Throwback Post #1 (late November of 2022)

Judah is a cuddler and he loves that Roman is too!  Roman has taken to diving at him when he walks by to get some hugs and pats.

This was from before his chest wound issues.  He had only done it a couple of times and only on this low "block."

Roman absolutely loves music and when the boys play piano.  Before he was walking he would frequently crawl under the bench or hold onto the lag of the piano while they practiced.  This is during an actual lesson.  Our kind piano teacher doesn't mind a bit.

This is one of his long time favorite toys, his very own piano.

This is Isaac's traditional dish that he makes every Thanksgiving, Key Lime Pie.  I think he has perfected it.

 

The Nine Year Old Privilege: Holding a baby standing up

Judah's ninth birthday came upon us while we were visiting friends for a fortieth birthday party.  We ordered him an ice cream cake just like he wanted.  He got to choose dinner, and he chose a meatlover's pizza.  Judah, like Isaac, is sweet and easy to please.  

A fun trip to the park during our visit

The nine year old privileges involve a new book series that he can read, a special date with dad, and holding a baby while walking around.  The last couple boys really haven't had a baby around to carry, but Judah has Roman now and is so excited to carry him.  He is Genna's "mini me" and they are so much alike that I asked him if he could try to "beat" Genna by not dropping any of my babies.  Genna dropped Judah on his head when she was 8 or 9 from the couch.  She also fell hold Bobby and saved him, but broke her own arm in the process.  So we're hoping for Judah to have a better track record, but I have to admit he makes me nervous sometimes.

 I love this sweetheart!  He is my Bunny Twenty-one (This is from the book, The Country Bunny where her twenty-first bunny baby pulls out her chair for her at the table each day.) who makes my coffee in the morning and rubs my back when I am getting overwhelmed or sad.

  

Judah's done with his palatal expander, but now he has two front braces and a retainer expander.

Genevieve Plays Volleyball and Judah has a Birthday

The first month of school was a busy one.  Genevieve made the JV volleyball team and is busy with that 6 days a week. I typically only let the kids choose only one sport a year to play, but she has worked so hard over the summer and seems to derive such pleasure from team sports that I couldn't say no. I certainly gave her a hard time about volleyball not being a "real sport." A sport that you can play and not break a sweat doesn't seem like a sport to me. I am mostly teasing, of course. Volleyball is pretty much the only common American ball sport that I have never played in any capacity.  I even tried Powder Puff football once, but never volleyball. 

Anyway, Genevieve is doing a wonderful job and is very devoted to her team.  After going to her first game and witnessing the team hug in between each play, it only reinforced my previous thoughts.  There's no smiling and hugging in real sports!  

Judah's birthday was on a Saturday.  We had to make a last minute change to our plans and head to Houston just for Saturday. All Judah had wanted for his birthday was to go to a water park. This summer when we went tubing, he saw Schlitterbahn and thought that it looked like the coolest thing ever. We've never taken the children to a real water park before because most of our kids are too scared to go on anything, not to mention that I'm too scared to go on any rides or slides. However Genevieve and Judah are the two daring ones. Genevieve went to Fiesta Texas with a friend for her birthday, and so we decided to do a family trip to Splashtown with Judah. We ended up delaying this by 2 weeks. However, once we were able to go, it was a really fun day. Splashtown is older than Schlitterbahn, smaller and a lot less crowded too.  It turned out Isaac and Drew enjoyed the slides as well more so than they do roller coasters. Hannah, Bobby, and I, the wusses, hung out at the Lazy River or the wave pool for the most part. Judah really wanted me to try one of the big slides, so I picked the least big slide and went down it with him. They said it was the slowest one, but I thought it was awfully fast.  I was done after one go.  

We couldn't take our phones into the water park because it was just going to be a hassle to keep them dry, so we have no photos of that day.  If I was smart I'd have taken some out in the parking lot of us all, but...

In Houston, on his actual birthday.

New gifts!

Judah got a store-bought birthday cake from one of his grandmothers, and did not get the Darth Vader cake that he had asked for. I felt badly about it, but we had family circumstances that played in the mix.  I guess I'll owe him for next year! He had a really good attitude about it and was very patient and sweet.

The rest of the month was filled with eye appointments orthodontist appointments, orientation for school, meeting with old friends who just moved to the area, and getting together with newer friends that will be leaving the area soon.

Judah occasionally does random, weird things.  He had just been told not to write on himself earlier in the day.  We drove to the dentist and got out of the van.  I looked at him and couldn't believe he'd drawn on himself again, on his face!  As we walk toward the office door, I asked him if he realized that everyone was going to see his artistic work.  The shock and panic on his face was comical and he quickly devised a plan to cover up his mistake...a face mask!

