The Surprise Trip

Ben has had a conference over the summer in Orlando for the last couple of years and it's always at a really cool hotel.  He kept saying, "I need to bring the family along one of these times!"  Well, this year the conference was in Disney World.  So we decided to go.  And we didn't tell the kids.  And the surprise was really, really fun.

Cat knew we were going somewhere and had a pretty good idea of where it was because she's observant and all of that, but she didn't let on to the other kids.  She packed her things in advance, and Ben and I got the other kids packed and even loaded the suitcases in the car before the kids were awake that morning.  When we got them up we told them to get dressed and eat breakfast because we were going on an adventure.  The only clues we gave them were that we would be going to a different state and that we were going to drive for 45 minutes.  They were pretty confused about that and had some wild guesses about where we were supposedly driving.  But when they found out, they were really excited about going to Orlando and the possibility of seeing cousins.  We kept the surprises up throughout the trip, only telling the kids during dinner each night what we would be doing the following day.  (Spoiler alert: they kept hoping we'd be going back to Universal Studios to go to the Harry Potter stuff.  We didn't do that.)

Day 1: Flying to Orlando, meeting up with Mema and Papa at the hotel

(another surprise!) and driving to Universal CityWalk to see Blue Man Group

Train at the Orlando Airport

Welcome to Rainy Florida!  Hooray for rain!

  

Worth the read.

Jack was tired and grumpy and really didn't want to go to the show.  Luckily, I'd
seen it before and knew he would love it.  He insisted that he was going to sleep on
my shoulder the whole time, and he tried for the first few minutes, but then he got
into it and really enjoyed it.  He didn't appreciate the decibel level, but it didn't
bother him enough to ruin the experience.

When we planned the trip and told Mema and Papa about taking the kids to see BMG,
we were excited that they wanted to come along too.  It was so fun to go together!

Luke was pretty tired by the time the show was over.

An Afternoon Apart

The next day was Saturday and Cat was in the middle of a soccer tournament in a town nearby.  One of Ben's work associates has a fun property about 90 minutes east of us and asked Ben if he'd like to bring the family to hang out that day.  We decided to divide up: Ben watched Cat's morning game, then took the younger kids to his friend's property.  I stayed with Cat and watched her second tournament game then we went out for hamburgers and a little shopping.

I didn't take many pictures of the tournament, but below there's one of Cat as goalie during one of the early games because her team was so far ahead.  They lost one game (1-2) to a team a year older than they are, even though Cat's team possessed the ball almost the entire time.  Cat's team won the rest of their preliminary games, then they played the same team in the finals and should have won the game.  Cat scored a fantastic goal and toward the end of the game we were winning 3-2, but the other team scored with 2 minutes left in the game.  Cat had the ball at the end and was making her way toward the goal when the ref blew his whistle to end the game, which is not the way soccer is supposed to go - the ref is supposed to blow the whistle once a play is completed.  Overtime, and nobody scored.  Then we lost in PKs.  It was sad, but a good learning experience.  Cat's team got second-place medals.

Meanwhile, Ben and the other kids were engaged in some slightly different activities.

The Best Junior Rodeo We've Ever Attended

Warning: This post contains too many videos.  But once I started...

As soon as we moved into the house we received a circular advertising our new city's summer festival.   There were several fun activities listed but one I knew we just couldn't pass up: The Junior Rodeo.  The main reason?  Mutton Bustin'.  (For anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of watching this event some have referred to as "Redneck Child Abuse," it is simply the entertaining spectacle of children holding on to a sheep as it runs through a rodeo arena.  I'd say the odds of a participant getting hurt are about the same as the odds of getting hurt while riding a bike - perhaps even less.)  My kids have been wanting to do this for a while, and Jack was devastated that he was too old to try it out.  I was literally giddy at the thought of Eliza and Luke participating.

J & E walking to the meeting spot.

They both did a great job!
Want to see?!?!
(I apologize for the random slow-motion portions of these videos!)

She earned those crayons!

In addition to Mutton Bustin', the Junior Rodeo included other fun events.  There were Candy Scrambles for various age groups.  This was when a large tarp was spread out in the arena and a truck dumped a bunch of wood shavings on the tarp, then another truck drove up and a small army of volunteers emptied large bags of candy into the shavings.  Age groups lined up with brown paper bags and ran to the wood shavings when prompted.  When that group's time was up, the candy was replenished and an older group was released.  All of our younger kids were really excited about this, but Cat needed convincing.  In the end, she was glad to have her own bag of candy.  The final scramble was just for adults and included a bunch of Dollar coins.  Ben and I weren't going to join... but then we did.  We didn't find any Dollars but it was still fun.

