Last week of school and the stuff that came after

School ended a week ago and summer doesn't really feel real yet. But maybe that's because I haven't written about the end of school 

So let's go back and revisit the last few days of school and what we have been doing since then. 

Monday May 20th was Derrick's last day of school. I'm kind of calling this year the successful failure. It was a failure in the fact that he wasn't able to go to school for a full day and he was struggling in his Gen Ed classes. We determined that his current school wont work for 7th grade and so he'll be going to a school with more resources for him. But this school year was also a success. He never got in a fight, he never left the school without permission, he had very few behavioral issues (aside from refusing to do work.) A lot of the success was due to my friend Kerri who is the Attendance Secretary. Derrick always knew he had a friend in the office. He could go there and she would let him call me. 

I don't remember much else about Monday. Brandon had rehearsal. 

Tuesday was a busy day!  I literally had three places I was supposed to be at 12:00 on Tuesday. 

The first was Admin Meeting for Aspen Grove. But I was able to get out of that. (One of the other admins was also busy with school stuff so we just cancelled the meeting all together.)

The second was the Picnic Lunch at the elementary school. Veronica's lunch was at 12:00. 

The third was Derrick's 6th grade field trip to Nat Soo Pah Hot Springs. He was really looking forward to the field trip, but I knew from experience that he didn't want to go for the full day. So I got permission to take him to the hot springs in our car. We'd just meet up and he'd swim for as long as he wanted and then we'd leave when we were ready. We'd done that last year for his 5th grade field trip and it had worked really well. 

I was hoping that Derrick would want to leave by 11:30. That way we'd have time to make it to Veronica's picnic lunch. But I told Veronica that we might not make it. 

Derrick and I met up with the Middle School kids around 10:00. We got there right as his prime time class was about to go into the pool. So we just jumped right into line with them. 

Last year I wore my swimming suit and swam along with the kids. But I figured that would be too embarrassing for a middle school field trip. So I brought a book and disappeared onto the sidelines. (By the way I'm reading "Vengeance is Mine." It's the sequel of sorts to "Massacre at Mountain Meadows."  I read the first book a few months ago. It was interesting and yet depressing because I knew the whole time it was leading up to the massacre.  This book is less depressing because it's all about the aftermath and the pursuit of justice. I've liked it a lot better than the first book because I really don't know what's going to happen.)

Derrick had a fun time swimming. But he was a little annoyed that the life guards didn't let him wear his goggles on the diving board or the slide. So he was ready to go after about an hour. 

We said goodbye to the teachers and started driving back to Twin Falls. I'd packed lunches for us. We were both hungry so we ate those as we drove back. 

Derrick wanted to drive by the middle school so he could say goodbye. So we drove by the school and he took a last look at it and said goodbye. Then he asked me, "Will I ever see it again?"  I was like, "Um yes, we still live like 2 blocks away from it. And your sisters will all go here."

We got back in time to park the car at the house and then walk to the school. I knew parking at the school would be a mess so it was just easier to park at home. I brough a big picnic blanket to sit on. 

I was tentatively planning to eat at the school so I brought $5 for me and $3 for Derrick. But the meal turned out to be hot dogs. So I just paid for Derrick. He ate the corn dogs and I ate his left over fruit and carrots. 

Veronica was so excited to see us. We walked through the lunch room with her and then out to the grass. There were lots of students and parents out there. I spread out the big picnic blanket and Veronica, Derrick, and I sat on it. I saw our neighbor Eli looking a little lost so I invited him to sit with us. He seemed grateful to have someone to sit with because his parents couldn't make it. Two of Veronica's friends also came and sat with us until their parents came. 

It was fun to sit under the shade and talk with the kids. Veronica had had a good morning, but she was feeling a little board of school so I just checked her out after lunch. 

When we got home Derrick was STILL hungry so he had something else to eat. I was like, "This is your third lunch in an hour!"

I went to work that afternoon. 

Later in the day I wandered around the backyard and took pictures of things that are new. The sun burst Locust is looking very Sunbursty. 

We have sweet cherries. I was so worried that it didn't get pollinated, but I guess it worked out. 

And look at the snow ball tree. It is so pretty and smells so good. 

