Watch out world!  (Particularly my world . . .) The Skinner kids are back in school!  Savannah started high school this year as a 10th grader and has become our first child to attend SHS, home of the red devils.  I can hardly believe it.  Because of that, we have children in every school this year . . . and will for several years to come.  I figured out that with the exception of one year, now that we have a high schooler in the house, we will always have at least one in the house for the next seventeen years.  Holy Cow!  Whose idea was it to have so many kids in the first place?  No worries.  As long as all my high schoolers are as very wonderful as this one, we will be just fine.

Megan started at the junior high this year as a 7th grader, and despite a hearty case of the nerves, she is adjusting just fine and even likes school . . . at times.  She joins Sarah who is a returning 8th grader and thinks school is way fun (or at least way better than being bored at home)!  They make quite a pair!  They have a lot of fun together.

Sarah is actually going through Harry Potter withdrawal.  After having watched all the movies in one week, she has read/listened to all the books in one month.  Wow!  Talk about Hogwarts immersion.  She is so sad that the books are over.  She is convinced that she will never like another book again.  She wanted to bring the recording of the last book to school since she hadn’t finished before Monday morning, but we didn’t think it would go over so well with her teachers.  Now that the saga is over, she figures she may as well be at school (even if they don’t offer Defense Against the Dark Arts).

Mariah is now my big kid at the elementary school in the 5th grade and does a great job looking out for Cheyenne and Calianne who became 2nd graders.  This is definitely a transition to more mature things as they both informed me that their Dora backpacks were “not very 2nd grade-ish.”  Who knew?  Mariah is not happy to be back at school, but she has been a trooper and doesn’t complain in the mornings.  The twins, so far, think it is great!

Mariah may not be happy about school, but she loves soccer, and games started this week!  She scored her team’s only point at the Wednesday night game.  Saturday’s game ended in a tie at 0 to 0.  The field is substantially bigger this year, but Mariah’s endurance serves her well, as do her awesome soccer ball turn thingys.  She is a great kid.

Unfortunately, we did get hit by sickness this week, as well.  Savannah had a bad sore throat, runny nose, etc., missed most of her running practices, and even missed a day of school.  Yikes!  First week!!  The twins got sick as well, but they plugged on, making many trips to the tissue box.  I am hoping that we are done with that!

My sister-in-law, Sanae, was here from Ohio this week dropping off her oldest daughter, Kayla, for her freshman year at BYU.  Go Cougars!  It was a lot of fun to visit with both of them.  We can’t wait to spend more time with Kayla now that she will be so close!

So, on Saturday, in addition to Mariah’s soccer game, Savannah’s cross country meet, breakfast at the Gazdik’s for Sanae and Kayla, and Kevin running a 5K and off to train some bishops, we had one other very big thing to do.

 

It was time for a birthday party for Cheyenne and Calianne who turned seven years old on Sunday.  What fun to be seven!!  We had a slip and slide . . .

. . . and the bounce house made a triumphant reappearance!

All this made one party attendee exclaim, “You guys have EVERYTHING!”  I thought that might be overstating it a little, but it was a happy comment which you can be sure, I will quote often.  ;)

We also did a craft.  Cheyenne and Calianne picked out crown kits at the dollar store and it sure captured the attention of all those little girls.

Finally, we opened presents and had cupcakes.  Some of the frosting took a detour that didn’t quite make it into girls’ mouths.

Crazy kids.  I think it is safe to say that a fun time was had by all.  Cheyenne and Calianne said it was “The best party EVER!”  Which is exactly how I wanted them to feel.

Sunday was their real birthday, and I thought they cleaned up rather well.

Aren’t they beautiful?  We went over to Grandma and Grandpa’s for dinner, cake, and presents that evening.  Yay Grandma and Grandpa!

We are so thankful to our Father in Heaven for sending us those two little girls at a time when I thought I might not get any more.  I still start to cry when I think about it! They are such a blessing and continue to bring happiness into our lives.  We love you, Cali and Cheyenne!  Happy Birthday!

Well, believe it or not, I finally found the time (and all the right documents!) to take Savannah to the DMV and get her learner’s permit!  It has been on my list of things to do since the beginning of the summer.  Unbelievable!  Still, I was so glad that she passed the test the first time.  If she hadn’t, I have no idea when I would have pulled things together enough to go back!  I think maybe all those false starts (as in, “Savannah, I’m going to take you to get your learner’s permit.  Are you ready for the test?  Oh, I guess I can’t go today.”), actually helped her cement all that knowledge in her head through repetition.  Heh, heh.  So . . . watch out!  One of these days we might actually get around to taking her out driving, too!

