Swimming 2012

Summer is such a busy busy time for this family. I'm wondering if I've got things all wrong - maybe we just need to schedule NOTHING next summer and then it might be like I remember - lazy summer days. Or am I just remembering the kid perspective? Maybe my mom thought summer was crazy too.

In any case, we were quite scheduled. Ben continued school through the end of July, all of the kids had swim practice every day (at different times), Eliza had ballet twice a week, and then there were the swim meets besides. I think there was more, but I can't remember now. Anyways, it was a heavily scheduled, but very fun, blur.

Eliza and Ethan both made a lot of progress with swimming this summer. Ben practiced with the team in the spring but did not want to swim in meets - he's too competitive to accept anything but 1st place. Eliza especially had fun at the end of the summer when she swam well at the city meet and even made B finals. She had a very big grin on her face.

Eliza spent a very fun week at Daisy Day Camp. It was bittersweet to send her off every morning at 8am, only to see her again at 5pm. I felt such joy knowing that she was going somewhere fun with people I trusted and knowing that I could just send her - I've never had such luxuries with my boys. But I was sad to see her off and so independent and so young but old enough to do it. Here is my cutie girl all decked out for a fun day at camp. She LOVED every minute.

Blake took 10 weeks or so of daily swimming lessons with an ISR instructor who recently began teaching in Concord. I've been waiting for years for such an instructor to show up around here, and imagine my joy when I learned her pool was just 2 blocks from my home. I am in awe of this method of swim instruction. Who would believe that a 9 month old baby can survive a fall in the water? It's true, and it's amazing. With all the time we spend around water, it's so comforting to know that Blake has an extra layer of protection from drowning - a beautiful "swim-float-swim."

I was lucky to go to San Francisco with my sister's family to see Les Miserables. I'd seen it several times in my high school era, and even then proclaimed it my favorite musical. I've spent hours and hours of my life listening to and singing along with the soundtrack. To see it come to life again, after many years, was amazing. It is such a stunningly emotional and transformative story. It touches my soul. My sister and I laughed as unexpected memories came up - my brother singing to us "you're all alone, you have no friends" and other twists of the lyrics that made us all laugh back in the day.

Scout Camp

This post just so happens to have been wrote by.........................ETHAN!(big shocker!) Since my mom didn't go there, she couldn't possibly know exactly what happened, but since I was there, I'll tell you.

So, first of all, we went to Camp Wolfboro. Clayton Valley First Ward went with Concord Second Ward in terms of Scout troops from different churches. I'm in Concord Second Ward with Adam, Isaac, and Conner. We met some others in Clayton Valley First Ward. I kind of lost count of them all, but the names I can remember are Devon, Anders, Jared, and Dominic(it was NOT the Dominic we've already posted about). See, I brought my school yearbook with me, and Devon saw it. Then I found out he goes to the same school as I do. We were pretty good friends for the rest of the week and we still are.

In the above picture, some of us are sitting together at our campsite. See, there are areas to work on Merit badges and places to camp out.A river separates 2 areas. One area is devoted to places for Merit Badges. Eagle's end is where you work on badges like Citizenship in the __________________. Fill in the blank with Community, Nation, or World. You can do badges like Art, Basketry, Chess, and Woodcarving in the Scoutcraft section. There's also an archery and rifle range. And a mess hall. I loved most of the food they cooked. They made all kinds of things like waffles, pizza, corn dogs, hamburgers, and several others I've forgot.

On the other side of the river is where all the campsites are. There's also a nature center and a place to do First Aid, Safety, and Emergency Preparedness. Above me and Jared are working on the Geology merit badge in the nature center. You can also do Astronomy, Bird Study, and some others there.

Here I'm playing a Chess game for the Chess merit badge. I'm near the front of the table using the one that's black and tan. I remember a game I played with someone from my troop. I don't remember his exact name, but the game was long and hard-fought. I eventually won that game.

Here we are doing the flags. I'm on the far left. Before you say that I looked too stiff, let me just say in my defense that I was trying to look formal.

But I admit, I MAY have looked a LITTLE too stiff.

Here's the river I mentioned earlier. Crossing it was a major part of my routine. First I'd get my stuff together and cross the bridge to breakfast. After that I'd go to Eagle's End for Citizenship in the World, then to the nature center for Astronomy. Then I'd go to First Aid and then to lunch. After that I'd go back to the nature center for Geology. Then I'd go to Scoutcraft for Chess and Basketry.Dinner was afterward. We'd raise the flags before breakfast and lower them right before dinner.

Here we are cleaning out the bathrooms near our campsite. I was helping quite a bit.I do feel a little bad for the people whose campsites were kind of far from the bathrooms.

Here we're hanging out near our non-burning fire. When we were burning it one evening, we started telling some ghost stories. I told a pretty good one about some demon grapefruit plants turning a little boy into a grapefruit plant.

Here I am with my dad on the day we left.As the sign indicates, we camped near a cliff. Thank heaven rocks didn't fall down and crush us.

Double Digit Life!

Ben looked forward to this day for so long! On July 2, 2002, Ben officially began his "DDL" or "Double Digit Life." He has seen it looming in his future and oh, what joy, at last the day arrived! We did a spontaneous birthday dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs with family and friends that are like family. Ben requested a round, pink cake, but wouldn't let us write DDL on it. 10 works.

Afterwards, we even convinced our guests to join us at the Singing Flag. Anything for Ben, right?

Clearly my camera work was lacking on this day, but thanks to the Hiatts, Grandma Joan, and the Burrs for helping us to celebrate Ben's DDL!