We also have peaches. 

And plums. 

Wednesday was the last day of school. It was only a half day, but I'd made my morning very busy. 

I was starting the summer session of the scripture study group that morning. And I'd decided it would be fun to have a brunch to kick that off and to also kind of end the school year. (Note to self, this was kind of stressful. Don't plan a brunch on the last day of school next year.)

So I had fruit to prep. The day before I'd made sausage muffins. And I'd bought donut holes and mini muffins. 

I dropped all the kids off at school one last time. (Well all the kids except Derrick. The last day of school was basically an assembly and then year book signing. It would be too chaotic for him.)

I went to Castle Therapy and checked the mail. I brought the mail home so I could work on it there if I had a chance. 

Then I parked the van at the school. Veronica had a therapy appointment at 1:00 that afternoon. School got out at 12:45. There wouldn't be time to walk home and then drive to the appointment. And I knew parking would be an absolute nightmare from about 12:00 on. So I just parked the car there ahead of time and got a great spot. Then I walked home. 

I came home and put the food out. Somehow I never got a picture which was a shame because it was super cute. 

I even found time to enter the payments for Castle Therapy. 

At 10:00 people started showing up. Six women came and we had a great time eating, and discussing Mosiah 13. I'm really happy that people are enjoying this study group. 

Everyone left around 11:30. I cleaned up a bit and then walked over to the school at 12:30.  I was so glad I'd had the forethought to park the car there that morning. The 5th graders had had some sort of parent lunch and then they did their "clap out" where all the other students lined the halls and everyone clapped for the 5th graders. This was all great, but it meant there were so many parents all vying for parking. There was literally someone parked on the crosswalk! 

At 12:45 Veronica came out of the school. She was crying super hard. Tears on the last day of school are kind of an elementary school tradition in our family so I wasn't surprised. She was super sad because her teacher wont be there next year. Veronica has LOVED this teacher and 4th grade has been a really good year for her. She sobbed in the car all the way to her therapy appointment. 

Therapy went well. This was actually also Veronica's last therapy appointment. She's met all of her goals and has learned how to manage her anxiety really well. So there's not really a need for regular appointments at this time. 

Veronica was sad that she was loosing all of her adults. I told her that I need to find her some adults that just want to listen to her tell them jokes. 

After therapy we drove over to the CASA office which is basically across the street from her therapy office. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. They help support children who are in foster care. 

We have to back up and talk about what we were doing there. Several weeks ago Veronica and I finished reading Holes. She'd been really worried about the character Zero who had lived alone at a park when he couldn't find his mom.  She was like, "What would we do if we saw a kid at a park who didn't have parents?"

I told her about foster care and how kids go live with foster parents if their parents can't take care of them. So then she was super concerned about those kids. She wanted to do something to help.

So then I told her about CASA. I'd learned about CASA at a Stake Relief Society Activity several years ago. We'd assembled kits with snacks for kids to have on days when they had to go to court. I'd emailed a lady after that event for some more info to pass onto a friend who was also helping foster kids.  

Veronica wanted to buy toys for some foster kids. So I emailed that lady that I'd talked to before. Her name was Denise. I asked Denise what kind of toys would be best. She recommended that Veronica pick out a toy that she would like and that way it could go to another 10 year old girl. They used these type of gifts for birthdays and other special occasions. 

I told Veronica that we could use my "tithing" money for this. I often like to donate to local causes instead of exclusively to the LDS church. I like knowing exactly where my money is going. So this fit my criteria. Veronica picked out a Lego set with Asha's Cottage from Wish. There was still a little money left over so I bought a McDonald's gift card with the difference. 

So anyway, after Veronica's therapy appointment we took the gifts over to CASA.  Denise was waiting for us. She and another lady made a big deal out of writing Veronica's name on a whiteboard and taking a picture of us to add to a picture board of all their doners. They were so touched that Veronica had wanted to do this. It was really sweet and I was near tears. 

By the time we got home Charlotte and Lydia were already home from Middle School. During their awards ceremony they'd each received the award for "Most Creative" from their Family and Consumer Science teacher. She'd called them up together. The girls said they could hear some people whispering, "Wait, they are twins!" 

