Summer 2024 - Week 11 - The beginning of the end

There are twelve weeks to the summer. And this was week eleven. That means we are starting the whole process to go back to school. So this week saw us Buying supplies, registering for classes, and getting Derrick's stuff situated. 

But it was still summer vacation so there were also lots swimming at the pool, digging in the hole, and just general slow stuff. 

And then my sister Emily came to visit this weekend and we had a great time with her and her family. 

So let's recap. 

Derrick has wanted hamburgers for dinner for a few weeks, but our BBQ grill's propane was out. So hamburger had to wait until Brandon could get a refill. Brandon got the new tank on Saturday night so we could have hamburgers on Sunday. 

Well, on Sunday Brandon tried to use the grill, but the propane still wasn't working. There was something wrong with the regulator . . . or something like that. Brandon says it's an easy fix, but it wasn't a fix right away type of thing. So he improvised and cooked the burgers on the griddle outside. And he cooked corn on a hot plate. (I'm not sure why he didn't do this inside, but I think by this point he was committed to cooking outside.)

We had a really nice dinner out on the patio.  

The big excitement on Monday was that all three kids had an orthodontist appointment. I took a picture of them all back in their chairs. The way our orthodontist works is they have techs who put on the brackets and bands and do all the repetitive work. The orthodontist walks around and check everything. He makes sure the brackets are in the right place and he tells the techs what size the wires should be and things like that. So that's how all three kids can have an appointment at the same time.  

The orthodontist told us that Lydia will probably get her braces off the visit after next time. We were excited about that. And then he told us that Charlotte will probably get her off NEXT time. So that was really exciting. And Derrick wasn't left out. He will probably start wearing rubber bands on the next visit. So that visit was full of good news. 

That evening Derrick was the only one who wanted to go to the pool. So at 7:00 we drove over there. It was really empty of people. When we walked in the lady at the front desk told us they would close at 7:30. I was like "Oh yeah, it's August. I forgot the hours changed."

All summer the pool has been open for open swim from 1:00-5:00 then they close for swim lessons from 5:00-7:00 and then open again for open swim from 7:00-9:00. But in August all the swim lessons end. They just do open swim from 12:00-7:30. 

So Derrick swam for 30 minutes and then we went home. I made a note of the hours on the bulletin board so we would remember for the next two weeks. (The hours change again when school starts so I'll have to make myself another note.)

On Tuesday I was dinking around on Facebook when I started to see notifications that Kamala Harris had selected Tim Waltz as her running mate. I had no idea who this guy was, but after reading a few things I realized she'd done an excellent job picking someone. 

I saw this tweet several days later, but it pretty much summed up how I felt about him by the end of the day. 

And here are some other endearing tweets that I found while I was trying to find that one. 

He's just so down to earth. 

I know that a few weeks ago I wrote about how sad I was that President Biden dropped out of the race. And I'm still sad for him. But Vice President Harris's campaign has been so full of joy and hope and enthusiasm. It's lovely to see. (And I have mad respect for Biden dropping out of the race AFTER The Republican's spent the whole RNC railing against him and not spending much time on Kamala. That was a beautiful piece of political maneuvering.)

Anyway, in news from my house, we spent the morning working on the hole. I was able to back fill the areas where the log retaining wall had been. Now there was just the little problem of what to do about the "wishing well."  I had been thinking that we'd just shift it a few inches to the left. But then I realized I wanted it out of that area all together. So Charlotte, Lydia, and I tipped it over so I could see what the area looked like without it. I learned two things. 1. Yes I did want to move it. 2. I couldn't stand it back up. So the well had to stay in an awkward spot until Brandon had time to help. Spoiler Alert - that wouldn't be until Saturday. 

We went inside and took showers and then I took Charlotte and Lydia over to the middle school for registration. This was so much less emotional or stressful than in other years. The girls didn't want a locker this year so we didn't have to wait in a long line to pay for that. The picture people weren't there so we didn't have to wait in that line either. We just picked up their schedules from the counselors and then walked around the school a bit to see their classrooms. 

The girls have all the same teachers - just at different times. They have orchestra together. And they have "primetime" (it's like homeroom) together. That's a BIG deal because the students do a lot of things like go to assemblies or fieldtrips with their primetime class.  On the first day of school they spend half the day just in primetime. So Charlotte and Lydia are super excited about that. 

