Preston Goes to Camp

Jorja was invited to go to the Corner Canyon state football game with her Chick-Fil-A friends. Many of them go to Corner Canyon. She said they were getting excused after 3rd period and asked if she could as well. She would be missing theater. Missing theater for the ducks is what caused her to lose her 4.0, so I wasn't too fond of the idea. She talked me into it. She is going to see the school musical on Saturday which will make up for losing the participation points. Plus, she has hated being at theater the last couple of times because they are just dealing with the musical. So, I called school this morning and let them know she would be checking out.

I went to Becky's house for lunch. I brought five boxes of stuffing. Becky was gathering stuff for ten Thanksgiving dinners to donate to the Road Home. The stuffing was what I was asked to bring. We assembled all of the boxes and then had a delicious lunch. It was fun. Just as I finished my lunch I got a text from Jorja saying that Mitchell's mom wouldn't let him leave school early so she was going to stay for theater, but could I come and take her out to lunch. I hurried out of Becky's house so fast! I took Jorja and Dessa to a quick lunch. We went to Freddy's, which I usually like but it was kind of gross today. I didn't even eat anything since I had already had lunch. Maybe that is why everything looked disgusting to me. Still, it was really fun to see her during the day. Plus, I love Dessa. She is a safe friend for Jorja. I like to tell Dessa that. I trust her.

Preston had his first scout camp as a 12 year old. When Mike asked if he could come with him Preston told him he wanted to go by himself to try and make friends. My kids have a really hard time making friends, especially in the ward for some reason. I couldn't believe Preston was being this brave. Mike got everything ready for Preston so all I would have to do is drive him down to the church. I was so nervous when I got there. All of the other 12 year olds had their dad's with them. My heart was breaking just a little. I didn't know how he would do or how he would fit in. I mentioned to his leaders that he didn't want his dad with him so he could try and make friends. They said they would look out for him. Still. I started crying. Not hard, but tears were in my eyes. I went and sat in the car until they left so Preston wouldn't see me cry. I love that little boy so much. I wish I could help my kids socially. I know they struggle, but I don't know how to help them. I am so thankful that we get along so well in our family. At least all of them have a safe place to go.

Preston

Jorja ended up staying after school for the ping pong tournament. Stockton was so annoyed that they didn't do the tournament last year. The kid in charge just didn't do it. It was the one thing Stockton was looking forward to. Yes, he looks forward to weird things. I texted Stockton to let him know the ping pong tournament was today. He immediately texted back, "I hope everyone loses" Haha. I laughed so hard. I miss him! Jorja also told me that smash bros was going to be in the Christmas assembly instead of the ping pong championship. Stockton said, "That's cool too actually" Glad he approved.

Jorja

While Jorja was at the ping pong tournament, Mitchell came to pick her up at our house. I guess he didn't see her message that she would still be at school. Hopefully that wasn't too much of a problem. Here is Jorja's nicely photoshopped streaks.

Jorja had quite the story to tell of the game. One of the kids she works with named Harrison got the entire student section to 'kiss chant' Jorja and Mitchell. I guess they were all chanting 'KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS!' I asked her how she knew they were talking about them. Jorja said it was obvious. Jorja wouldn't look at Mitchell and she hugged her friend Valentina. When the chanting died down, Jorja let go of Valentina and turned toward Mitchell. Right as she did that, Mitchell leaned in to kiss her. Jorja swerved! I was so proud of her! She didn't use the technique she practiced during Family Home Evening of punching the kid in the face/neck, but she still swerved. She leaned back and turned her head. He ended up kissing the side of her lip. Jorja looked at me and said, "I'm not counting that as a kiss." Fine by me. I asked if things were awkward after that. She said Mitchell just laughed about it.

Mitchell & Jorja

Jorja sent me pictures of the game she was at, so I sent her one of the game I was at. I went down to Cypress to see Bubs ref basketball. Holy cow that school was a long ways away! The parking was awful too. I figured since I had no kids at home and Mike was working late I might as well find something enjoyable to do. It was fun too. Bubs didn't see me until the end of the game.

Bubs at center court

Mike put the ducks outside all day today. He sent me this picture. He was happy that the ducks weren't by either of their two heaters, so at least they didn't freeze to death. Yay for ducks moving outside!

Maysen and Stockton went to see the musical at Logan High School. It was Singing in the Rain. They need to write an essay on it for their arts class. Their last assignment. Yay! Stockton said he liked the play, so that is good. I'm not sure if Maysen liked it or not. I think they are both glad they are almost finished with that class. One essay and that's it.

Camping and Newsies

Mike and Preston seemed to have a great time at their 'camp'. Mike said he wanted to be like Clint's Dad when he grew up.

Preston & Mike

 Clint's dad shooting bowling balls out of a cannon.

 Mike, Preston, Clint

 Preston and Brother Smith

 Preston

 Preston with his can.

These kids went straight from one activity to another. Shooting, hiking, fishing. They wore themselves out, but had a great time.

