Last Week of School, Zion Mountain Ranch, 1st Week of Summer Va-ca

The last week of school zoomed by.  Samuel and I went to Eric's class picnic that Wednesday.  We walked over to the park across the street from the temple to eat lunch and play games.  We also went to the school on Friday for awards, I missed whatever presentation I should have seen and was just there during year book signing.  I wish I could really sum up the year for the children, but that is hard to capture all of the emotion and feelings behind that.  I was really touched to see how much Eric is going to miss his teacher, Mrs. Davis.  He cried and was really sad to leave her.  He did not want to leave school and it took me leading him out.  Mrs. Davis was emotional at her class leaving also.  Eric has already written a couple of notes/letters to Mrs. Davis that we need to mail and really wants to go visit her at her home in Oakley.  Rubie was fine leaving, though she also has grown to love Mrs. Soderstrom.  Both teachers really love our children.  I am so grateful for that.  I love my children and know how special they are, but I am glad to know that others love them as well.  Their teachers helped me to see some strengths in each of them.  I love that Mrs. Soderstrom loves Rubie and finds her to be such a pleasant student.  We will be excited to see who are teachers are next year.  On Friday afternoon we packed up and headed to Zion Mountain Ranch.  Scott booked this vacation awhile ago and we have been looking forward to it.  ZMR is located on the East side of Zion National Park, on the Mt. Carmel side.  In our cabin was a leather bound book.  Scott decided it would be the adventure journal.  This is what he wrote in it:

Well here we are all settled into cabin at ZMR just outside of Zion National Park.  It is the beginning of Memorial Day Holiday Vacation 2015.  Last year was our 1st annual "Hoteling" trip.  We spent the weekend in Capitol Reef.  This year we'll spend five days in and around Zion's, our 2nd annual "cabining" trip.  Rubie was so excited she built a model cabin out of blankets and chairs the first week of May and slept in it for 3 days.  This is our first trip as a family since I was laid off from AtTask last December.  The family was so supportive and cooperative during my time unemployed, this vacation is a great opportunity to enjoy getting out and enjoying ourselves.  Everyone was so happy to get into the cabin.  So far we've played some games and started a movie.  Off to a great start.  Scott

Let me just fill in a little bit.  We stayed in a small cabin.  It was like a large hotel room with 2 king size beds, a pull-out couch bed, TV, table and chairs, small bathroom, microwave and fridge.  It was a little rainy so we were grateful for the TV and DVD player.  The wifi didn't work so we were lucky to have brought DVDs with us.  The office ranch had some to borrow as well.  We arrived late Friday and returned home Tuesday morning.  So we had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to explore.  We explored around Kanab going to some caves which we just happened upon and some locals told us to go to.  We visited the Best Friends animal sanctuary (just saw a sign and went to check it out), we visited the Coral Pink Sand Dunes.  Monday we went to Zion National Park (along with 1/2 the world's population).  Dan and his boys were in St. George visiting his friends the Cornea's.  So we met up with them in Zion's.  I'm not joking about the amount of people there.  It took forever to find a place to park, to even drive through, get a shuttle, and get from shuttle's to the hikes.  We decided on Angel's Landing.  Lots of people hiking too.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I pictured hiking up in a continuous line of people just shuffling along.  But when we reached the saddle to start the hiking with the chain area, that is where the solid line of people was.  I was so proud of Eric and Rubie.  I never imagined they would hike that far up.  Scott didn't make it very far.  He had Sam on his back and as soon as we were on a ledge and the wind was whipping around him, he couldn't go anymore.  But I kept Eric and Rubie going and as long as I let them take some breaks and didn't push them too fast they were good.  Even Eric would say his legs were so tired but he kept on going.  It really helped to have Dan and his boys along.  We did get separated for a little while, we hunkered down during some rain, and then when Dan and the boys came along, that rejuvenated Eric and Rubie and we kept on to the saddle.  They were awesome and I was so thrilled!!!

We loved ZMR because of the cabin but also it is a working ranch.  They have 65 head of buffalo.  Goats, horses, chickens and ducks.  Rubie loved all the animals.  She loved watching them and feeding them and interacting with them.  Sam loved to run after the ducks and chickens (kickens or bak-bak he would say).  There was a large fire pit where in the evening they would start a fire and we could roast marshmallows and make s'mores.  It was beautiful.  It was somewhere we could definitely go again.

Rubie wrote this in the book:

I liked yesterday because we got to play in the sand and see sand buggies!

Eric wrote this in the Adventure Journal:

I built a ginormous sand castle.  We built a little cave and watched it erode and fall.