Charlotte had had Family and Consumer Science first semester. She said her teacher was hard to read, but by the end of the semester she was certain that the teacher liked her. 

Lydia had the class second semester. She went into class the first day and told the teacher, "I'm Charlotte's twin and I'm just like her!"  She picked up right where Charlotte left off and soon had the teachers complete trust. She was always doing extra assignments and helping the other kids. 

Neither of the girls had straight A's all year so they didn't get the Lamp Award this year. But I'd already bought knock off Lamp Awards from Amazon. I'd bought these to represent that the girls had both worked hard all year. 

We also cracked open the jar of money from on top of our fridge. The kids earned a dollar for every day they went to school, but they had to take two dollars out if they stayed home. The total for this semester was $145.40. (I think I'd randomly thrown .40 in there one day.) That came out to $36.35 per kid. 

Charlotte and Lydia weren't interested in Young Women's that night. But Derrick wanted to go to Young Mens and play bigger and better. Veronica thought that sounded fun so she tagged along. The leaders were cool with letting her come. Derrick and Veronica's group came back with a 6 pack of soda water. The other group came back with a tool set. 

I ended up locking my keys in the van at the church. So the three of us got a ride home with one of the young men leaders. When Brandon came home from rehearsal he took me over to the church and unlocked the car for me. 

Oh and here's a picture from rehearsal. Brandon has a whole sword fight scene. 

Thursday did NOT feel like the first day of summer vacation. It was overcast, windy, and cold. We kind of just hibernated in the house all day.  I figured instead of trying to police the kids screen time I'd just let them watch as much as they wanted for the first few days. I figured they'd hit a saturation point and start looking for other things to do. So they basically watched all two seasons of Gravity Falls in like 3 days.  

The wind stopped and sun came out around 6:00. I went outside to do something and I was like, "Oh we should go somewhere."  So I got the kids out of the basement and told them we HAD to go to the park for 30 minutes. 

We went to a nearby park with a creek and the kids had a lot of fun playing with that. They floated little sticks down the water in elaborate races. We ended up staying for almost an hour. 

Brandon was teaching at CSI. He got home a little before dark so he and I went on a walk. 

Friday I spent a lot of time working on this denim wreath. I'd seen this project online like a year ago. I'd started the project in August, but I was ripping the fabric into strips and there were so many strings. 

So then I put the project on hold and asked for a rotary cutter and mat for Christmas. I got them for Christmas, but I didn't open them until May 24th. Five months later. 

Anyway, I worked on the project a little bit Thursday night and then for a long time on Friday afternoon after I got off work. Here's the project almost done. 

And here it is on my door. It looks so cute. 

After that I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening cleaning up this flower bed. Here's the before picture (yes I finally remembered to take a before picture.)

Here's how it looked about 3 hours later. I had most of the grass out, but some areas were really compact and dry. So I soaked them with the hose and would come back the next day and loosen it up with the shovel. 

Saturday we were planning to hike to Teakettle Cave with Jori's family. But one of her kids got sick in the night. I toyed with the idea of just cancelling all together, but I was like, "Um these kids have been watching TV in the basement for 2 days. They HAVE to get out of the house."  So we still went hiking. But I didn't want to do Tea Kettle Cave without Jori.  Instead we went to Little City of Rocks.

I've wanted to go there for a long time, but it's either been too hot or we've been too tired. 

But this day was PERFECT. The high wasn't supposed to go over 65 and so we never got too hot. 

There were so many cool rock formations. 

The kids had been sad about not going to Tea Kettle Cave, but they warmed up to this place pretty quick. 

It was really pretty and we hardly saw anyone else. We saw two people after we'd been there for about 20 minutes. And then we didn't see anyone else until we were almost back to the cars. 

Here are me and Derrick together. 

Everything was so green!

And there were pretty flowers everywhere. These yellow flowers also grow in Yellowstone and people go nuts for them.  I always like seeing them in random places in Idaho.

Did I mention the rocks were really cool shapes. 

It was just incredible. 

We stopped for snacks and the girls all wanted to sit on this rock. 

These were syringas AKA wild lilacs. They are the state flower. 

