All the camps - Summer vacation week 3

Ah! Once again I'm feeling very behind on this blog. I need to write about the last two weeks and part of this week and I need to do it soon because we have big plans for the 4th of July and I'd like to be caught up before that happens. 

So let's just dive on in and do a quick recap. 

This post is about our third week of summer. Monday June 12 through Sunday June 18th. 

Monday

This was the week I pretty much had something going on for the kids every day of the week. Veronica had summer school every morning from 8-11:30. Derrick had behavioral therapy Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.  

And Charlotte and Lydia were doing something called the Modern Manufacturing Academy at the college.  I was pretty excited about this camp for the girls.  For one it was FREE!  It was paid for by some sort of STEM grant or something (I don't really know for sure, I didn't really care why it was free.) It was also nearly all day. It went from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM. Lunch was even provided.  And it was all about hands on career type stuff. The girls got to use big drill presses, cut wood with big machinery, put together a circuit board, weld, and some other cool things. It was a super fun experience for my two budding engineers.

Their best friends were also at the camp, but they weren't in the same group. They did have fun seeing each other every day.

The girls never let me take a picture of them with the sign in front of the Technology building, but here's a picture I took out the car window as I drove away one morning.   

The other big news from Monday was that I got my foot looked at again.  It had been hurting really bad ever since the parade on Saturday June 3rd. Not only was the pain in the usual spot in the Post Tibular Tendon on my left foot it was also kind of in the middle of my left foot.  And the heel on my right foot was killing me. 

I dealt with the pain for a couple of days and really babied my feet. But I was walking funny and my feet hurt even when I was in bed. 

So on Thursday the 8th I'd realized that enough was enough and called my podiatrist. The lady who answered the phone said something like, "He's been really booked out because of all the holidays, so let's seeeeee, oh there was a cancelation for this Monday at 1:00. Do you want that?"

Of course I did!

I'm so glad I called when I did and was able to get that appt. And I'm so glad I didn't hobble around for 9 months before getting around to making an appointment this time. 

So anyway I went to that appointment and the doctor felt all around my feet and helped me pin point my pain. He said that I'd hurt what's called the sub-tailor joint. It's in charge of keeping the foot stable. All the hiking I did combined with being on my feet for 4 hours during the parade had probably upset it.  He said we could do a steroid shot if I really needed it.  By this point the pain had subsided enough that I didn't think I needed it now - but it's good to know it's an option. He also gave me an AMAZING brace to help keep everything stable and support my wimpy Post Tibular Tendon. I audibly sighed when I put the brace on for the first time and cinched it up to provide support on the arch of my foot. 

As for my right foot - well that just has boring old plantar fasciitis. At least I thought it was boring until I actually had it. I had NO IDEA how bad it could hurt. NO IDEA. 

The doctor showed me some stretches that have helped. But I still walk really weird when I first get up.

Since the twins had been at their camp and I'd had my doctors appointment we hadn't been able to go to the pool that afternoon. So we decided to go as a family after dinner. Last year the pool was open from 6:30 to 8:00. So we showed up around 6:40. But swim lessons were still going on. I asked the staff and they said they were changing things back to a schedule from a few years ago. Open swim would go from 7:00 to 9:00. 

Here are the kids waiting for open swim to start. 

The kids were so happy to get into the water. I was still thinking that we'd leave around 8:00, but 8:00 came and went and the kids showed no signs of stopping. So did 8:15, and 8:30, and 8:45 and yes we stayed right until 9:00.  

We were some of the last people at the pool. All the kids were playing on the lily pads. (It's real name is the wiggle track, but we've always called it the lily pads. 

Here's a video of them on it. 

On Tuesday everyone was super tired and grumpy in the morning. I had to create a new summertime rule. "We can't stay at the pool until 9:00 on nights when people have school or classes the next morning."

I got everyone off to their camps and things. Derrick was doing therapy that day instead of Monday. I didn't have work - well at least not at Aspen Grove. I was going to help with some billing stuff for my friend Ivan. (This is the same Ivan who stared in the Music Man and is Brandon's fish merchant frienemy at the Living Nativity.)

