June Little Things

The phone camera was a great invention. Sure, the pictures aren't always top notch, but that handy device in my back pocket happens to be there to grab more often than my real camera. It captures so many little things that I want to remember.

June started out with a few swim meets for Blake.

Crew could often be found at our neighbor's house sliding down their railings.

We met up with cousins at Adventure Playground and built giant block structures.

We always love Sunday evenings at Salt Creek, playing corn hole with friends.

Blake and Nash spent their annual week at scout camp.

It was Blake's last year which meant he got to do some more advanced activities like "river raft" in a makeshift river.

I volunteered two of the days, which meant Crew and Finn got to tag along and go to sibling camp. Their favorite part was joining us at lunch time and plopping themselves in the center of all those older boys, where they were given nicknames and lots of attention.

The carpool rides to and from camp were filled with obnoxious Parry Gripp music on repeat. Gotta love 10 year old boys.

I was happy to get away for a girls' weekend after a long week of early mornings, packed lunches and daily scout camp laundry. We celebrated my friend Megan's 30th birthday in San Diego.

We hit Coronado Beach during full June gloom. There was no dipping our toes in the ocean, but we bundled up and enjoyed the view.

Our first month of summer in 10 years without an afternoon napper was a success. We could leave the house mid-morning, or even afternoon, and not have to worry about getting home for nap time. That is some life-changing freedom!

Winter According to my Phone

It still amazes me that we can can sit outside and eat ice cream cones during the winter. Crew had an incentive program at preschool that we rewarded with an ice cream date every few months.

Sometimes Finn got to tagalong too.

"Wear a winter apparel item day" at preschool made me laugh. It was equally funny to see a winter hat paired with shorts and a t-shirt and also imagine my Michigan friends rolling their eyes at this dress up day.

We took a preschool field trip to California Pizza Kitchen. It's one of our favorite field trips because the kids get to make their own pizzas.

Nash and his friend Mikah were chosen to lead the entire school in a flag ceremony. While introducing them, his teacher raved about how they were veracious readers that came to school with stacks of books.

One of our friends parked his car in front of our driveway during the college football national championship game. It was dark and rainy and I backed up and hit it a few hours later; not expecting there to be a car there. Of course we paid for the damages but it was frustrating and expensive. Blake started a "car accident money donations" jar on my behalf with some spare change.

Troy and I worked on a major house project and I made a trip to Home Depot almost every day for months with my little sidekick.

I installed new light fixtures and ceiling fans in almost every room and figured out messes of wires.

Winter brings the coldest swim meets but it doesn't matter if it's 40 degrees at 7am warm ups. If there's a swim meet, they swim.

Blake was hovering at just over a minute on his 50m breast stroke and I told him that when he broke a minute, I'd give him five dollars. It took him a few months and several swim meets but he did it!

Troy and I went to see an incredible Cirque du Soleil show with some friends. 

Time marched forward as it always does and brought us in to the barber every six weeks for haircuts. They lined them all up and got the job done, just in time for spring break.

The Beginning of the End

The weeks leading up to Christmas were filled with school parties, church parties, favorite things parties, a live nativity, dinners with friends and all of the typical pre-Christmas activities. The closer it got to Christmas, the more the germs started spreading. Crew almost missed his preschool performance and visit from Santa. He was the first one to catch the flu and was mostly over it by the time the performance rolled around. 

He would have been so sad to miss out on his one and only chance to chat with the Jolly Old Man.

His eyes were still red and puffy but he couldn't pass on decorating a cookie after the performance.

After school that day, Blake had a swim team party and that was the beginning of the end. He started feeling feverish during the party and when he came home, he didn't leave his bed for 24 hours. It was the most sick he has ever been. 

We were only 4 days shy of Christmas and we all started dropping like flies from that point on. Luckily my mom and I made it through wrapping the stacks of presents that I had been accumulating all month before we took a turn for the worse. 

Fall Swim

Blake made it past the one year mark of year round swimming and he really started to find his stride. He advanced into a higher level which meant his practice time increased to 1.5 hours, three days a week. Each practice consisted of swimming well over 1000 meters. Practice was definitely not easy but Blake was incredibly loyal to his team and pushed through a lot of discomfort. 

I rarely stayed for practice because I was usually running the other boys in three different directions, but occasionally I'd sneak in early and admire the golden light shining across the lanes.

I happened to catch a balancing game they were playing at the end of practice one day.

Blake's hard work paid off during swim meets. His times consistently dropped. It's amazing how much excitement there is over a drop of a few seconds.

Blake's friends came to support him at one of his particularly scorching hot meets. 

He beamed from all that love and support.