June 16th: Jared and Liam

Jared and Liam have shared this day twice now, once when Liam was born on Father's Day back in 2002 and again this year.  It is quite the special event for the both of them.  Jared loves that Liam was born on Father's Day and reminds him each year that the best gift he ever received on that day was his little cherubic angel-self.  Liam was a beautiful baby...full and round and pink and he was my biggest baby to boot weighing in at 8#15oz, which was a lot for my torso that only stretches 6 inches from hip bone to rib cage!

This year Jared came home from his travels to Denmark and Oregon about 6:30pm on Father's Day.  Liam had been a great sport all day waiting for the evening to come so that we could enjoy his birthday meal: pasta with alfredo sauce and morel mushrooms, salad and bread as well as his requested dessert of angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream.  They were both delighted with the meal!

We opted to move on with Father's Day first and Jared received new shoes and other little treats and notes from the boys, which always make him a little teary.  Yet,  the favorite gift to give and receive was the remote control helicopter: Protocol.  Apparently it can fly 50 feet into the air and after charging the batteries a few days later, they all have managed to fly it with a wide range of success.

Next, the chasers were made and Liam was on his way collecting a few gifts and then finding, in the dark, in the back of Jared's truck, his new Giant mountain bike.  He was beyond thrilled and immediately took it on a spin around the house despite the light rain coming down.  As usual he was very grateful and thanked Jared and I several times before he finally made it to bed.  He has since taken it out on a 10 mile ride with Caleb on a dirt road near our house and is now convinced that biking shorts might be a nice investment of his savings :)

Liam at 11 years:

You are a very grateful child and I rarely have to remind you to say thank-you to anyone.  Whether we have gone to a movie or dinner, or taken you on an adventure, or brought home something as simple as new socks, you are always very quick to give a thank-you and you never say it just once!  I love that about you and am inspired by it.

You are a voracious reader.  If there is a second to spare in your day, you find a book, magazine, junk mail, anything with words to devour.

You are so stinking funny.  You have a wit that is quick and more mature than your 11 years.  You are often repeating funny lines from movies and adding facial expressions that leave me in stitches.  When I'm needing a good laugh I ask you to quote Napoleon Dynamite and it never fails to get me going.  You also enjoy making people laugh....your eyes light up when you know you've said or done something really funny.

You are very excited to start middle school and I wonder if this is mainly due to the fact that you'll get to move back in with Caleb to share a room with him again.  You do love Caleb and rarely have conflict with him.  You also love Gavin and Jonah and I love to see when you are extra patient and fun with either of them because it means the world to them.  Thank you for doing that.

You are one of the shortest kids in your class, but you never let it bother you.  Although, you are desperate to grow and were excited to have Sever's Disease because it meant that there was growth happening in your feet!

You do well under pressure and in the spotlight.  From the first time you recited two Shel Silverstein poems in the first grade with perfect flow, to giving a sacrament meeting talk a year later with comments afterwards that you might be the next President, to winning the 4-H speech contest in the 3rd grade, to playing your piano or violin pieces in front of judges or spectators, or playing in any sporting event, you seem to dig deep and harness the nervousness into performance....it's amazing to watch.

Thank you for being you....I love every ounce of you and every freckle that dots your face!

Week 3 of Summer

Jared was in Utah the past weekend to be with his parents and one brother to go over some to-do items for his parents will.  He flew back in early Monday morning (like 2am or something) and we were off to the swim, tennis and teaching races.  Jared was the only one teaching and earning any real money....thank you Jared!

Sunday evening I took the boys up to "Snake Hole" in Sugar Hollow....many of you have been there with us.  It was too hot and humid for the boys to stay outside and they were getting a little stir crazy and so was I.  I told them we weren't swimming, but of course getting wet up to their necks when they "accidentally" fell in apparently didn't count.  For the record, Gavin did see a black water moccasin snake when we first got up there. But they had fun playing in the freezing cold mountain water and I think my favorite part was when Gavin who already prides himself on being a good fisherman, even though he has done it only a couple of times, found a "spear" and took a first shot at a tiny minnow and killed it.  He was so shocked and I couldn't stop laughing at the amazement of the event and he couldn't stop acting like a barbaric animal screaming that he killed it.  He never stop talking about it the entire night along the lines of, "Mom, can you believe I really killed it.....I totally killed it on the first try......I can't even believe I did that Mom, it was so awesome!"

