10 Years

We celebrated 10 years of marriage. Sweetheart arranged for a "surprise" get-away.

We did that once before after Underfoot was born. I had my gallbladder out when he was 9 months old. Besides that our boys have never spent the night away from us.

When they were let in on the surprise by Sweetheart, they were thrilled to let us go.

Another tradition we have is our family birthday party.

Usually we celebrate at home with a nice meal and cake. We took the boys to The Melting Pot. Hurricane liked the Cheese and Dessert course.

Underfoot like the main and dessert course.

Hurricane failed his hearing test in both ears this year. He had fluid behind both ears. Dr. Soderberg treated it with a round of antibiotics and will retest in 6 weeks. If we get the same results, we will go to the next unknown step.

Piano lessons have started for Hurricane with Musikgarten. Underfoot continued with his private piano since he's completed the Musikgarten program.

The boys participated in a triathlon yesterday. They were super happy to compete against each other. They each finished with big smiles.

After the triathlon, we attended the school's bike rodeo. They are both hopeful they will win the bike raffle for completing the course.

A week ago Saturday the boys were invited to a rollerskating party.

They did okay. The rink had made PVC walkers to help new skaters.

I finished updating our blog, Lessons Line Upon Line, after many months of being WAY BEHIND. It is now current. I like having it up to date.

Sweetheart played a board game with friends on Friday night.

Back to School

School has begun. The boys are in school all day long.

1st Day of School

We are back to a fixed bedtime and wake up time. The boys have had to practice the piano before school and are doing awesome with it.

1st Day of School Ice Cream Tradition

Sweetheart took them to school one day and the rest we've ridden bikes.

Side Car Bike

Real homework will start this coming week. We kept the week rather quiet.

Sweetheart and I have been painting the baseboards and doors in our house for a nice clean look. Three more doors to go, and it feels like miles of baseboard.

We celebrated Pioneer Day this weekend by watching 17 Miracles and talking about our grandparents and their families. We are all pioneers in some way by how we live our lives.

The ward celebrated with a pancake breakfast on Saturday morning with a bike parade. Sweetheart took out the International Harvester Scout and drove it around for the day.

Sweetheart also took me on a date. We saw Inside Out. It's a perfect counselor movie.....all about feelings.

Be Well.

Packing Summer In

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. We have squeezed the most out of the end of our summer.

4th of July: We spent the 4th of July in Gilbert with my sister, her family, and my parents, who joined us from California. 

 

We floated the Salt River one day and swam in their new pool the next day with T-Bone's family.

The family brought fireworks which were enjoyed. Mama made a blueberry pie that was yummy!

They enjoyed the new rope swing over and over and over again....

We are grateful for the Founding Fathers who put their lives, their family's lives, and their personal comforts on the line for us to have what we have.

We see that freedom takes work and hope that we will continue to defend the Constitution to maintain our many freedoms.

Swim Team: Hurricane had one wish this swim season to swim in a freestyle relay. We attend one away meet. The team had a missing member.

Hurricane swam his heart out. Underfoot won a heat. He met his goal.

Underfoot and Hurricane participated in the swim preliminaries for the finals meet of the year. For the Finals, their team took first place. They got to attend Peter Piper Pizza something Mama never does to celebrate with the team. We are pleased that they chose to participate.

Wolf Rank: Underfoot finished his Wolf Rank. He worked to have it done before the Pack meeting in July. He will be awarded his award in August.

Virus to Walking Pneumonia: Underfoot caught a virus from swim team this summer. He has struggled with his energy, a cough, and a runny nose. We decided it was time to take him to see the doctor. He was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. After a round of antibiotics, he is cured. Thankful for advances in medicine and kind doctors.

Kartchner Caverns to Gilbert: This last week my sister brought her family to Gilbert (she lives in Bountiful, UT) to spend the week with my other sister.

Mama, my mom, and my two sisters (along with all the children) were able to visit Kartchner Caverns State Park.

 They did the Junior Ranger Program. Part of the museum let them use bat ears.

