July

I think July is one of my favorite months of the summer. It's the only month I have out of the year with zero babysitting and it still feels like school starting up is a long way off yet which is awesome to have so many days to play with the kids, work on projects at home, stay up late and sleep late-ish (if I can sleep till 7 it feels like sleeping in),play games, watch movies, go swimming, etc. etc. 

I did pretty well this summer with a daily exercise plan which felt great. I had hoped that Kalen could join me for morning walks like we used to do but he tried one day and it didn't work out. His knees and feet have been killing him lately. We took a shorter route but even that was torture for him and we had to go so slow that I felt like I didn't get much of a workout. I really, really want him to be able to go with me again sometime but I don't know how to get him in a condition to do that. In the meantime, Lynnsey and Spencer took turns being my walking partner on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Spencer made a great trainer because he would push me to run certain distances during the two miles we walked together. And Friday's with Lynnsey we called 5K Friday and would actually do a 5K route around town together.Tuesday and Thursday I stayed in and worked out to an exercise DVD and then we would go swimming at the college pool on those evenings so I got a second little workout. The pool was great for Kalen too since it was low impact and about the only exercise he can tolerate. The exercise was awesome and made me feel tons better, but I didn't actually lose much weight. If I'm going to do that, I have to actually do better with my eating habits and that's a tough one because, well, chocolate exists for one thing. So I still have lots of work to do, but it did feel good to at least have that start to getting healthier. Once school started it has been a lot harder to work in the level of exercise I was getting accustomed to over the summer, so I feel like I have slacked off. I do try to work in some good exercise throughout the day and when I wear a pedometer I find that I get between 7,000 and 10,000 steps a day on average, so I'm definitely not idle. It just doesn't feel the same as my concentrated summer workouts.

Anyway, Kendall wrapped up his visit to Utah. Just a couple of days before he had to head home, Justin came home from his mission and Kendall was able to go to the airport to welcome him home. And then he was there to visit with him and have a party before he had to head back to Michigan.

Once he got back, he had a couple of days here before taking off again for scout camp. All of his trek and backpacking experiences in Utah had him in great condition for backpacking on his high adventure Wilderness Survival Kodiak Challenge trip in Michigan. He had a phenomenal time.

We had made one zoo trip earlier in the summer, but Kendall had missed out on that one, so we made another trip back. It was so great that the weather was so mild this summer, so we had a beautiful day there.

I also made good on some of the dates that I owed the kids and it's something that I absolutely want to keep doing. It was so amazing to spend that one on one time with Lynnsey, Spencer, and Kaya (I still owe Kendall because he couldn't stay home long enough for me to take him somewhere!)

For the date, each kid got to choose the activity that they wanted to do (within reason, of course). Spencer chose to go miniature golfing followed by lunch at Burger King. We had the place nearly to ourselves so we took our time getting through the course. It had rained recently, so we kept finding these little tiny toads all over the green and Spencer carefully inspected each area for toads before we were allowed to play. He rescued quite a few of them.

For Kaya's date, she chose a trip to Marshall to get ice cream and hang out at the fountain. It worked out perfectly because we went during the other kids youth activity so I just dropped them off at the church and then got to hang out with Kaya talking and playing together for an hour and a half on a beautiful summer evening. 

And Lynnsey chose for her date to see the new Inside Out movie. It was a super funny show and lots of fun to spend some time with this amazing daughter of mine who is growing up faster than I can even stand.

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One not so fun day of the month was spent at the allergist for Spencer's check-up. They decided to do a skin prick test to just get an idea how he is still reacting to certain things. His poor back was just covered in welts afterward and he was so itchy. Basically we learned that he still has allergies. A lot of them--and not just to food. He reacted to pollen and cats as well as a few other things. So now he's begun getting allergy shots once a week. Kalen gets them too so we arranged to have Spencer get his done at the same office in Marshall that Kalen goes to. They go every Thursday morning and Spencer has been a real trooper to go through it every week. I'm hoping that it will help!

We wrapped up the month with Spencer's birthday. Since it was an even numbered birthday, that meant he got to have a party with his friends. He opted to just do a backyard birthday party and everyone had a ton of fun.They played sprinkler soccer and then we built a campfire and roasted hot dogs for lunch. Instead of cake or cupcakes, we had popsicles and we roasted marshmallows. Spencer roasted a pile of them and stuck his candles in the marshmallows to blow out.

Later that night we had a family celebration for him with our gifts to open and a real cake that Kendall made for him that actually turned out pretty amazing for an allergy-free concoction.

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The next day we took a little road trip down to the Indianapolis Temple open house. It was such a fun day and such a beautiful temple. It was a great experience for the kids to be able to see the inside of a temple and I think it really strengthened their testimonies and increased their desire to be able to go to the temple someday.

And out in Enoch, Utah, Taylor continued to love his mission. We got a fun picture from Ariane, a girl who lived here in Albion years ago who wound up marrying one of the missionaries serving in our branch after they met at dinner at our house. Anyway, apparently her brother lives down that way and Taylor and he ran across each other. It was one of those cool small world encounters that seem to happen so often in life.

And we love, love, love to get pictures from members that take care of the missionaries and give us updates on how they are doing.

June

Whoever coined the term "Lazy Days of Summer" lived a completely different life than we have! It doesn't help that our kids are still in school for the first part of June so we still have a bunch of year end things happening. But it was all good.

Spencer had the honor of receiving an American Legion Award which is only given out to a certain number of 4th and 5th graders each year. Both Taylor and Lynnsey got them too (poor Kendall was totally passed over) but this seemed like an even bigger deal for Spencer to get it. He has seriously come SO FAR in the past year. Not only did he have zero behavioral issues at school, but he was recognized for his amazing behavior and for being a leader in his class. He received this award as well as several awards at the end of year honors program, including being recognized as one of two outstanding students in his 4th grade class. We are so thankful for his great year and that he was given an amazing teacher (who also taught Kendall and Lynnsey) and also that the occupational therapy program we put him in seemed to help him so much. He is like a different kid! 

