Caleb hiking, with his rain gear, they had
a light rain while they hiked, but mostly had
good weather.
They were excited to catch so many fish
Hiking back to the car
Andrew had his 13th birthday on the 5th. He was happy to have a quiet day at home with the family. We ate his favorite food, fish, crab salad, and breaded shrimp for dinner. I guess he didn’t get enough fish on his camping trip. He wanted brownies for his dessert. That was a bit tricky since we still don’t have the oven functioning. On Saturday I got out the sun oven and was able to bake the brownies in that. We have done some other fun experiments with the sun oven. I have found that it works best on a clear sunny day. One day we had it out it was hazy and I guess that effected the sun rays because I couldn’t get the oven over 290 degrees. It still cooked things, just slower. Well, now we have two teen agers in our home.
On the 7th the youth had a swim party at the Horton’s home, the young women president. They have a fun yard to play in with a pool and other activities. The kids had fun. We have had a lot of parties recently. Caleb went to a party at Miles’s home on the 8th. He loved being with a big group of boys his age and do some silly games and watch a silly movie. I had a RS dinner that night and enjoyed visiting with the women. On the 9th Ruth went out to eat lunch with her friend Delanney (a friend from work and school). In the evening she went to a party at Zaida’s home. They had a group of girls together playing games and eating dinner together. The afternoon of the 9th Spencer went to the Horton’s home for a party for all the LDS kids entering the middle school in 6th grade this year. The organizers invited kids from the different wards that feed into this school so that the kids could meet each other and know who was LDS at their school. Spencer found out a girl he knew at the elementary school was LDS, they were surprised to see each other there. He enjoyed a play time with his friend Jonathan Merrill that week too. Our vacation and Jonathan’s family vacation were at different times and the boys hadn’t been able to play much together this summer. On the 17th Andrew had a party at the Hadley’s home for the “Goat Head Magnets” the biking group the boys have. They had fun together and planned times for more bike rides. Andrew really enjoys biking on the dirt trails around our home and up into the foothills. On the 18th Ruth went to a birthday party for Morgan. I think that was all the parties. They seemed to just keep happening.
Caleb enjoyed his last BCA class that was math art. They did some neat art work with geometric designs. He enjoyed being around his friends and creating things. The last week of summer was busy with doing the school registrations and picking up class schedules and ID’s. I also took Andrew and Spencer to the doctor for an annual physical, both are growing healthy.
On the 10th and 11th Spencer, Andrew and Neal joined the Boy Scouts on a special camping trip. They drove up to a small town in Colorado, just across the boarder, Antonito and got on a steam engine train for a ride. They were on the historic Cumbres and Toltec railroad. The boys had their back packs with them and after riding for awhile the train stopped in the wilderness and dropped the Boy Scouts off in the woods. There were about 14 boys and 4 men in the group. They made camp, went on some short exploring hikes and played for the afternoon and evening. The next morning they broke camp and hiked about five miles to the next train station picking up trash as they went. They were doing conservation service for the train company. When they got to the station they ate lunch there and were able to get on a train to ride back to Antonito. It was a great experience for the boys. I know my boys loved it. They had a lot of fun being on a train, watching the trains at the station and exploring the way it all worked. I am glad they were able to go.
A picture of the scout group
Andrew on the train, enjoying the view
Our garden has recovered from the hail we had. The butternut squash grew leaves again and is doing well. We cooked one yesterday and Andrew thought it was great. He loves squash. Even the swiss chard grew back. Many tomatoes had hail damage, but I just cut out the bruises. They have been delicious. We have had a lot of cucumbers too. I bottled tomatoes and cucumbers (pickles) last week. We are starting to eat our apples and pears. Many have hail damage and need to have bruises cut off, but they taste great. I have been cooking batches of apples and pureeing it into apple sauce. It tastes good. I don’t think we will get enough to bottle this year.
On the 5th we had a new bishop put in. Change is always good. Our old bishop will be Ruth’s seminary teacher. Ruth started seminary today at 6:00am. She is so good about getting herself up and ready.
Last week I did a hike with our wolf cub scout den. The boys needed to go on a mile hike. They met at my house and we hiked up to the bear statues in the open space. It is about one and half miles round trip. The boys had a great time. That night the boys scouts did a bike ride through the open space and we saw them go by on the other side of the arroyo.
On Thursday we invited a couple in our ward over for dinner, Peter and Louise. Neal and I both have assignments to minister to them. We thought a dinner would be a good way to get to know them. They are younger and were fun to talk to. Lou is from Australia and they both served missions in New Zealand (that is where they met). So we enjoyed hearing stories about those countries. They enjoyed seeing our busy family life. When they arrived, a little early, we had out instruments, Spencer was on the sax, Andrew on the trombone and Neal on the trumpet. It was a busy, noisy place, different from their quiet apartment life.
Last Monday school started! Ruth had a great week of school and is excited about her classes. She got the electives she wanted, creative writing, anthropology, and French. She is also in honors English and Geometry, AP world history and 10th grade science. It will be a busy year for her. Today she started seminary, so it will be a long day for her. She is still working and is going to try to work three shifts a week. We will see how that works with her school load.
Andrew started 8th grade at the middle school. He is excited to be in symphonic and jazz bands with his friends. He has been very confident getting back into school. Spencer is in 6th grade at the middle school. He has been a little overwhelmed with the classes and moving around to different rooms and teachers. I think he will get use to it soon though. He likes walking to school with Andrew. The first day of school was hard, he was overwhelmed and his back pack zipper broke. We got him a new pack this week end and this morning he was all smiles as he had a new back pack and was ready to face another week of it.
Caleb is in 3rd grade this year. A few days before school started I had a phone call from the school about his gifted class. To give a little back ground, gifted education is under special education in New Mexico. Caleb qualifies for part time gifted services in math and language arts. He is in what is called “B level” giftedness. He was very close to getting the “C level” full time gifted services. At his school there is a class that is C level, all day, with a gifted teacher, Mrs. Moses. This year Caleb was invited to be in Mrs. Moses class for half of the day. He is with her for 4 hours a day (this includes lunch time) to receive math and language arts instruction with her. I had to go into the school and make some minor changes on his IEP to say he was receiving the maximum amount of gifted services that he can have with B level. I was excited about this change because I have heard great things about Mrs. Moses. His other teacher is Mrs. Hedges. Spencer had her and she was wonderful with him. Caleb is excited to be in her class too. She is an amazing teacher as well and has National Board certification, which takes a lot to earn. Caleb is with her for the end of the day for science and social studies. He is also with her class in the morning for “specials” (when they go to PE, computers, library and music classes.) Caleb loved his first week of classes. He loves going into Mrs. Moses class room and tells everyone that he has the two best teachers ever! Caleb has wanted to ride his bike to school for a long time now. We decided to let him do that this year. We bought him a bike lock and had him practice with it and today was his first day doing it. I hope it goes well. It was different to me to send him off and realize that I don’t need to drive or walk anyone to school this year.
I am enjoying a quiet morning. I have been going on walks still and doing lots at home to keep up with this busy family.
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