His embarrassment was punishment enough.  Luckily, it wasn't permanent marker!

A Busy Weekend

The first weekend after the big kids school started was very full.  Friday night Brian's mom and brother arrived for the weekend.  Brian and I went out on a date while James took Genna to and from volleyball practice that evening for us.  Our Saturday started with Genna having volleyball practice again; then Judah had a his last baseball game.  Hannah had her driver's test and immediately after that she and I went to volunteer at the local Down Syndrome association for kid's craft time.  

We went to a comedy show that was unfortunately more politics than laughs, but oh well.  With all that's going on in the world, can't a girl just go to a comedy show and laugh without having the heaviness of it all even when trying to escape for an hour? 

She passed!!!  We got her the actual license just a couple of days later at the DPS.

Playing Barbies after the craft and music time

Boys just being silly!

He got a sportsmanship and a participation medal.  He was super happy that Nanna and Uncle James were able to go see his last game.

Monday Genevieve had her first volleyball game.  I am not fully convinced that volleyball is a sport though.  There was a lot of hugging.  How can that be a sport?  

 

Our RV Trip: Day 6-10

We rose early on the 6th day to be able to get a parking spot at the Slide Rock.  I think this was definitely the kids' favorite thing we did on the whole trip.  There are naturally eroded "slides" in the near freezing river.  There is also a deep slow spot before a dam that is for cliff jumping, but this sounds way more daunting than it actually is.  I was picturing a super high cliff and it wasn't more than a high dive.  I'm no high dive girl so I didn't do it, but Brian, Genna, and Drew (only after watching others for a while to get up his nerve) did it.  Hannah and Bobby wouldn't even do the slide, but they still enjoyed the time there.  The sun was blazing, so eventually we'd be driven to get into the numbing water for a bit to cool off.  The port-a-potties were beyond disgusting, but I'll spare you the details.  We were there for a few hours and then headed back for lunch before some adventurous ones went to a different "slide" rock area.  It was less popular, but I was told it was even better than the first one.   Bob needed a nap and was dying to swim and play on the playground so I stayed behind.

Sedona

Slide Rock

Our Base Camp at Slide Rock for snacks, water, and rest.

The big shoot/slide

Cooling off in the shallow slow water before the slide.

My Buddy when things get too wild and crazy for this girl 

All the girls!

All the kids!

The boys at the second slide rock

The Grand Canyon

Our day at the Grand Canyon was our last active day of the trip.  It also happened to be our 20th anniversary!  It was over a 2 hour drive to the south rim, but it would have been nearly 5 hours to the north rim because you have to drive all the way around the canyon.  We headed out on a scorcher of a day, almost 120 degrees.   We walked along the top of the rim and enjoyed the breathtaking views.  

Our one romantic moment of the day

I was standing next to this little cutie thinking I needed to stay close to him because he's my one to try crazy unexpected things.  You see that the rail has the double slanted railing on the top of it.  Sure enough, I saw the glimmer in his eye, and he ducked his head and tried to get in between the two bars.  I stopped him with my hand and said, "Oh no, buddy boy.  I don't think so.  It's a long way down." He just smiled that innocent smile of his, and didn't try anything else.

Drew is not normally a complainer on long walks.  He was walking full days in Europe before the age of 4.  However, he has his daddy's hatred for hot weather, and it makes him very crabby.  He actually barely complained at all, but this was the only face the Grand Canyon got to see of his.

Genevieve, on the other hand felt horrible this whole day and still gave us beautiful smiles and kept right on trucking with us.

Judah is carrying here one of the USB charging fans that I bought for the RV to help people fall asleep easier.  Turned out the power on these things was pretty lousy, but they provided some relief.

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we made two stops on the way back to Sedona to see some native American ruins and cliff dwellings.  

Tuzigoot National Monument

Montezuma's Castle (Cliff Dwellings)

And that's all folks!  We started our drive home that evening and stopped at an RV site in El Paso late at night.  That made our drive the last day much more bearable.  Overall, we felt like we were getting the hang of the RV by the end and having teenage girls in the RV (I'd been quite  apprehensive about this aspect before the trip.) wasn't so bad after all. They survived the close quarters and sharing a tiny bathroom and shower with the rest of us better than I could have imagined.  I'm not sure it's really the best method of travel for our family being that Brian is so mission-focused and doesn't like to stop and smell the roses along the way to our destinations.  If we were going to make a trip where there were many small destinations along the way, it might be something we could do again.  However, our kids are really good at the long drives in the van and we can make better time that way.  It was very inconvenient not having another vehicle if we wanted to make excursions from our base site.  Certainly, I do not want to rent one of these things in the heat again!  It was 121 degrees on the day we drove home when we left Arizona, and I was so sweaty when I was in the back of the RV even when we had the generator on.