Back to School

Braden has been dreading this day all summer... the day school starts again. It's a big year for him though. He's in sixth grade.

How did I get old enough to have a sixth grader?

I remember sixth grade quite vividly. We played double dutch at recess, I wore my hair in a french braid everyday, and we learned German from a video on TV. I was sitting at my desk watching the launch of the Challenger Space Shuttle when it exploded.

Yet here I am and here he is, certainly getting closer to my 5'8". I do enjoy that we wear the same shoe size now though. When I'm looking for a pair of flip flops I can always find a pair lying around.

Emmry has had no problems moving into 1st grade and I'm realizing how fast the days pass. Braden will be 17 and Emmry 13 when this last one enters kindergarten. So until then I guess I better enjoy them... 1st and 6th grade only happen once!

Utah Pilgrimage

Going to Utah is always an adventure, the success of which is a delicate equation between the number of things we break at my parents' house and the amount of fun we've had. We were fortunate this year to have Ryan with us for two of our four weeks, so we may have just come on the positive side this year.

We were determined to truly vacation this year in our home state while visiting family, so we took advantage of all Utah has to offer. We hiked in Little Cottonwood, camped up Ogden Canyon, swam at the neighborhood pool, and surfed at Ogden's indoor wave. We visited museums, zip lined at Park City's Olympic Village, and rode Wicked at Farmington's Lagoon. We trekked up to Jackson Hole for a few days and floated down a creek in Evanston, Wyoming.

Now we did break a few things... perhaps a decorative plate and a pot... the abacus with its beads strewn all over the floor took a while to put back together... and I shouldn't forget to mention the flu that ran like wild fire through the family bringing one to throw up in a sleeping bag and tent and another on the floor of the Sweet's Candy Factory (although that one was likely car sickness). But all in all, we enjoyed the cooler weather, the company of family and friends, and all the activities. We deemed the vacation a success, although that really is relative to who is looking at the equation... me or my parents.

Jackson Hole

Ever since Braden was five-years-old he has wanted a hang glider. I remember having to come up with many excuses year after year as to why Santa Claus could not bring one: it's too expensive... it won't fit down the chimney... he only brings age appropriate toys... where would you keep it?

So this summer when we decided to vacation in Jackson Hole as part of our annual pilgrimage to Utah, we looked to make Braden's dream come true by going hand gliding. My parents accompanied us on the trip and to our surprise, my dad joined Braden and Ryan as they glided over the Wyoming Rockies.

Who in their right mind would attach their 11-year-old behind an "experimental" plane, to be towed 2,000 feet in the air and released? That's what I was thinking as Braden began his tandem ascent from the Alpine, Wyoming Airport. Thankfully the bread winner of the family whose life insurance policy excludes extreme sports, had been the guiney pig and was already safely on the ground. I can only imagine the thrill or perhaps apprehension Braden felt as he was pulled at 100 mph behind an airplane, then released to soar to the ground. Perhaps in that moment he changed his mind, maybe he didn't need a hang glider after all... no such luck. It seems that not his, but all three riders' fuels were flamed as they have already made plans to sky dive next year!

But the boys weren't the only ones having fun. My mom and Emmry joined them the next day for river rafting down the Snake River. And while one rafter went overboard in the rapids, the five in our group entered the cold water only by choice.

Of coarse someone had to stay behind with the little ones and as I'm just coming up to my third trimester, I was the obvious choice. While Hadley, Chloe, and I didn't sail through the water or sky, we enjoyed the beauty and much cooler weather of Wyoming from the firm ground (really a better place for the three of us prone to motion sickness anyway!). We visited a petting zoo, played at the park, and hiked to the falls at Jenny Lake with the rest of the family.

Jackson was a welcome relief to the dry, hot desert of Arizona and it offered us as parents the opportunity to make Braden's dream come true - a truly rewarding experience for a parent, one I'm sure my parents also felt as they watched me with my family.

Can We Please Buy a Boat?

Ever since our boating trip on Memorial Day, the kids have been asking when we would be going again. We try to tell them it's a bit difficult to go boating when you don't own a boat, but they don't seem to grasp where the problem lies. So when friends invited us to go boating the day of our drive to Utah, we had no problem rearranging our vacation schedule, unpacking our suits, and heading up to Lake Bartlett for the day.

With Memorial Day's boating trip fresh in his memory, Braden was a bit nervous to give the wake board another try. We were hopeful that our friends' boys would offer some new advice that would help Braden succeed in getting up this time around. Unfortunately, we found ourselves circling back time after time to drop the rope.

Failure is very discouraging and it takes a strong person to continue on with its constant nagging. Thankfully Braden has no shortage when it comes to determination and it payed off. It only took getting up just once, and after that we had a hard time getting him down.

While Braden and Ryan enjoyed the wake and surf boards (skiing, what's that?), the girls squealed on the tube and swam to cool off. It was a great time! The only problem... we still don't have a boat and all we've heard since leaving the lake are constant pleas to buy one - and it's Ryan and I doing the pleading!

Getting Old

There comes a time in your life when your kids are old enough to outperform you in a task and you realize they are no longer the little ones whose bottoms you wiped for all those years. And though I can still best most my children in any activity, Braden has begun to surprise me. It started with board games, moved on to racquetball, and now that swim team has started, I'm completely losing my footing.

Today Braden and Emmry both competed in the first swim meet of the season. This is Emmry's first year in swim team and though she describes it as "long," she enjoys the heightened status that is associated with it. She competed in a 25 and 50 meter freestyle race, and while she did amazing and came home with a third place ribbon, I would have had no trouble finishing before her. Braden on the other hand competed in the 50 and a 100 meter freestyle, taking third and second respectively. His time on the 100 meters... 1:27.

The problem with this lies in the fact that the previous day in my swim class we swam a 100 free for time. I swam it in 1:37. So the next day I told my coach I wanted to beat my 11-year-old son's time. "That's doable," he tells me. So I swam fast, I kept my head down, I lengthened my stride, I waited to pull through, I kept my arm over the barrel pulling as much water as I could. I was sure I had him. My time... 1:35.

Now I'm faced with the question: does this mean that I'm getting old? Possibly it's just that Braden is getting older. Oh... either way... it means I'm getting old.

Tough Night?

There were four in the bed and the little one said, "Roll over, I'm crowded." So they all rolled over and one fell out...

Unfortunately that was me.

Memorial Day

Growing up visiting my grandparents' bay-side home each summer, I learned early the joys and pains of being pulled behind a speeding boat. My kids thus far being denied this opportunity, I felt it was time. So we took advantage of the holiday, headed up to our closest lake, and threw the kids in the water.

The girls loved tubing with the exception of Chloe who was traumatized when she got dunked on her first turn out - fell right off the back with me when I lost my grip. Braden was thrilled to have his dad try to dunk him on the tube and even got up on the wake board for a few seconds.

We did find it difficult to tell, with a boat engine roaring and our children 20 feet away, if they were shouting out of elation, or screaming out of desperation. We, of coarse the optimists, assumed they were having a wonderful time and continued to pull.

Maybe we should have informed them to let go of the rope!