This Week at Our House # 22

1. Wow, it's June! The years are starting to go faster. John worked Memorial Day because we wanted to take the family to beach, but not on a busy beach day. So we made Wednesday his day off and went to the beach. Unfortunately, it was very windy. Johnny's glasses got buried somewhere in the sand from the wind and we never found them. But the waves were huge and strong and the water was warm. John was sad, though because we had to leave early than he wanted to because the little kids got cold and whiney. He is going to make a big kid only beach trip at some point.
2. I realized that I am just not going to get to enjoy the beach as much this summer because Sam is so little and needs me so much. I will get to go for a short swim when someone else takes him, but there will always have to be someone on the beach with him and I am the one he wants the most.
3. Ruth is reading and studying so much to prepare for her mission. She and I went shopping for her mission at a mall 2 hours from home. We originally had to go that way to get her finger prints for her visa, but the visa computer system is down over the world and none of the missionaries are able to take care of this right now. When we found out she would not have her appointment, we had already scheduled a Temple trip and time to meet my mom at the mall-- which is two hours the other direction from my mom, so a good meeting point. We brought all the girls and Sam and did our initiatory session and our mall shopping. Ruth got her suit she needed for her mission. I loved having her in the Temple with me. 
4. Kate had a busy week. She loves the beach and enjoyed that! She enjoyed seeing my mom and our girl trip to the mall and she babysat with Rachel's help outside the Temple. Then she went on an over night young womens camp out. Her friend Emma, came over to meet her bird. Kate's bird is starting to eat on it's own. It is flying well and we think it will be flying away soon.
5. Johnny had a much quieter week as all he had to do when we went shopping was keep an eye on Joseph and Joshua and play video games. Johnny is becoming a pretty strong ocean swimmer. Fortunately, Johnny got new glasses ordered Thursday morning and them in by Friday afternoon.
6. Adam loves the beach as much as Kate. He swims the whole time. Adam likes going places and will come with me on my errands. John took him and all the boys to a gun show. Adam loves that. I think he had a good week.
7. Rachel is at an inbetween stage. She desires to be a little kid and do little kid things and  she desires to be a big kid and do big kid things. Monday, Rachel stepped on a giant bumble bee and got the stinger in the bottom of her foot. The next day her foot got really swollen and hot. I had her soak it in salt water and put tea tree and lavender essential oils on it. Those helped a little, but an hour and a half spent in the ocean brought most of the swelling down, and she was able to walk again the next day when we went to the mall. 
8. Anya gets cold and complainy at the beach. She is always joined by Joshua and Arwen. But Anya was very well behaved at the mall and at the Temple.
9. Joseph actually loves the beach. He spent the whole time swimming. The waves were very strong and kept knocking him over, but he swam through them pretty well.
10. Joshua hid under a blanket at the beach because the wind was so fierce.
11. Arwen hid under a blanket at the beach too. Arwen started out acting pretty naughty at the mall, so I buckled her into a stroller for a while. After that she behaved very well. 
12. Suzy was dazzled by the mall. She hasn't been to a mall in a year and a half. She was really excited and skipped along very happily. 
13. Sam is 19 pounds and six and a half months! He can crawl, sit himself up and stand himself up. He also has 4 teeth broken through. His bottom two teeth came in only about a week before his top teeth. 

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