Mt. Walker

 Climbing up Mt. Walker was the mutual activity tonight.  This is our 2nd pre-hike.  This mountain does have a road to drive on that takes you up to the top but we went the hard way.  It was a rough hike but nobody gave up even though they wanted to.  Our boys came along too.  Elijah talked the ear off of his friend (and his mom) the whole way up and the whole way back.  It was great.  He didn't complain once about the hike. 

Alejandra, Sadie, Arynne

McKenna, Britttany

Chloe, Nikki, Haylei

Rebecca, Jarom, Jessica, Jenette

The tree dilemma

This is what our backyard looked liked before we moved in.  There were so many plants and bushes growing everywhere.  Notice the trees near the back of this picture.  There were 10 cedar trees lining our parking area at the time.  

This picture also shows those trees near the van.

Well those trees were looking worse all of the time so we did eight of them in one summer.  We were thinking if there weren't so many they might do better.  Last summer we ended up getting rid of the one nearest the fence.  

This left one lonely tree but it still wasn't doing well so Saturday it fell.  I was looking back at these old pictures and thought about how much change our place has gone through.  I so miss the shade of those trees but in other ways its nice to have it more open.   The other reason we did it was that we will have two new neighbors soon. It was going to be easier to do it now than later with them around.  

No more trees.

This porch area is still a work in progress.  

This is our backyard now.  

Murhut Falls

This is one of our favorite places to visit.  It is so fun to explore the lower and upper parts of the falls.  It is peaceful.  Although I think my group made it less peaceful for those who came in after us.  

They had to get their dab in.

raspberries and Legos

We started getting raspberries at the beginning of this month.  They are so early but I love having fresh ones to pick.  

The boys spent one rainy day last week and made impressive ships with their Legos.  Who needs instructions when you can use your imagination. 

The SWARM

Last Wednesday I looked out of our kitchen window and noticed a lot of bees buzzing around a tree.  I mean A LOT.  I have never seen such a site.  I figured they were our bees though.  After talking to Nathan on the phone I went outside to take a look and within a hour or less the bees were all clumped in this ball 3/4 of the way up the tree.  They were impossible to get.  We still aren't sure if they belonged to us or not because our hives seemed to be as busy as ever.  Swarming shouldn't have happened yet.  

Mt Zion

These young ladies will be going on our young women's back packing trip next week.  We are missing three more who will attend.  I love serving in the young women's more and more all of the time.  The youth of today amaze me.  We are on top of Mt. Zion. 

Issac, Haylei, Jenette, Nikki, Jarom, Sadie, and Alejandra

Summer begins

As soon as the kids got out, on the last day, of school yesterday they took off to different places.  

These crazy girls went to the opening day of "Finding Dory"  Kyla, Sadie, Alejandra, Skyla, and Gabriel 

Jarom went off to hang out with his scout group.  They planned to go hiking, cook, and kayak.  It ended up being a huge disappointment to him when it rained.  The leader didn't want to take them out on kayaks.  Jarom said he told them he was fine with rain but it was a no go for them.  He had tons of fun anyway.  

I took these two to Blu Berry for some frozen yogurt.  I think their eyes were bigger than their stomachs.   Apparently David is the only one who can cause Josiah to have a pleasant look on his face while getting a picture taken.  Ha!

The end of grade school

This is part of the future class of 2023.  Crazy to think about.  On Tuesday this was the 5th grade class of 2016.  They made it through grade school and all are ready to move on.  Nathan likes to quote this from the movie Incredibles when a grade school graduation happens, "It is not a graduation. He will be simply moving from the fourth grade to the fifth grade."  For some, school isn't as easy for others.  

Josiah has done so well with school this year.  He has struggled since first grade. I was finally able to figure out the source of those struggles at the end of 4th grade.  This boy has dyslexia.  I had a major misunderstanding of dyslexia until I researched it more with encouragement from a friend.  If you know of someone who is struggling with reading and writing, look at these sources.  Here and Here  There are many other programs out their that can be used to help all students.  These kids won't get better at reading till they are taught using an Ortin-Gillingham based program.  These kids are talented and very intelligent but they have a disadvantage because their brains process differently than others.  20% of the population has dyslexia.  This isn't something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about.  Josiah knows this because we have called it his super power.  It makes the person unique in many ways and are talented in a specific area.  Josiah's is art.  They are outside the box thinkers which means they end up being inventors, contractors, writers, creators, investors and artists etc....

Josiah has made huge improvements this year in school.  It is still stressful and frustrating to him especially towards the end of the year when he wants to be DONE.  However, the stress is not near as bad as in the past years.  Dyslexic student brains work harder than other students.  They are tired by the end of a school day but alas the homework still looms over their heads.  It is tough to sit and work on homework when it takes longer to do it than your siblings.  This is his awesome teacher pictured above.  She was so good to work with this year.  I was able to do partial home school each day since November. I used the Barton Reading and Spelling program during his ELA time.  The program works.   Most students are ready to be done at the end of the school day but he was always more than DONE.  You don't know what it is like till you have a child/student or you who is dyslexic.  They don't need to work harder to be more successful they need someone who knows how to teach them the way they learn.  

He did it!  He is really smiling big inside because he knows summer break is here.

His 5th grade class.

These students have been at Crownhill since kindergarten.  Great group of kids.  

Josiah's best bud, David.

As we walked towards the tire stair case Josiah says "this is the last time I will probably walk up these."  So I took a picture.   He had to do a dab, whatever that means.  

I love this picture.  He isn't smiling but it is perfect.  It sure made me think of what he will look like when he is a graduating senior.  

Last Two weeks of school

It has been a busy last couple of weeks of school.  The schools had many activities.  Champs on Wheels at the elementary school is always a big hit.  The kids get to bring their bikes and ride for a whole hour.  

The middle school had it's last band concert.  This could have likely been Sadie's last ever. She has decided to take French instead next year.

We finally got to a park one evening.  Park visits seem to be far and few between but yet it is so fun to go when we do.

Sadie walking Allie while roller blading.

Josiah has mastered the no hands trick.  He was quite proud of himself.  

Jarom is also quite tricky on his bike.  These poor boys don't have much space to ride at our house.  We will have to come back to this park more often in the summer so they can get more talented on their bikes.  

Then we finally started on our family hikes last weekend.  Sadie's track schedule caused us not to be able to start till now.  I hope we make it on the young women hikes that start next week.  

We are all about seat belt safety at our house down to the smallest stuffed fury friend.  

Last few days of vacation

Friday morning I told the kids there was left over food that had to be eaten so it didn't matter to me what they ate for breakfast.  

Elijah chose the left over macaroni noodles with spaghetti sauce.

Jarom chose two hot dogs with buns, mayo, and ketchup.  

Our last few hours at the beach.  

Josiah didn't get to see this structure be destroyed.  

This was on the way back home Saturday.  We left at 4:15 am to beat traffic out of LA.  We stopped outside of Bakersfield for breakfast at a McDonald's.  We have never seen a place so busy ever especially at 7 am of all things on a Saturday.  We made it 14 hours straight of driving and were tired. We stopped to get a motel with a pool in Medford.  We went to church the next morning and headed back home.  It was a long drive but the kids did so well.  

This was a cold pool but they had a great time being out of the car and running around.

It was a hot drive home.  

Our own Mt Rainer.  If any of you made it through all of my posts about our trip I am sorry.  There were too many pictures to have it all in one post.  We are glad to be home but so happy we could experience being in San Diego.   Lots of great memories for us.