I need more sleep...

This week has been rather crazy!  James had soccer practice on Monday and Wednesday.  Aaron had practice on Tuesday and Thursday.  They both really seem to be enjoying themselves.  James doesn't even want to be picked up!  Anna still had cross country in the afternoons followed by water polo.  Then somehow, she comes home and still has the energy to lift weights with her siblings and then walk with me and Koopa at night.  While our mornings haven't been quite as crazy, I'm trying to get dinner ready early so that it can just be popped in the over and we can have dinner ready when we get home so we can eat together.  

On Wednesday, Evelyn, James and David went to Sister Shum's music camp and had a blast.  They had fun talking about and learning about other countries.  

Anna had her first cross country meet (kinda) on Friday.  Really it was just a hyped up practice, but she had a good time anyway!  

This weekend, I had my lifeguard certification class.  Most of the group there were other water polo coaches, so it was fun getting to know them a bit better.  It was funny to see what had changed since the last time I took a lifeguard/first aid course.  

While I was at my class Saturday morning, Dan took Anna down to hike 10 falls.  They had a great time, but Dan came back tired!  The rest of the kids were allowed to play video games if they cleaned up - so they spent the morning playing way too many video games.  David spent the rest of the day telling me to call him Super Mario.  

Saturday evening, Dan and I went to the Shum's house for a grown-up's only barbeque party.  We had a fun evening there with friends from the ward and we got to meet their lovely neighbors who live across the street from them.  A really nice older couple that we spent some time chatting with.  

Church today was wonderful, though Dan and I were both still sore and tired from our Saturday.  I was surprised at how many bruises I ended up with from practicing all the water rescues on Saturday.  After church, Anna was determined to get her pants done.  So she now has one more pair of pants that she made herself.  She wants to try more things now.  

Sports

 Well, things are starting to get crazy here.  We spent some time this week using up the peaches that we picked. We made peach jam and peach syrup and we also cut some up and bagged them and froze them for later.  We've had fun with all this canning lately, but now I think we are done until our fruit comes in from Bithell Farms.  Then of course, we will be having more yummy fun! 

This week was (finally) James' bike camp with Caleb.  He has been looking forward to it all summer!  He was so excited every day to get up and go!  The boys rode over 80 miles over the course of the week and had a blast doing it.  They were gone every day from 8:30 to 3:30, then came home not nearly as tired as you would expect from the amount of bike riding they were doing!  On the final day, after bike camp was over, Caleb's dad took them out for ice cream! 

This week was the beginning of the preseason for high school sports.  Anna started her regular cross country practices, and water polo started this week too.  I would take her to XC, then pick her up from that and we would go straight to water polo - then come home with her starving!  She started out really tired at the beginning of the week - but has slowly been getting used to the back to back practices.  

Aaron also has had his soccer practices this week.  He has been enjoying practice and has even been spending time outside in our yard practicing the skills he learns at practice!  I am so impressed with how hard he works to get better at things - not just soccer, but everything, when he decides he wants to learn how to do something - he works hard and gets better!  

David decided that he wanted to learn how to crochet.  He doesn't have the attention span to make the long snakes that James and Evelyn used to make (at least not yet) but he loves making short little chains for everyone!  

Evelyn has been wanting to get better and her hand stands and so she has been doing exercises to strengthen her core and her arms.  Her brothers decided to work out with her and it was so cute!  

Saturday we kept busy with running errands.  Aaron needed some stuff for soccer and Evelyn needed her glasses adjusted and so we got things done that needed to be done and then in the afternoon, Dan and I had an appointment at the temple.  After, we went out for Indian food and headed home for scriptures and prayers, then while I got kids to bed, Dan went to pick up Anna from her all-day leadership camp.  

Church today was wonderful - Evelyn gave her first talk in Sacrament Meeting today.  She did a wonderful job (though she was a bit nervous!) Then in the afternoon, we headed down to John and Melissa's house to celebrate baby Evelyn's birthday!  We had a fun afternoon with family and food!  

Hot Fun in the Summer Time

We've had a rather busy week!  Temperatures here have been way high, so we have been looking for fun ways to cool off.  It's been hot and humid here - enough to feel like we were back in Texas.  

Tuesday, we met up with some friends at a nearby bowling alley and all went bowling.  I think the kids all (except Eileen) had a great time, they had fun bowling and hanging out with friends.  David was funny because he didn't really know what was going on, and James had a talent for bouncing off the bumpers into a pretty good shot.  I did horribly, but still had fun!  Evelyn had fun with her friends, but managed to smash her finger pretty good between bowling balls.  :(  It got purple and fat, but thankfully was feeling mostly better by the next day.  

Tuesday evening Aaron had his first soccer practice.  We thought he would be able to play with his friends Luke, but it turned out that they couldn't because they were in different grades.  It was hot out, but he seemed to have a fun time!  

Tuesday evening, I also had a meeting with the other water polo coaches from the High School to talk about where we were at and what needed to be done.  After, I felt more prepared for the upcoming season.  

Wednesday, we went to a matinee discount movie with the kids.  We saw Despicable Me and had a fun time with friends again!  

Thursday morning, we went down to Corvallis to pick peaches at the Peach Place - which is a peach farm owned by Claire's family.  The kids had fun picking peaches in the morning, then in the afternoon, I took the younger kids to pick blackberries for jam and to give Anna some time to get the house ready for the evening. 