All the boys were coaxing Jonah to slide down that rock into the ice cold water.  It took a good long while for him to get the courage to go for it.

Fish killing incident!

Wednesday evening was the doozy of all swim meets because of an intense storm that came bursting through about 4:00, ten minutes before the boys were supposed to be at the pool for warm-ups.  The meet was delayed in starting by 45 minutes and poor Gavin didn't get in the water for his last butterfly until 10:20pm.  The boys all did well....Caleb and Liam got moved up into more competitive heats (swimmers compete in heats according to the times they received in the last meet) and didn't place as well and were a little disappointed in that, Liam moreso that Caleb.  Jonah finally beat out the two kids from last weeks meet and got the heat winner, but then got DQ'd (disqualified) in his backstroke for reasons that were unclear.

Then Gavin hit the scene and he was going into this meet with the fastest times in freestyle and backstroke,  yet despite the long evening, he was able to maintain his first place status.  I don't think much of this, not because I don't think it's amazing, but because he's usually at the top.  It wasn't until the next day when a friend of mine was relating a conversation she was having with other moms about him that I realized what a remarkable swimmer I have on my hands.  I have watched as most swim meets are dominated by kids who swim year round, so for Gavin to come in and beat out all these year round swimmers after only swimming for about 6 weeks was shocking to this group of swim moms.  I even learned the night of the meet that one is his old coaches who is not with our current team, has been watching his times (accessible on-line).  He has encouraged me to get Gavin in year round swimming, but so far Gavin has been completely uninterested. I have suggested it again (it's a huge commitment actually), but he still is not taking the bait.  Jonah on the other hand is interested, because he "just wants to get better". So we'll see if swimming takes on a life of it's own with ole T-bone come Fall.  For now, he's content to swim 4-5 times a week and call it good.

There is a lot of down time at swim meets, so we fill up the time with games, coloring, reading or socializing with friends.  My favorite thing about swimming is that we are all there as a family, unlike all the other sports that divide us up.

Saturday, after we dropped Gavin off to a friends to spend part of the weekend with them at a local resort ( a huge decision for us as we don't do "sleepovers"), we went back up to Sugar Hollow to play on the rope swing.  Jared said he would make me do it, but when we go there a crowd of others were enjoying the cool water, so I knew I would be off the hook.  Unfortunately, they left shortly after we arrived, and I realized that I would soon be swinging off that rope even if I didn't want to.  It was great fun and I am happy to report that I never swore....I usually go on auto-pilot with rapid fire s-words when I'm doing something that scares me like that.  I think I was so scared I would slip off the rope that I didn't make a peep!

Tomorrow morning at 5:45 Caleb leaves for a week of scout camp and is in the middle of prepping for it with Jared now.  Jonah is playing Lego's after putting together a new ship he bought with his own money yesterday and excited to start tennis lessons tomorrow morning,  and Liam and Gavin are off playing with the chinchillas.  It's been a good Sunday and another good week of summer.

Jonah's First Violin Lesson

This past week Jonah had his long anticipated first violin lesson with Mrs. Julie.  Now, Mrs. Julie is a Suzuki teacher so per the system, we have been attending lessons with Liam for over a year.  Jonah either sits with me and watches or he spends time in the other room with the blocks, books and coloring paper, but he is always listening and waiting, waiting for the day when he gets to start with her.  Mrs. Julie is one of the most particular people I have ever met....she is full of opinions on most topics that may or may not be founded in fact, but there is no dissuading her from those opinions or her methods and because I find her to be the most effective music teacher I've ever witnessed, I can't really argue with her ways.  Jonah and Liam are both very fortunate to have her as their teacher.

The lesson was only about 25 minutes and he learned how to hold the violin in both rest position and playing position as well as how to hold his hairless bow (he had to trade in his regular bow so as to not be tempted to play the strings ;).  I too got my little mini lesson so that I could help with daily practices.  The twinkle, twinkle songs have come back into play, although this time instead of on the CD player while little boys went to sleep like we did when Caleb started Suzuki Piano at the McPhail School of Music in MN, the songs are on the iPod and being played through headphones.  I'll admit, I like it this way :)

Watch out Evans Orchestra, here comes Jonah!