Preston

 Griffin, Drew, Matthew, Preston

 Preston

 Matthew, Drew, Griffin, Aiden

Preston, Ethan, Henderson boy, Jackson

 Preston

 Preston and Mike

 Preston

I sent this picture to Mike and Preston. This is the Subway by our house. Preston is obsessed with Subway for some weird reason. He is so much like Mike it's crazy. Preston texted back, "NOOOOO!"

Mike and I had tickets to see Newsies today. When we realized Mike wouldn't get back in time, I asked my dad. Maysen came with us too. I have never seen it before. I really liked it. My dad liked it. Maysen wasn't a fan. On our way out we saw Jack and Renee Murphy. They were in our ward as I was growing up. Renee was Tzeitel when my dad directed Fiddler on the Roof. Dad talked to Jack and I talked to Renee for a long time. Until the place closed down. Maysen was very patient.

Stephanie, Maysen, Dad

A lady that my dad taught in seminary offered to take our picture.

HOME

I had lunch with Teresa today!!! And we both forgot to take pictures. Boo. We met at JCWs at Thanksgiving Point. Teresa wanted to go somewhere with fry sauce and cherry coke. Haha. We ate outside and talked for hours. It was awesome. I wish she would move here. Both of her boys will be going to BYU in the fall. Weston is there now. That is why Teresa is in town.

Jorja came back from Trek tonight. Emily came back from her mission on Wednesday. She was in Taiwan. Ebony missed picking her up from the airport because of Trek. Emily was released over FaceTime because all of the members of the stake presidency were on Trek. Ebony got to be there for that, on the trek side.

Emily

 Emily & Ebony

 Seonora & Sephora

Ebony, Emily and Kevin

 Ebony & Emily

Jorja said the trek was pretty easy. I remember Stockton saying the same thing. They did eat like kings. I need Mike to find the trek video he put together years ago. I'm pretty sure the youth in Georgia had a completely different experience, at least with the difficulty level.

Gavin's family came over to swim today. They seemed to have a lot of fun. Stockton and Gavin were even able to do back doubles off of our board. What! They can't get to bounce to work for a lot of things, but for some reason backs worked a lot better.

Zoe, Lila, Nate, Sammy, Gavin 

Stockton's back double

Mike and Preston went on a campout today. They were told they would be sleeping in an old barn. Mike was worried about this. He started taking his allergy medicine a few days ago to prepare. Well, turns out he didn't need to worry. The old barn turned out much different then we anticipated.

 No hay in sight.

 Preston

I think they are going to have a great time. This is Clint Okerland's family cabin. I think it was about four hours away. A tiny town in Utah called Loa.

Preston's Wet Day Camp

The problem with getting so behind in my blog is I miss writing about things I want to remember.  For example, I didn't write about how Maysen took Blake around on rides for a long time.  She laughed because he was insistent on which ride he wanted to ride next, but it made no logical sense.  He would pick one ride, then want to ride another one a long way away, then want to ride one that was right back where they were in the first place.  Maysen thought that was hilarious. The reason I didn't write about Maysen taking Blake around and I wrote about Stockton taking Anne around is obvious.  I had a picture of Stockton and I didn't have one of Maysen.  I really need help with my memory these days.

I was scheduled to go to scout day camp today, but I didn't want to go anymore once my brother Mike came to visit.  I rarely get to see him and I didn't want him to feel he drove all the way up here only to be abandoned.  I called and talked to Ashley while at Lagoon and got permission to skip.  There were going to be three adults (with me) and only 8 boys.  It took a little a little convincing, but I managed to do it.  I told Preston last night.  He sat down and cried.  He said that now he has nothing to look forward to.  I didn't know what to do.  I still didn't know when I woke up this morning.  I kept thinking, 'my brother or my child'.  Mike and his family were still asleep at 7:45 when we left.  I decided to go for a little while and come home early.  I meant to only stay for an hour or so, but Preston was having a hard time.  This camp was not run well.  We were put in a group with 25 other boys (last year we had a group of 10 and a group of 15) and the two leaders were first years.  They kept arguing with each other on how to do things.  I have no idea what possessed the people in charge to put those two boys together.  Things started off okay.  We were assigned the obstacle course first.  Luckily Preston was towards the front of the line so he didn't have to wait too long.  Some people were just starting when others were finished.  This was Preston's favorite station.  He was able to do the course 2 1/2 times.  I have pictures mixed together from his turns.

Preston

Preston & Luke

This swing was his favorite

The tire swing was surprisingly hard to get through.  Brother Breen said that he didn't think any of us could do it.  Of course that meant I had to try.  I scurried through it when there wasn't a line.  The hard thing is you can't push yourself through because the tires move.  I was able to do it, so Brother Breen was wrong.  That is what is important. :)

 Slide down this and don't get slivers!

Ashley is in the picture above.  She is our cub master and does an amazing job.  I am SO glad I don't have her calling!  She has had this calling for years now.  I hope she doesn't get burnt out with it.  I would not want to be the one that has to replace her.

 Luke & Preston

The next activity the boys did was learn to unfold, raise, take down and fold a flag.

