Bringing on Summer

 Though we've only been out of school for just over a week, we've been anticipating the end of the school year for a few weeks with all of the end-of-year activities. Now that Austin is finally feeling better, and Jason too, I feel like I can go back to appreciate some of those celebrations. 

My mom was here for Austin's final track meet, piano recital, Erik's band concert, and Canton Cup, which I already posted about. Kade and Jason attended the orchestra banquet, which I typically attend but chilled with my mom instead. Jason and I got to attend Austin's track ice cream social together. And we all enjoyed the start of the backpacking training for the Young Men's trip at the end of July.

Orchestra banquet

Track ice cream social 

Austin's coach was so proud of his accomplishments!

I had to swing on some vines with the kids on our hike and I didn't have a backpack to carry!

We went to an air show and Kade got to go on a senior beach trip with CJ. We attended many grad parties, as I mentioned before.

Lake Michigan

CJ's grad party (Kade's bestie)

Susie's grad party (Vicky's bestie, but I got to represent Victoria who couldn't be there)

Kade and I got nailed going into his dermatologist appointment by a crazy downpour. We were parked in the first space, closest to the door and we were drenched in the 2 seconds it took to get under the overhang!

Most of us made it to the last day of school, well, Austin did, but barely, so I didn't take any last-day of school pics of him.

Some of my amazing co-workers!

Here we are, well into summer now. We made it through the school year- phew!

Grads and Dad

 We've been to a lot of graduation parties since school ended. You know, it's the Michigan way. Austin got to go to the most important one for him, his best friend Owen's older brother, but then Austin got sick with some crazy end-of-the-year sickness and couldn't go to the other 3 that we went to. It's been over a week, and Austin's still sick, though I can say he's finally getting better.

Last Monday, two days before school got out, his throat started to hurt. Those last 3 days were half days because of finals. He managed ok on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday, he had a fever and I still had to send him for his last day, with a face mask, so he could take his last final. After school, I took him to the doctor to see if he had strep. He had spots on his throat and I was sure it was strep. Well, the rapid test came back negative. In the following couple of days, the tests for covid, influenza A and B, and the longer strep test came back negative. Then, he developed problems with his ears. They hurt and were plugged up. Meanwhile, his throat still hurt and he started coughing. On Sunday, he woke up with bright red eyes, so red I didn't think it was even pink eye because they didn't look like any pink eye I'd ever seen. His voice sounded awful and he was all plugged up. Monday morning his eyes still looked horribly red along with a lot of goop, so I took him to the doctor again and they looked at everything. His ears weren't necessarily infected, just plugged up. They didn't think he actually had pink eye. It sounded like they weren't really sure what to label his sickness as, so they prescribed him amoxicillin and said they would treat it as a sinus infection. They also prescribed him eye drops for us to pick up on Wednesday if his eyes didn't improve. Now it is Tuesday, more than a week since his first symptom of a sore throat. He had a bloody nose this morning while trying to blow his nose and he still sounds congested, but his eyes are starting to improve and he told me a few minutes ago that his throat finally doesn't hurt anymore. I'm really hoping he's done with this because it has been a long week of sickness for him. 

Meanwhile, Jason had developed a horrible cough, as is his main symptom with most things he catches. He caught it before Austin.  We think he might have gotten it from Erik who had an ear infection before that, but they treated him with amoxicillin immediately. When they told us Austin's was viral and wouldn't give him anything on that first visit, we were confused as to where everyone caught everything. Jason's cough was one of his more intense ones with lots of late nights up coughing and plenty of coughing throughout the day. He sounded pretty bad too. He had a sore throat, but that was his only other symptom. Luckily for him, he just started to feel better for Father's Day. 

I made him a breakfast hash with peppers, sausage, and eggs and then copycat In and Out burgers with broccoli and fries for dinner. The burgers really did taste like In and Out! I was super happy about that because I'm not the greatest at working with meat, but it was mostly the sauce and the veggies that made the difference with the burgers. I made copycat Wendy's frosties for dessert that also were surprisingly easy and much like the real thing. Kade made blonde brownies as well because he typically makes his gifts in the form of dessert. We played some card games and relaxed together. Jason and I got his gift the day before- new church shoes that he picked out. 

This was actually Saturday night.

Sunday night. 

We zoomed with Victoria too.

Kade and I have been trying not to get sick. I think Kade will get it in two days when Austin's all better. I probably won't get it because my immune system has been insane this year! I almost had a sick student every week, or a least every other week, for the whole year, with strep, covid, pink eye, stomach bug, flu, pneumonia, and other things, and I never even got a cold this whole school year. 

Also, Kade is dog-sitting for two weeks, so Pepper got to celebrate Jason with us too. She's such a good dog and we're enjoying having her here! The cats are getting used to her as well. 

She enjoys sitting with us on the couch.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!

Soccer Season

 This was a tough soccer season for Erik. Last season they played "up" at a lower level, but since they did so well, they played "up" at a higher level this season. Our opponents were usually a lot bigger kids with more advanced skills. Erik, being one of the youngest on our team and not being a very big kid, often looked tiny compared to some of those guys! So, while they played their hearts out, they lost all of their games and tied one, though that's debatable because Erik insists they won that game. Most of the losses weren't blow-outs though, and there were a few that we should have won, because we had dominated on the opposing team's side, but we just didn't score much and the other team was able to sneak a few goals in.