Our first week of summer vacation has been kind of chill.  Rubie decided it was time to claim her room back.  Even though I told her we would start the next day she decided as soon as we returned from ZMR she was moving Sam out.  She went in and put all of his stuff in the hallway so she could move in.  While I did not want her to do that and was quite frustrated it was okay.  Throughout the week I would spend a little time with her moving her stuff in and putting up her old decorations and such and making it a cute room.  We moved Sam in to Eric's room but he does not quite understand that yet.  We thought if we get out the toddler bed that might help him.  We have decided to sell the bunk bed because no one will sleep on the top and so we ordered some beds for Eric and Rubie and too and that should help.

We also spent time looking for a new car.  The X-terra is having issues again with the head gasket.  It is constantly leaking and according to the mechanics could go any time leaving us stranded somewhere.  It would cost upwards of $3,000 to have the head gasket fixed and that does not really seem reasonable as the whole vehicle is probably not worth that.  Our credit still is not the best and so we cannot get the vehicle that we really want.  Even though we may be able to afford the payments a bank is not willing to loan us the amount of money for a nice Tahoe or something like that.  So we have found a vehicle at Low Book sales, a Dodge Journey that will be a good car until the we can get that Tahoe we want.  It is pending an inspection by Scott's trusted mechanic, Steve Whitehead, that hopefully we can get tomorrow.

Mother's Day, BLK tournament, Shakespeare Days and Writing Contest

Two Sundays ago on May 10th was Mother's Day.  Eric and Rubie had been looking forward to the day.  They made some gifts for me at school.  In art class they each made a dish towel.  It's a white towel and with markers they got to write on it and draw pictures.  Eric had everyone in his class and teachers sign it.  I really liked that.  They each made me a nice card too.  And I think they tried to be good and nice all day.  Scott helped a little with dinner by purchasing a pot roast and he even put it in the crock pot.  We didn't go visit anyone since Scott's mom, Linda, is in Virginia, and my mother and dad were in New Mexico visiting Jared and Chantel.  Jared graduated Law School.  Also their baby boy was born a couple weeks ago.

Last week at school was Shakespeare Week.  In the past the kids have been able to wear a costume every day.  I believe there are still activities every day having to do with Shakespeare, but they asked that the kids only wear costumes on Thursday and Friday.  That is better.  We only needed one costume that way.  I ended up having to make a tunic for Eric and Rubie wanted a head piece so I had to make that too.  Hopefully next year I'll be able to get two costumes within plenty enough time to have them bought and shipped by the time we need them.

Along with Shakespeare Week there is a writing contest that students may enter.  There are different age categories.  One Sunday when Scott was gone and I had Bailie sitting with us I just handed Eric a notebook to give him something to do during sacrament meeting.  He wrote a poem called "Best Friends."  It's about the Jarvis' moving away.  I talked him into entering it into the contest.  He really wasn't so sure at first.  I think since the poem meant something to him, he was just unsure about it.  But he won 3rd place in the K-2 age group.  He was given a certificate, a medal, a book on Shakespeare, and a leather bound journal.  We received a call the night before from someone to let us know that he was going to get an award.  But they wanted to keep it a surprise for the students.  He was a little surprised but so pleased.

Last Saturday Eric and Rubie had a karate tournament at UVU.  This one was between all BLK schools.  There were so many kids in Rubie's belt/age range they took up 4 rings.  There were so few this time in Eric's age/belt range that he only competed against the triplets in his regular class.  They both did well.  Eric got two 2nd place medals, Rubie got 1 2nd and 1 1st I think.  This was Brock's first tournament.  Not only did his mom come but his dad did too and that was a big deal to him.  Brock got 2 3rd place medals which he was not happy about.

This weekend was slow.  Scott was teaching and it was rainy and kind of cold.  There weren't any friends around so we just stayed home.  Yesterday we did go to Dan and Brandee's for the birthday celebrations of Eli and Cougar.  Russell has even come to town for a couple weeks to get some kids lined up to care for the yards of their two homes.

Today marks the beginning of the last week of school for this school year.  Yikes!  I better get the summer activities lined up.