I can't believe how pretty this place was. I'm so glad we made time for this. 

We came to a fork in the trail and took the right fork. The trail got a little steep, but not too bad. 

Here I am again. 

More cool rocks. 

Veronica taking a break. 

Looking back down the trail.

The kids hiked down to these pools to get a sample of pond water to look at with the microscope. (That hasn't happened yet and now I'm wondering what happened to the water bottle full of pond water. Hopefully it's not mixed in with our other water bottles.)

Me again. 

The trail guide I'd read online said that the trail was hard to find after the fork. And that turned out to be true. All of a sudden it just disappeared. So we stopped for another snack break before turning around. Derrick wanted to try to get up high so he hiked above us and ate his lunch up there. 

Here's Lydia. 

Here we are on the way back. 

I know I said it already, but this was just an incredible hike. 

Look at these fun features. 

We will definitely come back here again.

Here we are almost to the trailhead. 

We'd left the house around 9:00, made it to the trailhead about 10:00, hiked until about 1:00, and then were home around 2:00. I drove home because Brandon was super tired. He fell asleep on the way home. When we got home it was my turn for a nap. I went out to the patio and took a long nap there. 

After I woke up I went back to work on the flower bed. I took a little break to take Charlotte and Lydia to a party hosted by their Sunday School teachers. But I mostly worked on this for another 3 hours. I got all the grass out and then planted zinnias and marigolds. Here's the finished bed. 

Here are some other things of interest in the yard. This is a little lilac. It's been up against the front of the house for a few years, but it did not like the shade. So I moved it into the sun last fall. It's LOVING this spot. 

And here's a long view of the back yard. I really love this garden. 

On Sunday we went to Jori's house for dinner. We were there for HOURS and had a great time talking and eating. Jori has been wishing to braid Veronica's hair and Veronica let her.  Then the twins wanted their hair braided too. Here are the three of them walking home. 

Okay, I planned to just keep going and catch up on this week too. But blogger is refusing to upload the pictures for this week. 

So I guess we'll stop here while I figure that out. 

Thanks for reading. 

Third week of Maycember - And our 17th Anniversary

It's happening. This blog will be updated BEFORE summer vacation starts. I wasn't sure that was going to happen. 

This will cover Monday May 13 to Sunday May 19.

Another good title for this post would be "Valerie's quest to buy tomato plants."  Because it literally took me FIVE days to get that done. I should have bought them on Saturday, but I decided I could just go on Monday. HA HA HA. What was I thinking?

I worked every day this week. And a lot of those work days were from as soon as I dropped the kids off at school until I picked up Derrick. And then I was kind of brain dead after work. 

Other days we had things going on in the afternoon or evening that made it so I couldn't just pop over to the store and get them. 

And one day I was literally at the store when Derrick called me from school and told me his shoes were broken and he needed me to pick him up early. 

I finally went to the store on Friday morning as soon as I dropped the kids off and I BOUGHT those dang plants. 

Anyway, let's look back over the things that were going on besides buying tomato plants.  

The strawberries in the front yard are doing so well. They are starting to flower. I'm so excited to have these doing so well. 

The peony is also doing well. 

And look at that inviting path. This corner of the front yard always looked so sad with bare patches and yellow spots. Now it's so interesting. 

I have a few random white tulips that bloom after the others. They are fun to spot. 

This one has a little bit of purple. 

On Monday afternoon I went over to the elementary school for the annual "Cream the Teacher" event. This is some sort of reward for completing ISAT testing. They creamed the test so now they get to cream the teacher. Four of the school staff dress up in ponchos, shower caps, and goggles, and then one student from each class gets to come up and throw a "pie" in their faces. Really the pie is just a pie pan full of whipped cream. It's hilarious. 

Parents are invited, but they only really let the parents know about it on the monthly newsletter, so I'm usually the only one there because I'm probably the only person that reads that newsletter with my calendar app open. 

Last year the event was held outside and I was able to just stand in the back. So this year I wandered over to the school with a camp chair over my shoulder. But the kids weren't outside. I went inside and the office lady told me they were out in the gym. 

So I went out there. I was hoping to just sneak in, but the kids were already all sitting down facing the front. There were also a lot of people in fancy clothes standing in front of me. I recognized the District PR person in the group. I could see into the gym and the District Superintendent was talking on the microphone. I was like, "What is going on?"

I was able to get through and then sit down along the wall near Veronica's class. She was excited to see me. 

Another man started talking into the microphone. I didn't recognize him. But then he started talking about his priorities for Idaho and how he works with the legislature. And I took another look at him. I starting thinking, "I think that's the governor."  One of the para's was next to me. She leaned over and asked, "Is that the governor?" And I was like, "I think so."

Someone was holding one of those giant checks. I thought it said $35,000 dollars. But I looked closer and realized it was $35,000,000 as in 35 MILLION DOLLARS. This was part of a 1.5 Billion dollar investment that the legislature passed this year. The money is going toward making physical improvements in aging schools. This was the check for Twin Falls School District's portion of the money.

They had two of the state reps and all of the school board come out and pose with the check as Governor Little signed it. 

Then all the fancy people left and it was time for fun. 

The people getting creamed this year were Robert the head custodian (and our neighbor), the principal, Mr H, and the assistant principal. Mr H was by far the favorite target. At the end he joked, "I'm going to get you ALL back."

I was able to check Veronica out early so we walked home together. 

When all the kids were home I took Derrick, Charlotte, and Lydia to their orthodontist appointment. Derrick is ready for bottom braces next month. Scheduling for next month nearly did me in. We have SO much happening in June. We haven't been to Utah all year, but we are going to Utah FOUR times in June. So it was kind of hard to find a time that worked for the orthodontist. We ended up splitting up the kids again. Charlotte and Lydia's appointment will be on a whole different week than Derrick's. 

For some reason that scheduling really did me in for the day. So even through I was hoping to buy tomato plants that evening I didn't. 

Brandon had rehearsal that evening and I think the kids and I played Green Thumb. That's a card game my siblings and I played as kids. Lindsey found it online and gave it to me several years ago. My kids really like playing it. 

Tuesday was a pretty regular day, but after school I went to the Middle School for Derrick's IEP meeting. His review isn't due until the fall, but it's was time for the big 3 year review and they wanted to get all the evaluations done before the end of the school year. Plus his SPED teacher is retiring and I think she wanted to tie up loose ends. 

The meeting had his SPED math teacher, the school vice principal, his Social Studies, and his Science teacher there. And while they all had positive things to say about Derrick the consensus was that he was really struggling this year. He wasn't understanding the material and since this school had a shortage of para's there really wasn't anyone to help him one on one. He didn't have any disruptive behaviors, but he did have problems engaging with anything. 

What he probably needed was to be in the Intermediate Resource Center at another Middle School. There the ratio of teachers and paras to students would be so much better. The classes would be more on his level. He'd still be able to go to gen ed classes for some electives, but he'd mostly be in the IRC classes for subjects like Social Studies and Science. 

At first I was a little hesitant about the idea. I didn't want Derrick to go to a different school. I wanted him at our neighborhood school with his sisters. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Derrick had been telling me that school was "hard and boring."  I'd asked him what his favorite class was - meaning out of his classes currently. He'd responded, "Kindergarten."

He was obviously struggling. And according to all his teachers 7th grade would only be harder. 

Also I realized that if he went to the IRC he would be there all day. I wouldn't have to pick him up at 1:15. I'd have my afternoons back. 

So I agreed to look into it. The next step was to contact the principal of the other school and ask for a tour. I took care of that on Wednesday and set up the tour for Thursday. Then I talked to Derrick about the possibility of switching schools. He didn't like the idea at first, but he warmed up to it when I told him the new school would be easier and more fun.

Wednesday was another day off work where I actually went to work. But I did the same thing where I worked with the door shut so I was able to get a lot done without interruptions. 

I tried to get off a little early and buy tomatoes. I made it to the store and was pushing a cart when Derrick called me and asked me to pick him up early. He'd been wearing his sandals and they "fell apart."  (Meaning he was bored in class and pulled on them until they broke.)

