Another week has flown by. Actually two since I last wrote. Last week Neal was in Amarillo Texas for work. It was a busy week with him not home. It is always nice when he comes back from a trip. I am thankful he doesn’t travel very often.
The kids have been busy with learning and doing. The boys built a Lego village around their HO train track. They had lots of fun putting it together. They even built some train cars and engines. They took the plastic covers off their HO trains and put on Lego covers. One day they rode their bikes to the elementary school and played. They have enjoyed playing outside in the yard with their cars and small animals. They can be rather creative with things.
Ruth enjoys writing. She is working on a story and likes to spend time on the computer typing it up. She had a fun afternoon last week with a friend, Kaitlyn. The girls are friends from school and enjoyed talking about their summers activities.
When we were visiting the Hubbard’s this summer Caleb enjoyed playing a card game called “Bohnaza.” It is a card game where you plant bean fields. It is an entertaining game. Caleb decided he wanted to buy the game and we found it on Amazon and ordered it for him. He was so excited when it came and has played with it a lot!
We enjoyed doing some activities at the library last week too. Andrew and Spencer went to an architecture class and learned about how to design a home. We went to a music event and listened to some fun songs from Andy Mason. The funniest was a chicken song that he put on a chicken suit for. This week we went to the science museum. We went to a free showing of a IMax film on space. The fun thing was it was in 3D and the kids loved that. (3D things give me a head ache, but it was cool to watch.)
We are doing well with our garden and have enjoyed picking lots of green beans and yellow squash. We also picked lots of cucumbers and this week I made a batch of pickles. Yesterday I took Andrew and Spencer to the doctor for their yearly physical. They are doing well. We have had lots of rain this week. We are getting another storm in right now. I like all the rain and the cool air it brings. Plus, it is making our yard look so green.
Yesterday I went to a back to school activity for Activity Days. The girls enjoyed fixing food for lunch and talking about healthy things to bring to school for lunch and have for snacks. I enjoyed being with them. Wednesday I took the boys swimming and we had fun there too.
Last week we did a family camping trip. Friday we packed up and drove to Fenton Lake in the Jemez mountains. It was a pretty place. The boys brought their fishing poles and tried fishing. There were a lot of people fishing and no one seemed to be catching anything. One man said he thought it was a bit too hot for the fish. We enjoyed being there and the beautiful scenery. The kids had fun playing with the cat tails. I was thankful that we didn’t get rained out. It was cloudy most the time we were there, but only had a few sprinkles.
One sad part of our trip. At our family reunion in Utah we had an auction to earn money for the reunion fund. Spencer had bought a swiss army pocket knife at the auction with his own money. He was so excited about this knife. It was a large one, over an inch thick, and had so many little gadgets and blades. He loved the knife. Well, on our camping trip Spencer was cutting and carving things with his knife and put it down somewhere. He realized he didn’t have it and we spent some time looking for it before we left the area, but couldn’t find it. He was so sad, it broke my heart watching him. It is so hard to see your child hurt so much. Ironically it had started to rain while we were searching for the knife. We did stop at the camp ranger station and asked if they saw the knife to contact us. We wondered if it fell into the water when he was playing at the edge of the lake. Most likely it is gone for good. So sad.
Ruth bought something fun this week. She has been wanting a chair or bean bag to sit in while reading in her room. We looked on craigslist and found a bean bag. It is large and just what she was looking for. She was excited about it. I had to wait for Neal to get back from his work travel to go get it because the person selling it lives in military housing on the air force base. Neal has access to the base with work, so when he came home we were able to go to the house and buy the bag. Ruth has loved using it this week.
Today Neal and Andrew went with the 11 year old scouts on a camping trip. The scout leaders wanted to do one more camp out with Andrew before he turns 12. So this week end worked for us and them. Andrew was excited to go. He was in charge of some of the cooking. He is close to getting his 2nd and 1st class scout ranks. He told me with the things he will do on the camp out he should earn both ranks. I am proud of him. He is doing many good things. Last Sunday he fixed us a recipe from Germany. It was good and he did a good job with the cooking. This week he has helped me in the kitchen a lot. He really enjoys it and I am thankful for his help. Tomorrow is his 12th birthday. Last Sunday he had a visit with our bishop. He is a good young man with a strong testimony of the gospel. He will be ordained a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday.
I have done a lot of yard work this week. There always seems to be something to do. Today I worked at spreading some fertilizer, weeding and then watering things. The kids also helped with the weeding this week. I enjoy working out there. I enjoy my morning walks too. It is always so cool and pleasant. I enjoy that quiet time.
We only have one more week of summer vacation. The kids are ready to go back to school, at least they show that by their behavior. I think they need more for their minds to think about. Even with doing work book sheets every day, music practice and reading, they are ready for more. Next week will be busy with school registration and Ruth’s freshman orientation.
This week we had the power company, PNM, come out to fix our broken electrical line, finally. It has been six weeks since they came and put a temporary line in to give us power. Yesterday they located the problem spot and thankfully it was in our garden area, not under any cement or our fountain, so it was easy to get to. Today they dug a hole until they found the line and saw what was wrong. The one line had burned out, it was broken in two. Interesting that it would do that. They will come out Monday morning and splice the line back together and it should work and they wont have to do any more digging. I am glad that it wont be too bad on our landscape. It is disturbing our garden some, but they are trying to be careful with the plants.
Last Sunday we went to choir, as usual. We have some new families in the ward this summer and we had some new people come to choir this week. Ruth was grateful that the two new sisters who joined choir are both sopranos, some weeks Ruth is the only soprano to come to choir practice. We had a lot of people there Sunday and it sounded nice. I hope that it can grow and we can enjoy singing together. After choir Neal was talking to Ben Newton, who is new to the ward. They realized that they went to high school together. They believe they had classes together since they remembered the same teachers. They didn’t know each other well at school but they still had fun reminiscing about it. The Newton’s invited us over to their home for dessert and more visiting time. We enjoyed spending time with them that evening.
I hope that everyone can enjoy their summer time. We will enjoy celebrating Andrew’s birthday and our last week of vacation!
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