Caleb Bowling - Halloween

 Caleb finally got to do bowling with Special Olympics.  We have been waiting for bowling season since we started basketball in January.  

I love this photo sequence.  It is what he did every time.  He would make it back to his seat before the ball knocked over the pins.  It was cracking me up.  

 He had so much fun!

 Caleb was Spider man

Blake was Bumblebee (The Transformer)

Katie was a Warriors fan

I was lame and didn't very good pictures of their costumes.  Look closely and you can see Blake in his yellow costume.  In the picture in front of the house, you can see Caleb in his Spiderman costume on the front porch.  

Tchau, Elder Carlson

 Elder Carlson was set apart on Monday, October 30th.  Here's a picture of him with the last 4 of the "Homies".

Bryce Hugh, Joshua, Ben Berlin, and Spencer Robinson.  

We packed all his suitcases that day.  After weighing them with all the necessities, we still had over 40 pounds to fill.  We sent 10 anti-perspirants, 2 big shampoos, 2 giant peanut butters, 3 bars of soap, 5 tubes of toothpaste, and more stuff we knew they can't get in Brazil.  

We also had room to pack him a Christmas package.  It was nice because they cost a lot of money to send, and if they actually get to the missionary, the government charges the receiver a large custom fee to accept the package.  

We gave him an "after Thanksgiving day" package with 4 stockings for his apartment mates, 2 packages of cookie mixes, and paper strips cut out of green and red paper to make a Christmas countdown chain.  For his Christmas package, here's a picture of what we sent.  American treats, card games to play on Pday, stickers to hand out to local kids, microfiber towels that dry well in the humidity, and duct tape.  (All the posts about things Brazilian missionaries appreciate said duct tape.  ???)

Tuesday, October 30th at 7:00 a.m.

Salt Lake Airport

Plenty of help with suitcases!

This ticket agent was quite helpful with getting Josh his boarding passes printed off.  However, he opened Josh's passport and ripped out some visa papers he needed to enter the country.  The instructions from the church specifically said not to remove the papers stapled in his passport.  We were scared but there was nothing we could do about it now.  

Everybody got a hug.  Josh said, "Well, goodbye guys", turned around and walked to security.

After that ankle delay, he was more than ready to get going.  

After a few turns on the people mover, we headed home.

I called the church's travel office as soon as we got home to tell them about the visa papers that were torn out of the passport.  They said he'd be fine as long as he had the papers with him.  They have too many missionaries lose the papers before they get to the new country.  They asked who it was so they could call and talk to Delta to make sure they don't keep doing this.  

Later that afternoon, I got a text from this man.  He sat next to Josh on the plane.  He was a member of our church.  He sent me this picture of Josh and said he was happy and ready to get to Brazil.  I texted the man my thanks and told him to tell Josh that he didn't need to worry about his visa papers.  

He sent me this picture as they left the plane in Atlanta.  He said they talked a lot about different ways to handle discussing the church.  He was confident in Josh's abilities and passion.  What a sweet balm for this mommy's heart.

Zoo - Geode Beds

After Caleb's bocce tournament, we went to Hogle Zoo.  We try to go once a year during Fall Break.  This year, it was PACKED!  Usually, we get a lot of the exhibits to ourselves.  

We still had fun.  Blake was brave enough to enter the monkey exhibits but not quite brave enough to take a picture with the gorilla statue.

It was a treat to have Josh with us.  He was excited when he found out he would be here for the zoo trip.  Here he is holding Caleb so he could see a disgusting creature.  This is in the small animal/reptile building.  It has always been Josh's favorite.  It's where they house spiders, snakes, frogs, bats, crocodiles, and all sorts of creeping things.  

 No visit is complete without a stop at the insect display.  We enjoyed seeing which insects are found in Brazil.

 Blake was quite excited to get a picture on top of the seal statue with his seal stuffed animal, Swimmer.

Monday of Fall Break, we drove to the Dugway Geode Beds.  80+ miles round trip of dirt road added to 60 miles round trip of paved roads.  I think it was worth it.  We didn't know what to expect but when we stepped out of the van, we saw cracked geodes lying on the ground.  We weren't satisifed with taking home geodes someone else found, however.  

We had some sledgehammers and tools we boughtwhen we went to Topaz mountain.  We also rented a pick axe for the day.  

Last year, Josh and Kyle put up quite a fight about going.  I convinced them to come after an exhusting period of arguing.  (Last year, we had to turn around after an hour of driving because the dirt road was closed for construction.)  I knew they'd put up a fight again so I told them they could stay only if they did 3 extra chores around the house.  Katie and Kyle took me up on that offer.  Surprisingly, Josh chose to come with us.  

Caleb lasted about 30 minutes before the wind began to bother him.  He went to the van and played on the ipad.  Blake joined him after 15 more minutes.  

Josh, Gpa Clark, and I wandered around and mined for quite some time before we headed back to the van.  We made PB&J sandwiches for lunch.  Then, I convinced them all to join me in the crater that had been excavated.  There seemed to be decent geodes and the wind wasn't as bad.  

Here we are in the pit.  (There's another family in there with us.  That's the only other people we saw all day.)  