Erik still played goalkeeper for many of the games for one of the halves, though his size compared to the others and the size of the net made it harder for him to be as successful since he just couldn't get high enough to block some of the balls. He took a goalkeeper training class this season as well. What he really continued to excel in was his defensive skills. As usual, he had no fear and always held his ground, even when the guys were twice his size. He could sprint fast enough to keep up with most of them and at least get in their way. 

Unfortunately, at his last game, he made a super good defensive move to stop a player, but must have gotten kicked in the foot or the ball kicked into his for, he's not sure, and he collapsed to the ground. He writhed in pain a bit before his coaches carried him off the field. He sat out for a while, then tried to get back in, only to realize his foot still hurt and he couldn't play well enough. 

That last game was also the last game for the Sharks to play together. Coach Matt's retiring from coaching soccer because his son is going to play football in the fall. Matt has coached (it's a volunteer job) for about 8 years. Erik's been on his team for about 4 or 5 of those years with some of his friends from his previous team. With most of the team going into 8th grade, they're preparing for high school, so a lot of them are going to try the travel team or just a different sport. We finally decided that Erik would try out for the travel team in Plymouth. The friend he has played soccer with the longest, Shabeg, also tried out. Hopefully, they're on the same team together. Erik tried out on Saturday, Shabeg did the make-up tryout yesterday, so I haven't heard yet about him. Erik made the team, even with his injured foot!! We're so happy for him since soccer is the only thing he has really been involved in consistently. It's going to be a lot of fun!

At this point, his foot only hurts when he kicks a ball, so hopefully, it will heal with him not playing soccer over the summer. Tomorrow is the last day of school!

The size difference is definitely apparent with this team!

He's goalkeeper here.

He did enjoy his year trying out the trombone and has played well, so it looks like he has another interest!

Last team photo. He's kind of hiding in this pic in the mid-front.

Austin's Birthday

 Time gets away fast! Not only from the last blog I posted but for Austin's past 15 years! His birthday falls at a hectic time of year but with lots of things to celebrate. He's always been talented at everything he does. He has tried just about every sport and activity and is pretty good at most of them. He has tried most forms of music and is pretty good at most of those too. The best thing about him, though, is he is such a nice kid. Many people tell me he's always so pleasant to talk to and comfortable with adults, girls, boys, and kids alike. He's as cool as a cucumber, which is sometimes aggravating when I'm asking him to do something and he just says, "Yup". There's not a lot of fire behind him in that regard. He just gets to things when he gets to them. However, he is responsible, it just sometimes takes a while.

One thing he does have fire in is his push at the last bit of a race. He has a really good kick and will use it almost every time, surprising us all, especially at his last track meet when he got sub-5! He kept improving his race times for the mile for the last 3-4 races in the mile by 5-10 seconds. He really wanted to get below five minutes for his last race, and he did! 4:54 to be exact! I didn't get a good pic of his finish because I was so caught up in how he had come from the back of the pack all the way up to coming in second in that heat! It was one of those exhilarating, proud moments. Here's a picture walk of most of the race.

He's 6th from the back here.

Notice the guy on the far right, almost out of the pic.

Austin's close to him (a senior) here.

The last 1/2 lap here in the back, he's hard to see, because he's starting to pass.

The last 16th of a mile he's still with that senior. 

Past him. Not in the picture are the first 2 guys because they were so fast. This is where Austin passed one of them just before the finish and came in second!

Stoked!

He earned the sub-5 shirt!

He also finished up his piano year with a bang earning the second-level trophy for Federation and earning a medal for certain requirements throughout the piano year. His recital piece was beautiful too.

The most interesting thing about these two final events in his school year is that he had a sprained ankle the last month of track and he had jammed his finger and then it got infected, affecting his piano practice a bit. Yes, Austin is also extremely talented at getting injured. Remember my post about his orchestra concert on Jason's birthday? Thank goodness he didn't break his wrist again, but that was sprained too, which is how we knew his ankle was sprained because we asked the doctor about it when we were at the urgent care.

Jason's brother is a doctor and told Jason where to slice into the finger to let out the puss. I didn't watch up close, but apparently, he couldn't get the blade in, so Kade did. Just like that!

Flexing some scrapes he got at track, while icing his shins, and still wearing the wrist guard for his wrist and ankle was still sprained here.

Sadly, that was Austin's last orchestra concert as he will not be involved with it next year, but he thinks he will still play around on his cello. Maybe he will, but it's okay if he doesn't since he is still taking piano lessons. He just can't do it all. He actually chose to support his friends at their seminary graduation rather than attend his last orchestra banquet. He lost his interest in the orchestra and wanted to support his ward and stake friends in graduating from seminary.

His birthday weekend we played a lot of card games and I took him and a couple of his friends out to trail ride at Maybury on Saturday and we watched Dune 2 on Saturday night. His birthday fell on fast Sunday, but he opted to not fast. I made him French toast, which he ate 6 slices of! We had some good conversation and enjoyed the dinner of wonton soup and fried rice that he requested, which is funny because my wonton soup recipe is one I made up and is the easiest in all the land. Jason suggested he make the fried rice to go with it so we had something else for those of us who were hungrier due to fasting, plus Austin is a major shrimp lover and it included shrimp. We had chocolate chip bundt cake for dessert. 

Goodr sunglasses

A comic from Kade.

Fancy nail clippers, which he was so excited about!

Crocs!

After dinner, we went to a last-minute gathering at a friend's to see a former missionary and his wife who were visiting from Canada. Elder Woodruff was in our ward for 7 1/2 months! The best part for Austin is that he was able to see some friends on his birthday and play basketball while the adults visited. He got more treats, too!

Happy Birthday, Austin!