Aug 20, 2014

First Day of School. Megan started the second grade at Estancia Valley Classical Academy. She has Mrs. Droege, who we hear tons of good things about. She is especially excited this year to have her siblings back at school with her again.

August 6, 2014

We just completed another great summer trip extravaganza! We managed to fit in three separate family reunions, a trip to Yellowstone and a stop to visit family. The trip started out a little rocky. We got off just fine, the car was working like a champ, we left early enough (I was running a half marathon the next morning in Utah, so we were hoping to get there by early evening, and we were well on our way). Along the way the kids made a couple comments about Austin looking funny. I looked in my rear view mirror and he seemed fine. When I stopped in Moab for gas and saw him close up I immediately noticed that something was not right. His face was swelling up between his two eyes (making his eyes squinty). He had fallen a week earlier when we were camping in Santa Fe and got a good little owie on his forehead. We cleaned it out and it seemed to be fine. That morning Austin fell and started crying. I noticed he had opened his sore up again, but I didn't think anything of it. Well, now it definitely seemed to be getting infected. I called to see if we could get into a doctor's office or urgent care, but there was seriously NOTHING in Moab. I called the next city and they had one possibility. She would call me if they had a cancellation, so I just kept driving. I didn't hear from her as I passed through the city so at that point I was hoping I could get to Spanish Fork, where I knew there would be Urgent Cares. We pulled into Brittney and Porter's at around 5, and then I immediately left with Austin to the Urgent Care. The doctor looked it over and thought it best to try and open it up with a scalpel and then see if he could squeeze any infection out. Austin was amazing. I couldn't believe it: a shot right in the sore, then cutting it open, then squeezing it, and he really only flinched once or twice. He sent me to get a prescription for antibiotics to hopefully clear it up. He said if it didn't clear up in the next day or so I would have to take him to an emergency room. We went to get the medicine and there were complications with the prescription he had written. We didn't get back to Brittney's until close to 10. I tried to go right to bed since I had to get up at the crack of dawn the next morning. We got his medicine the next day and he cleared up nicely. Anyway, after that silliness, the rest of the trip went great. The first Reunion was at Priest Lake in Northern Idaho. We spent a night at Chad and Charity's and then headed up for the next leg. We slept in the ca one night and then had only a short drive the next morning. We were actually the first ones to show up at that reunion. Some of the fun things included: huckleberry picking, natural rock water slide (which actually ended in quite the emergency. Britnie slid straight into a log and really messed up her leg. All the men, along with EMT's and others on the trail had to help get her out - over a mile. Charity and Chad and I hiked out with 8 little kiddos. It was an adventure), playing at our own personal lake shore, taking rides in the boat, getting ice cream, playing around the fire at night, etc. We camped in a tent. There was also a room with beds, so one night the kids slept in there with Grandpa and Grandma. After that reunion we drove over to Yellowstone with Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen. We met Scott and Shelley Morris and their kids there. We went to church at the little service there in the park. We saw buffalo and two bears and elk and deer. We hiked and got rained on and played at the hot springs. We packed up and left before everyone else, who were going to stay an extra night. That night it poured and poured and poured, so they packed it up and left too. We headed over to Garrett and Melanie's house. We went and saw Garrett and Caleb and Genevieve perform in "Shrek, the Musical." Garrett was Shrek, Caleb was Lord Farquad and Genevieve was the big head in the city. It was so fun, and they were quite the performers. We packed up once again and headed down to Provo. The next reunion was the Sorensen reunion. We stayed at Timp Lodge in Provo canyon. We actually set up a tent on the grass field. The lodge was huge and awesome to accommodate all of us. We hiked to Stewart Falls (where Nathan got a tick in his head...I had to scrape that sucker out). The kids floated down the Provo river with Dad and most of the family. We played games, we ate yummy food, we had fun nightly activities. We left a day early to get down to Duck Creek for our last reunion. I picked up Sean late on Wednesday night (the first night of the reunion). It was nice to be all together again. On our way down to Southern Utah, we got a flat tire on the trailer (the only vehicle hiccup of the whole journey), but we made it down there. We played on quads, the kids made forts, we went to church and spent time as a family. It was great to just be together. Then we made our way home. It was an eventful and full vacation.

Aug 2, 2014

Megan and Caelan and Ben joined the swim team this year. The only requirement to join is that you can swim all the way across the pool. Megan just barely learned to swim well enough to do that at the end of last summer season, and we haven't swam much since then. We took all the kids to the pool before tryouts just so we could try it out. And she could do it there. The first day of practice her coach had all the kids go across the pool. Megan was hesitant and acting nervous. Her teacher actually came up to me and said that she really needed to be able to swim across the pool. I told her we had just gone a few days earlier and that she did it. I was okay if it wasn't going to work out, but I wanted Megan to try it out for the day and see how it went. I talked to Megan and told her just to do what we did as a family and not to worry about going fast and being perfect, but just getting across the pool. I told her I knew she could do it. She went back in to finish out the practice. And she did great. I talked to her coach again afterwards and she said, "Oh yeah, she did great. She can totally do it. She must have just been nervous." So, the first meet came and Megan wasn't so sure about competing. I told her just get in and swim and if you finish the race you get a ribbon. She got in for the 25 M freestyle and she won first place in her heat. It totally gave her confidence to do some other races. It was her only first place ribbon of the season, but it was pretty great that it happened on her very first race. She got several 2nd place ribbons and 3rd as well as all the other places too. Towards the end of the season she would compete in every race that she was able to: 25 M free style, 25 M back stroke, 100 M free style relay, 25 M breast. It was a fun season. I thought it would be difficult to get into town to the pool every morning by 7:50, but the kids were excited and happy to get up and get going every day. Megan also played water polo. She wasn't as excited about this, and sometimes during water polo practice she would spend an extra long time in the shower and miss most of it, but she finished out the season doing it most days. Their team lost more games than they won, but there were a lot of beginners, and they had fun. Megan really improved throughout the season on her skills and her confidence. We're excited to do it again next summer.