Actually let's do a quick recap of that whole situation because I haven't really been able to mention it until now.  

Rewind to March of this year. The Music Man has just ended and I happen to run into Ivan kind of randomly. I asked him what he was planning to do now that the play was over and we had a little conversation about that.  Then I asked him if it would be possible to get Derrick into Occupational Therapy with him. Ivan happens to be an amazing occupational therapist who specializes in helping kids overcome bed wetting. I was feeling like we needed to start working with Derrick on that again. 

Ivan said he'd be happy to help Derrick, but he said it would have to wait a few months because . . . and here he paused to tell me that this was a BIG secret . . . he was leaving his current employer at the end of the month and starting his own occupational therapy practice. 

And I was like, "That's great! Do you need help with your billing?"

And Ivan was like, "Actually I probably do."

So that's how I became like the first non-family member to know about Ivan's business plan, and how I became affiliated with the billing for another therapy company.

Ivan did end up leaving his employer and he did get his new business started. And now he had billing questions. So I was supposed to help him that morning. But then he scheduled clients during the time I was free.  So we ended up just having a quick phone chat. 

And then I had like 3 hours to myself at home for the first time all summer. I spent the whole time writing in bed. Actually I probably also took a nap.  

That afternoon Veronica had tutoring. And later she had therapy. I wanted her therapist to see how much Veronica worries about me when I'm gone. So I'd told the therapist that I was going to run an errand during the session so she could see what Veronica did. 

I'm so glad we did that. As soon as I told Veronica, "I'm going to run an errand, I'll be back."  Veronica was visibly agitated. Her therapist distracted her and took her back into the play room. She said that Veronica did okay until about the last 10 minutes. 

Then she was really worried and wanted to see if I was back. She was VERY upset when they went out to the lobby and I wasn't back yet. They sat on the couch and talked through stratagies for what to do and what to think. Things like saying, "Mom will be here. She's just running late."  And things like that. 

And guess what - it totally helped!  On Friday when I was a little late picking Veronica up from Summer school she said "Mom, I wasn't nervous at all. I just said to myself, 'Mom is always a little late. She'll be here.'" That is HUGE progress. 

In other news there was a spider in our backyard. 

We called these, Party Spiders when I was growing up. You don't want to know the reason.

And look at how pretty this rain was on an iris leaf.

The kids had been BEGGING to watch the new Super Mario Brother's movie. I'd put a reminder in my phone for when the movie was at Red Box. That reminder went off that afternoon. So I ordered the movie online and then Veronica and I picked it up after therapy. 

We all watched the movie after dinner. I fell asleep pretty fast, but the kids liked it. 

Wednesday

Everyone had therapy ,or school, or camp again on Wednesday. I had work. 

In exciting news I got a new black hat. My old one had served me well for 4 years. But it ripped the last time it went through the wash. So it was time for a new one. I was a little nervous about buying one because the last one had been such a lucky find at the Army and Navy store in Idaho Falls. But Amazon came through with a decent replacement. Seeing the two of them together was so weird. I had no idea how much the old one had faded. 

Here's the little rose bush in the front yard. It's looking so good. 

And here are the wild flowers. 

When Derrick went with Mr Mark on Tuesday they'd done a project with Photosensitive paper at the library. But it had been too cloudy to really get it to work. Derrick took it out in the sun on Wednesday and was so excited to see it change colors. 

Looks like we went to the pool on Wednesday. I have no memory of this trip. Maybe we went after the girls got home from camp?  I guess so.

That evening after dinner Derrick made a giant nutella sandwich.  He's so funny.

Thursday was a big day. Veronica had an evaluation with the Physician's Assistant for the psychologist with St Luke's here in Twin Falls. This was kind of an initial appointment to see if she felt like it would be a good idea to do a full Autism Assessment for Veronica. 

Veronica's therapist had suggested having Veronica evaluated for Autism and it's something I always wondered about so I'd made the appointment back in May. 

Veronica knew we were there to talk about the fact that she might be on the autism spectrum. And she was open to the idea. But it almost seemed like she was determined to not appear autistic AT ALL.  She walked into the room and immediately started talking to the PA. She told her jokes. She told her stories. She was SUPER outgoing and personable. I was thinking, "Well it's not autism."

