First Day of School

First Day of School- Dax started 4th grade and Derek started Kindergarten. Derek has been so excited to go to school with Dax ever since I registered him in April. He kept asking me if it was time to go to Dax's school. I told him as soon as it was Dax's Birthday then school would start. Finally, the day came.

Our Long walk across the street, out our neighborhood gate, meet the crossing guard cross one more street, and BAM we are at school.

Derek in Mrs. Lopez's Classroom. I don't know how the cards fell that Derek would end up in the same class with his 3 best friends, Britton (again) Westin, and Sean from across the street. I feel bad for his teacher. He was also assigned to sit next to Britton, I doubt that will last.

Dax is right back where he started. His 4th-grade class is in the same room he had in Kindergarten. I hope it's a better experience with Ms. Jansen than with his Kindergarten teacher. Dax was happy to have his good friend Phuc (sounds like a boot) Ly for the 4th year in a row in his class. He also had his friends Ramon, and Ethan in his class.

Video of Birthday #9

Birthday # 9

Dax turned 9 on July 19th. I can't believe it. He had a great day. We invited Dallin & Westin Thomas, Ethan Savoldi, Mallory, and Spencer Carroll over to swim, and have pizza and cake. It was so easy simple and fun. The perfect amount of kids and the perfect amount of presents.

Before he turned 9 he finished his requirements to get his wolf award in cub scouts. He also got a bunch of other awards and patches he earned at cub scout day camp this summer.

The moms get a little pin too. The cub scout pins it on Mom upside down (usually an awkward moment) and they can turn it around once they do a good deed.

Then they eat a whip cream pie when they advance up to the next level. Their faces are usually covered in whip cream, but Dax stayed clean. He didn't let me get a picture of his face. As I was busy with Dax getting his awards or Trey having a meltdown, Derek kept sneaking out during the Pac meeting. Three times I caught him in the kitchen getting into the goodies. The first time I walked in just as he had the can of whip cream ready to squirt into his mouth. The next few times he was breaking into the cookies and candies. That kid is a sugar addict. He needs rehab.

Pioneer Day

Dax was asked to help with the Pioneer Day activity for Primary. It was one of his requirements for his Religious Square knot patch for Cubs. He helped plan it, and then he was supposed to get up and talk about the Paiute Indians and wolves and give three facts. I went over the info with him and he already knew what he was supposed to say. I didn't stay and watch him do his presentation, but I wish I would have. So many people told me what a great job he did. He got up and said, "Is everyone in attendance?" I was told he spoke with confidence, had everyone's attention, and made eye contact. Pretty impressive for a barely 9 yr old. I feel like all those miserable years as a baby/toddler are starting to pay off. He was so difficult during those years. He never slept at night and he was kicked out of every place he went (pre-school, the gym daycare, nursery at church, play area at the store) Several people would tell me things like "genius", " kids like that grow up to be great adults, they have self-confidence, they're outgoing, and they're fun to be with" or "he shows the sign of a leader." Now I'm starting to believe them.

Summer Fun

The kids had a fun summer, but it is coming to an end. We started out the summer with a load of company.

 First, the Zoccoli cousins stayed with us for a few days, while their parents were out of town. That was a fun time, then my Aunt Paula, Uncle Denny, and cousin Amy came to stay for a bit. They came out for Ken Frost's funeral (Denny's Uncle) in Flagstaff. Right after they left my good friend Stephanie Carter came to stay for a few days. That was a crazy few weeks. 

 Dax spent a few days at cub scout day camp and had a great time. I'm not quite sure why it is called "Day camp" It started at 3:00 p.m. and went to 11:00 p.m. a bit late for kids that age (I thought) He came home filthy and exhausted. Curtis volunteered to help one of the days. I think he got a rash from being in all the dust and dirt, a great way for him to spend his own birthday. Although he did have a good time with Dax. Dax also took a robot class this summer. The little engineer in him loved it. They designed and built little robots that could do different things. Derek spent a few weeks at Kraft Kamp. I'm not sure that he loved it, but he needed something to do. I signed him up for a week, it was put on by someone we knew. I passed along the info to a few friends and she got a ton of referrals from that so she gave us an extra week. I felt it was the least I could do since she had given us several great Real Estate clients over the years.

Update on the Ducks

Several people have asked me what happened with the baby ducks in our pool. The answer is..... I have no idea. 

 We started out with 8 chicks and the Mom, the next day there were 2 Hens, 1 Mallard, and 5 chicks, on the 3rd day 1 Hen, 3 chicks. The next day 1 hen, and zero chicks. The Hen was still there by herself for a few more days after that. I looked all over the yard and there was no sign of a nest or broken eggshells. They just showed up one day and then disappeared. Occasionally we see a cat, but for the first day, they were in the water 100% of the time. So if something got them it had to swim in the pool to get them. It is a Mystery.

What were we thinking

The 4th of July is my favorite Holiday. We thought we would change it up this year and it would be fun to take the kids to the festivities at Tumbleweed park about a mile+ from our house. We also thought it would be a good idea to walk and avoid all the traffic and walk in a back way. It started at 4:00 p.m. and they shoot off fireworks from there when it's dark, and you can also see the fireworks from our house. We usually like to walk to the park across the street to get an even better view and no crowds. So at 4:00 p.m. the absolute hottest time of the day, we set out with our 3 kids to walk a mile + in 105 degrees. The walk would not have been that bad except it was HOT. We were smart enough to take some water bottles but that's all. When we got there we were drenched in sweat, and our water was HOT. We didn't even think about taking a decent amount of money to buy food or drinks while we were there. Luckily we ran into some people we knew and they took care of us. They had a cooler with all kinds of drinks and a nice shade umbrella. The kids forgave us once they got wet on the bounce slide. So we hung out for a while then decided to walk home once the sun started to set. We wanted to jump in the pool and cool off.

All so we could walk across the street from our house and watch fireworks at our park.

What were we thinking?