Trek Weekend

 I never got the chance to go on Trek. I don't recall the opportunity to go when I was a youth; I don't think our Stake did it. Four years ago, Victoria and Kade went for the first time. That was when I was in charge of Girl's Camp. This time, Jason is the Stake Young Men's president and was involved in the planning process. It was also the time that Erik and Austin would be able to go. 

As it got closer, I noticed they were still looking for a cook for Trek, so I volunteered to help with that. I figured this would be a good opportunity to go. I always felt envious of the people going on Trek. It sounds so fun!  By that time, Victoria had been asked to attend as well (I figured they'd ask the service missionary), and she would be the photographer. 

Luckily, I wasn't in charge of the cooking, only on the cooking team, which was just perfect! I helped "plan" the menu (really, the lead cook had planned it, I just agreed and gave a couple of suggestions). The only prep work I did was gather things from our ward building, which is also the Stake center, to use in the unstocked kitchen at camp. I didn't have to shop for any food since I was assigned the job of picking up the 38 pizzas for lunch on the first day. 

For dinner that night, we served a taco bar, with cobbler and ice cream for dessert. Breakfast both mornings consisted of scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage links, yogurt, granola, bananas, milk, and juice. We bought everything premade, and we just had to defrost and heat, which did take some time for 80+ people. Lunch on the second day was a hot dog bar with salad, dinner was a potato bar with all the fixings, and brownies with ice cream for dessert. The last day's lunch was sandwiches with fruit and chips. Obviously, the food wasn't pioneer food, but we wanted the kids to enjoy the food. Our lead cook's viewpoint was that if the food isn't good, then no one has a good time. And I fully agree with her! We had vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy-free options. Most of the work involved dicing the tomatoes for the taco bar and then warming up, putting out, and cleaning up. It was pretty easy and so fun to observe the Trek happenings in first person, even if I didn't get to do the hikes with them. When I had free time, I walked around to see where their hikes were. I also enjoyed watching some of their games and the square dance evening, in which I was able to participate a bit.

38 pizzas!

Dicing tomatoes

River crossing

Tuff!

Erik and some friends.

I loved Erik's group's name!

Erik's team pulling.

Austin's team in a bind.

Hair washing time!

Victoria let some girls do her hair. 

We boiled water and filled a cooler with it while the potatoes were baking. Then we dumped the water out and put the baked potatoes in. They stayed piping hot!

Huge moth

Cooperative games

All the kids seemed to have had a great time. Victoria had great opportunities with the youth and took excellent pictures! Neither Erik nor I got poison ivy, a big worry of mine now. In fact, the only problem occurred literally 5 minutes before we left. Erik missed the football, but not after it connected with his pinkie. He went home with another family, and they got him ice at McDonald's. We were exhausted when we got home (we didn't sleep well at Trek), and Jason had a really bad cough. So we unpacked some things, ate dinner, and went to bed. Erik woke with major ear pain in both ears, and Kade wasn't feeling well, so they both stayed home from church on Father's Day. Jason wore a mask, even though he was with a lot of people at Trek; we were outside most of the time. 

We celebrated Jason with a breakfast of egg sandwiches on homemade sourdough I had made just before Trek and steak fajitas (my first time making steak, ever!) for dinner. Victoria helped me with the steak, which I needed. They turned out pretty good. The kids gave Jason a couple of gifts, and we had a very low-key day. Kade ended up having to go to work during dinner, but he spent some time with Jason in the morning. 

Sourdough bread with egg, turkey bacon, and cheese melted on it. 

Erik got him socks from when he was in Canada. 

Victoria got him a belt from when she was in Mexico. 

I allowed Austin to give him the candy I bought him. (Kade was working by this time.)

We saw the baby ducks in our front yard on Mother's Day, and Benito, our pet bunny that lives there now, graced us with his presence on Father's Day!

The cats love to watch Benito!!!

I made an appointment for Erik to get an X-ray at the Urgent Care on Monday morning, where they diagnosed him with swimmer's ear in both ears (funny, he wasn't swimming at Trek, but he did get dunked one time in the river they crossed). They also declared his pinkie broken. Guess which hurt him more- the ear pain. The break was near a growth plate, and he finally got his cast on Friday. 

Unfortunately, there's a major heat wave coming up this week. This cast is going to be dreadful.  