So was the PA. She told me, "I just don't see the symptoms of autism, not even for females."

We talked about why I wanted Veronica to be evaluated. I mentioned that I suspected she might have ADHD, but the screener/evaluation we did in the fall didn't come back with enough data to support that.  The PA was able to access that screener and looked into the results.  She told me, "Yeah, it didn't flag positive, but based on the answers and what you are telling me I'd say that she has ADHD."

I was like, "YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  Who cares about autism. ADHD is the real diagnosis I'd wanted for Veronica for nearly a year. 

Let's take a minute to talk about ADHD. Because I know you are thinking, "But she's not hyperactive. How can it be Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder if she's not Hyperactive?"

Basically there are two types of ADHD. There's they hyperactive body type and there's the hyperactive mind type. (And technically I guess there are three because there's also a combination type.) Veronica has the hyperactive mind type. Her brain is bouncing around from thought to thought and making it hard for her to focus on stuff. 

The PA prescribed some medicine for Veronica to try and we have a follow up appointment scheduled in about 6 weeks. 

I left that appointment feeling like we finally had a really good answer. Between the medicine and Veronica's vision therapy I think she'd going to start 4th grade on a good footing. 

Oh and speaking of vision therapy. We also had that that afternoon. Veronica really likes that. 

I picked the twins up from CSI right after vision therapy. The other set of twins came home with us too.  They ended up staying over until almost 9:00. Their mom really appreciated that because she was able to get a lot of work done. 

All week long the twins had been taking care of Chicken Liz's chickens. They rode their bikes over to here house while I was walking to the elementary school with Veronica. Here's Lydia riding by.

And here's Charlotte. 

Veronica gets lunch from the school after summer school. She had a huge Strawberry this time. 

That afternoon there was a reception of sorts at the college so the kids could show off the things they'd been making. Here are all four twins with their stuff. 

This is the circuit they made. 

And they welded these cool garden windmills. This is Charlotte's 

They also made these metal boxes. 

Here's Lydia's windmill.  

And here's the bee houses they made. (I had to sneak into their room to take this picture.)

The girls were kind of shy about me taking pictures of their stuff. But they really liked the camp and want to go back next year. 

Oh and LOOOOK. My catalpa has flowers. 

All afternoon we'd been getting stuff together to go to Utah for the weekend.  There was a lot of drama involved in this trip because there were crisis's going on with both sides of the family. 

The first crisis was that my mother in law Jacque broke her leg in three places.  She'd been on vacation in Hawaii and fallen while walking in tide pools. She was able to get back to Utah, but she'd needed surgery and her leg was non weight bearing for 6 to 8 weeks.  We'd been planning to go to Utah for Father's Day weekend and we'd been planning to stay with Brandon's parents. But we changed that plan as soon as Jacque got hurt. We didn't want her to even think about needing to host us.  

So we planned to stay with my sister Emily. I was a little hesitant about that because I'd decided that we were all a little too old to couch surf. So we were only going to stay over there Saturday night.

But then Brandon wanted to go down and help his dad take care of his mom. So we decided to go down to Utah on Friday night. I'd stay at Emily's with the kids while Brandon went up to his parents for Friday night and most of Saturday. 

That was a great plan, but even that fell into some uncertainly with a family emergency on my side of the family. This is still a raw story, so I can't talk about the details. But let me just say that I have some of the best sisters in the world. 

Emily had been actively involved in part of the situation and so I was a little uncertain about bringing my crew of miscreants to her house for two nights. But she assured me it would be fine. 

So with all that in mind we started driving to Utah after dinner on Friday. 

We always stop at the rest stop after the 86/84 divide. This stop was a little unique though. There was  horse just standing there on the grass. 

We got to Utah without any other surprises. It was actually a really fun ride. We were listening to the radio and having fun singing along. It was a good time. 

Brandon helped us unload our stuff at Emily's and then he drove up to his parents house. He had a good time talking with his mom that night. And then on Saturday he hung out with his mom while his dad could go buy things for his deck project. (Steve needed something to keep him busy while he was on call for anything Jacque needed.)