Kaya and Lynnsey also received outstanding student awards at the program too, so it was a happy day all around. And Kendall received some awards at the Marshall High School awards ceremony as well. I'm just proud of all of my kids!

As usual, my babysitting schedule didn't permit me to go on any of the kid's end of the year field trips and this time Kalen had SOAR at the college all that week so he missed them too. I did have a kind parent send me a few pictures of Spencer's fun field trip to a science museum in Lansing where Spencer had a great time.

Once school was out, we were ready for summer and spent lots of time outside working on the yard and garden. I wound up trying to get some of the flower beds in shape but it was a much bigger project than I had anticipated so I still have another huge section of the flower garden to deal with next year. By the time I got to that part though, the flowers were all too thick and overgrown for me to deal with. I need to start earlier next spring and just dig it all up and replant what we want in there before any of it has sprouted too much. 

We celebrated Kaya's 7th birthday on the 22nd! My BABY is seven! I can't even believe how fast it has flown by. I'm glad at least that even though she's growing up so fast, Kaya still loves to be a cuddlebug and is so affectionate. Trying to get my other kids to even hug me once in awhile is like torture for them. At least I still have someone to give me lots of hugs and kisses and who likes to snuggle up next to me on the couch. She is a joy to have in our family and it has been an amazing seven years!

Spencer spent lots of time with his good friend Mick. They loved going swimming at the college as often as they could. And it was great for our family too, because we finally started going over a couple of days a week as a family to play and get some exercise together.

The hardest part of the summer for me was that right after school got out, Kendall headed out to Utah to spend over 5 weeks visiting family. I missed him (and I missed his help). He spent a couple of days in Duchesne but the majority of his time was spent with Todd and Nikki in Mendon with a couple of days in Garland with Sherrie and Kevin who also took him to Las Vegas for a few days to visit Grandpa Oswald who has moved back there again. While he was with Todd and Nikki, he had fun getting to know Brecken better and also was able to work for Shonee at her shave ice shack. 

Aggie Ice Cream with Jessie, Shonee and Brecken

He was able to go on a great pioneer trek that took them on the same trail as the Willie and Martin handcart companies.

Brecken and Kendall look like they could be brothers!

In fact, Kendall said people kept mistaking him for one of Todd and Nikki's kids.

Kendall also got to go on a varsity scouts high adventure backpacking trip to the Uintah mountains. (I'm thankful to Todd for sending so many beautiful pictures to document the trip!)

In the meantime, Taylor had been transferred to Enoch. As difficult as those initial weeks were with his new companion, he came to love the area quickly--especially on p-day when he and his companion and the other elder's in the neighboring area were able to go hiking up to a place called Kanarra Falls, which was really beautiful. The beauty and the friendships he made with the other elders really seemed to pull him through the hard times he had with his new companion.

Crazy May

May is always a bit chaotic each year but I love it too--the weather in Michigan finally getting warm enough to put away all the winter coats (usually), all the year end activities with school and the college and the anticipation of the long summer ahead. 

In all the craziness, it seems I neglected to take any pictures until Memorial Day weekend. And without the pictures (and because it's been so long ago), I can't seem to remember all of the specifics of the month!

It seemed so strange to go to the Marshall Memorial Day parade instead of the one in Albion, but with Kendall playing in the marching band in Marshall, we had to head over there. I will say, it was a much better parade than their Christmas one that was so miserable and unending in that frigid cold. 

We also took advantage of an opportunity to go to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. Some of the kids have been there on field trips before but Kalen and I had never been, mostly because cost-wise it would have been very prohibitive by the time we multiplied the admission price by six of us. But I got an email from Binder Park Zoo which we have a family membership to and they were doing a promotion with the Air Zoo where members of Binder Park Zoo and members of the Air Zoo could use their memberships to get free admission to one or the other zoos. So we took our zoo membership and got in for free at the Air Zoo. It was really a fun experience! Apparently this was the second year they have done this promotion so it would be great if they continue to do that so we could go again.

The kids really enjoyed all the rides they could go on and it didn't get really busy until just before we were leaving for the day so we were able to ride multiple times.

The exhibits were really cool too and it was fun to learn about the different models and types of planes and get a little history lesson in there--especially with all the World War II planes they have there. We also watched a couple of short films in 3-D that were really interesting.

After the Air Zoo, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch to celebrate Kaya reading her first chapter book. She had actually read it a few months before but this was the first chance we'd had to get to the restaurant of her choice--a tradition that began when we celebrated Taylor reading his first chapter book year ago. Kaya's first chapter book was Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Parks. By the time we finally went for Kaya's celebration, she had already devoured nearly the entire series of Junie B. Jones! We had a fun time. The pizza seemed to have improved a bit since the last time we went to this restaurant and of course, it's always fun to play all the games to try to earn tickets for prizes.

Also, we can't forget Taylor! I don't know why I can't get his picture to load on this blog right side up, but I wanted to include it anyway. This is Taylor and his second companion Elder Vidinha. They had a great time as companions and did a lot of work while having a lot of fun. Unfortunately, they weren't together for long. When the next transfers came, Taylor learned that he was leaving his first area in Mount Pleasant and heading to Enoch with a new companion who would prove to be one of the most difficult trials that Elder Oswald has had to face in his life...

Before the transfer though, Taylor was able to see this guy get baptized. It took some doing because he was raised in the FLDS church so the process to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is a little more complicated and even involves an interview with a general authority in order to get clearance. Taylor was thrilled to be there for that big day!