This week was also Savannah’s first cross country meet.  On Thursday was “Pre-region.”  Eight teams from all over the area came to compete on Springville’s course (which is really a nice one as it goes through the woods along the creek and around the baseball fields and through the track).  There was so much energy and so many people.  It brought back nostalgic memories from cross country meets when I was in high school!  Such good times!  Anyhow, Savannah did great.  She actually was her school’s second top runner!  She came in 68th in a field of 170 runners.  She’s doing great for a sophomore!  Her team, on the other hand, is not going to be winning very many meets – at least not this year.  There are a lot of great teams around and a lot of great runners! 

Thursday was also open house for the junior high and high school.  Savannah went over without me before her meet and mapped out her classes.  I can’t believe she’s in high school!  I went with Megan and Sarah to the junior high open house and we walked around to Meg’s classes.  Friday morning Megan got to attend an introductory day just for 7th graders.  It went well for her and I think it helped calm her nerves!

So, it was a good thing all those events took place on Thursday, because Friday morning, Kevin and I left on an airplane for California to attend his father’s wedding!

We had an easy flight and after getting a rental car, we drove up to Pasadena where we were staying in a hotel, and spent the afternoon at the famed Huntington Library.

Which is actually not a library at all, but the previous estate of a super-millionaire from the early 1900s.  This man definitely had more money than the rest of the people in the world – at least most of them.  His grounds have gardens filled with plants from around the world.  So we saw the desert gardens . . .

and the lilly pad, jungle gardens . . .

and the Chinese gardens.

There were more, but I don’t have pictures of them all.  It was a lovely place and the weather was perfect, it being California and all.  It was one of the quietest places I’ve been in California, though!  We also got to tour his home, which is now a gallery to display his impressive art collection of paintings mostly from the 1700s.  Most of the paintings were portraits – many of them head to toe, life-size portraits.  It was like looking back through time to see the people who once inhabited it.  I really liked it.  So did Kevin.  We had a great afternoon.

That night, we went out to eat with all of Kevin’s family.  Grandpa and his bride to be, Maria, were there, as well as her son and his girlfriend and his cousin, as well as Kevin’s siblings:  Todd,  Dena and Jordan, Matt and Lynsey, Jake and Sara, and Michael and Aftyn.  We had a room all to ourselves in the restaurant and had a great time talking and laughing together.  We all had rooms in the same hotel and we all swam a bit that night, too!

The next morning, Kevin and I went on a run through Pasadena and San Marino that was supposed to be six miles, but we got lost, and ended up being eight!  Still, we made it back in time to swim, eat, and get dandified for the wedding!  Here we are waiting for the moment of the wedding to arrive!

 

All Val’s sons stood as groomsmen . . .

. . . as Maria walked down the aisle with her son, Elliot, and later her father.

  It was a fun ceremony and very touching to the new couple and all of us!

Afterwards, we had lunch and dancing and cake.  It was a lot of fun.  It was fun to be with family having fun and being happy together.  It’s really, already, a great memory.

Kevin and I headed back to the airport after that.  We had just enough time to make a quick trip to the beach and dip our feet in the water.

We got home late Saturday night.  Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik took great care of our kids while we were gone, taking them up the canyon to play in the river, eating pizza, watching movies, and buying them snowies (snow cones in a cup!).  I think we all had a great weekend!

The week of our trip to Las Vegas finally arrived!  That meant the week of our long-anticipated “Sewing Camp!”  In it’s simplest conception, the plan was sewing in the morning and swimming and cousins in the afternoon.  Sounds idyllic doesn’t it?  I thought so, too!

We drove up Sunday after church so we could start sewing Monday morning.  Actually, we mostly cut out fabric on Monday, but we did get started.  We also got started with our swimming that afternoon!  We were so grateful to Uncle Pete and Aunt Monica who let us all come and enjoy their pool!  Amy and her family came, too, and Diane and her new baby, Liam, too!  Cousins galore!  Monica even handed out popsicles . . . AND we got to see Samantha before she left for a trip later that week.

Sam, Savannah, Sarah, and Megan even opted to go to the mall together Tuesday afternoon instead of swimming so they could make some memories together.  They had great fun and bought cute stuff!

Meanwhile, we continued to sew . . .

. . . and iron which my girls said was considerably less fun.  Actually, those are not the words they used to describe it, but we won’t go there!  