Say what? 39, and other happenings

I think since Scott was gone on drill and I had school projects to do with the kids, I didn't get writing in last Sunday.  This coming Sunday is Mother's Day, so I have a quiet moment right now so I'm writing.  Samuel put himself down for a nap a bit ago and we have a school friend, Elinor Howard, hear to play and she is keeping Eric and Rubie occupied.  It's a no-school Friday day.  I tried exercising this morning and did run for an hour and then tried to get a leg/back workout in but the whole family was downstairs.  Scott has been in Cedar City and St. George all week for work so the kids missed him.  Samuel usually wakes up and gets out of bed no around 6:00 am---Grrrr--so I think Scott spent time with him before working out.  Then when I got home it was play with Sam building roads and buildings and tracks for cars and emergency vehicles in-between each exercise move, and getting food for him in there too.  So it took forever to exercise and then I didn't even completely finish it.  Sam is very adamant and demanding about my time.

So last week after I got sick from Sam and Rubie being sick, my sinus infection didn't clear up within a week.  It moved to my ears and infected my ears.  On Monday late afternoon as we got home from karate and I'm trying to get dinner on and get kids to do homework, I experienced horrendous pain in my right ear.  I had to take like 8 ibuprofen to just take the edge off so I could even function.  I was pretty sure it was fluid built up behind the eardrum and it just needed to break threw.  It did and that was excruciating for a few minutes and then bloody, goopy, liquid began seeping out.  I knew the eardrum had ripped or something so I called the ENT but they didn't seem too worried and couldn't get me in until Wednesday.  I was right about what happened but in the meantime I was put on 2 antibiotics, told not to swim, and still have some pain in the ears.  Mostly it is the constant high pitched ringing that bothers me.  I have a headache by the end of the day from it.  The sound of air and fluid moving through my ears has died down some, but that comes and goes.  And sometimes it is still a little painful.  It's bothersome.  I'm glad that James stopped coaching me because I was tired of giving excuses of not completing workouts because I'm not healthy or because somehow the kids interrupted the workouts.  I don't know what races I may still do, but I just want to focus on exercise for still getting in shape, loosing weight, but I also want to feel free to go on a hike or something like that with the kids because they need that.  I need the workouts to fit within an hour and then an hour for strength.  Maybe next year I'll have a little more time.  I would also like to be able to get in more open water swimming and hope to be able to join the group that goes on Tuesday evenings.  We'll see.

I had my 39th birthday last week.  It was a nice day.  I felt a little better from the ear aches.  It was a Friday.  Friday morning is my time to have Addie Huddleston over.  I let it slip to Katie that it was my birthday.  She really just wanted to go on a bike ride and does not like to go by herself.  So she offered came up with the idea for me to pull our two kids, Sam and Addie, in the chariot and we could ride out on the Murdock trail to at least Lehi/Highland, get lunch at Kneader's, and bike back.  I loved the idea.  We did just that.  We went a little further than Kneader's, got lunch, and then took it to a park so the kids could play too. Then biked back.  Both kids fell asleep on the way home.  I was totally surprised how long it took.  We got off about 10:30 because I had to change a tire and get the chariot set up on my road bike and we got back home just after 2:00.  And it was a work out for me.  It was hard to go fast, especially stopping and starting.  I did not need any additional workout that day.  The weather was beautiful and I totally enjoyed it.  What a treat for me that Katie would spend all that time with me.  Eric had a birthday party after school so we got him to that.  Scott was released from drill and we wanted to go to dinner but no one in the family was happy with any of the choices and I refuse to go somewhere that is not friendly for the kids because then I do not sit at the table and enjoy it.  I would have to walk around the restaurant and outside with Sam.  I guess we did all agree on Chuck-a-Rama, but it was totally crowded.  It was UVU graduation night so that might have been the reason.  So we took the kids to McDonald's.  I sat there while Scott went and got us dinner at Costa Vida and got stuff to make Strawberry Shortcake from Macey's.  Then we brought that home and started a movie, which I never finished.

Sam is growing up so much.  He is talking a lot and says so many words now.  I love the sound of his little voice.  I love how he mixes up the order of how to say words, and will often add an "e" sound at the end.  "Mama, down-e."  "drink-e, juice-e," as an example.  He loves to build "choo-choo-racks" and "race-tracks" and towers for all his cars and emergency vehicles.  He still carries toys all over the house and keeps it playful for us all the time.  He likes to go in the mountains for hiking and on the trail.  When I run with him, he wants to get out at the end and run a little ways with me.  I love it.  He loves to eat pizz-e and hot dogs and cookies and doughnuts and cereal.  He especially loves marshmallow cereal.  Sometimes I really have to work to get him to eat good for you food.  At other times he is a really good eater and loves his vegetables.  He loves his Fireman Sam and Mater shows.  He won't sleep in his own bed anymore so I really have to find the time to read to him.  He is working himself out of naps, though he still needs them.