If you're still having trouble picturing this, here's actual footage of Cat and Jack Candy Scrambling:

And the next fun event for the kids was the Ribbon Chase, where a bunch of sheep are gathered on one end of the arena, with a few of the sheep having a ribbon on their necks.  Kids are supposed to try to get the ribbons and turn them in for a small prize.  Once again, our kids came up empty-handed.  But I'm really glad they tried.   It's not often you have an excuse to chase a sheep.

Jack's consolation for not being able to Bust any Mutton was the Chicken Chase, the last event of the evening.  He was really hoping to catch a chicken and bring it home.  And he was really sad that he wasn't successful.  I wasn't sad about going home chickenless, though we did have fun looking up chicken names in case we ever do own a chicken.  One of our favorites was Atilla the Hen.

I think we might have to attend again next year.

The Great Move of 2018

From an Instagram post on July 17th -
I feel like our summer is ending already.  Just when things started to calm down for us, I got the news that we have until the end of the month to move out of the house we've lived in for almost 5 years.  We're okay with moving - we've been thinking about it for a few months - but the timeline came as a surprise for sure.  We found out last Tuesday night and woke up to see a For Rent sign in our yard the next morning.  (We hadn't even told the kids yet.)  Thankfully, we've found another house but the move is still proving to be a complicated one and the stress is piling up already.  By the time we get it all taken care of and start to settle in to our new place, school will start.

The whole situation was incredibly frustrating for me.  Not only did it feel like we were being kicked out, but the landlords at the old house were being difficult in the demands they were making as far as preparing the house for the next tenants so we actually had to be out of the house a day early.  Then, even though the new house was listed as being available August 1st, the new landlords said we couldn't move in until August 3rd.  Luckily, they let us get in on the 2nd, but that still left a few days of being between houses.  A kind friend offered for us to stay with her during that time and our movers gave us a pretty good deal on keeping our stuff loaded in their truck during the interim so that it wouldn't have to be moved into a storage unit then moved out again a few days later.

Of course, more stressors came up in the course of the move, but that's to be expected.  Overall it was actually one of our more smooth moves, so that's a blessing.  I'm sure it helped that we were only moving about 4 miles away, to an area we were somewhat familiar with.  The new house is near the Interstate and close to the kids' schools and has a YARD and so far it's been a good change in most ways.  It's been slow for us to meet neighbors and make friends, but we'll keep working on that.  We miss the familiarity of our former ward but at least that area is close enough that we can visit friends.

PACKING UP

I didn't take many pictures during the move because I was so frustrated the whole time,
so this is the token shot of packing material.  Being used as a prop cast, in this case.

During the last few weeks of July, eating watermelon outside
seemed like the most summery activity of the day.

Giving Jack the task of removing sticky tabs from a book of crafts I've had for years
(and not used in years) occupied him for a while.

A tower of boxes a friend brought over from work!

Testing out the extra-strength bins we bought at Costco for the move.
(These things are great.)

Finding little treasures, sometimes for the first time, sometimes for the 20th time.
This was the first time I saw the Cursive License Eliza earned in 2nd grade.

The playroom was one of the first areas I tackled when packing up.
The kids sure loved playing with things that were unearthed in the process.

MOVING OUT





On moving day, I arranged for all of the kids to be at friends'
houses.  Cat was supposed to be at this friend's house, but I realized I needed more help
so I asked them to please come work on the move instead.  Not only did they pack and move things,
they also helped finish off food in the kitchen.  I might have also bribed them with Shave Ice.



Shave Ice!
(This proves nothing.)

WAITING AROUND

We were so thankful to Ms. Teri for opening up her home to us.

Everyone was happy and comfortable for the three days/nights

we were there, with Ben and I and Cat in bedrooms and the younger

three camped out in the TV room.  It also turned out to be really

nice to get a break from moving for a few days.  Working hard to get

moved out wore me out and relaxing and just playing with the kids

helped me feel better about starting all over to get moved in.

GETTING SETTLED

It took about two months before I felt like we were pretty much settled in the house.

We're still not 100%, but we're close enough and still working on it.  I didn't document

the moving-in process at all, but here are a few pictures from early in the settling-in process,

including enjoying the fruits of someone else's labors (raspberries, blackberries, mint,

and plums in the back yard; and we harvested pears in the fall).