Who is Scuba Steve?  William.  Yes, William's new nickname is Scuba Steve because he is spending so much time underwater (in a good way) at swim lessons.

If you know William, you know this is nothing short of miraculous.  He has always been anxious in a pool and our attempts at group lessons through the local high school have been underwhelming.  He never even got out of Level 1 because, as one of his instructors said, he is too scared of water to move on to the next level, where they have to do stuff like, well, go underwater.

After four lessons with my good friend Nicole, he is actually starting to do stuff.  He picks things up off the bottom of the pool.  He glides, face down, through the water.  He is starting to actually, you know, swim.  It's quite something to watch.

The other kids are doing well also.  Tessa wouldn't put her whole face in the water a month ago and now she is going all the way under and doing great back floats - soon she'll be following in William's footsteps.  Henry, who started out a bit ahead of the other kids, is now learning to do the crawl stroke and breathe to the side.  It's not a really pretty stroke but he's doing it.

I know this probably seems like a silly thing to be excited about.  But we've never really made that much of an effort to have the kids learn to swim beyond signing them up and hoping that no one cried during the lessons so to see progress like this in just a few sessions is really exciting for me as a mom.

All of the credit goes to our great teacher.  She is a good friend of mine who I asked about doing private lessons and she has been fantastic.  My kids know and like and trust her and she is so great with them.  I'm excited to see where we end up by the end of the summer.

And William?  He informed me today that we wanted to learn how to play water polo.  Scuba Steve, indeed.

July Already?

How is it already July?  This summer is going by so fast!

Baseball is winding down.  A few more games and then tournaments for both boys and we are done.  We should be gearing up for swim lessons this month - I have the kids taking private lessons from a friend and I have high hopes that it will work out.  Grandma is visiting starting next week so the kids are excited about seeing her again.

Henry has found himself a little summer job.  My friend Melissa owns a Shaved Ice business and also does Sno Cones for special events and she has hired him to make sugar water for her a few days a week.  His pay is an old iPhone that they have laying around.  He won't use it as a phone but it will be a good replacement for the iPod touch that died a sorry death in our washing machine back in March.  He is excited.

Oh and every year I tell Henry he absolutely cannot start talking about his birthday until July because he drives me crazy with it.  He would plan his party in April if I let him and it really annoys me so I have given him a July 1st start time to even mention his birthday to me.  Honestly that's pushing it a little too because his birthday isn't until the 31st.  So guess who started yacking at me this morning at 8 am about planning his party?  You guessed it.