The Last Hurrah

 Victoria's dream has been to have a friend with a lake house and a boat. She made that friend, Susie, less than 2 years ago. They are like two peas in a pod. They have participated in throwing on the track team together and in dance, but have so many other similar interests as well. Victoria has gotten to go with her family, the Kishs, who was mentioned in the Niagra Falls post, to their lake house a handful of times now and live her dream. 

Our families have gotten close and they invited all of us up last weekend to the lake house. Victoria went up on Thursday with the Kishs. My plan was to go up Friday after lunch and then Jason would come even later after work since we would need 2 cars to go home on Sunday for Kai to be at marching band camp for the week.

One hitch in our plans on Friday morning was that I heard an extremely loud crash from the bathroom above my head and then heard Austin call for me. He was about to shower after a cross country practice and yard work, had just started the water, proceeded to crack the window, then slipped and fell on the already-broken-but-glued-back-together soap dish which promptly broke right off under his weight and cut about a 2-inch long, one-inch wide gash in his upper hamstring, just on the underwear line. If it weren't so huge and bloody, and somewhat disturbing to look at, it would have been a funny sight to see him cupping himself to cover up and have Erik, Kai, and me running into the bathroom that he unlocked for us. I had to take a deep calming breath so I wouldn't start freaking out and I could wash my hands and start first aid on him. Kai was very helpful and cleaned up all the blood and was patient with Erik while I took Austin to the urgent care. They took us back right away when they saw the blood soaking through his shorts, which were 4 layers of fabric with gauze, underwear, and shorts. They numbed him up and gave him 7 stitches, making sure I didn't look anymore at it when they were afraid for my well-being. Then they gave him the worst news: no getting in the lake for 7-10 days and no running. Since that was our weekend and his entire following week, it was a hard pill to swallow.

We did manage to convince Austin to come up with Jason, later that night. The rest of us had a jumpstart to riding the boat, tubing, wakeboarding, riding around in the golf cart, and playing games. Jason and Austin arrived just in time for a couple more games, the finishing of a movie, and bedtime. The Kish's cute little cottage fit us all nicely with our boys in the living room on an air mattress and couch, Victoria and Kai with Susie and Sammie in the double bunk room, Joe and Karyn in their room, and Jason and I in the little guest room. I got to go on a nice run around the lake the next morning before we made pancakes, eggs, and bacon for the kids. Sammie, who is in between Austin and Erik's age but looks like she's 17, eats like Erik does if you know what I mean. So they make a great pair for cooking! 

Joe took us out on many runs on the boat. Some were faster and crazier for the tubers, some slower for those of us who wanted to visit and check out the lake or watch the wakeboarders. Austin managed to enjoy himself, despite having to stay dry, which Jason and I did pretty well with also. Jason gets motion sick and never felt well enough to wakeboard, though we did get to kayak together and that was lovely. I went with him and Austin on the paddle boat too. I didn't wakeboard or anything big either, just because when I would do it in my younger years, it was always such a worry with my bad ear. I had to be very on top of my swimming and tread water as soon as I fell so I wouldn't go too far underwater. I was always very stressed, so I have retired from my water sports activities- the more risky ones, anyway.

The boat and dock, are just outside their cottage.

Jason, Kai, and Joe, first thing in the morning. 

Austin, trying to stay dry.

Future boat driver!

Ready!

Susie, Vicky, and Kai

I was cold!

The adults!

Tubing!

A neighbor friend, Kai, Erik, and Sammie.

Paddle boating- it's pretty dry.

Austin got to ride the golf cart and then drive it at one point.

Erik and the neighbor girl on the paddle board.

Vicky and Susie on the jet ski. 

Victoria wake boarding!

Karyn and me on the kayaks.

The time went by fast and we enjoyed the full day of water activities, games, food, and excellent company. Kai, Austin, and I left early Sunday morning so we could make it to the Canton Ward sacrament meeting, which we missed because it started a half hour earlier than we thought, but she got to the school in time to make the bus for camp. Jason, Erik, and Victoria got as much out as they could for Vicky's last time at Susie's lake house till next summer. 

Normally, I would end this post here, but I have to continue on since I leave for Utah tomorrow and won't be able to do another post for a while. So, Austin broke his wrist in January, then Kai broke her wrist a few months later. Austin got stitches on Friday and then I got a call on Tuesday from camp that Kai was on her way to get stitches at the ER in Indiana (that's where the closest ER was to camp). Her flag had hit her mouth, which pushed her upper lip down on a bottom tooth that went right through it. She had to get two stitches on the outside of her lip and two on the inside. They performed a CT scan to make sure there were no hairline fractures in her face. Her teeth were amazingly fine. It was a very stressful evening for me on the phone with doctors who were 3 hours away from me, but everyone assured me that she would be fine. She stayed at camp, though she was almost sent home when she wasn't eating well the next day and passed out a bunch of times. They got everything under control and she was able to eat better Thursday and Friday. I was nervous when I went to pick her up yesterday about what her face would look like, but she looked good. Just the little stitches that I could see on the outside. She performed well and actually enjoyed camp very much this year, minus Tuesday and Wednesday. Her knee injury didn't bother her much, so that was a little blessing. 