So I picked him up. Since we had a little extra time I decided we'd go drive by the prospective new middle school. I'd never actually seen it because it is on the very southern edge of town. We were literally driving by fields on our way out there. Derrick got very excited when he saw the school. It's one of the newer schools in the district so it was very fancy looking. He was like, "Yeah, I want to go there!"

That afternoon I had a dentist appointment. It was nice to get my teeth all cleaned and I don't have any cavities. 

Back at home I was happy to see that my lilac bush was blooming. 

And look, the chicks were 4 weeks old. They were loving their coop and the lower area. 

Charlotte and Lydia loved checking on them all the time. 

That evening we had our friend Payton come over. Payton's mom is my friend Kerri. Kerris is the attendance secretary at the middle school. And since I take Derrick into the school every morning I talk with Kerri every day. 

And honestly, Kerri is probably 75% of the reason Derrick did as well as he did at the middle school this year. She was there for him in the office any time he needed to call home. 

Kerri and her husband are also involved with the Magic Valley Repertory Theatre. They both made it into Treasure Island. At the beginning of the play I told Kerri that Payton is welcome to hang out at our house ANYTIME. 

Lately Payton has been bored sitting at rehearsals so Kerri asked if she could come to our house on Wednesday night. Of course I said yes. 

The kids were very nice to Payton. She is 8 so I was a little worried about the age dynamics, but she's done a lot of theatre stuff with older kids so she did just fine. She had fun seeing the chicks and then Charlotte and Lydia showed her a bunch of cool stuff. Then they all watched a movie together. And finally she colored with Veronica while I read them Indian in the Cupboard.  

 

Kerri told me that Payton fell asleep on the way home, which is something she never does. So I guess we did our job well. 

Thursday was the day that we had the tour of the new middle school scheduled. I took Derrick out there after school and Brandon met us there. 

The Principal and one of the SPED teachers gave us a tour. Derrick was really excited about all the amenities he could see.  Like a vending machine that had books in it. When we got to the SPED classroom he liked that it had a calm down area and a cupboard full of games. 

Out in the hall he saw trophies for the bowling team and asked how he could be on that team. 

I was happy to see lots of adults in the SPED classroom. That's been one of the hardest things at our current middle school. There just haven't been enough para's to go around. 

So I told the Principal that we were ready to have Derrick transferred to this school in the fall. She said she'd let the District Special Services Department know. 

Here's Derrick in front of the school because he was so excited about it. 

I was really going to buy tomato plants that evening. But I also needed to take Derrick and Veronica shopping for snacks. They were planning a sleepover in the treehouse and had a whole list of the snacks they were going to buy. 

I figured the best place to do that would be Fred Meyer. We could get food and plants at the same place. So we bought the snacks. But by the time we were done with that I was feeling a little over stimulated. And as we tried to walk to the garden center Veronica bumped into a display of hats and some fell off the shelf. It was a little thing, but I was like, "Nevermind, I want to buy my tomatoes when I don't have any distractions."  So we went home. 

Friday was our 17th Wedding Anniversary. I woke up with Brandon in the morning and talked with him while he got ready for work. Then I went back to bed. But I remembered an idea I had for a Facebook post. So I went through my blog and found pictures from over the years. It was fun to put that together. 

I got the kids all ready for school and dropped off and then I went and BOUGHT THOSE TOMATOES!!!!!!! I wasn't waiting any longer. I just put them in the back of my van and then parked it at work with the windows cracked. 

At work I realized I was actually really tired. I kept making dumb mistakes and things were taking longer than the should have. All I wanted was a nap. 

The schedule at the middle school was different because they were having a carnival that afternoon. So I picked Derrick up around 12:20. Then I took a nap!

I was planning to take Derrick back to the school for his grades carnival time. But he wasn't interested. But I did go there for Charlotte and Lydia's turn. I'd signed up to be a volunteer, but that ended up being the easiest volunteer gig ever. Nobody ever gave me a job. So I just stood and talked with another mom while we watched kids go in the dunk tank. 

Charlotte and Lydia had signed up to have a chance to do the dunk tank. 

Here's a video of Lydia going in.

And a short of Charlotte's turn. 