Preston, Brady, Lincoln, Eli

There was a weird tug of rope activity.  The ropes were in a cross so there were four teams of boys.  The problem was the leaders didn't have loud voices, so Preston couldn't figure out what to do.  He couldn't find a spot and didn't understand.  He started crying.  I helped him find a spot.  Right when I did, Lincoln pulled the rope and tried to get everyone to go to another side.  He was trying to do what the leaders wanted, but Preston got caught in the rope.  I don't know how to explain it.  Lincoln wasn't at fault, but Preston had a rope burn around his waist.  I took Preston out and had him by me.  He was pretty upset. The kids were out of control and chaos was everywhere.  None of my kids function well in chaos.  Especially my boys.  It gives them a lot of anxiety.  The next activity looked like two wood planks with ropes on them.  It looked like each plank would fit each boy.  I was trying to get Preston calmed down and help him continue with the camp.  I kept crying that he didn't want to miss it.  I pointed out to him what was going to happen next and said, "I think you will need to work with the other boys to go forward'.  One of the two boy leaders said to me, "Can you let the boys figure this out for themselves?"  Holy cow was I mad.  I said, "No, I can't.  Can you see he is having a meltdown?"  The boy then said something like, "The boys need to figure this out for themselves." I snapped at him and said, "He doesn't.  I am going to get him under control.  Don't tell me what is best for him, I am going to calm him down no matter what your agenda is."  I can't remember exactly what I said but I was so annoyed with this boy leader and I was annoyed that Preston was confused and hurt.  I was annoyed with how this day was going.  I was annoyed with the lack of organization.  I was annoyed that Preston and I were here instead of with Mike and his kids.  I was annoyed with the way the first year leader that had no control over the kids and continually argued with his partner was talking to me.  I know he was probably stressed out and I didn't talk to him too kindly, but holy cow he was snotty!  I have no idea what possessed the camp to put two first year leaders together.  There were many other leaders there that looked like they were amazing.  We did not get to experience that. These boys should have been trained, instead it made for a miserable day.  Obviously I did not leave Preston to go hang out with my brother. How could I leave him in that mess?  To make matters worse, it started pouring rain on us.  The kids were freezing.  Here are some pictures of Preston at the slingshot and archery station.  He actually hit the target in archery!  I didn't notice in slingshot.

Preston

When we finally got to our lunch break I talked Preston into going home early with me.  He was miserable, I was miserable, I just wanted to get out of there.  I did not want to eat in the rain.  I did not want to watch a skit before our next stations.  Luckily for me, Preston agreed. Preston was buckling himself in when he realized he had left his pet rock that he painted.  Our car was a long ways away.  I asked him on a scale of one to ten how important it was to him.  He looked at me with his big brown eyes and softly said six.  I couldn't resist.  I started walking back.  Preston came running after me and we walked together in the pouring rain.  He found his pet rock, but he couldn't find his fossil thing he had made.  There were a lot of dixie cups with the boys names on them that had these fossil things in them.  They were on the microwave.  It was pouring buckets, so there was a lot of water around even though it was under a canopy.  When we would pick up a cup to see a name we would get an electric shock.  Preston and I were quite fascinated by this.  We kept trying different things to see what would give us more/less shock.  The shock would just go up our finger.  We would try standing different places to see if what we were standing on made a difference.  Preston showed the other scouts in our pack.  They were fascinated.  We did little science experiments for about fifteen minutes.  This was Preston's favorite part of the camp.  Mine too.

Mike was gone when we arrived home.  Matt and Sam were here.  Mike had taken Skye to visit one of his childhood friends that is suffering with cancer now.  He is in stage 4 and has only been given two years to live.  I think it was two years, it might have been two months.  His name is Matt.  He is married and has three children.  I can't even imagine.  Anyways, Preston was happy to play with Larkin, Blake and Anne.  Bubs and Ange came over to drop off some clothes for their kids. I'm going to watch them next week.  We decided to go swimming. Bubs went home to get swimsuits for himself.  Mike got pizza for everyone.  I had never seen a pizza sandwich before.  I guess that is a thing.

Mike

We swam in the pool until pretty late.  It was a lot of fun.  I don't think the cousins had ever gone night swimming before.  We had quite a crowd.  Mike, Skye, Larkin, Blake, Matt, Sam, Anne, Jeff, Bubs, Ange, Lincoln, Ella, Abby, Millie, Dad, Max, Maysen, Jorja, Preston and myself.  It was Ella's birthday.  She opened her presents here.  Skye went and grabbed a beautiful flower hairpiece she had just made and gave it to Ella.  She picked blue because it was Ella's favorite color. Skye was so sweet, Ella was so thrilled.

Mike and Stockton were at the cabin.  Actually they were driving home while we were swimming.  Mike got an inflatable boat for Father's Day last year.  This year he got a sail to add to the boat.  He tried it out early with Stockton.  Mike loved it.  These are the pictures he sent me.

Mike and Stockton arrived home around 1:30 in the morning.  I was still up talking to my brother Mike.  I was glad they decided to come home tonight instead of leaving at 3:00 in the morning in order to make it to church!  I set up the pull out bed for Stockton so he could just crash there.  Skye, Larkin and Preston were sleeping in his room. He was so tired it didn't matter to him.  Yay!  Everyone is home!