In the evening, Anna's piano students (Taz and Kai) had their first piano recital.  They both played songs they had been working hard on!  We had treats and we did a zoom call so the extended families could watch too.  It was a fun little event and Taz and Kai did a great job!  Anna has had fun teaching them and has done a great job so far! 

After the recital, I had to head out for a coaches meeting for the league.  I think we may actually be ready to start the upcoming season!  

Friday, we headed out to the coast to escape the heat!  It was supposed to be hot in Portland area, so we took off!  The beach was perfect - sunny and warm enough to want to get in the water some, but also not miserably hot.  The kids had a great time, but Eileen was sad to not find any shells.  

Saturday was a busy day, but nothing exciting.  Dan and I spent the morning working outside.  I got some more trimming of bushes done and Dan got the garage cleaned out and organized a bit more.  He also took some stuff down to Goodwill, then he went out and got new bikes for David and James.  He also took Evelyn out for a little outing together.  David loves his new little balance bike and he's having a blast trying it out and he says that he loves the blue color of the bike!  

James is also excited about his new bike - with gears!  It's all tuned up and ready for bike camp next week!  

Saturday evening, was spent making blackberry peach jam!  yum!!

Church today was wonderful, the messages were wonderful and the primary went pretty well!  After, we had the sister missionaries over for dinner and a message.  I also had a nice chat with my dad on the phone after calling to wish him a happy birthday!  

Camping!

We've had a fun and busy week.  On Tuesday, we went down to George Rogers park and met up with some friends.  The kids had a blast playing in the sand and swimming in the water.  It was a nice warm day and the water was great!  

Wednesday morning, Evie, James and David all went to Sister Shum's outdoor music camp.  They all seemed to have a really fun time! 

Wednesday evening the kids got to have their youth activities again.  After a month off, they were excited to get to get together with the youth again!  

Thursday, I spent most of the day getting things organized and ready for the camping trip this weekend.  I spent most of my day running errands and making sure we had the food and equipment ready.  I ended up having to go more places that I thought in order to find everything, and of course, as soon as we got up there, we realized a bunch of things I should have thought of, so we made a list of things for next time.  

Thursday evening, there was a youth dance.  Dan took Anna and a bunch of the youth from the ward to and from the dance.  They all seemed to have a great time!  

Friday morning, Dan went into work while I worked to get everything ready and packed up and ready to go into the van.  Then Dan came home around 1 and we packed up the van and headed out.  We were right nearby the other people from the ward, so the kids immediately took off to find their friends and hang out.  We hardly even saw them except for at dinner.  

Before we left, I had checked the website which had said that campfires weren't allowed, so I hadn't gotten stuff for s'mores or firewood, but when we got there, that had changed.  Some friends had brought s'more stuff, but no wood or skewers for cooking marshmallows. So Dan grabbed some wood from someone nearby selling it, and we loaned them our skewers and they shared their s'mores. 

After a fun evening of games and chatting, we crashed for the night.  I was cold most of the night, but then David woke up with a nightmare and came in for a bit to snuggle and warm me up, then he went back to his tent with James.  

Saturday morning, we headed out to the coast.  Dan found a nearby beach with sand dunes.  The kids went back and forth between playing on the dunes and playing in the ocean.  We all had a great time, even Koopa who loved exploring the beach.  We didn't do so great with the sunscreen though...

Saturday evening, after dinner, we headed back home.  We had to get ready for a busy Sunday! Aaron gave a talk in Sacrament meeting and did a great job.  I was directing the music and teaching in primary and Dan had meetings and stuff he needed to be back for.  

On Friday morning, as I was trying to get things ready to go, I realized that we had blackberries and peaches that I didn't think would last the weekend, so I mashed them all up into a fruit syrup and we made blackberry peach syrup and it was so yummy!  So we made plans to have pancakes to eat with our syrup on Sunday.  We invited the bishop over since his family was still up camping, and the pancakes with syrup was as yummy as we had hoped!  

Scratches and Splashes

 Monday, I walked the kids down to some of the wild blackberry bushes that grow everywhere and we picked blackberries - most of us ended up with scratches on our hands and legs from the thorns, but we came home with a LOT of yummy black berries.  We ate a bunch of them and turned the rest into a blackberry crumble (which was really yummy!!)

In the evening, James used his coupon for a family outing to plan an outing to Pietro's Pizza.  We went and had pizza and then played laser tag together.  The kids all had a lot of fun!  Dan trounced us in laser tag.  

The week was pretty normal - summer school for the kids,  libraries and fun.  Friday, I took the kids down to George Rogers Park in the afternoon to swim and play.  They had a lot of fun, but it was overcast, so not as hot as we had expected, so after a little while, the kids were cold, so we left the water and went up to the play ground for a bit.  We had fun though!  

Saturday, we drove down to Dave's house and then went with him to a nearby lake.  It was crazy crowded and rather cold though, so after staying and eating lunch and swimming for an hour or so, we headed over to High Rock.  The kids loved it.  They loved jumping off the cliffs (except Eileen who wouldn't, and David who wasn't allowed.)  Eileen found a crawfish and they all loved climbing all over the rocks in the river.  Plus it wasn't nearly as crowded most of the time we were there.  After, we went back to Dave's house for dinner before heading home to get sleepy kiddos to bed!  

Today was wonderful, but a bit crazy.  We had church, and youth council and bishopric meetings and such.  Then in the evening, we met up with a bunch of people from the ward at a nearby playground to let the kids play and have fun together.  It was a nice evening!