saltair

scout camp

today is abe's first scout camp. being the hovering mom that i am, i sent dave along too just to help out with the bb guns and swimming in the lake. they left bright and early. abe is way more excited about scouts than i am. i even overheard him teaching the motto to a friend at school. i am glad that abe and dave get to have a day together. max, with his sad little face, is next on the list for a day with dave!

schools out!!

schools out!! today was the last day of school followed by party, party, party! i dropped sadie off at a friend's and before i finished talking to the mom she was hanging out in the hot tub with girls and boys from her class. what ?!
this year went by fast. i feel happy that summer is here and we can have some down time but also sad because the kids had amazing teachers and such a positive, happy year and i'm sad to have it come to an end. their teachers had a lot of confidence in them and it is such a blessing to have a teacher that thinks you are capable and believes in you.

ms. velvick and abe

sadie and mrs. mccann

talent show

today was the elem. school talent show, which is on my list of favorite days. it is just so fun.

abe and three of his buddies aka "the boomwhackers" performed. they played a song by hitting different sized plastic tubes on their heads. what could be better for eight year old boys? with their t-shirts that said "boomwhackers," and the way the sixth grade announcer introduced them, you might have mistaken them for a famous band. highly entertaining.

sadie also performed. hers was a little more serious. she sang a song called 'someone needs your star'. this year her class headed a couple service projects for their school to help children in afghanistan. i took photos of these projects and mixed them with photos of children from afghanistan (thanks to our good friend justin who is serving in afghanistan and his great wife, sue, who sent me copies of some photos) we made a slide show that went with her song. i thought it was pretty neat. sadie was the first to perform. her teacher said she lost all of her mascara....even the student council pres./sixth grade boy told sadie she made him cry. i was just so grateful that the projector worked and i was able to get my laptop charged since the cord broke on me. i was also grateful that dave happen to be post call for the dress rehearsal so he was able to watch them perform, even if it was just a practice.
all together it was a lot of work, but well worth it. it was rewarding to see them come up with an idea, work hard at it, do a great job and feel good about what they did.

no photo because i was too busy setting up and helping them, but i am going to try to round one up.

ps~ (thanks juliette for tending and giving my children blue otter pops...they love you! all i have to do if i want maxwell's attention is say, "baby delilah".)

the wedding dance

sadie performed the last two nights at the center for the arts here in town. it was a small, cozy theater. sadie said it was her first time ever performing on an eyeball shaped stage.  she has really enjoyed her dance class this year and the girls did a beautiful job. not to mention they all looked so grown up. crazy!

abe's mom is beautiful

i am so grateful for my beautiful wife, to be able to hold her, and have her as a partner through this life. i feel this way every day, but sometimes it hits me especially hard, almost as a revelation, how blessed i am to have her. sometimes it feels like we are still skipping out of class from high school (which somehow always led to running into my mom, whether at the mall or the pet store--luckily she would always give us money or her credit card and tell us to have a fun time). then i look over my shoulder to realize that we have four kids sitting in the back of our car, which now requires three rows, and that it was 19 years ago that we first saw each other at the age of 14. as cheesy as it sounds, that image is crystallized in my memory. even at that distant moment, it felt like time slowed and then nearly stood still, and i knew that there was something amazing about her; and there was a familiarity, like i had known her from somewhere before. we didn't even speak--it was just a meeting of our eyes, but i have always remembered that moment from a 9th grader's birthday party in somebody's basement.

i remember that when i first got know myndie, my face would always hurt after talking with her from smiling and laughing too much. the first time i experienced this good pain was after a botched attempt to serenade her window. despite the fact that this was a scheduled, rather than surprise event, myndie had fallen asleep in the other room. her dad had to wake her up, then i set up for a second time outside her window. after getting half way through two or three songs (i never was good at memorizing the words), i climbed into her window and we talked for hours. fortunately, this facial fatigue was something i experienced regularly throughout high school, and continue to this day. although unfortunately, it is beginning to leave marks. even back then, at the age of 16, we talked about how much fun it would be to be parents together. i remember telling her that she would be the coolest mom. i am so blessed, and amazed, to have been able to witness how true that early assessment was.

i love to see her laugh with our kids, and to see them truly belly laugh with each other. she is a great example and leader, but i think what i love most about her mothering is the individual friendships she has with each of our kids. a good day is when i come home, and the to-do list may be completely undone, because myndie recognized an opportunity to connect with one of our kids, and was willing to drop whatever else would have otherwise been in the way. our kids truly love to be with her, and they know, as well as any child has ever known, that their mother loves them.

last week myndie went with abe on a field trip to phoenix, tolerating a 3 hour school bus ride each way. in the theater, while waiting for the performance to start, the kids were playing the "pass it on" game. one of abe's friends said, "abe's mom is beautiful, pass it on" and sent the message down the row of 2nd graders. i think that is the message i also want to pass along, that she is beautiful, in so many ways, and that she makes life beautiful.

happy mothers' day. i hope you know what an absolute privelege it is to share parenthood and life with you!

pet, take two.

maxwell's pet fish didn't survive the crack in their tank.
water was dripping in my closet so i ran upstairs to see if a faucet was left on, expecting a flood. instead i found an empty tank with dead fish laying on rocks and 10 gallons of water all down the wall, floor and dripping through the ceiling, ending in my closet downstairs. kai was the only one with me when we found them and he cried for almost an hour. the sight of their lifeless bodies laying there was more than he could handle....i vowed once again that we are just not pet people.
but....
abe had his first friend sleepover last night and guess what he came home with? yep. a pet. a "water dog."

he held it up and max screamed out of fear...i think he might have been remembering the time we went to the pet store and abe tried to pet a starfish, but another 4 inch fish came out of no where and bit his finger...attached, and when abe jerked his finger out of the water the fish came out too. it flew through the air and landed on the ground. it was quite the scene since abe was on the top of a ladder and the fish flew a long way.
so...here we go again. abe informed me it eats one worm a day. we should be able to handle that, right?