(By Gabe Romney…transcribed from the birthday card he made for Seth)
1. You’re always happy
2. You’re always trying to help
3. You are great at making friends
4. At times you can be my best buddy
5. You’re a kind little brother and a great big brother
6. You are the BEST brother in the world!
(by Ryan)
1.) You have the drive and dedication of someone twice your age.
2.) I love your blend of natural mathematical talent and hard work – it’s so fun to see those two together.
3.) Boys are mean when they are unsure of themselves, there are a lot of insecure boys in middle school. Don’t let their underdeveloped characters get you down.
4.) You swim like a fish
5.) I respect how seriously you live gospel principles.
6.) Failing something hard/new ALWAYS trumps succeeding at what is easy/safe.
7.) You do a great job of being responsible with your money.
8.) It is sweet how grateful you are for everything.
9.) I want to be your best friend
10.) I have never met a kid who earned every Webelos pin they make, … well until now. You are awesome!
(taken at the Pool Party Pack Meeting where Gabe was awarded most of his pins)
11.) I feel profoundly blessed that you are my son.
While at girls camp, Emma had her first NON-digital, disposable camera:
"Ugh! I just took another picture of my pocket! Now I have 3!"
(While I was at Girls Camp, Ryan took the week off of work to take care of the kids. Texts can be such a fun, real record of our life, I thought it would be fun to include some of them from that week.)
Jul 25, 2011 1:28 PM
R: Jane: “I wish I woke up at 6 so I could say bye to mom”. We all miss you.
Jul 25, 2011 2:00 PM
R; Just dropped off E. *sniff* I’ll miss her.
Jul 25, 4:02 PM
J: Swap out the laundry!!
Jul 26, 1:21 PM
J: Camp is most relaxing place ever.
R: Good.
Jul 26, 2011 9:11 PM
(referring to the finals he was completing for his MBA class)
R: Starting first test now. I’m so exhausted.
Jul 26, 2011 11:23 PM
R: Just finished 1st test. Felt like I did average. Boo on average. Whatever. Doing next part early tomorrow.
Jul27, 2011 5:16 AM
R; Just starting next test.
Jul 27, 2011 6:55 AM
R: DONE!!!
Jul 27, 2011 8:37 AM
R: Not bad for a dad:
J: WHAT?! That was the only parenting thing, I did better than you!!
R: Nuh-uh and you still do.
Jul 27, 2011 10:24 AM
J: Guess what? When you have 45 minutes to study, ponder and pray you have am amazing scripture experience!
R: Good. I have been yelled at and cried at no less than 20 times because I couldn’t find those purple flip flops.
Jul 27, 2011 12:02 PM
(Ryan was coming up to camp for bishops night and I had some requests)
J: Please do not forget to get a sleeping pad from Laura.
Jul 27, 2011 2:12 PM
R: I’m carpooling with the YW presd’cy. Hope it’s not awkward.
J: Why? And you have room for my pad, right?
R; Way to keep focused on MY issue.
Jul 27, 2011 3:31 PM
J: Hey! You got my pad?
J: And my big green blanket. I was cold last night.
J: Am I obnoxious?
Jul 28, 7:08 AM
J: I love you! How’s your morning?
R: Good run. Pretty morning. Got a lot of you in my head. Trying to get past it.
R: I’m down 3 lbs since Sat. What do you put in my food?!
Jul 28, 2011 3:15 PM
R: Us after the movie:
Jul 28, 2011 8:13 PM
R; “Dad, does mom want a picture of me?”:
Jul 29, 2011 10:34 AM
(Before a doctor’s visit to address an hugely infected wart on Jane’s foot)
R: Faith: “Dad, where are we going?” Me: “To the doctors.” F: “Well my tummy’s fat as can be!”
Jul 29. 2011 11:21 AM
(R was at the podiatrist when I got home)
J: I just got home and found this:
J: Is this how you take care of our children? One ripping down street signs and the other with a blood infection?
J: Attempting repairs:
R: Been there. Done that. He did it two days ago, too.
R: In the waiting room:
R; F: “I yike dese comics, Dad.”
J: Hey! My flowers are dead!
