There have been so many things going on since May that I cannot keep up, in fact most days I try to keep myself from flipping out as I think to the future in the middle of the daily chaos. Yesterday I had to put together the schedule for the Fall.....it just seems too early to have to think of where to put the 8 music lessons, 11 soccer practices, 2 orchestra rehearsals, daily early morning seminary, before school jazz band, YM and scouts and all of it each and every week. But our music teachers are totally on top of their game and putting together their schedules now, forcing me into this exhausting mind set. Deep breath, deep breath.
This is all on top of Jared just having his computer, among other valuables out of his backpack, stolen last night in St Louis, Missouri. It makes me sick to my stomach knowing how much work was on there both for his job and personal labors and the fact that most of it was not backed up! It's just too painful to dwell on for long. Tomorrow I plan on calling some pawn shops to see if maybe, just maybe the thieves didn't decide to trash it after they took other more valuable things like cash and credit cards (not Jared's, but others traveling with him). But, in my gut, I think the computer is gone, long gone and what's worse is that really, it's of little or no value to the thugs who broke into their van in broad day light in a paid parking lot. Apparently they also stole a backpack full of marked Book of Mormons and spiritual thoughts, so the only up shot is if one of them decides to make more out of their lives than robbing random people.
But to keep my head above water here is a photo dump reminding me that these last few months have been awesome, if not totally hectic.
I blogged about this in the Mother's Day post, but this was the weekend for the annual Fathers and Sons outing. Caleb was with his Philmont group and Liam stayed home with me to play in his soccer game that next morning, so it was Jared and the two "littles". They had a great time camping, staying up late, fishing and shooting guns including a .22.
Here was the final Youth Orchestra of Central Virginia concert held on Mother's Day. Gavin was awesome on a version of "Call Me Maybe" and really stole the show with his performance. He's a fantastic drummer along with Caleb who will now serve as one of three high school Jazz drummers. Gavin tried out for the next orchestra up (Evans, where Caleb and Liam play) and was pleased that he made it. He will be the youngest Harris boy to play in this orchestra, meaning Caleb and Liam didn't start until the were older. He will also be the youngest person in his cello section by a couple of years! Nice job Gavin!
Caleb on cello next to our good friend and carpool buddy Hannah on viola.
Liam is playing second violin this season and stuck in a very hard to see middle spot. He loves his new violin and has had a great start to his summer ensemble where again he is the youngest player hanging out with all the high schoolers. He
loves that and who wouldn't, really!
And of course we had the final Discovery Dash of Gavin's career. He started running in this race when he was in kindergarten. He has maintained his status as fasted kid in his grade and highest number on the pacer test: I think he hit 93 or more this year. His teammate kind of blew it for him when the he started complaining of a upset stomach right before the race (nerves is my guess) and ended up in last place after the first lap. So when Gavin started as the anchor he was needing to get past 7-8 other runners and ultimately came in third, quite a feat for this speed demon.
Our favorite Vegan gym teacher Mr W. I've had lengthy conversations with him about helping kids make better food choices, which much to his dislike does not include telling them that milk is bad.....sheesh!
One of Liam's summer ensemble pieces is 21 pages long...he looks happy here, but don't let that smile trick you into thinking that he's an angel when it comes to practicing! Good thing I like him!
Soccer season #8: Jonah was on a recreation team, Gavin and Liam on a upper level challenge team, and Caleb one step up from that on a travel team.
Gavin had a rough go with a problematic coach this year and one game got the chance to play on Liam's team when they were a man down. He loved playing for a coach that didn't yell all the time, or swear, make referees cry, or throw his hat on the ground in frustration. Yeah, he was a real winner of a coach, who thankfully is now out of the league as a result of those kinds of outbursts. For Liam's part he was awesome with Gavin during this game and they even had some good passing play together.