I actually knew about it about a week earlier. My friend Kerri is the attendance secretary at the school. She texted me and asked if the girls would mind being in the same class - she was adjusting schedules and somehow that made something else work. I thought, "They would love to be in EVERY class together." But I didn't tell her that. I just told her they'd like that. So she made the change. But she wasn't sure if it would be final so I didn't tell the girls. 

This is one of my pro-tips for parents. Make friends with the Attendance Secretary. It will make your life so much easier. 

That night I took the kids to the pool as soon as we were done with dinner so we went around 6:30 and they swam until 7:30. Then we came home and I watered the garden really well. I discovered that my hosta had bloomed. So I guess my experiment to see if this was a good spot worked. 

Wednesday was my last scripture study group for the next two weeks. We were on Mosiah chapter 22. This was the chapter where Limhi's people are rescued by Ammon and figure out how to sneak out of the city. I had all sorts of plans to compare and contrast Limhi's people's escape from Alma's people's escape in two chapters. We were going to look at how Limhi's people had to do it on their own and trick the guards while Alma's people were led and helped by the Lord. I was totally going to present the people of Limhi as doing it on their own. 

And then I read the commentary in "The Book of Mormon for the Least of These."  That book points out that Limhi's people was comprised of mostly widows and children. They brought many flocks and herds. It would be pretty impossibly for that many people and animals to actually sneak out of the city without detection. Equally impressive is that they didn't leave a clear trail to follow in the wilderness. The laminates couldn't follow their trail after 2 days and were lost in the wilderness. The book says that even through God doesn't seem to be part of this story - He was probably involved. So the lesson became more about trying to notice God in our lives even when it's not very clear that he's there. 

We spent the afternoon . . . okay I'm not exactly sure what we did that afternoon. I thought about taking the kids swimming, but they weren't very interested for some reason. 

I think I started cleaning up our art/guest room  . . . oh and I just remembered what we did. I started cleaning up the guest room and ended up crawling into the bed and taking like a 2 hour nap. That's what I did that afternoon. 

But I also got the room ready for Emily's visit. We haven't had anyone over since like January so that room needed a lot of TLC to get all the craft stuff contained. 

Thursday was a big day. At 9:00 I took Derrick over to his new middle school so we could have a tour. He's going to be in the Extended Resource Center. The way I've described it to Derrick is that it's a little bit like elementary school combined with middle school. He'll start and end his day in the ERC, but he'll "push out" into gen ed classes like math and social studies with other resource students. One of the best things is that he will have many paras to support him. (That's probably one of the biggest reasons the other middle school didn't work - they just didn't have enough paras for Derrick to have one with him in every class.)

We met with the SPED teacher and someone from the district. We went all over the school so Derrick could get used to it. Along the way we ran into one of Derrick's Deacons Quorum advisors. He's a counselor at that school. 

We also saw the gym where they have assemblies. The SPED teacher explained - we usually come for about 20 minutes. And then we go back to class. I loved hearing that. At the other school there was no one to help Derrick with those kinds of things so he didn't go to assemblies at all. 

All in all this is going to be so good for Derrick. And really my only complaint is that this wasn't talked about AT ALL when we were transitioning from Elementary to Middle school. I KNEW Middle school would be tough for Derrick, but all my concerns were brushed off. The elementary SPED teacher just handed me off to the Middle school SPED teachers who didn't even meet with me until a few weeks before school started. This really should have all been in place for 6th grade. 

But as with so many things, Derrick had to show that he couldn't handle middle school before we could really examine this as an option. I'm just glad we are here now. 

Oh and one of the best things is that they will bus him every day. So I don't have to worry about getting him across town the same time I'm getting Veronica and the twins off to school. 

I came home from that tour just so happy. And Derrick was really happy too. 

I had a lot of work to get done so rather than hanging around the house until 12:00 I actually went to work at like 10:30. The first stop was Ivan's office. He was out of town so I didn't have to worry about working around his client schedule. I went in there and took care of things for about 45 minutes. 

Then I went to Aspen and worked for like 3 and a half hours. 

I got home around 3:00 and the kids and I went to the orthodontist for some free ice cream they were giving out for a customer appreciation day. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was a very quick event. They were giving it out in the parking lot so we didn't even go inside the building. The ice cream was great, but we were kind of like "now what."  We'd driven by the pool to get there and I was like, "Oh we should have just worn our swimming suits so we could go to the the pool after we were done."  The kids were like, "We should still go to the pool!"

So we went home and put on our swimming suits and then drove back to the pool. 

Veronica had girls activity at 4:30 so she brought a change of clothes. At about 4:20 I had her get out of the pool and change in the bathroom. Then I drove her over to the church and dropped her off. 

Kaymie was there with some other moms so I got out of the pool to talk to her. One of the other moms commented on my swim suit and was like, "Got to make that pool pass worth it right?"

I said, "Oh we are way past that. My goal for the summer is 30 visits, this is number 24!"  (I was wrong it was actually #25.)

I talked to Kaymie for about 20 minutes. Then drove back to the pool. (It's not even a mile away from the church.)  The kids were still interested in swimming so I got back in the water with them. We stayed until about 5:20 when we left and picked up Veronica. 

I was so tired when we got home, but Derrick and I quickly made sloppy joes. Then I told the kids. "I'm taking a nap. At 7:00 I'll get up and we will all work on cleaning this house together."

So I took my nap and then I got up and felt so much better. We turned on some fun music and went to work cleaning up the house. The kids were big helps. We had a lot of dishes to do so they each took turns doing 15 dishes. 

When they weren't doing dishes they were helping clean up the living room. The living room rug has shifted so it's covering the air conditioning vent. Charlotte really wanted to get the rug straightened so she spearheaded moving the couch off the rug. She straightened the rug and vacuumed it. Then she went over it with the dog hair brush and racked up so much hair. Remember, this is AFTER Veronica got a lot off last week. 

Here she is, proud of her work.

While Charlotte was finishing up with the living room rug, I took the rest of the kids downstairs and we did a lot of deep cleaning down there. I'm missing a library DVD and book and I had a hunch they were under the family room couch. So we were getting lots of stuff from under there. We never did find the missing library stuff, but we did get the room a lot cleaner. 

We finished off the night watching Young Sheldon. 

Oh and you are probably wondering where in the heck Brandon was for all of this. He was teaching out at CSI that evening. So he was home right before we left for the orthodontist and we didn't see him again until about 8:30 that night. 

On Friday morning I cleaned the guest bathroom first thing in the morning. I'd meant to do it on Thursday, but it seemed a little overwhelming. It wasn't a problem at all in the morning though. 

I "woke" all the kids up at 8:00. I'd been doing that all week with mixed results. We are so not ready for our days to start at 7:00 again when school starts. Then I went to work. I'd written out a list of things for the kids to do while I was gone. It was things like last minute bathroom jobs and picking up dog poop. They got them all done. 

I'd put in a Walmart order for all their school supplies that morning. I was able to pick it up when I was done with work. I love doing school supply shopping that way. So much less drama. 

The kids and I had talked about going to the pool right when it opened at 12:00, but when I got home from work I checked the temperature and it was only 69 degrees outside. I was like, "Well that's a nope."

So we watched Young Sheldon for about 90 minutes and then went to the pool when the temperature was 80. 

I realized that I say we went to the pool a lot, but I don't really describe what we do there. This is a typical visit:  We travel light to the pool. We come already in our swimming suits with sunblock on. The kids don't even wear shoes. (That's a habit they got into when we started going to this pool in 2020 and they've never grown out of it.) We scan our cards and then go straight out onto the pool deck. We don't even bother with the dressing room. 

There's a nice grassy area on the side of the pool where we drop our stuff. Some families bring umbrellas or chairs. We just bring a bag of towels and another bag of pool toys and goggles. I also have my bag with my wallet, keys, phone, and a book. 

The kids have to take a swim test to go into the deep end. So they get in line for that. If there's no life guard they have Derrick (the one without a single shy bone in his body) ask another life guard to send out someone to do the swim check. 

If there is a long line for swim check the kids will sometimes play in the shallow end before they get in the line. They like to play hide and seek. They are actually pretty good at disappearing in a crowd of swimmers. Veronica actually found the best hiding place a few visits ago. She went and took the swim check while Derrick was looking for her. He never even noticed her. 

Swim check involves swimming from one end of the pool and back. It's 100 meters total. (I think.) The kids have done this so many times is really not a problem at all any more. Though they wish they didn't have to do it. We've all said that after they pass it 10 times their pool ID should just have a thing come up where they automatically get access to the deep end. 

After they pass the test they get a wrist band and can go in the deep end. I'm already in there. I get in the deep end as soon as we get there. (If the water is warm enough.) The deep end has a part that's about 5 feet deep and then it drops off to 12 feet. So I can hang out in the 5 foot part just fine. 

When I'm in the deep end I do some of my own little made up Physical Therapy for my feet. I've found that the stretches I'm supposed to do for my tendons and my plantar fasciitis are so much easier in the water. So I do those along with things like hoping from foot to foot and jumping jacks. I think this had really helped strengthen my feet this summer. 

The kids swim around me and talk to me for a little bit, but then they migrate over to the wall at the deepest part of the pool. They take turns going down to the bottom of the pool. They spend a long time over there. I made sure to get a picture of them there because that's where they've spent most of their time. 

I usually get out of the water after about 15-20 minutes. Swimming is for the kids to get worn out - not me. I'll go lay on a towel and read a book. On Friday I actually finished the third Pathfinder book. It was the most boring end to a trilogy EVER. I don't recommend reading beyond the first book. 

If I get hot I'll get back into the water for a little bit and then get back out. 

The kids usually all get done swimming around the same time. But if not, our rule is that when two kids are ready to go we'll go. 

The kids grab towels and dry off - except for Derrick who just likes to stay all drippy. We gather up our things and then walk out of there. At home the kids know to put their swimming suits and towels to dry on the clothes line under the tree house. Many times that where the suits and towels stay until our next visit. 

Anyway, that's pretty much how the visit on Friday went. We were killing time at the pool while we were waiting for my sister Emily to come. 

Brandon was taking her husband David and her three oldest boys, Asher, Bridger, and Titus on "Uncle Brandon camp."  Brandon had packed all his stuff the day before and so he didn't even come home on Friday. He just left straight from work. He drove out to Sublet and met Emily and David there. The boys all put their stuff into his car and he drove them to a trailhead where they started their backpacking adventure. Emily and the three little kids, Hazel, Vance and Juniper kept driving to Twin Falls. 

They arrived around 5:00 or maybe 6:00 I wasn't really paying attention. It was so fun to have them at our house. They had a blast finding all of our really cool toys that have not had much attention lately. We had pizza for dinner and then I took Emily on a tour of my garden. 

At 8:00 we walked over to Jori's house. She was hosting an outdoor movie night. She loves Studio Ghibli and so she was showing Ponyo. Some of the kids had seen it, but I never had. The bits I had seen hadn't really impressed me and I found the character of Ponyo to be really loud. But somehow watching the movie outside helped tone down Ponyo to a point where I didn't think she was too loud. So I was able to enjoy the movie.  

I wish I had better pictures than this because it was really fun to have about 30 people all spread out on blankets watching a movie. 

At one point it got windy and so Derrick was really nervous. So I took him home. He watched The Meg 2 because shark movies aren't as scary as windy nights. 

The movie ended at 11:00 and Juniper was fast asleep. Emily carried her home while the rest of us carried our chairs and blankets. We all went to bed really fast after we got home. 

Saturday was a really fun day. The little kids were up around 6:30 and - miracle and miracles - my big kids got up to play with them around 7:00. Charlotte was like, "I don't know how I am awake."

It was an even bigger deal because she'd stayed up until 1:00 working on a lego set that the kids had all pooled their money to buy. It had come on Friday afternoon. Here they are working on it again on Saturday morning. 

I'd signed up for a three part water conservation class at the Orton Botanical Garden. The next class was that day at 10:00. I'd called and asked if Emily could come with me. They said sure. So around 9:00 Emily and I drove out there and we spent some time walking around the garden before the class started. 

I think I was just taking these pictures to just show what it was like. 

But I should have taken a picture of the Fern Bushes because they were incredible. They had bees all over their blooms. I was like, "I need to figure out where to put one of these in my yard!"

Here's a picture I pulled off the internet. 

The class was great! This session was all about different types of plants. The instructor went over a lot of different pictures and told us cool things about the plants. He also gave us to packets full of great suggestions. I was like, "These are GOLD!"  Emily already has a lot of native plants so she had lots of good questions. I'm so glad she could come. 

Then we went out into the garden and they talked to us about different plants. And I absolutely fell in love with this desert willow. 

Check out it's blossoms!  And there were several humming birds around the tree. I need this one in my life too. 

We were there until 12:00. Emily had been in heaven the whole time. She told me, "Usually I go to classes and find out I need to be doing more. Today I learned I should be doing less! It's great."  She realized she's been overwatering a lot of her plants. The instructor and the garden owner were both like, "These plants just need stewardship. They don't need a lot of management."

Back at home the kids had had a great time. The roller coaster was done. Hazel had been able to watch Descendants 3: Rise of Red which was her main goal for the weekend. 

My big kids had fed Emily's little kids lunch so only me and Emily had to worry about eating. I made us a salad. When we were done we took everyone to Mary Alice Park. The little kids were enchanted by this place. 

The care taker of the garden, Art, wasn't there when we first got there. I told Emily, "That's probably good. I always feel weird when he's here because Derrick follows him around and talks to him while he's trying to work."

A little bit later Art showed up. Derrick was watching instagram videos on my phone so he didn't get up and talk to Art. Instead Art came over and talked to Derrick. He showed him pictures and videos of the Big Boy Engine. I was like, "Oh Art likes having Derrick's attention."

Emily and I asked Art some questions about the trees in the park and then he started telling us the history of the park. Eighteen years ago his wife had cancer and he needed an outlet. So he bought a gravel parking lot and started planting. He showed us a picture of what the place looked like before. It was completely barren. It was crazy to be sitting under the shade of a peach and pear tree and be looking at the picture of this place when it was just nothing. 

I said, "This gives me a lot of encouragement for my backyard."

Emily asked him if he amended the soil before he planted the trees. He said, "No, I just wanted to see what would grow."  That was also very encouraging.  After all the "science talk" at the botanical garden it was just nice to hear from a regular gardener. 

We went back home and the kids watched a movie when Emily and I took naps. 

Brandon and all the boys showed up just before 5:00. They took showers while I made dinner. We had taco salad out on the patio. The boys were so hungry so they gobbled it up. 

Then Brandon and David helped move the "well."  First the took off the roof so it wouldn't be so heavy.  Then Brandon, David, me, Emily, Asher, and Bridger all helped lift it. (Actually - strategically pivoting is probably a more apt description of what we did about 75% of the time.) We were able to move it to its new permanent place along the back fence. Here's Brandon putting the roof back on. 

We had dessert and then Emily and David put the little kids to bed. After all the little kids were in bed the big kids watched The Meg 2. They'd watched The Meg on a previous visit so they were interested in the second one. 

Emily wanted to see Shoshone Falls so we drove over there and saw it. August isn't a great time for the falls. But I kind of like seeing them with the little streams of water. 

We came home after dark. When the movie was over the big kids didn't seem interested in bed so we just kind of left Bionic Brandon in charge of getting them to sleep at some point and went to bed. 

On Sunday I got up and let Brandon sleep in. We had pancake casserole for breakfast. Pancake casserole is what I like to make when we have a bunch of pancakes in the freezer. It's basically left over pancakes recooked in a casserole dish with milk and eggs poured on top. 

We all went to church for sacrament meeting. But none of the kids were interested in staying for the second hour. So Brandon and David took them home while me and Emily stayed for Relief Society. Brandon and David made orange chicken, stirfry, and rice for lunch so as soon as Emily and I got home we had lunch. 

Then everyone packed and cleaned up. When that was all done we had ice cream. It was really fun to sit on the patio and talk while eating ice cream. 

And then it was time for Emily's family to leave. We were all sad to see them go, but it was kind of nice to have a less crowded house. 

I tried to take a nap, but I wasn't that tired. So I worked on this blog. 

And that get's us caught up. 

We have one week left of Summer Vacation. This is the week where we learn who Veronica's teacher will be. That's exciting. 

But it's also kind of sad that it's winding down. I have to keep telling myself that just because school is starting doesn't mean that summer is over. We still have several more weeks of the pool being open. And when things cool off we can start doing hikes again. 

Anyway, thanks for reading.