Back to School 2019

Back to school night for Caleb and Blake.  

Jeff's real estate brokerage had their summer BBQ.  Jeff and Kyle enjoyed the axe throwing portion.

 Kyle and Katie tried the ball soccer devices.  Kyle fell, after clobbering Katie a few times, and could't get back up.  We have given him the nickname, Melman.  It is a cartoon giraffe from the movie, Madagascar.  His long legs poking out of the ball is just a scene from the movie.

This is the scene where Melman is stuck in a shipping crate with his legs poking out.  See the comparison?

 

No fear over catching a praying mantis.  Josh would be so proud.

 I forgot to take pictures on the first day of school.  I told them we would take them a week later when Blake had his first day.

Caleb picking up Blake was so adorable.  They kept holding hands and Caleb asked him how his day was.  It was ADORABLE! 

Ventura End - Cinnamon - Cookies

 We drove back from Ventura and stopped at a Wendy's at Victorville.  Blake was suffering from an ear ache.  (More info on that later.)  Ken was great to cheer him up by stealing some of his frosty.

 We spent a night in Hurricane, where the Thomases moved from San Antonio.  They are renting a house from a sister and the kids made constant use of their pool.  Blake turned into a diving pro and kept us all laughing with his "Marvel" type dives.  Most of the time I was taking videos but I got a few pictures.  I love how this picture captures Katie mid-dive.  Kyle appears under her tummy.  Blake is patiently waiting his turn on the diving board.

Blake has developed some allergies to dogs.  Usually, its sniffles and itchy eyes.  While in Hurricane, Chipper the dog licked Blake's face.  Blake thought it was fantastic until he broke out in hives.  This prompted Mom and Blake to visit the instacare.  Benedryl for the hives and special drops for his swimmer's ear.  Its a good thing we went in.  His ear looked terrible, the doctor said.  Because of this, we got to stay an extra night with our friends.  

Brent Bonney returned from his mission in Yakima, Washington.  We were visiting after his homecoming and they served ice cream sundaes out of these cute souvenir baseball hats.  They served Jeff and look how happy he is....

Ken felt bad so he got his ice cream in a Giant's hat.  This is the first time these two have done anything charitable towards the other's team.

Grandma Clark lost her sweet dog, Winky, to a car accident.  Grandpa Clark was sad for her and helped her but a new puppy a few days later.  Meet Cinnamon, or Cinny.  She's a hit!  We make sure she doesn't like Blake's face.

Ventura

Our friends, the Bonneys, spend a week each year, in their timeshare in Ventura.  They let us tag along.  We stayed at a hotel in Oxnard.  It was a part of California none of us had ever visited.  

Our first day there, they went to a Dodger's game.  Jeff is nice, but not that nice.  We went to some tide pools, instead.  We had a blast.  We saw a lot of crabs and a cool sea slug.  Blake picked it up and made sure I took lots of pictures to show to Josh. 

I love his facial expression.  He's holding a disgustingly slimy blob but is trying his best to smile for the camera.

The kids got to swim in the waves.  The first day was really windy and the waves made me nervous.  Jeff said Blake got knocked over by his first wave but kept going back in.

We took the kids to the Ventura County Fair.  Caleb is taking a picture with his spirit animal.  

He has enormous cow eyes, is happy to meander through the pasture while eating a very limited diet, and is mellow.

We went to some puppy races.  We paid $10 extra for the boys to have 30 minutes in this puppy cuddle party.  

We had dinner at the fair.  It was fun to see what each kid would pick.  Jeff got some enchiladas.  Kyle got chicken strips and fries.  I got a corndog.  Katie got dippin' dots.  They boys got these giant cookies. 

Another beach day!  The waves were more mellow so the big kids got to try boogie boarding.

On our drive home, we stopped at the Redlands Temple to do some baptisms for the dead.  

Girls Camp June 2019

This was Katie's second year at camp.  It was also my second year of being camp director.  Our assigned campground, MIA Shalom, was still snowed in during the third week of June.  The stake was able to scramble and find us a place.  We were only 30 minutes away at Granite Flat Campground up American Fork Canyon.  It was beautiful and the girls loved having a different place to go.

One of the favorite activities was our "Spa Night".  We heated water and washed the girls' hair.  We had foot bath soaks and these adorable facial masks.

I didn't get a shot of me washing Katie's hair.  

This was another girl in our ward.  

 We have great leaders who made it a great experience for all.

At our normal camp, we have water time but the girls are only allowed to canoe in the water.  This year, we were close to Tibble Fork reservoir and spent all afternoon there.  Sister Blaisdell rented canoes, kayaks, paddle boards, and some tubes.  The girls loved being able to play in the water and relax.

The following pictures keep getting out of order and they won't stay where I want them.  

Katie (second from the right), and these girls earned $5 for jumping into the cold water.

The only picture we got of the whole group.  Of course, I was setting up an activity and missed it.  Oh well!

Dentist - The Thomases have moved back to Utah

Caleb has made slow but steady progress at the dentist.  I decided that even with the progress made, it is time to have full x-rays done with a thorough cleaning.  The hygienist was amazing and her patience got him to put the professional toothbrush in his mouth.    

 We couldn't get him to actually let her clean his teeth.

I asked if he could have some laughing gas.  The dentist agreed.  It took us quite some time to get him to lay down and stay still.  After 10ish minutes, he was calm enough to have a full cleaning and flossing.  We still didn't get the bite wing x-rays but luckily, the dentist has yet to find a cavity in his mouth.  

Tender Mercies! 

Our family friends, the Thomases, moved from San Antonio to Hurricane, Utah.  We wish it was closer to Orem but we are ecstatic to have them here.  We celebrated with a visit to Manila Pond and a huge family sleepover.  

The moms took the little ones to Home Depot to build the monthly project. 

While the big kids went to the Space Center to celebrate Matt's birthday.