I'm So Hoppy!

 Our last week of Shelter lunch, and it was my turn to host.  Everything was done because the menu was leftovers from all the Memorial Day weekend festivities, and it was all in the fridge, just waiting for us.  Wow!  Look at me, being all ahead of the curve.

Then, with 3 kids to drive to 3 school within the next 5 minutes, I twisted my ankle walking out the front door and went down.  False bravado aside, it HURT!  Actually, there was no false bravado.  I was just writhing around on the porch, clutching my foot and hyperventilating.

"CALL.....uuuuuuuuuuuggggggg!....DAD!..aaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkk!.....TELLHIMTOHURRY!!!!  BRINGMEAPILLOW!!!!!"

Pant, pant, pant.  Scream in agony.  Breathe.   Groan.

I managed to send Freestone walking with 5 ballroom dance costumes and a 6-foot spear, for his assembly.  Even in extreme pain, I still manage to bark out orders.  Scott took forever to get home, because he had to stop and help Freestone, who was leaving a trail of costumes along the street.  So sometimes my ideas aren't the best.  Speaking of which, I thought it would be best if Scott took Golda to school and I took Ruby to seminary, so they would both have a chance of being on time.  Ruby helped me hop to the car and prop my foot up on the dash.  Driving down Mutton Hollow screaming in pain, I told Ruby, "If I pass out, just lunge over here and step on the brake or something."

For some reason, she looked alarmed by that possibility.  Thankfully, I made it home and hopped to my bed.  I was going to cancel lunch, but heck, I wanted to see my friends!  And it was all ready to go!  And Coco came over to herd the babies while I laid on the bed and fumed over things going so horribly off course.  Black and blue foot, not in my plans for the last week of school.  I think I scared Ruby with my hopping.  (Incidentally, I sold our crutches on KSL last Friday.  "When are we ever going to need these stupid things again?"  Uh-huh.)  I sounded like Quasimodo, thundering around crutchless, but sometimes you have to get from the ribbon cupboard to the table.  Several times.  It's vital.

I was complaining to Trajan and he said, "You don't get out of the car that often anyway."  It's true.  After Scott came home with a special brace and some ibuprofen, I spent the next six hours driving kids around, which is the perfect thing to do when you're tired of hopping.  And man I'm tired of hopping!  Now, three days later, I'm limping, not because of the original injury, but because of the workout my normally dormant muscles have gotten from all the hopping.  My hopping muscles haven't seen this much action since the 4th grade Double Dutch tournament at recess in 1981.  And I wasn't the champion.  This time, I'm determined to win.  Or at the very least, ignore this injury until it hangs its head in shame and goes away.

Likening Scriptures

What are your kids doing this summer?  Mine are going to be doing math worksheets every morning, followed by dedicated reading time for at least two hours.  Science camp, language tutors and writing workshops should round out our curriculum.

Just kidding.

My kids aren't doing jack crap over the summer.  I don't think I could stand the sight of one more blank worksheet, one more empty line, one more story problem, one more Google Translate, or one more laboriously filled-in reading log.

School is great.  But school is almost over.  So go ahead, everyone.  Pass us up.  Leave us in the dust.  Keep your scholastic skills sharp.  Read, read, read.  Fill in charts, earn prizes, achieve goals.

As it says in Ecclesiastes 3:6, "A time to get and a time to lose.  A time to keep and a time to cast away."  At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I think the Old Testament is telling me not to accomplish one darn thing over the summer, and I plan to follow that admonition right to the letter of the law.  Except I'm banning letters AND law this summer.

We'll be in our pajamas and/or swimsuits at Cherry Hill, eating pizza and losing all knowledge gained over the course of the school year.  As it should be, according to the Bible.  Amen.

Ari's Essay

Everything I Need to Learn, I Learned in 6^th Grade

Araceli Dopp

                Everything I needed to learn, I leaned it this year. My teachers, Miss Phelps, Mrs. Chesley, and Mrs. Warden are great teachers. There’re the reason I learned so much this year. Thank you, to the best teachers ever!

                If learning is hard, you can always ask any one of the teachers, they’re bound to help. Teachers are called teachers for a reason, they teach. Miss Phelps, Mrs. Chesley, and Mrs. Warden do just that, they help us learn. Even though they all teach in different ways, they all teach, and they all help students learn. Activities are some things that help us learn, and we do lots of those.

                In 6^th grade, we learn math, science, language arts, social studies, world history, and skills we need for junior high school. Fun activities like Shakespeare, Greek and Roman day, and Medieval day have made learning fun. We could have just sat down and read from text books about everything, but instead, we did fun activities. In our class, we sang almost every day. I really enjoyed the singing, and it helped us learn. We sang songs about cells, heat, the earth cycle, and the moon cycle.

                When we learned writing with Mrs. Chesley, I learned so much. I learned when to start new paragraphs, how long a sentence should be, and smaller things too. I learned math from Mrs. Warden. We learned things like algebra, putting things into percentages, and every other thing you can think of about math. Every term we switched teachers for science and language arts. We did both with different teachers, and we learned different things than with the teacher before. There is a lot to learn in science, so each teacher had something different to teach. We learned about bacteria and how it helps the body, we learned about all of the planets and what order they go in, and we learned about how the tilt of the earth has to do with seasons and we learned about the phases of the moon.

                This year in 6^th grade, I learned more than I thought I would. We have great teachers who are a big help, and we have good students. When we put our mind to it, we can learn a lot. When great students and great teacher come together to learn, we can all learn so much. I learned so much this year. Even by listening to other people, and things that didn’t have to do with school I learned. Thank you Mrs. Warden, Miss Phelps, and Mrs. Chesley for being the best teachers ever and for helping us to learn.