I took Friday off. We went up to my sister's home in Gilbert where we swam in the pool and enjoyed being with family.  I was also able to teach my new favorite game to two of my nephews. We picked peaches from our peach tree, and Mama made delicious peach pie.

Good Luck: We said goodbye to some friends who moved to the Charlottesville, Virginia area. We had a delightful evening with them before they left.

Today: Tonight Mama made fish tacos. As we were wrapping up supper, a Hurricane's primary teacher from church and her son stopped by. She and her son stayed for a nice visit. They shared with us some delicious cupcakes. Mama shared a taco with the young man. He and I talked talked board game strategy. (His Dad is the one who taught me to play the board game I've enjoyed so much.)

Adoption: Mama and I should get word this week about certification for adoption. The social worker who performed our home study indicated that we should have no difficulty getting certified by the court.

Muppet Meet and Canning

Highlights are the best you're going to get this week.

Muppet Meet: Underfoot and Hurricane participated in a swim meet for 8 year olds and younger.

The races were broken up by ages. There were at least 5 heats per age. This is for girls and boys age 4-8. The meet was fun. Each heat winner was awarded a ring pop.

Hurricane took 23 seconds off his initial time from the beginning of the swim season. Underfoot improved on his times as well.

They had fun but got in the car and said they didn't want to swim for the finals in a few weeks because it was SO HOT.

We'll see if they change their tune before the declaration time this week.

Space Wars: The Gaslight Theater presented Space Wars.

It was a change from Star Wars. Underfoot and Hurricane were surprised to attend.

They have been singing the changed song lyrics from popular songs since last week.

Not So Junior Ranger: Underfoot participated in Junior Ranger camp for the 3rd time. When he graduated, he was awarded the "Not So Junior Ranger" badge.

His group were the scorpions. They were tasked to create a National Park. Their park's focus had habitats for Ewoks, Wookies, Yoda, Jabba the Hut, and other Star Wars characters. The park wasn't an amusement park with rides but wilderness and new habitats. He had a blast!

Bountiful Harvest: We have harvested apricots, tomatoes, apples, and grapes from our yard. This is huge. So last week I processed the food. (Yes Uncle Eric here comes the canning report.....) Apricot jam was made with an ice cream bucket full of apricots. The others were eaten or put into an apricot pie. We made about 6 quarts of applesauce total and are eating it fresh. The tomatoes are paired with basil (basil grows like a weed here in the summer) which are so yummy.

With the 55 pounds of grapes, we yielded 2 3/4 gallons grape juice. The grape juice took the longest. One afternoon/evening to make the juice and another afternoon to strain and can it. It is sure pretty in the jars.

Night Wings: Saturday evening Sweetheart took the boys to the Pima Air and Space Museum. The museum had set up children's activities from 5-9 pm. They saw an example of the Boeing 787, played at the controls of a 737, tasted astronaut ice cream, sit in the cock pit of a jet fighter, drew pictures, and looked at airplanes. I was processing grapes. :)

Adoption: In the state of Arizona, applicants for adoption must be pre-approved before starting the process of actively looking/asking to birth parents if they would think a family would be a good place for their child to live. We completed this process this last week. We will hear hopefully from a judge by the end of July. Our case worker believes there will be no issues. We are asking for your help. We've never felt that our family was complete and believe that we must try each avenue. If you know of a birth parents that are considering adoption, will you consider connecting us with them? We don't know what the future holds and are very hopeful.

Be Well.

Havasupai, Las Vegas, and Home

Sweetheart has been on a desert Southwest tour for the last 3 weeks by going to Havasupai, Las Vegas, and Home.

Havasupai - Sweetheart was asked to accompany the 17-18 year old young men on their high adventure trip to Havasupai. A group of 6 left EARLY on Monday morning (12:30 am) and arrived at the trail head at 8 am.

They hiked to the bottom of the canyon and spent the week exploring and jumping off cliffs. Hurricane loaned his camera to his Dad.

After 7 pictures the camera broke because Sweetheart slipped and fell on it. Dad will be replacing said camera.

While Sweetheart was doing his thing, we did swim team, piano lessons, visited the doctor for Hurricane's well child, and got ready for the family reunion.