R: What?! They weren’t yesterday!
R: Are you exaggerating?
R: Um, speaking of dead, you might want to feed that fish.
J: The flowers look pretty bad. The rest of the house looks pretty incredible, so I forgive you.
Jul 29, 2011 11:45 AM
J: Hey! Tell Greg (the podiatrist, our friend) to hurry it up! I miss you!!
I LOVE Summer. Love it. Love it. Love it. Boo on Back to School and Autumn.
For the 4th of July, we had a great day. I was determined to have it be all holiday-ish because last year was lame and to see good fireworks, because, we’ve missed out on fireworks for various reasons for years.
We started out in proper 4th of July attire:
and rode bikes to the little tiny town parade, which was super fun
I love watching the littlest kids try to figure out the candy-grabbing thing:
We spent the afternoon at the Daines’ lakehouse and had lovely weather.
We got back in time for fireworks viewing over Liberty Lake, on the deck of our friends’ house. It was beautiful and perfect.
We’ve also had some good time spent playing Summer Bingo (see last year’s post for explanation). We’ve had plenty of outings, which include strawberry picking
and crafting
(I had to take a picture for Ryan to prove I knew how to push a needle through fabric)
and cookie making
all in efforts to earn tickets and keep kids occupied. It’s working well.
One of our yearly summer highlights is the Family Fun Run we get to do. This year, Gabe and I ran together and he made me run fast.
It is a very hilly 4 mile course and Gabe did it in 30:41. I kept him in my sights and finished in 30:55 (which was apparently fast enough for a 1st place finish in my age division…it was fun because my 3 other friends placed as well. LOVE running buddies.)
Jane competed and was super tough.
Here’s Seth and his friend Katie at the starting line.
I love our active community and my active family!
Emma and I got to go to Girls Camp (seen here, while I monitored the tubing river and Emma floated it).
I was the leader of the high adventure canoe trip, which turned out to be a little bit crazy. This is a picture of me and some of my girls taking cover in my van while a MAJOR thunderstorm raged through our camp (post-canoe trip, pre- bedtime).
Since more than half of our bedding was sopping went, I made the executive decision to take the girls back home for the night and have them dry out and return in the morning. As we drove out we had to drive around numerous downed trees and large branches.
We got up to the larger Girls Camp in one piece and had a great remaining week. Emma loved it…this is her look on Bishops Night
(Ryan attended because our bishop was gone). Despite 29 mosquito bites,
it was one of the highlights of my summer.
Reason #26 We Love Ryan’s Company: they pay for families to do fun stuff together 4-5 times a year. This summer it was the Spokane Indians baseball team. We are SO not baseball fans but it was the most entertaining night. We want to do it again!
And, also, I love my Zoku popsicle maker. It’s almost a nightly tradition around here:
S’mores popsicles:
Watermelon popsicles:
Cherry Chocolate popsicle:
Is it any wonder that I am wishing for 3 MORE months of summer?
About a month ago, I dished up a plate of dinner for Faith…on a red plate. She came to the dinner table and announced: “I don’t want a red plate, I want an orange plate.” I continued to serve up dinner to the rest of the crowd. Faith grabbed a stool, scooted it over to the counter, climbed up, opened the cabinet containing plates, found an orange one, got back down and brought it over to the table. I scraped her food from her red plate to her orange plate and she got into her chair, ready to eat.
Ryan looked at me and said “And that is the difference between parenting your first child and parenting your fifth child.”
With my first, I would have insisted that she eat from the red plate. (“No child of mine will be so picky as to need to have a certain color plate!”) I would have been unyielding in letting her know that I was the boss and, because we are a family, we simply don’t cater to those kinds of demands.
With my fifth, I think “Why would I possibly put up a fight over a plate?! Plus, bonus! She got it herself, without any trouble to me.”
Sorry, Emma (though there are bonuses to being first. I’m a first and I like a lot of things about it.) I sometimes (LOTS of times?) feel guilty, but I also, sometimes, just can recognize the growth and appreciate it. Yay for 12.5 years of learning how to be a Mother. I’m going to be so PERFECT after 40 years, I just know it!