While I was out there the SPED teacher came out with another lady. The other lady was from the District Special Services department. We talked about the process to get Derrick transferred to the IRC. I found out that there were actually two Middle Schools with the program. So it was possible that Derrick was going to be at a different middle school than the one that we toured. That school is older so I was feeling a little bat and switched. But honestly, the program is what I'm interested in, not the building. 

I was happy to hear that they will probably have everything in place before the end of the school year. So at the end of the summer everything will be ready for Derrick to start there right away. That's good. 

After Charlotte and Lydia were done with the carnival we went to the office to check them out. Kerri had texted me to let me know there was something I needed to sign. So I made sure to do that. It was the paper saying I gave my permission for them to evaluate the transfer to the IRC.  

At home I went to work planting the tomatoes. It was a little compicated because I still had to add the soil amendments and then cover the soil with the ground cover. Then I could put in the tomatoes and the stakes. It felt good to have this all done. 

While I was doing all this Brandon was doing his own thing. He made reservations for dinner for us, picked up pizza for the kids, and bought me roses.  

I knew about the dinner stuff, but the roses were a surprise. 

I hurried to change my clothes and then we went out to dinner. We went to the Brick House which is a really nice restaurant. We were the very first people there at 5:30. I've never been in an empty restaurant before and honestly it was really really nice. I was so tired from everything it was nice to just enjoy the quiet. I was like, "This is GREAT! They need more sensory friendly restaurants."

The food was AMAZING too. I had a bacon cheese burger with fried green beans. 

Brandon had a swiss mushroom burger. 

And honestly the prices were pretty decent. This was only slightly more expensive than what we would have paid at Wendy's or Burger King. 

Here we are. 

After we finished dinner we walked around downtown a little bit. Then we decided to go to Culvers for dessert. Here we are waiting for our shakes.

And then we went to Target and Brandon bought me earings. (He's learned not to try to pick stuff out for me unless I'm there.)

Back at home Derrick and Veronica were getting everything ready for their treehouse sleep over. 

They had the tablet out there and stayed up late eating snacks and watching movies. 

Charlotte and Lydia had their own sleep over in the basement. 

Brandon and I were trying to stay up until the kids were all quiet. I had just started a new book and I was excited to get into it. I almost made it through one chapter. I fell asleep with like three paragraphs left. 

Despite all the late nights on Friday night everyone was up by 7:30 on Saturday. We were going on an adventure for our anniversary. 

When Brandon and I talked about what to do to celebrate our anniversary we'd considered going down to Utah and touring the Taylorsville Temple open house. That Temple is built on the same land that was once Brandon's stake Center.  (Technically the temple is built on the baseball fields while the parking lot is where the stake center was.)

But no one was really jazzed about that plan. I still haven't recovered from how stressful the Pocatello Temple Open House was. And driving three hours to Utah didn't sound fun for anyone. 

As I thought about the plan I realized we could just take the money that we would probably spend on gas and a hotel and use that to do something we'd all actually enjoy. 

I asked the kids if they wanted to go kayaking and they all enthusiastically said yes. They've wanted to go to Blue Heart Spring ever since Brandon and I went there for our anniversary last year. So I booked three tandem kayaks with Banbury Adventures for Saturday morning. 

We ate breakfast and packed lunches. Then we drove out to the Hagerman Area. We checked in at the office at Banbury Hot Springs and then they walked us down to the water. Our kayaks were waiting for us. I had the staff take our picture before we got in. 

Derrick and I were in a kayak together. He'd never been kayaking before, but he picked it up really fast. He told me, "I watched other people do it."

Here he is. He's like some sort of kinetic genius. 

Brandon and Veronica were together. I originally thought Veronica would be with me, but she told me she wanted some bonding time with Brandon. 

Charlotte and Lydia were together. They did a great job. I've wanted to have all of us go kayaking for like three years. But back when I first started considering this I was unsure about putting Charlotte and Lydia in their own kayak as 10 year olds. But now that they are 13 I had no problems. 

Here I am. I was having a great time. 

Derrick was in turbo mode on the way down to the spring. He wanted to win a race that was basically just going on in his head. So we made it down to the spring in like 30 minutes. And our kayak was the first to make it in.

The water was so pretty.

Here we are paddling around.

Me at the spring. 