Grandpa, meanwhile, found out that Savannah had been mistakenly enrolled in welding for her first year at the high school.  He had great fun teasing Savannah about that!  He even showed her his welding stuff and took pictures.  It was very funny!  Savannah protested that she didn’t even like the heat from the iron, how could she ever be welder?  She makes a really cute one, though.

 

On Wednesday, after sewing, we went up to see my friend, Kim, and her cute mom, and all her kids. 

She even has a pool so we still got to swim! She made us a terrific dinner, our little kids played together, and we had a wonderful visit.  It was great.  Aren’t we cute?

The next day we changed it up a little and we took the kids to a water playground in the morning and sewed in the afternoon. 

Amy came up with her children to play in the water with us.  It was a good thing because Bethany especially loves her cousin, Emma.  They had so much fun together!  

Back at the house, Diane and Liam came to hang out with us again.  Isn’t he adorable???  Two weeks old!!

Cali, Cheyenne, and Kayla thought he was pretty cute, too!

On that day, Cali and Cheyenne went home with Amy’s family to stay over night.  It was only my four older girls who were doing sewing projects so the twins were happy to have more time with Kayla and Mandy and we were happy to have them occupied!  Because, afterall, the sewing must go on!

We were getting worn out, though.  It’s a good thing there was only one more day!

Friday morning saw us finishing up.  Mariah actually finished Thursday before anyone else and she did two projects – a knit shirt and an owl hat – both so cute!  Megan put the zipper in on her frilly shirt.  Sarah sewed the ruffle to the bottom of her skirt.  And Savannah finished the waist and the hems on her second pair of goucho pants.  We officially finished sewing camp and took a picture modeling our new clothes.  We finished the week victorious!

To celebrate, we all went back to Pete’s to swim. 

It was a great week!  I never could have done it without my mom and dad and all my family who made themselves and their houses available to us.  Thank you, you guys!  But most  of all, thanks to my mom for her hours of help teaching my girls to sew!

Kevin stayed home in Springville all week to work.  Poor guy!  He not only worked at his day job, but every evening he worked on our house.  He received a lot of generous help from Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik.  I came home to a new ceiling in the kitchen, new paint on the walls, a new door, and the beginnings of a new spot of tile, among many other things.  That represented boat loads of work!  We are truly a blessed family to get so much loving help from our hard-working Grandma and Grandpa.  Thanks guys!

It’s been a good week!

We had quite a busy week.  With school registrations for six children at three different schools, dentist appointments for everyone in the family, Sarah and Megan running a daycamp at our house, Mariah in soccer camp every morning, and trying to get ready for our sewing trip to Las Vegas next week, well, my head has been spinning!  The miracle is that at the end of the week, all those tasks that kept popping up in mind to say, “Oh yeah, and you need to this, too and don’t forget to do that and what about that other thing?” – all those tasks have gotten done and we have accomplished quite a lot!

Sarah ran her day camp last week just like she did last summer.  She decided to do “girls only” since she is quite an expert on little girls, after all.  When she first started handing out invitations, she got a couple of definite no’s, so she agonized that no one was going to come.  She was wrong there.  She had fourteen little girls!  Fortunately, that was the only thing about which she was wrong.  She does know little girls!  On Monday they made telescopes and went on treasure hunts.  Tuesday was Barbie day where they all brought a Barbie and made her a tent and sleeping bag and had a campout.  Wednesday was water day and they decorated water bottles with which to squirt each other.  Thursday they played dress-up, painted nails, made necklaces, and performed skits for one another.  On Friday they brought their favorite doll or stuffed animal and they went to the playground for a picnic.  Isn’t that fun?  Megan was Sarah’s assistant and was there everyday to help.  They both did a fantastic job and those little girls had a great time!  Honestly, I was so busy that most of the time I wasn’t even here. Sarah and Megan handled it all.  I was so impressed with their organization, calm, and peacemaking skills.  They are incredibly capable young ladies, both of them.

Mariah, on the other end of the spectrum was attending a day camp --  British Challenger Soccer Camp.  Here are her coaches, all from Great Britain.  Soccer takes on an exotic air when touted with British accents, don’t you know!

Mariah had a great week.  They worked her hard.  She played three hours of soccer a day working on drills and juggling and scrimmage games.

Now she’s excited for city league to start where she can play on a full field and show off all her new skills!  She is really a hard worker and takes on challenges with determined intensity.  She doesn’t like it when there is something she can’t do!  I am proud of that little girl.