Summer Living Part II

In addition to the activities during the last two weeks recorded in Summer Living Part I, we were also involved in this:

Cub Scout Day Camp!

This was the first year for Gavin to attend the 4-day camp that includes a daily routine of crafts, swimming, archery, shooting range, and fishing.  It was also the first year for Jonah to attend being that he is officially a Tiger Cub, and he was beyond thrilled to be able to saddle up with Gavin and Pack 127.  Jared flew in on Sunday night (Father's Day) and after a horrendous travel schedule of multiple time zones, he cheerfully got up Monday morning to attended camp with the boys as one of their adult leaders.  He was also their leader the second day and only wished he could be with them for the entire week.  The first thing they wanted to show off when they came home were all the quirky scout songs they'd been singing the whole day.  It reminded me of being a Beehive at girls camp and learning all these fun songs that in their repetition I'm sure drove my parents crazy.  These were the same kind of songs.....once you hear, "second verse same as the first" for the 5th time, you're ready to move on:).  

 I do not know what they are playing, but I love, love , love this photo of these two buddies! They are only 19 months apart which at times can be tricky, but more often than not, they are great friends.

Gavin was the only one in his troop to catch 1-2 fish every day but one.  Jonah never caught a single one and was disappointed in that....Jonah looks a little defeated in the photo.  Poor guy!

It was a great way to start the first full week of summer and to boot they got to spend time with Jared who'd been sorely missed by these two during those 9 long days in Denmark and Oregon.  

Summer Living Part I

The first week of summer is always a huge mental and emotional shift for me.  It's a hard week and I tend to forget how much I don't like it.  I start to get excited that we'll all be home together all the time and then when it actually happens that first week, I go into shock.  My normally quiet house from 9:00-2:45 each day is filled with voices, sometimes generous and kind, other times selfish and flat out mean. Then there is the sheer activity of 4 boys.....and four boys who are getting used to each other like I'm getting used to them.  Then something magical happens after that first week, we start to gel in our rhythm and routines and when it comes time to say good-bye to them at the end of the summer, my heart aches.

With the exception of a few camps scattered here and there, here is our typical routine:  7:10 wake up, eat a quick bowl of hot or cold cereal, swim suits on, pack for tennis, out the door.  C, L, and G all have the exact same routine with swim team for 60-90 minutes followed by tennis team for 2 hours (or 6 on tournament day).  Then they come home and play together some more.....Caleb and Liam are on a bike ride as I type, Jonah and Gavin were playing Legos until Gavin decided to start his music practice (he is such a creature of routine and habit.....I love it).

Now for some of what was going on over the last two weeks:

USTA Tennis Tournament:  This was an all day event where Gavin came off victorious against 3 different opponents with a 4-2, 4-0, 4-0, 4-0, 4-0, 4-0 record and came home with a huge trophy:

Caleb and Liam lost both their matches, but were happy to be on the courts again.  The following Monday, tennis team started and this weeks tournaments were much more successful and the photos better, as Jared was back home:

Gavin and Jonah trying to stay entertained and cool as the day wore on:

First and Second Swim meets of the season:

Jonah's here for some smack talk with his good buddy Zach, body art, socializing and an occasional heat winner.  He is in the 7-8 year old category, so competing against Gavin and others 1-2 years older than him.  Tough year, really.

Caleb was the anchor for his relay team in both meets.  He was soooo very nervous because he suspected that the other swimmers would get him a great lead, which they did and he would have to hold it, which he did.  When he gets really nervous he yawns and has to go to the bathroom 20 times:

Liam was all over his breast stroke and his 100 meter freestyle which didn't start until 10:05 pm.  He was very nervous about the 100 free and said he didn't want to do it.  I told him that was fine as long as he went and told his coach.  He decided to go for it and took 7th place overall....pretty impressive given his competition.

Awaiting the results of his relay:

Gavin had a great first meet with some heat winners and then unleashed himself in the second meet, beating both his freestyle and backstroke by nearly 2 seconds and moving himself up to second place in freestyle and 1st in backstroke.  This was his first meet to swim butterfly....his favorite stroke and he came in 4th overall, so was thrilled about that!  Here he is on his backstroke start: