Emmett's First Trip to the Dentist

Today, I dragged all four children into the dentist office at the early hour of 7 a.m. for our annual cleaning and checkup.  Although our office did a great job of seeing one child after the next, it made for a crazy two hours as I ran around like a mad woman the first hour checking in on four different kids and then had my teeth cleaned the second hour while hoping that all four children would behave themselves unsupervised in the waiting room (Lia and Logan read the entire time and Ella and Emmett had to be brought back to me for the second half of my cleaning).  Luckily, all four children got a clean bill of health and still have a perfect record of zero cavities!  Emmett was so excited to have his teeth cleaned and to get some free toys after his exam that he practically skipped to his exam chair when it was his turn with a huge smile on his face and happily put on his glasses and bib.  Although he only received a modified cleaning with a regular toothbrush, he was a total champ and even was fine when I had to leave him to go check on Ella.  Hopefully, his dental appointments will be this positive for years to come! 

Emmy flashing me a big grin from his exam chair.

The dentist talking to Emmett.

The dentist examining Emmett's teeth.

Ella's & Lia's Performance in Seussical the Musical!

After Lia and Ella had such a positive experience participating in their one-week drama camps the last week in July and received such praises from their director and the owner of the theater, I decided to go out on a limb and ask the owner if she would make an exception and let Lia participate in one more week of drama camp.  The only other week that would work with Lia's busy, summer schedule was the week of August 15th, but the camps offered that week had an age limit of 12 years old for the morning play and 10 years old for the afternoon play.  As a result, I pulled the director aside on our way out of the theater after Lia's play on July 29th and quietly asked her if there would be any way that she would lift the age limit so that Lia could participate a second time around.  After looking at the schedule, she happily agreed to make an exception for "Suessical the Musical" which was the play that had the age limit of 12 years old and told me that she would manually register Lia for the play.  After discussing it with my girls and confirming that they would both love to participate in a second drama camp this summer, I enrolled them a few days later.  Since they were not able to be in the same play in July, they both said that they didn't want me to invite any friends to join them as they were so excited to share this experience together.

After waiting two weeks (that were busy with Girls Camp for Lia and then Priest Lake for all of us), I dropped the girls off at 8 a.m. this past Monday morning to start their daily, 4-hour practice all week long.  After auditioning first thing that morning, Lia was assigned the main role of Horton the elephant and Ella was assigned two roles of Gertrude the girl bird and a citizen of Whoville.  The two girls had so much fun going off to drama camp every morning this week and loved practicing their lines and songs together in the evening.  Both of them learned their lines and the words to their songs really quickly and were totally ready to go on Friday morning when I took them to their final practice.  Ron was able to step out of work to join the boys and me for their performance today at 11:30.  Just like last time, we were all so impressed with this 20 minute production and how fast these children learned their lines, songs, blocking, and choreography.  Ella was such a darling bird and citizen of Whoville and I couldn't stop smiling the entire time I watched her perform.  Lia did such a great job performing in the lead role of Horton.  She had several solo sections in numerous songs and did such a beautiful job singing all of her parts.  It was so fun to watch her in a lead role for the first time in her short, acting career and I was so impressed with her overall confidence and stage presence.  The girls were smiling from ear to ear after the performance was over and I am just so grateful to the owner of the theater for making this exception for Lia and allowing these girls to have this experience together.

The Cat and the Hat, who was the narrator of the play, leading the cast in the opening song of "Oh the Things You Can Think!"

Lia singing one of her solo sections in the opening song.

Ella singing her little solo part in "Oh the Things You Can Think."

Ella singing while Mrs. Mayor and Mr. Mayor fall away from her.

Lia singing with Amazing Mayzie and Sour Kangaroo at her side.

The entire cast dancing away.

Ella, now changed into her Who costume, singing, "Horton Hears a Who," with the other members of Whoville.

The citizens of Whoville singing "Horton Hears a Who."

Lia listening to the Whos talk from the red clover flower she is holding.

The cast walking up to take their final bow after the play is over.

The entire cast all lined up at the end.

Lia singing the finale song after taking their final bow.

Ella posing at the end of the final song.

The group shot of the cast after the play was over.

Lia and Ella posing with their two directors, Ellie and Kaitlyn, after the show was complete!

A Quick Visit from Uncle Robbie

We have not been able to sees Ron's brother, Robbie, since he and his wife flew out here summer 2018 to visit us.  They had scheduled a trip and bought tickets to fly out summer 2020 with their almost one-year old son, but had to cancel after Covid hit that spring.  So, we were so excited to learn that he had a work trip at JBLM scheduled for the second weekend in August.  The only bummer was that I was going to be in Priest Lake with the kids for my family reunion and so Ron would be the only one to see him.  After Lia got invited to go to her concert in Canada, I decided to drive home a day early so that she could go which meant that we got to see Robbie for one evening since we pulled in late Friday night after he had already gone to bed.  After Robbie worked a full day on Saturday, we were so excited to have him join us for the evening after Ron picked him up from work.  We enjoyed a dinner out on the deck before Ron took him and the three younger kids downtown to "Cruise Puyallup" with all of the classic cars that turn out for this event.  Although Robbie had to leave bright and early Sunday morning and Ella and I were the only ones awake to bid him farewell before Ron drove him to the airport, we were so grateful for this quick trip and chance to see him again!

Lia's Canadian Concert

While we were in Belize, Lia's good friend, Alyssa, invited Lia to join her and a small group of friends to drive to Vancouver on her actual birthday to go to the concert of a new pop singer, Lauren Spencer Smith.  Although Lia only knew a few of her songs, she was super excited to go on this epic outing and to finally visit Canada for the first time!  After looking at the calendar, we realized that we would be driving home from Priest Lake that same day at the end of my family reunion.  I just decided that we could leave really early that morning to make it home by the early afternoon when I assumed Alyssa's dad would be leaving.  After we got back from Belize, we learned that Alyssa's dad wanted to leave at 10 a.m. which would just make it impossible for us.  After going back and forth, I finally decided that we could leave Priest Lake in the early afternoon on Friday which would make for a late arrival home that night which is not my preferred way to travel alone with a pack of kids.  After leaving at 2 p.m., we pulled into our driveway at 10:10 p.m. safe and sound.  Although I was totally exhausted from making the 8-hour drive home alone that late in the day, I was just grateful to be home in time for Lia to have a solid night sleep before going on this very long adventure the next day.  After dropping Lia off at 10 the next morning at Alyssa's house, Lia made the drive to and from Vancouver with two dads and three friends.  After crossing over the border and arriving in Vancouver safely, they spent the afternoon wandering some shops and eating a poutine dinner which was a first for Lia!  They arrived at the venue at 6 p.m. when the doors opened for the 8 o'clock show.  Since it was general admission, the girls were able to get really close to the stage and had the time of their lives singing and dancing the night away.  Lauren Spencer Smith even noticed their signs and told Lia over the microphone that her sign (which said, "I Love You More Than Free Wifi,") was her favorite sign ever.  In addition, Lauren read Alyssa's sign that said it was her birthday and then got the entire crowd of 700 people to sing to her.  Not too shabby of a way to spend your 15th birthday!  After the concert was over, Alyssa's dad drove the group safely home and Lia arrived back at our house at a whopping 2:45 morning.

Alyssa's dad taking a selfie shot of him with the four girls--Hope, Emerald, Lia, and Alyssa.

The girls walking around Vancouver before the concert.

The girls showing off all four of their signs (that they made the day we were driving home from Priest Lake) in the parking garage before going to the concert.

The girls posing around Alyssa with her birthday sign.

After the concert was over, all four girls were able to meet the singer who performed as the opening act for the concert.  They even were able to get a picture with him!

Our Annual Family Reunion at Priest Lake

The kids and I just returned late last night from our week up at Priest Lake with the rest of my family.  As always, Ron had to work and so the five of us drove there without him last Saturday after picking Lia up at church after she returned from Girls Camp.  We were the first ones to arrive after my parents on Saturday with both Eric and Chris and his family arriving on Sunday.  Rebecca and Vivi joined the group late on Wednesday after driving up after work and Brent and Kelsey managed to come for 1.5 days on Thursday in between Kelsey returning home from her study abroad in Mexico and their big family trip to Costa Rica.  So, it definitely was our smallest family reunion yet, but we still had a good time and I actually appreciated the smaller groups when it came to things like the morning ski run and meal times. 

With the exception of a storm that blew in Thursday night and on and off on Friday before we left to come home, we were blessed with beautiful weather in the high 80s and 90s.  The lake was 74 degrees when we arrived and 78 degrees when we left which made for such pleasant swimming in comparison to the chilly water of last month when we were there with Ron.  As always, the kids had such a great time playing with cousins and in the water.  Although Logan and Ella refused to go water skiing this month, I enjoyed a morning ski run with my brothers every day and I was also able to convince Lia to go skiing four times and she even went out of the wake successfully for the first time in her life!  After a fire broke out at the north end of the lake above Lionhead on Tuesday, we were able to witness an amazing fight to put it out over the next few days.  We watched four, firefighting planes fly for hours both Tuesday and Wednesday as they swooped down to the lake to pick up water, turned back around (right over our cabin almost every single time), and flew back up north to drop the water on the fire.  In addition, there was always one to three helicopters carrying a large bucket with water to and from the fire.  Watching all of these aircraft fight this large fire right in front of our eyes was like watching a movie and the kids and I got such a kick out of the airplanes whenever they flew right over us on the dock after picking up water from the lake.  Needless to say, it was an exciting and once-in-a-lifetime event to witness and I was so grateful for the hours that these pilots put into fighting this fire to protect the surrounding area.  Overall, we had a great time and I am so grateful that we were able to spend this annual and special week at the cabin with my family.

Ella, Logan, Lia, and I all enjoyed paddle boarding throughout the week.  Here is Ella paddling around the dock on our first day there.

Brynn, Lia, and Riley swimming with their googles on.

The kids loved playing on the water mat throughout the week.  Here are Brynn, Callie, Trenton, Logan, Lia, and Ella playing a game of who can last on it the longest while they wrestled around and fought each other off.

Logan and Trenton enjoyed being thrown in the water by Eric and Chris over and over again.  Here is Logan flying through the air.

Dad also convinced Eric to squeeze in a haircut one day during the week.  Eric has been cutting his hair for years, so it was fun to finally get a picture of this--much to my dad's chagrin.

Lia on her first ski of the week before attempting to go outside the wake.

As always, Chris brought up his flotilla of inner tubes that were enjoyed as much floating off of the dock as they were being pulled behind the boat.  Here is Uncle Chris with an army of children climbing over and around him.

An amazing picture I took of Ella doing a cartwheel on the water mat with Brynn looking on.

Although Emmett got comfortable swimming around in the hotel pool last month in Belize, he was still afraid of the lake water due to how cold it was last month.  After Chris managed to slowly get him deeper and deeper in the water after approaching from the beach, he was able to convince Emmett to start swimming in the water within a matter of minutes.  It was so amazing!  As a result, Emmett spent the rest of the week motoring off of the dock swimming to and from the water mat and to and from an inner tube if it was floating in the water.  It was the cutest thing!  Here is a picture of Emmy and Chris after he first got in the water.

Although we couldn't find any clay in the sand last month, Garrett dug down deep this month and found a massive supply of it.  As a result, Ella, Logan, and Trenton spent many hours digging up their own clay supplies and sculpting little creations.  It was the cutest thing!

Mama and Emmy floating on a tube together.

Emmett, me, and Brynn hanging out on the water mat.

Emmett swimming back to the dock with a frisbee in hand.

Ella showing off the little elephant she sculpted out of clay.

The kids at work on the dock creating their clay sculptures.

Logan showing off his awesome Godzilla sculpture.

We spent one afternoon at one of my favorite public beaches next to Lionhead.  Although we left behind a napping Emmett, my three older kids and I had a great time playing there.  Here we are posing on the huge log that is always waiting for us each year to take a group picture.

Although we were missing a few grandchildren, here is the group picture I managed to take of 8 out of the 14 grandchildren who were present that day.  (Emmett was sleeping and Vivi and Kelsey came up later in the week)

Another group shot of the kids standing above a massive skeleton of a deer that we found on the beach.

Lia, Ella, and Brynn relaxing on a tube.

Logan floating in the beautiful water.

Callie was so nice and helped Ella build an elaborate fairy house on the group beach before we left.

Lia, Brynn, Ella, and Callie did a girls' tube run back to the cabin which was so fun to watch.

Since Lia has been training for her cross country season all summer long, we went out on a nightly walk/run every evening after dinner.  I would walk the 2-mile route while she would run ahead of me and then turn around to run back to me before running off ahead of me again.  She would do this every evening and, as a result, easily ran 3 miles every night.  However, after Kelsey arrived on Thursday afternoon, the two of them were able to go on this run one evening together before we left.  Lia was so thrilled to have a runny buddy and to run with Kelsey for the first time who she has looked up to and turned to for lots of advice over the past year during both her cross country and track season.

The traditional, family photo that we asked our neighbor to take on our last night together after Brent and Kelsey arrived and before the kids and I left the next day.

Eleven of the fourteen grandchildren together on the steps.  We were only missing Sarah, Spencer, and Bryce this year.

A picture of me enjoying my last water ski run in Huckleberry Bay with Brent, Eric, and Kelsey on Friday morning.

The kids and me on the dock one last time before leaving later that day.

As always, my mom put on a scavenger hunt for all of the grandchildren before we left.  All of the girls were together and all of the boys were together except for Emmett who had his own hunt.  I had so much fun walking around with him all around the cabin helping him to find his clues.

The girls running back up the stairs after finding a clue down on the beach.

The boys heading back up after also finding a clue down below.