I'm currently escaping to the screened porch while the kids are blaring hits such as "The Final Countdown" and "Gangnam Style" in our our living room...an old game they have always found entertaining, in which they try to play the same song from multiple devices at exactly the same time. Doesn't get old. ;) It's sort of feeling like summer. The kids have been out for two weeks now. I'm trying to do some of the "old" days summer things. We have set summer goals, as we always do. We are reading the Narnia books out loud (so glad even the big boys are excited about it). We're trying to plan social stuff that we haven't had time to do. We've had a short vacation, and we're spending lots of days at the pool. I've been working half days teaching summer school, though, so I'm not quite in summer mode. And then the boys have jobs too, so it's just a new kind of summer these days. No more of the endless days of coming up with activities to amuse everyone as we all spend every waking moment together for 2 1/2 months. I have a feeling everything will feel like it's changing for the next several years, as we're looking at the last couple years of having the boys home.
The school year finished in a flurry of end of year fun. The boys took a couple of exams but were mostly home free by Memorial Day. Julia seemed to have at least one fun party at school every day after EOGs. Allie had a countdown the last couple of weeks, in which they did something to celebrate end of school each day, like bring in a game to play or have a special snack. My class did field day and project celebrations and had several of our international parents come share about their home country. My teacher and I were busy with cleaning and organizing the class and getting the last assessments done on the kids, so time just flew. We were finished with lacrosse, but got to go watch the Moore boys play soccer again. We met friends and family at the pool for pizza. We had a cookout at the Moores', a cookout at Nanny and Pa's, and a graduation celebration for our dear friends' oldest son. The boys did their job orientations and we had the kids each cook a meal for the family. Joshua went to one day of a lacrosse tournament to fill in for some sick players.
Allie's last day of 1st grade!
Julia had her end of year band concert, which they did a great job with. The band teacher was giving out awards and I knew there was a small chance Julia would get one. She had told me that some of her friends voted her "most improved" because she was "so bad" at the beginning of the year. But she wasn't sure she'd get it and was concerned she'd feel embarrassed if all her friends got awards and she did not. After awarding some top band member awards, the band teacher began by describing this student that was “near and dear to her heart” who took not the usual few days to be able to play a note but more like a month and a half, but really fought for it and totally rocked it once she got it. She said a few more things then she called Julia’s name and there were wild screams and cheers for her. It was a sweet moment, especially since Julia isn’t typically the one getting awards. Wish I had videoed, but I didn’t know for sure it was her till we were too far into it. She was really proud!
One big thing we did at the end of school was totally rearrange the house so that each kid could have their own room. I used the think that I liked that they didn't spend a lot of time holed up in their rooms because of not having their own space, but certain circumstances (ahem, teenage girlhood) made me reconsider that thought. We asked the boys what they thought about giving the girls their own room after an especially rough day of drama between the girls. Gray said sure, anything to make it stop, but Joshua said that would be rewarding them for not getting along and would be super unfair. So we thought some more and decided we'd give it a try putting Gray in the office with Raven and Allie in the guest room, which no longer has to be kept as a daytime sleeping room for Matt. Lots and lots of furniture moving, closet cleaning, downsizing of stuff, etc ensued and soon they were settled into their own spaces like it had always been so.
Gray ended up with the biggest room and is still in process with the decorations...trying to make it more his own. He has partly achieved that by littering the floor with all of his laundry.
Julia had her bud Addie come over and restyle her space. This was its neatest time pictured here. They did a great job with it.
Joshua swiftly kicked all Gray's stuff out and made a Seahawks shrine on his wall.
Allie loves having her own desk and space for animal homes. She is excited to sleep on the top bunk now too.
The highlight of our beginning of summer was getting to go to the mountains with Matt's side of the family (minus the oldest cousins). The kids loved extended cousin time and I enjoyed spending more time with them (and the adults) too! We did a waterfall hike on Father's Day, in which the boys were encouraged to race up the mountain. Us walkers got to the waterfall only to find the boys were nowhere in sight. After asking strangers and trying to make phone calls with little reception, we figured out they had gone past the fork with the "WATERFALL" sign and taken the path less traveled up the other way. Oh well, more memories made!
Speaking of which, while we waited *forever* for our Father's Day lunch to come to our tables, the men started something that will definitely be a memory from our trip...they recited, each taking a part, the official North Carolina toast. They felt this appropriate to break out many more occasions during the vacation...e.g. while rafting down the Watauga; while drinking a soda on the porch of the Mast General Store; really anytime, anywhere will do!
Our rafting trip was so much fun. We chose the "tame" tour down the Watauga, which seemed most appropriate for all of us to enjoy, no matter our age or comfort level. We began with a 45 minute bus ride to the river, in which the driver frequently used his mic to tell us all about the places we were seeing out the window. Most of the info was just a joke, but delivered so seriously he really got me quite a few times. He also threw in many puns, which I am a sucker for. He played music and encouraged sing-a-longs. Gray even got up briefly when called to make a paddle his "air guitar". It was a memorable ride.
We then had a picnic lunch and headed to the boats. I don't know if I quite grasp why, but due to the dam being let out each day, the water is a freezing 55 degrees. HOWEVER, we were assured of a bucket full of that water being dumped on us if we called it cold. "Refreshing" was the only thing permitted. Our first stop on the river was "Jump Rock", where we were all invited to climb up and jump into the "refreshing" water. The teenagers, Matt, and Pa accepted that invitation and the looks on their faces when they came up from the water said it all!
Since most of the raft ride is very calm, they gave us water guns to amuse ourselves with...and soak our neighbor boat with the freezing water. We were all dripping wet at some point, jump rock participant or not! Maybe Jack was the most wet, as he went in at jump rock, and then again when he tried to throw a bucket of water at us and, in total hilarious slow motion, lost his balance and fell off the edge. Or maybe Matt was the wettest, as he decided toward the end to take a swim and just tipped himself backwards into the water.
There was one class 3 rapid towards the beginning of the trip and our guide encouraged us to do it "adventure style", meaning most of the passengers sat on the edge of the boat with their legs dangling and rode that way into the rapid. It was pretty fun, even with me being on the "dry side" hanging on to Allie for dear life.
The ride back home was also a good one. The girls had a big dance party most of the way home...and here I thought we'd be worn out and sleep! They were so cute though, Allie sitting in Lydia's lap, with Audrey and Julia across the aisle.
Most of the rest of the trip was spent eating, talking, and card playing. I learned to play "Hand and Foot Canasta" with Nanny and Jack, which I thought was really fun, and "Egyptian Rat Slap" with the teen boys. One night we had a whole family discussion about who wanted to get married, who wanted to have kids, dream jobs, etc. We all had a great trip and hope we can do it again sometime...like at the new beach house!
That's about all our news. Gray's basketball team has started up. He's on a team with Will, with Dennis and Matt (and Joshua) as their coaches. Joshua is most likely going to take on a second job/paid internship working on buses with the school district transportation department. I've got one more week of summer school, which has had its challenges, but mostly has been good. So here's to REAL summer break, just around the corner!!