Here are the others. 

We pulled our boats onto a small island and the kids got into the water. That water was incredibly cold. I don't know how they were in there at all. I just had my feet in the water and I was cold. 

Here I am. 

I had a plastic protector on my phone and the lens got a little dirty. But you can see the kids in the water. 

They went out deeper with their snorkel masks and dived under the water. Lydia immediately popped up. She was breathless from the cold, but said, "That was the most incredible thing I've ever seen."  She said it looked like a coral reef under the water. 

Brandon climbed up the rocks and took some pictures from a higher view. 

You can see how clear the spring water is. 

I like how the water looks like peacock feathers. 

Here's a Marco Polo video he took from up there. 

Lydia was shivering uncontrollably, and I was getting a little worried about hypothermia so I took her up on the island and had her snuggle up next to me. Her hands and feet were ice cold. But as her hair and swimsuit dried she warmed up. 

Charlotte had climbed up to be with Brandon, but she was shivering too so he brought her over to where me and Lydia were. 

Derrick and Veronica weren't as cold so they got into a kayak and paddled around. 

We had lunch around 11:00. Here are Derrick and Veronica eating on the kayak. 

And the girls eating with me. 

Derrick took the kayak around on his own. We'd had the place basically to ourselves for most of the time we were there. but around 11:30 more people started showing up. Derrick had fun talking to them.

Our rental lasted until 1:00 and we figured it would take us about an hour to get back so around 12:00 we packed everything up. We did one last loop around the spring. 

It really was so pretty. I'm so glad we were able to bring the kids here. 

Then we started back. This time Derrick was like, "It's not a race."  He was so laid back on the way back. It's not that he was tired - he still had a lot of power in his strokes. I think he just wanted to make it last as long as possible. He wanted to stop and see everything. Logs floating on the water, buoys, foam, large rocks - everything. 

Brandon tried to take this picture of me. 

Derrick and I ended up being the last ones to the dock by about 10 minutes. Here's a picture Brandon took of the girls waiting. 

We thanked the employees and then got back into the car. 

We drove home and made it home around 2:00. I told the kids they could have an hour to shower, snack, and take a break. Then we'd clean up the house around 3:00. I ended up falling asleep at 3:00, but Brandon made sure the kids all cleaned. He said it took like 30 minutes. 

I woke up around 4:30. I'd fallen asleep on the patio. (It's my favorite place for Saturday afternoon naps.)  Charlotte and Lydia had just come home. They'd walked to Smiths and bought drumstick ice cream cones as an anniversary present. In the house Brandon had just finished gettting pulled pork ready for dinner. (It had been cooking in the crock pot all day.)  I was like, "Wow, I woke up to a clean house, dinner, and dessert!"

It had been a great day. We really didn't get much done around the house, but I told everyone, "Well it was kind of like a holiday for our anniversary. Plus we wouldn't have been able to do any yardwork or anything like that if we'd gone to Utah anyway."

The kids and Brandon watched Star Wars Episode IV. I was going to watch it, but I was in a writing mood and so I caught this blog up. Veronica ended up falling asleep for half the movie. 

When it was over Derrick and Veronica wanted to have a sleep over in Derrick's room. I told them they needed some good sleep so they needed to sleep in their own rooms. Veronica said she fell asleep right away. 

Everyone was sleeping in the morning, but we made it to church at 10:30. I was feeling off for most of church so when we got home I took a really long nap. That seemed to help. 

We had been talking about doing the Pillar Falls Hike, but my need for a naps cancelled that. Instead Brandon made home made fries with Charlotte. 

In the evening we watched Star Wars Episode V. (I "watched" but also worked on this blog.)

Now it's 7:45 and we are starting Star Wars Episode VI. We only have 2 and a half more days of school so I'm not super worried about getting these kids to bed on time tonight. 

And with that, we are FINALLY caught up on this blog again.  And just in time too. Wednesday is the last day of school and then we transition to summer vacation mode. And guess what?  This summer is THERAPY FREE SUMMER. Veronica only has like four more sessions of vision therapy and then we are DONE with therapy. NOBODY has therapy this summer and it is going to be amazing. 

Anyway, thanks for reading!