Of all the teams this year, I was happiest with Caleb's crew. The parents and kids were just really great people. We all worked together like a well-oiled machine getting the boys to their 3 practices each week and games that were not always in Charlottesville. The boys always showed stellar sportsmanship even when other teams were not, and more than once they were recognized by other parents and coaches. I really believe the boys were strongly influenced by their great coach. He was always a strong quiet presence during games...we rarely heard him yell out to the boys and often if they were well ahead of another team, he wouldn't let them attempt a shot until they had passed it at least five times. During the final 3-day tournament that was over a Sunday, Caleb invited his entire team to church! No one took him up on the offer, but I know he was happy that he'd bravely made the invitation.
With four games every Saturday there ends up being down time on the fields as there is no point in going home. So the boys find their friends and play away.
This was Liam pre-summer buzz. The heat and humidity are just too much for long thick hair.
Gavin's grade had this awesome parade of states. Gavin chose Utah and placed his display on skis to pull down the hallways. I thought it was such a clever idea! We also made jello being that Utahans eat more of the stuff per capita than any other state. In fact there was another boy who was into dinosaurs who chose Utah and also made jello...funny. I have loved his teacher, Mrs. Carey, as she was the only 4th grade teacher we've had that has made writing really enjoyable and fun. She spent the year writing letters back and forth as she taught them the basics of everything from sentence structure, plot development to various way to structure a poem. We will miss her and her giant burmese mountain dogs.
Caleb is at Philmont and in preparation his crew hiked the Priest, which is the highest peak in Virginia. The elevation gain was 1200 feet in just 4 miles, so a hard hike, but perfect to get them used to hiking the 10 miles each day at Philmont. Caleb was thrilled with all his new gear from his backpack, sleeping pad, boots (he and Jared have the same boot in the same size), and other light weight items. The technology has improved so much since Jared and I hiked all over during our first year of marriage that his pack including his tent, weighed less than 20#.
This look is classic Caleb.....sometimes he zones out and this is how I know it's happening.
While Caleb and Jared were hiking the Priest in the Shenandoah, the three of us took the 2.5 mile hike up to Monticello. It was a perfect day...cool and the humidity was no where to be found. We spent much more time than I expected in the museums and having lunch. Jonah was a trooper hiking the 5 miles on a graveled slightly sloping trail, but not enough that I think he's ready for Table Rock in Idaho and he totally agrees :) Maybe next year!
This was an evening when I was at Seminary graduation. Jared really wanted to have some snicker doodles, so I pulled up the recipe and gave them a few of my tips and off I went with Caleb in tow. They did a great job and we enjoyed them the entire week being that they doubled the batch!
Finally there was a week of Cub Scout Day camp. Jared loves going with the boys which is great because it's the last thing I want to do. It's the heat that keeps me at bay and it was wicked hot (10 degrees above normal, meaning upper 90's) and the humidity was suffocating. But I have realized that the boys are not fazed by the heat....it's all they've ever known. They don't know the joy of opening up the windows at night to let in the cool air, they don't know the joys of a dry heat. It's a sauna in the summer, but I'll never trade it in knowing what I get the rest of the 9 months. It just means Jared will be the go-to for day camp :)
This year Gavin and Jonah were in different groups and Jared was assigned to be with Jonah, but he managed to find Gavin a few times during the day. One of Jonah's leaders told me at church that she loved when he told her that he "rocked it" on the shooting range. Apparently he never hit the balloon (the ultimate goal), but still felt that he "rocked it". This describes Jonah so well and I realized today that I think that has an inborn sense of positivity in the same way Jared does. I remember writing about this earlier this year during a soccer game when Jonah was the goalie and he blocked one, but let three goals in. Expecting him to be completely distraught and vowing never to play goalie again he took me completely off guard when he told me how great he thought he was. So the kid doesn't hit the target and he doesn't block all the goals, but he still values what he does do right...block some goals, and get close to the target. He just loves being part of life and I adore this about him.
Now that I've got that out of my system I think I can sit back and enjoy the summer. We are in full swing with morning swim team followed by tennis team on top of a little violin, but we are usually wrapped up by 1:00. Not bad, really. It's nice to have a break from the normal routines so that we can watch movies in the middle of the day, play tennis at night and get 7-11 slurppes! Here we go.......
