Divalicious

"I'm ready, Mom!" says Alexis. This is what she shows up wearing when I tell her we are heading to Walmart to buy school supplies. You know...paper, pencils, etc. Plus, it's about 90 degrees at this point.

Katie at a girlfriend's house one night for their Family Home Evening. Striking a pose.

Black eye

That day at the park.

Couple of days later I am green and yellow!

By the end of the summer, we had to use up the Wild Waves tickets I had left. Problem is, now Derek can't go with us because of football and JD can't go because he's still rehabbing his knee. I headed up north again (my third time this summer) with the other three kids: Evan, Alexis and Katie. (No other pictures of the trip because I didn't want to damage my phone or my camera with water.) Anyway, about half way through the day, we decided to go on this one slide. Since Katie is so small, I had to ride double with her quite often on our tube. We headed down the slide and once we hit the water, she popped up OUT of the tube and her head smacked my face. I saw stars for a minute and we both went under water. Her head was sore, but my face immediately started to swell. The 16 year old lifeguard asked me if I was okay and then told me to go to the First Aid station right away. So I did. EMT looked me over and informed me I would have a very nice black eye. Which I did. For several weeks. I heard lots of comments from people. Some funny and some kind of NOT funny!

Derek waverunning

Derek

Jake & Tyler

Tim: "Okay, you guys...hit it!" Ten minutes later...

Tim: "Dudes. I think you ripped my spleen!"

By the end of August, high school football was in full swing and no matter what, Derek HAD to be at practice. Even one missed practice meant he couldn't play. A little much, but this is football. The other kids went to the Great Wolf Lodge (an indoor water park) with JD's mom (Oma) for the weekend, but Derek had to stay behind with us. Since he was pretty bummed, we told him we'd take him and some football buddies to the river to use the wave runners. We loaded up the four sweaty teenagers after practice, two wave runners, a towing inner tube and 4 pizzas (they ate them ALL in the car on the way over there) and headed to the Columbia River for the night. They had a lot of fun showing each other how fast they could flip their "friends" off the tube.

Ropes Course

All the YM and YW with their leaders at the end of the long day.

Evan jumping for the ball.

Whoo hoo!

Derek trying to talk his friend Tyler into jumping off the Leap of Faith with him.

Horsing around with the graduating seniors. We're going to miss them!

Teamwork, fellas!

"Let's DO this!"

"Fire power!"

Derek on the pamper pole blindfolded.

Evan listening to instructions while wearing his fake nerd glasses (3D movie holdout).

Happy to get his adrenaline fix.

Hollah! YW in the house!

Evan dangling from a wire 30 feet up.

Derek and Tyler on the Leap. You can hear Tyler yell, "Oh my gosh, I hate this!" My kid is saying, "This is awesome! Mom! I want one for the yard!!!" Then followed by, "Dude, let go of me. Don't hold me, Tyler!" Tyler says, "I don't care! I'm GONNA hold you!" The cameraman is our YM's president and Tyler's dad. Toooooooo funny.

Right before school started, we youth leaders decided to take all the kids down to Salem, Oregon, for a ropes course. For those of you who don't know what that is, this is the one we went to : http://www.ywamsalem.org/salem-ropes/ and here's a description:

"a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which usually consists of high and/or low elements. Low elements take place on the ground or only a few feet above the ground. High elements are usually constructed in trees or made of utility poles and require a belay for safety."

Yup. That about sums it up! We were hoping to do something as a group to bind our kids together as friends so they got to know each other better as well as help them get to know their leaders better. I DETEST heights and I'm not too fond of obstacle courses, so this was clearly out of my element. But I went and with gusto! We divided the kids into teams based on age. It was a great experience! Derek proved to be a complete idiot by not backing down from ANY challenge and often did the ones 30-40 feet off the ground either repeatedly or blindfolded! Evan only punked out on one part of the course. It is called the Pamper Pole. It is 30 feet high and when you're up there you wish you had a diaper on. Evan climbed back down. It's the swaying of the pole up there that gets you. I conquered my fears and did it! Of course, Derek came along and did the PP and then did it again blindfolded. Show off. Most of the other boys wouldn't do it. The creme de le creme was the Leap of Faith. You climb a 40 foot tower and then bungee jump off into the woods. Unbelievably scary. Evan, by then, had decided no obstacle was going to be missed. He jumped off. So did I! Derek did it together with his best buddy, Tyler, and then did it again by himself--BLINDFOLDED! He's such an adrenaline junkie. Too funny.

Katie's friend birthday

All the girls: Emily, Olivia, Mary, Zoe and Katie.

Because Katie is the littlest friend of theirs, the kids often pack her around like a doll. Today was no exception.