I was surprised at how well Emily's kids and my kids hit it off when we came in. Last year it seemed like her kids and my kids tolerated each other. But this time they were all genuinely glad to see each other. I guess absence makes the heart fonder or something.  Hazel and Lydia ended up sharing a bed. And Veronica shared with Titus. Charlotte and Derrick each got a couch. 

Emily and I made sure the kids were in bed and then drove down to Provo so we could pick up a car that was down there. I drove that car back while Emily drove her car. We got home a little after midnight. The whole thing felt like a dream. The whole way back I'd been imagining wrapping myself in a big blanket and falling asleep on the couch. And that's EXACTLY what I did as soon as I got back. 

Saturday morning is kind of a blur. At some point I helped David with some billing questions for his private practice. (I never really expected to know so much about billing, but after doing it for nearly 4 years I do know some tricks and tips.)

That afternoon we had a Father's Day party. Emily and I hatched this idea back on Mother's Day. I'm glad we figured it out then because we needed it after this crazy week. 

My brother Billy and his wife and kids were there. My parents were there. And so was my Aunt Vera. Brandon showed up just in time to help get a peach cobbler cooking. 

The kids had a blast playing on Emily's trampoline. They jumped and jumped and jumped. 

Here are some of the adults. 

And here's the food!  We did BBQ pulled pork and other summer foods. 

My dad needs a table to eat and so we pulled over a fisher price table. A lot of  the kids wanted to eat at Grandpa's table.

More jumping.  There was also some sort of water fight game going on with reusable waterballons. 

And some people were planning a game with wood that I can't remember the name of. 

Emily took us on a tour of her front garden.  Remember when this was mostly dirt with the tiniest plants? Well those plants are starting to grow and bloom and Emily recently put down a lot of mulch. It looks so good. (This picture does not did it justice.) 

The party died down and the adults went home. But the kids were still going strong. I'd told my kids they could sleep on the trampoline. That turned into a cousin sleepover. Charlotte, Lydia, Veronica, Titus, Hazel, and Vance all made a big bed. 

Derrick slept inside on a couch. Brandon and I took different sections of the big sectional in the family room. 

In the morning there were only two kids left on the trampoline. Charlotte and Titus were the survivors. Lydia had given up and found a couch because Titus snored too loud. Hazel and Vance had come in too. Veronica came in and slept on Titus's bed. 

All the kids had a ton of mosquito bites. There hadn't been any mosquitos outside in the evening, but as soon as it got dark they came out to feast. Veronica and Vance were bit the worse. 

On Sunday morning Emily's family got ready for their church at 9:00. After they left we got ready.  We were going up to Liberty for Brandon's nephew Wally's farewell.  This was actually the whole reason we were in Utah. 

First we stopped at Brandon's parents house so the kids could say hi to Jacque.  She was going to come to the luncheon, but not to sacrament meeting. So we wanted to make sure to spend some time to her. 

Then we went to Wally's church building. ALL the kids were so tired. Brandon usually brings paper for the kids to draw on. He was getting ready to hand it out after the sacrament when he looked at all of us. Derrick and Lydia were both leaning their heads on my shoulders. Veronica was snuggled up against Brandon. Charlotte had her head down. Even I had to "rest" my eyes during the meeting. 

After Sacrament meeting we went to Melanie's for a luncheon. There was lots of good food. I had fun talking to people. After a while I decided I should probably try to take a little nap before we drove home. I fell asleep for something like 2 hours!  And when I woke up I found three of the kids also sleeping in the family room. Lydia and Derrick were on the couch and Veronica was on the floor. They slept about another hour after I woke up. I ended up having to wake Derrick up and tell him that we were leaving soon. 

What do you expect from kids who spent at least 6 hours jumping on a trampoline on Saturday. 

We drove home and made it home before dark. I went around and watered my garden. I had to take another picture of the catalpa flowers.  (I kind of have an opinion that if a plant doesn't make flowers during at least some part of the year then what's the point of having that plant.)

And that was the end of our third week of summer. 

Thanks for reading.