Now, we're wondering if Erik is next for stitches since he broke his pinky after Kai's break. Well, Victoria got her wisdom teeth out 3 days before Austin's accident. She got stitches for that, does that count?

This was taken with the Kishs a couple of days after we all had returned from the lake house. It happened to be the day of Kai's injury, so part of the meal was me on the phone with the doctors. 

Kai's stitches. I never pictured Austin's- they were a little too close to his butt for his comfort in photographs!

Summer Acitvities

 This has been a very different summer with the grad party, Nationals in Niagra Falls, and the fact that I have 3 full-blown teens under my roof, with one getting ready to move out. Everyone is more independent and I'm not quite sure what I think about that at this point.

Here are some of our more "regular" summer activities from the entire summer, squished in between the big events, like Girl's Camp and the ones mentioned above.

We had a stake activity the first weekend after school got out in downtown Detroit. It was the day after the Taylor Swift concert and I was pretty tired and busy prepping for the grad party which would be the following weekend, so I don't have a lot to say about these old buildings that we toured as part of the activity. I did enjoy seeing them, however!

Elevators took us up to the 32nd floor for the start of the tours and where the potluck was.

The Mitten in the back.

Original Coney Island

A lot of the buildings had rotating doors.

After we had recovered from the grad party, the boys and I took Gramms and Abuelo to Frankenmuth, an old German town here that is all done up for tourists. We hadn't been in a very long time and the boys didn't remember it. Abuelo hadn't even been there before!

Old covered bridge

We opted to eat at the crepe place rather than the huge German restaurant. I thought Erik would eat something there, but he didn't like the toppings that came with the crepes and he didn't want a plain one (they told him they weren't very sweet plain).

Some of us enjoyed them!

They did a mirror maze while Gramms, Abuelo, and I looked around at the shops.

Bronner's Christmas store is the biggest in the whole world. Repping the Puerto Rican flag here.

We all enjoyed browsing the Christmas store. 

We celebrated Gramms' birthday, a few days early. 

And we celebrated Grandpa Jim's birthday, after Nationals, a couple weeks early.

Went swimming in the dam after a trial hike for Girl's Camp and had fun playing games with Grandpa and Grandma.

For Senior Skip day, Victoria went to Cedar Point with some friends. I bought tickets for a very good deal over the winter in preparation for this. I then decided to buy some more for a good deal for my other kids and me. We finally got to going July and Austin and Kai each brought a friend. Erik was my riding buddy.

Despite Austin's face in these pics, he had a very fun time!

Besides these amazingly fun activities, Austin and Erik have gone to some school camps for swim, track, Esports, Probability Games, and STEM. Austin's had cross-country practices and hung with friends, Erik's played some soccer and hung with friends. We've ridden bikes, gone swimming, played video games, and read books. Kai's mostly been practicing for color guard, hanging with friends, and helping me out around the house. Victoria's been working and hanging out with friends. She got her wisdom teeth out the other day, so we watched a lot of Gilmore Girls together as she recovered. We still have some fun times ahead in the summer, but it's quickly coming to an end. 

Jason got to drive home a new Mustang that he worked on the finances for. 

Victoria planned a mother/daughter date for her besties and their moms. 

We went to an outdoor concert at the park last night. Just a local band, but it was such a pleasant evening!

24 Years!

 Jason and I celebrated 24 years of marriage on Monday. We got him a new bike on Saturday as his gift and we will hopefully be able to enjoy more trail riding together. Not trail riding as in crazy roots and narrow pathways, just be able to be flexible on the terrain we ride on. We both have nice road bikes and we used to do that more often together, but it's nice to have the option of riding on dirt when we want to. I told him that all I want is to do more fun activities, with just the two of us. We're hoping to buy a kayak next year. Now that our kids are getting older and are more independent, they do so much with friends and don't hang out with us as much. I'm afraid I'll be bored! He got me a beautiful bouquet, as usual, and delicious coconut chocolates, that I'm hiding so the kids don't get them, but I'm excited for my future gifts of fun!

I was pretty tired on Monday- still recovering from Girl's Camp and a busy weekend, so we just went to dinner at an Italian restaurant that we haven't been to in years. It was delicious and relaxing! We usually go to do sealings around our anniversary and had gone to the temple 10 days earlier to do that, but Jason's recommend was messed up and it said in the system that it had expired in June, whereas on his card it said through July. We were a little disappointed to have driven all the way over there and actually be turned away, but we ended up going for a walk in downtown Plymouth and looked at all the gorgeous houses, of which I took no pictures! 

We get to go to the temple this Friday for an endowment session since the sealings are all full. This is the last Friday session before they close it for cleaning for 3 weeks. It's a good thing we got our interviews done quickly!

Here's to big changes coming up with our oldest leaving the nest and Silver Anniversary next year! Yay for us!

Antonio's 

Hike near Buffalo