Alex has been bugging me for a while now to update it and so with the kids in bed and Alex out with a friend tonight, I figured now was as good a time as any to recap our summer.
That said, a lot has happened these past few months. We were with one less child for the first couple months of summer while Devon was in California visiting family. The change was nice, but everyone was ready for him to come home as our home didn't quite feel the same without him.
David finished his baseball season and did a terrific job! He had a blast and we sure had fun watching his little team try to play the game.
We signed him up to play soccer this fall, so he's already enjoying that. He has one of his best friends on his team so that makes it even more enjoyable for him.
The end of June we drove out to California for Alex's family reunion at a place called Dinkey Creek where they have been going for decades. Alex's dad comes from a family of 12 kids who all have multiple kids of their own who are now all having kids. So, you do the math....that makes for a LOT of people! It was a week filled with camping fun...sitting around the fire at night, playing in the water, going boating, doing activities for the kids, and constantly being covered in dirt! I swear my feet had dirt caked in them and took several days to get out once we got home. But that's just one of the joys of camping, right? It was fun to visit with family and get to know some of them a little better. (Even though we've been married almost 8 years now, I have to admit there are still some people that I have no clue who they even are. That's just how big this family is....)
We got about a month of some really good strawberries from our little garden. The kids loved going out to pick them and then devouring every last one within minutes...
July brought fireworks, playing in the sun, and a dental nightmare for poor David. He had a couple teeth worked on back in June (as he screamed the entire time) and one of those teeth abscessed. He started complaining one morning about his tooth hurting and by the very next morning when we had a dental appointment his cheek was so swollen and sore from the infection. They prescribed some antibiotics at the FIRST dentist we went to and said they couldn't do anything until the infection cleared. So then we went to a DIFFERENT dentist that does anesthesia to see if they could take care of everything (because he had other work that needed to be done as well that we couldn't do the first time because he freaked out so bad). They took x-rays and examined him, then came back with the bill of $1800! We politely said thank you for the time and left to find yet another dentist that would do it for cheaper. After coming home and calling all afternoon, I finally found one close by that could do all the work he needed while he was under anesthesia so he wouldn't feel or remember any of it for way cheaper. So, the next morning, I dropped the two little ones off with a friend and headed in to the THIRD dentist with David. After about 2 hours and some pain medication through the IV, they got everything done and the abscess all cleared out. Poor thing though couldn't seem to wake up and spent the remainder of the day sleeping, then waking up enough to puke a few times (I'm guessing from the anesthesia), then sleeping some more. About 7pm he finally was able to eat a piece of bread and started getting back to his normal self. What an ordeal though! Hopefully we won't have to go through that again...
Kaitlyn decided to finally potty train and after a couple months of doing good on and off, a few accidents here and there, she is finally a big girl and so proud of herself. I am also ecstatic to not have to be changing 2 dirty bums anymore. :)The first of August was my family reunion at a little campsite just a couple hours away. It was fun to hang out with family and enjoy at least one nice sunny day. The rest of the time was rainy and cold. Luckily we decided to take the boat out on the ONE sunny day we had, so Alex had a blast trying to throw everyone off the raft. The kids enjoyed running around the campsite (which luckily was all grassy, so no dirt-caked kids this time), playing in the river, sitting around the campfire, and just hanging out. It was fun to see everyone...some cousins I hadn't seen in probably 10+ years!
Right after we got home, Devon started football practice 4 times a week. After wanting to play, then not, then deciding he will do it, then fighting to make him do it, he is finally enjoying football even with all the work it takes. He works hard at practice and plays his best at games. He currently is a linebacker, so he gets to ram into other kids during games! We've got a full season ahead of us with David in soccer and Devon in football, along with school and scouts and every day life. But we're looking forward to some good memories.
A week after we got home from family reunion, Alex and I dropped the kids with some of our friends and took off on an Alaskan cruise for our 8 year anniversary. It was so nice to get away just the two of us and enjoy some BEAUTIFUL scenery! It was definitely an "older" group of people on this cruise, so our dinner table that consisted of 3 couples that could be our parents and grandparents would joke and call us "the kids". We really enjoyed the quiet and calm atmosphere both on and off the ship. We left from Vancouver, Canada; went to Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway, Alaska (where we rode a train up White Pass Mountain and ended panning for gold where we each found about $15 worth of gold flakes.); then sailed around a few glaciers before ending the cruise at Anchorage where we spent the day driving around and trying to kill time before our flight home (which I barely made it on while Alex had to wait for the next flight out 8 hours later, which he barely made it on because we flew buddy passes and they had limited seating).
The day before our cruise left, we were able to spend in Vancouver with one of Alex's friends from college. We saw the sights, took a tram up the mountain where we did a few zip lines (a total blast), and ended the night eating at a restaurant that spins around so you get a view of the entire city while you dine. Pretty impressive... Overall, the trip was a big success.
Devon started school today (4th grade) and David starts kindergarten in a week. They are both super excited to be going to school and making new friends. We'll have to work out some type of carpool system because as it is right now, I will be driving back and forth from the school 4 times a day. Devon starts at 8am, David starts at 9:15am, then David gets out at 12:08pm (yeah, crazy time...), then Devon is out at 2:15pm. Then on Tuesdays I am going to be doing a little preschool co-op with 5 other ladies in the neighborhood for Kaitlyn and her little friends from 10:30am-noon. So, a little crazy but we'll work it out.Now a little about Nathaniel... He is now almost 17 months old and growing and changing so fast. He loves his sister and will cling to her when he is scared or unsure of something. He also loves to copy the other kids and tries to do everything they do. The other day we were in the car and Kaitlyn started singing, "Nah nah na nah nah" and Nathaniel started copying her. It was pretty funny to hear. He is really trying to talk more and more and probably has around 20 words that he can consistently say. He is still attached to his bottle, but not quite as attached to me or Alex now that he was left for a week :) I think it did wonders for his little "attitude" to have us leave him.
So, that pretty much sums up the highlights of our summer. Maybe the next few months I'll be better about blogging...
1 comment:
Fun post! I loved it. Thanks for the update. I'll call you back soon I promise - I keep forgetting! Love ya!
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