We drove north in another leader's car to swap cars in Prescott. We met the hiking party at Golden Corral. The boys were excited to see their Dad as was I.

Las Vegas - The annual Locey family reunion occurred in Las Vegas. Thanks to Ford for organizing a FUN reunion!!!

 

Before we went to the reunion, we went to be with our friends who moved one year ago. Our children were so excited to see each other that K-man ran when he saw our car pull into the parking lot at the park. They picked up like they had never been apart.

We spent the night outside on their deck because the night was cool. It was fun to sleep under the stars. The children were up early because they were so excited to play together. We are grateful the Ryan family hosted us!

The Locey family gathered on Saturday and spent the next week together. We saw the Hoover Dam, Nevada Southern Railroad,

Cirque du Soliel's Kà,

Las Vegas Mini Grand Prix, Bodies,

Bellagio Fountains,

Bellagio Gardens,

and Shark Reef.

We also went to a buffet called the Wicked Spoon. SO YUMMY!!!!

We spent lots of time at the pool and catching up. One night we had a talent show - violin, singing, piano, drums, bells, and a bass guitar. After the talent show, we played Locey Family Jeopardy.

The family laughed as they tried to form questions from the answers.

We returned to the Ryan's house and spent the afternoon. Sweetheart and Mr. E drove very fast indoor electric mini go-carts. Miss C and I went out to dinner. We drove as far a Kingman, AZ that evening. In the morning, we went to church. The ward we visited for church was so excited to see our family come that they were disappointed to learn we were traveling through. We descended on my friend, Shaulan and her family, after she moved from Oklahoma to Arizona in last 2 weeks. Thanks to such wonderful friends to let us come and be with them.

Home - We returned. It took us a week to unpack and still not everything is put away. Ford had said we were to get fat at the reunion. We have come home to eat so we don't get fat.

 

On Tuesday, Hurricane swam for swim team, got out of the pool, and was burning up.

He had a fever for 5 days of 102+*. He ended up having an ear infection. He never complained about his ear hurting once.

Underfoot swam at the swim meet. During the meet he stepped on a bee.

The stinger came out easy peasy, and we used baking soda to draw out the sting.

When we returned home, we were greeted by an awful ammonia smell. All the fish in the aquaponics had died. This really troubled Sweetheart . On Saturday, we replaced the fish with 20 tilapia in one pod and 2 Koi fish in the other tank. Balance was restored.

Birthday

Here are some highlights from last week.

*Hurricane's Birthday - Hurricane had a birthday. Sweetheart and Underfoot were going to Cub Scout day camp. Hurricane and I spent the day together.

We woke up to balloons in his bedroom, did family scriptures, and opened presents from Underfoot (Lego set and platform) and Sweetheart (a bucket of Legos from a young man in our ward.) Hurricane shared Otter Pops with his swim team. Later in the day I surprised Hurricane by taking some of his friends to Dairy Queen for ice cream.

Over the past 6 months, Hurricane has been talking about the birthday party he was going to have. He even made invitation and gave them out. There was no birthday party.

*Gaslight - For Hurricane's birthday, we took the whole family to the Gaslight where the cast performed a parody of Robin Hood.

At the show, they announce birthdays and anniversaries. Hurricane stood on his chair and waved to the crowd. He was happy.

*Girls Camp - I was asked to be the service coordinator for the camp. With the youth leader counselors (YCLs), they planned multiple projects. The projects were trail blazing, sewn hygiene bags, stenciling for the camp, and a clothes drive. I went and stayed Tuesday and returned home for Hurricane's birthday. I went back for Thursday and Friday.

*Cub Day Camp - Underfoot attended his first Day Camp. Sweetheart wanted to go with him. They enjoyed being there doing BB guns, archery, hiking sticks, and other things. Underfoot was very polite and had a great time.

*Memorial Day - We worked during the day. Later that evening, we hosted a BBQ.

*Game - Sweetheart has learned how to play a game and has played often. When I came home on Friday, he was playing with his friends. He likes the challenge.

Be well.