Lagoon 2014

 Tziporah didn't know what to expect out of "Lagoon Day."  She thought it was going to be the zoo.

 Well, there we no elephants.

 But there were cousins!  Jersey and Tizzy are like two little peas in a pod.  Two bossy, cranky peas.  Ha ha!

 Ptolemy takes good care of his baby sister.

 We love these two cute girls so much!

 And these two cute girls, too!  Xanthe and Izzy were the lucky ones who got Dippin' Dots with Grandma and Grandpa.  Right place, right time!

 The rest of us got ice cream.  Can't complain, can we?!

 These two hooligans sneaking pop under the benches!  Tee hee!

 These boys sure love each other.

 Flashing the peace sign.  Some of us can't control how many fingers are up and how many are down.  So funny!

 The bumper cars, or as Tolly and Tizzy experienced them, the Cars That Stayed in the Corner Because Their Drivers Didn't Understand the Concept of Turning the Wheel.

 Another two girls that we love, love, love...

 ...and a photo bomber.

My day at Lagoon actually started out in line for Wicked.  Freestone and the other kids have been pestering me to go on this scary, scary ride.  I am not a big fan of extreme anxiety, so I usually don't go on the roller coasters.  Been there, done that, got nothing to prove.  BUT Freestone is very persistent and I finally decided just to do it and get it over with.  I can't say it was fun.  I closed my eyes and yelped the whole time.  It was pathetic.  Afterwards, I was shaking from all the adrenaline for an hour.  So not worth it.  The clincher is, Freestone said it "didn't count" because I wasn't' having fun.  The little rat!

 Grandma telling the kids about the dolls in the Pioneer Village Museum.  Speaking of museums, we lost Jake and Freestone momentarily when we thought they were on the log flume.  Turns out, the line was too long, so they decided to check out the telephone museum.  Funny boys!

 Pioneer Village ice cream is a must-do tradition for Lagoon Day.

 Circus Museum

 Escaped from the circus?

 I just love these two boys.  They are my favorites. :)

How sweet is this little thing?  Sadly, another Lagoon Day is history.  At the end, Xanthe said, "I wish we could start over again and do the whole thing from the beginning."  I know!  And now we have to wait all the way until next year.  Boo hoo!!

Let Summer Begin!

 What a lovely weekend we've been having.  Last week was our neighbor Donna Steed's birthday, and the Steeds threw her a big party at the church.  The colors were pink and orange, and there were tables full of treats that coordinated with the balloons and bright tablecloths.  We loved celebrating with our dear friends and neighbors.  The Steeds have had a huge impact on all of us, for many years.  We love them.  Larry takes an interest in each person he meets, recommending books to them and learning more about their interests.  He watches for the kids as they walk to and from school.  He called us after the party to help him release the leftover balloons.  He thought Donna would enjoy seeing the kids do that.

 Animals flock to Donna Steed.  They can sense her gentle, caring nature.  Our cat, Sinatra, spends time on the Steeds' front porch each day. just to say hi.

 Don Carlos almost floated up into the air!

 And this is where you'll find us all summer:  Cherry Hill!  It opened on Friday, and we didn't waste any time taking advantage of our King of the Hill season passes.  Instead of just the water activities, the passes are good for everything at Cherry Hill, including mini golf.  We got $84 worth of mini golf in, in just the first two days of the season!  It is going to be such a great summer!

 Tziporah is a terrible golfer, and had to be pried off the top of almost all the mini structures on the course.  I think she will be more interested in the climbing wall!

 And of course, there was the water park.  It was still chilly, and school hasn't ended yet, so there were no lines.  The kids went on Cardiac Canyon more times than they probably will all summer!  Meanwhile, Scott spent like 12 hours on the yard Saturday.  We are not big yard people, so sometimes a marathon session is called for, to redeem our yard/meadow from the clutches of nature.  Scott fired me from my flower bed duties and did a great job planting his choice of plants instead of the mess I had going in there.  It's the same concept as ironing:  do a bad job of it, and eventually someone else (Scott) will take over and do it.  Works great!  ;)

 And this happened.  ha ha!  Coco was taking care of Josh and Emily's bummer lamb, Popcorn, so we became part of Popcorn's herd for a bit.  We had to put Tizzy in the pen so she wouldn't escape, and I guess she decided to go au natural.

Sunday after church, we did the traditional Hill graves in South Ogden, followed by the spaghetti dinner at our house.  I was a pitiful picture taker.

 I didn't take one single picture at the graves, and very few at the party.  (Scott gave me this picture of his mom at her parents' graves.  Marlene is incredible at honoring family traditions.  She keeps us all together.) Just rest assured that the whole day was heavenly, from the beautiful weather to the fabulous company.

 Bruce, Marlo and Lance.  Marlo and Lance arrived on their new Harley, in full Harley regalia.  Now, don't you wish I had gotten a picture of that?  I do!

 Jodi, three days out from knee surgery, and Uncle Ken.

 This family is so stylin'!  Sad that one of the few pictures I took was blurry!

 Sitting around talking is one of the best parts of a party.  Scott's cousin Skyler regaled us with some hilarious stories NOT involving bathrooms when you need one!

 The girls did nails.  Ari is such a Hill.  She has those tall, dark genes from Marlene.  They are both so beautiful, Ari and Marlene.

 Nikki and Clint, and Tizzy's little buddy Jersey.  At this point, Tizzy has demanded a bottle of water and gone to sleep in her crib.  Such a funny kid!  The rest of us stayed up late, anticipating Lagoon Day the next morning.  It's going to be so fun!!