We dug for another hour or so.  We got quite good at identifying which rocks had the most potential.  

We loaded our treasures into the van and headed home.

After a few minutes, my tire pressure warning light came on but we were in the middle of nowhere and I had stopped at a tire store before we left to fill them.  An hour later, the car started acting wierd and there was another warning light.  I tossed the manual to my dad who started looking for what the light was for.  I kept driving because we were on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. 

Here's the area on Google Maps. 


This map is zoomed out to include most of western Utah.  The blue dot by Orem is our house.  The red flag is where we were waiting.



I looked in my mirrors and couldn't see anything wrong.  I figured we should get as close as we could to civilization.  

The van was behaving worse so I slowed to a crawl.  I looked in my mirrors again and saw bits of rubber flying behind us.  

Josh and I found the spare tire and the car jack compartment.  There was a spare tire but no jack.  Crap!

We have free roadside assistance so I called USAA.  They promised to send a tow truck to help us.  

The boys wandered around the desert for awhile. 

Josh found a stink beetle.  

After the obligatory smell, he chased me around trying to get me to smell it. 

When he couldn't get me to smell it, he turned to Blake.  Blake was not willing.  (This picture is nowon my top 10 list.)

After trying to get everyone to smell it, he turned to the next best thing.  Rip his legs off and dump him on an ant hill.  🙄

Warning: the second picture below is a close up of the beetle with ants crawling all over him.  

We saw a few cars pass by.  

A Jeep stopped to help us but they realized the jack was missing from their car, as well.  After another 30 minutes, a family stopped.  They had a jack.  They helped replace the tire.  When they lowered the van, the spare was completely flat.  Of course, we had called off the tow truck when we thought we wouldn't need him.  The wife came out of the van and tried to convince the husband they had an air compressor.  He didn't believe her so she dug around their vehicle until they found it.  

WHEW!

They inflated the tire and drove behind us until we reached the paved roads. 

Guess what is now on my Amazon wish list?

A jack and a portable air compressor!

Physical Therapy - Choir Concert - Witches - Special Olympics

This was Josh's last physical therapy session.  She gave him the green light for his mission.  We still had to have an appointment with the surgeon to get the official paperwork.  Josh was VERY, VERY happy!

Katie had her first Jr. High choir concert.  She is on the second from the top row, 5th girl from the left.

We try to go to Gardner Village every fall for their "Witches Festival".  They have quite the assortment of witches around all the fun shops.  Its always fun to get out with my sister and mom.  My niece, Savannah, joined us this year.

I took Caleb to his Saturday bocce practice.  They ended early because they were all headed to BYU's homecoming parade.  I wasn't aware but when I found out the Special Olympics team he is on was part of the "Y Serve" group, I decided he should walk in the parade.  

We had to wait a long time in the parking lot while waiting for our turn.  It was loud and packed with super energy filled college students.  He had a rough time and I spent a lot of time on the ground with him.  Luckily, they gave out free donuts.  That helped for a few minutes.

They gave him handfuls of candy to pass out to the crowd.  

He even gave a few of the crowd high fives.

Caleb competed in the state competition of bocce.  We drove to Rose Park to watch him.  Grandma and Grandpa Clark joined us (we planned a zoo day with them later that day).  Dad was out of town but was happy to see pictures.

I prepped Caleb for a couple of days.  He was even excited about it early that morning.  When we got there, he sat on the ground and wouldn't move.  He got louder and louder with his protests.  I tried setting a timer for when he needed to be ready.  That usually works so well.  It DID NOT work this time.  Because he had a partner depending on him, I carried him kicking and screaming to his court.  Even though it was the Special Olympics, I still felt a gaggle of judgmental eyes on me.  

The time to start came.  He was still resisting.  I tried everything in my wheelhouse.  I even promised him a small Lego set.  He finally admitted that he was upset that he didn't have his uniform.  Duh, Mom!  They told us he'd have a BYU uniform.  I told him about it the night before which made him quite happy.  The young college volunteer realized she forgot to get them out of her car.  She bolted to the parking lot and gave Caleb his shirt.  

Whew!

He still wasn't very happy but I was able to get him to play when it was his turn.  

We found out that it was a double elimination tournament.  We knew his team didn't have a chance of winning so I determined I could keep working with him to finish out two games.  

Most of his turns he would enter the court, pick up the ball, throw it as quickly as he could (sometimes sideways), run back to me, and plop back on the grass.  

When the ball would hit the court wall, it would make a loud cracking sound.  He was quite entertained by that and it was refreshing to hear a few giggles out of him.

Thank heavens for that Jersey!

Here he is with his partner, Landon.  Special Olympics is for anyone 8 years or older.  Every other athlete there was at least 5 years older than Caleb.  It was hard to see him try to compete with adults who had much more arm strength.  I have inquired as to why he is matched up with adults.  I'm pretty sure it's because they hardly have any kids his age.  I am waiting for a response from the Utah administration to see what can be done.  I have also tried to recruit more athletes from a few of the support groups we are a part of.  

If he keeps being paired up with the older athletes, I might not sign him up for the competitions.  Practices are very good for him and that might be enough.