So Trek was fantastic, Father's Day was okay, and the week after Trek was uneventful. I guess that's the way it goes. 

Holding Down the Fort

 Most of us went on our stake Pioneer Trek over the last few days, but Kade stayed back. He had to work, and we needed someone to hold down the fort! I will blog about Trek later. This post is an update about Kade. 

He successfully completed two semesters at Schoolcraft College a couple of months ago. He will start up some summer classes in July. They'll mostly be online, which will be good since we will be traveling a bit during that time. He took a chemistry class and loved it! He is also working two jobs. One at Zumiez, where he's been for a while now, and at Plato's Closet, which was Victoria's first job. It's nice because it is close to our house, though he might quit Plato's soon if they make him a manager at Zumiez, as his boss keeps telling him. He has the most sales out of the sales associates at Zumiez. Probably because his customer service is top-notch!

When he's not working, he still loves to be with his friends. He also cares for his snake, the crested gecko that he's been babysitting the past few months, and our cats. He's consistent with getting his house jobs done, which includes rotating with Austin in mowing the back lawn. One of our favorite skills that Kade has developed is his pizza-making. He makes the dough and a fresh pizza just about every week. He eats it over the course of a few days, or faster if he shares with some of us. Sometimes he'll make two, and we all get to eat them for dinner. They're excellent! 

If I need help with an errand, I can usually count on Kade to take care of it if he's not working. It seems like he graduated from high school way more than a year ago! 

Standing in the rain, looking for a tornado.

Erik had just gotten a buzz, so they're buzz bros now.

Emo Nite a couple of months ago. Kade was pictured a few times on their Instagram. 

Kade's been training Luke to stay on the leash in the yard. He has even taken him for a few small walks! He has also trained Leia to sit, shake, lie down, and turn around. Pretty cool!

Lasts

 Since Erik has completed middle school,  he has had some "lasts ". Even though "lasts" sometimes has a negative connotation, his were all positive. 

Two amazing last adventures he experienced at Discovery were his 8th-grade field trip to Washington DC and the 8th-grade band trip to Toronto. He didn't take the photos I would have, but he has some incredible memories and experiences in his mind.

He participated in his last band concert at Discovery, and as usual,  Jason and I couldn't see him. Trombones are always in the back.  This time, they actually switched sides, and we couldn't even see him when they stood at the end because we were on the wrong side and the angle wasn't right.

Two of Erik's besties. 

Mr. Hartge is on the far left and is one of my favorite teachers of all time. He was Austin's band teacher for only one year, and I was so glad when Erik chose band so he could have Mr. Hartge. Mr. Bucek is on the far right and is Mr. Hartge's assistant, who happens to play the trombone, so he loves Erik since he works with him often. 

It's always tradition to go to Menchies after a band concert because it is literally two minutes from Discovery.

He participated in his last NJHS meeting. Parents weren't invited,  but he worked hard to get his 16 hours of service in this year,  even though he doesn't want pictures or recognition for it. He cleaned up yards, made a tie quilt for a hospital, volunteered hours for school events,  and collected money at Christmas for the needy.

He participated in his last middle school track meet. At the league meet, he came in 5th for the 1600 and the 800 with times of  5:24 and 2:35. In the 4x4, his team came in 3rd. Erik looked fantastic on his leg of the race with a 1:02. Our high school coach, JG, came out to see Erik and the boy who took first for everything since they're both going to Salem next year. Coach told me that Erik called out to him from the stands to say hi. So cute😊 His pr this season for the 1600 is 5:18 and a 2:23 for the 800. He will definitely be an asset to the Salem team!

Erik's running with Austin cheering him on. 

Erik and Austin. It was very hot and sunny that day.

He participated in his last soccer game last Sunday. I thought I would feel more emotional than I did, but I didn't. I think part of it was that Coach Scott had a conversation with Erik after the game, and then with Jason and me, that he understood that Erik wouldn't be playing anymore, but he wanted him to rethink his decision because he has so much potential. He told us Erik would be allowed to make the practices he could and go to as many games as he could, putting XC and track first, except in the winter when he could train for soccer.  We felt honored and appreciated, but now conflicted with the thought of paying for soccer and trying to balance that with XC and track. Erik finally told me that he had made his decision and was going to stick with XC and track, but we haven't told Coach Scott yet. Erik's really good at soccer, but he's even better at running. Luckily, they had a win in the last game, 4-2, and the refs didn't leave me hating the game like I have at other games this season. 

His last time as a goalie, with this team. 

His team!

Coach Scott

Some good clips of this last game.

Finally, he graduated from middle school on Tuesday. I have had 3 kids graduate from Discovery now, and I did get a little teary-eyed, but it was harder for me when he graduated from elementary school than from middle school. Next year, he'll be at the high school with Austin and on the same teams as him, so that's pretty exciting. After his graduation, he had a headache, so he didn't want to take pics with his friends or teachers. We went to the furthest place we could go for a pic of the three of us, the marquee sign, clicked one pic, then left. He went to sleep for 3 hours in his bed when we arrived home. His voice had been scratchy for about a month and a half, since just before he went to DC. All the fun and the yelling at meets and games didn't help. When he woke, he still didn't feel great, but I had made him pancakes and begged him to let me take one picture of him with the 8th-grade graduation sign, when no one else was there. It took all of 4 minutes to drive to Discovery, take the pic, and drive home. The sign is down now, his voice is almost back to normal, and we are pretty much recovered and in summer mode!

Graduation ceremony

At least he smiled.

After his long nap.

One of his band songs.

Celebrations

 Austin was celebrated in many ways over the last week, including his 17th birthday.  

First, two days before he went to compete in the track and field State competition, he learned that he made it into the Symphony orchestra.  He worked really hard to record the piece on the cello he was required to play. I was glad his hard work paid off.

His experience at States was awesome. He went up the day before with the 3 other guys who were to compete in the long jump, the high jump, and the pole vault. They rode a fancy limo bus with the girls' team. They had a nice dinner and bonding time with their coach and each other. 

When Jason, Victoria, and I arrived the next morning around 11, Austin was the only one in the breakfast area, enjoying his huge breakfast, his pre-meet meal. His teammates were already preparing to compete in their events, but his event is always the 2nd to last. 

King Austin!

State Shirt for the 4 Salem guys. It was so fun to watch his teammates in their jumping competitions.

He didn't compete as well as he was hoping. I was worried that maybe he didn't sleep well enough at the hotel, or maybe his breakfast was a little too late. His coach ended up saying that since he was injured half the season, his body wasn't prepared enough for the competition, even though he did so well at Regionals. That was the only time he ran the 3200 all season. He just didn't get enough training time. Not like getting 33rd in the State in the 3200 is a bad thing, on the contrary!! We're super proud and happy for all the effort he put into it.

We celebrated him for his birthday on Monday with a dinner at Big Moe's Kitchen. They serve Afrikanse/Mediterranean food. It's very delicious! He opened gifts, and we enjoyed vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting later on. The best part about his birthday,  I'm sure, was that a lot of the school year pressure was off his shoulders.  At least that's what I enjoyed the most!

Big Moe's Kitchen. 

New ear buds.

BYU tie.

Favorite candy from Erik.

Clothes from Kade and Victoria. 

Star Wars cake. I made it this time since Kade wasn't feeling well. Looks like I missed a spot for frosting...

I recorded him playing his piano recital song at home on his birthday, too. Benny and the Jets is a fun song, so it worked well to have him play it for us. His recital was the night before States, so since he was already at the school where the competition was going to be for pre-meet things, he couldn't make the recital.  I felt bad and wished he could have gone. He accompanied the music at the seminary graduation on Sunday, so his teacher counted that as his performance.

His track banquet was Thursday, and unsurprisingly, he got the event leader for the 1600 and 3200 for the Juniors and the Rockstar award for those for all the grades. He has the 9th-fastest 1600 in school history with a 4:27 and the 3rd-fastest 3200 in school history with a 9:28. The school was established in 1971. He will be on the school's leaderboard now. 

Receiving his award.

The Juniors.

Besties 

Fancy shirt friends

Our team manager, Silas, who is also in our ward and graduating.

Coach JG, who just reached out to Erik, excited to coach him as well this next year.

Austin sent me this that Silas got of Coach with Austin after his race at Regionals. Love this!!

He also sent me this. Tuff! (that's the hip way to spell tough, now, btw)

His awards.

Phew- what a birthday week! Happy 17th Birthday, Austin!