  Did I mention that Megan and Mariah switched their rooms around this week, too?  (I know, insane, right? There was too much to do already!!)  Megan started it by rearranging furniture, but once everything was torn apart (and I mean into the hall and other people’s rooms craziness) she couldn’t figure out a way to put it back together with which she was happy.  I really do want her to be happy with her corner of the house wherever that may be, so we decided to let her come upstairs and share her room with Ben if she was interested in that.  She decided that she would like to try it.  So, Megan is upstairs now and Mariah has her own room downstairs in the M&M room.  She likes it so far (3 days).  I hope it works out since we all put a lot of work into it!  Still, if it doesn’t, what can be done?  We will, of course, keep working on it until we find a solution that feels good for everyone.  It’s important.

So, I did get the girls registered for school.  Although after attending registration for the elementary school, signing my forms and paying my fees, they called me the next day to see why I hadn’t been at registration.  It doesn’t really inspire me with confidence.  I need to change Megan’s schedule for Jr. High but they are not answering their phones and not unlocking their doors at the school itself either.  So not helpful!  Apparently, over at the high school, one of Savannah’s electives was full so they chose a new elective for her . . . welding.  Seriously??  Come on!  Is there no thought going into this at all?  So, all their changes to schedules is to be done online.  Which is great except their system has been down all week – from the moment it was supposed to open.  It is really not an easy thing to register all my children for school!!

At the dentist, which took many phone calls back and forth to get appointments that worked into our schedule (Yay for an awesome dental receptionist!!!), we had . . . drumroll please . . . NO CAVITIES!!  And I’m not just talking about me.  Eight of us saw the dentist on Thursday and there was not one cavity among us.  I am definitely seeing the hand of Providence in our dental lives.

I am really glad this week is over, but I had a lot of help from my husband and my children and . . . Providence, of course, . . . as always.

On to next week!!!

It was the week of Camp Skinner!!  Our reunion was hosted by our much-loved Grandpa Skinner . . . and his very funny cane. 

It is a very uncanny experience to be around such a large group of people with the same last name.  Kevin had four brothers there with their families and even his sister goes by Skinner, so . . . I couldn’t holler “Skinners!!” if I wanted my children’s attention and our camp chairs that said “Skinner” on them – well, that wasn’t really all that useful, now was it?

Instead of going to Bear Lake like we have the last couple of years, we met at Grandpa’s house in the woods.  It is a beautiful spot and has plenty of room for tents and trailers.  It even has bathrooms, showers, and a kitchen.  That is camping at it’s greatest – especially considering we put all our air mattresses inside the house and left our tent at home!

On Thursday, we got to go to the lake with Grandpa.  I left my camera in the car so I didn’t get pictures of all the kids on the boat, the twins being pulled in the raft, Savannah and I and Bethany being pulled in the raft and Beth loving the water in her face, Sarah trying to water ski, Savannah and Megan and Mariah trying to water ski, Dad waterskiing, Benjamin in his lifejacket that doubled his girth, and all the kids screaming on the raft as they took their turns being pulled by Grandpa.  Of course, you wouldn’t be able to hear the screaming in the pictures, anyway.  I did take a picture of the lake when I got back to the car.  It was a beautiful day!

On Friday, more of the families were there and Kevin and Savannah went back to the lake with lots of cousins and uncles and aunts.  They had fun on the lake that day, too.  Back at the ranch, our other kids decided to take a turn on the four-wheelers while Benjamin napped.

  They have decided that country living is the best!! They had great fun!

After Benjamin woke up, we drove to a nearby lake just for swimming.  It even had sand and a dock with a slide.  Fun times!

Saturday morning Kevin went back to the lake with his brothers while the rest of us packed up.  Grandpa had one more surprise for us, though . . . a hayride!

Doesn’t that look fun?  What a cool Grandpa.

Every morning we had a hot breakfast and each night someone different cooked and we enjoyed some good meals!  After dinners we got to visit.  The kids got to jump on the double trampolines and the rest of us could all sit around the fire pit Grandpa had sunk into the ground and talk some more.

We happened to be there on the anniversary of Kevin’s and my wedding seventeen event-filled years ago.  It was fun to be in Idaho since that was where the happy event actually took place.  Grandpa even surprised us by buying us a cake!

Now that’s worth seventeen years, isn’t it?

They’ve been great years and I hope we see at least three more sets of seventeen as we go along!

In the meantime, we had a great time in beautiful Idaho and loved seeing our family and all their beautiful families.  Long live Camp Skinner!