With this being her 8th birthday, it's been a family tradition with the other kids for a hog-wild party (same goes for the 12th birthday). These are milestone birthdays for them and we like them to be memorable. That means just about anything goes, within reason (financially and idea-wise). Katie decided to take her three closest girlfriends to Wild Waves/Six Flags amusement park for the day. I had bought a TON of tickets in the spring for a fraction of the cost of regular tickets and we just used them slowly through the year. Katie waited until the weather was good and warm (upper 80's) and that meant late August before she could have her May birthday. Of course, I also went, even though I felt lousy. I had lost my voice (later found out I had bronchitis and laryngitis) and had a tough time rounding up these four, active girls with my manly, hoarse voice. We packed a cooler and had a fun tailgate lunch in the park's parking lot. The kids were adorable and we had a great day getting home well after 10:00 pm!

Utah summer trip

Mmmm. Yummy traveling crackers! What is it?!

Happy Face crackers with Cheez Whiz on them from Derek. The ONLY time I would purchase "cheese" in a can. Just sayin'...

We love BYU!

Me taking a break from all our activities. I was pooped in the bed of the pickup!

Went to the county fair and EVERY ONE of us got sick except Iron Gut Katie. We were miserable that night. Too many G-forces for us...

Every kid got to plan the food menus for a few days. Evan (goofy 3-D glasses he kept and hallowed out after we went to watch "Miserable Me" in 3D) chose to make homemade pizza and bake them over the fire at our campsite. Actually REALLY good. One too many episodes of the cooking channel for him though. He only wanted the most expensive ingredients.

Sweet little Alexis. Never a complaint with that one. Easy.

The "robbers" had just come through the train and accused Katie of stealing their loot. She was kind of upset but Evan thought it was great.

Everyone getting ready to board the Heber Creeper train up into the mountains.

Evan swimming in the Provo River. Ohh! That's cold water!

Baiting his hook to fish Provo River. Got skunked. Look at that skinny kid!

Free swim day in Heber City, Utah. Evan thought it was dumb, which explains his expression. He was all smiles a while after that when they threw money in the pool for the kids to get.

Alexis tossing a stick in the water.

Alexis and Evan on the chairlift to the slides at Park City.

Katie (and my toe--I'm connected to it) getting ready to shoot down the mountain on our alpine slide.

Obviously, Park City was the site for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Miss America 2010 emcee: "Katie Troy--8 years old, 4'7", 52 pounds, hails from Longview, Washington. Her favorite foods are beef jerky, pizza and nacho goldfish crackers. When she grows up she wants to be a soccer player with five children..." I just said I wanted a picture and this is the pose she gives me? Cracks me up!

Alexis, Evan and Katie going for a sunset dip in the reservoir near our campsite. (life jackets were required for anyone under 12, so the girls HAD to wear them).

In early August, Derek went to summer church camp (Especially For Youth - EFY-in Utah at Brigham Young University). HIGHLY recommend it for all church youth as it is a wonderful pick-me-up spiritually for the kids. Anyway, since JD was working and Derek was at camp all week, I decided to bring all the kids with us and make it a vacation for the rest of us. Two days in the truck, 10 hours of driving a day and NO FIGHTS!!! Derek was a great help to me and kept everyone stocked with snacks and electronics. BIG help. Derek stayed on campus and the other kids and I stayed at a campground in Park City, Utah. I pulled the trailer all by myself through four states and everything went off without a hitch! I even emptied the poo tank (gross, seriously. Thank goodness for gloves and a good breeze). Everyone had a great time hanging out and doing fun things together. We missed Daddy though. Katie cried one night that she missed him too much. I know he enjoys working and we so appreciate how hard he works, but even JD felt a little left out staying at home to work. He promised he would take time off next summer and come with us. Next year Derek and Evan will both go to EFY so it will probably just be the girls with JD and I. Can't wait. Had so much fun.

JD's knee surgery

The nurse was preparing his knee for surgery and made the comment that she was going to have to shave him "knees to nipples" to keep everything sterile for the best results in surgery. He seemed a little shaken by that...

Just kidding! He smiled, but wasn't really amused. Probably don't need a stand-up comic prepping you for surgery.

Sometime in the all-star baseball season, JD crouched down (either to play catcher for pitcher Evan or stretch his legs, who knows?) and something went "pop!" He hobbled around for some time and finally decided it wasn't going to go away so went to see a doctor. The doctor immediately referred him to an orthopedic surgeon. JD went "under the knife" to repair lots of damage that years of football, wrestling, softball and stupid young men camping trips (read "king of the hill"competitions, snow camping and ultimate frisbee) have done to him over time. He recovered very quickly, thankfully, and really only missed a few days of work. He's a trooper.

P.S. I LOVE anesthesia. He was so ooey gooey lovey with me when he was coming out of it. Sweet.