My Mom reminded me that I don't update this blog very often! Sad for me since this is the only "journal" that I keep! I will have to upload pictures later, but thought I'd write down what we have been up to this summer, which is sadly almost OVER! Jocelyn starts school in about two weeks. I can't believe she will be a first grader!
We have been really busy this summer. We went to Bear Lake with some friends, the Snyders and the Meeks and had a good time. I can't believe this but I did not take a single picture. How horrible! I'll have to get a copy of the few I know my friends did take. We were at the lake for a week during the 4th of July. My friend, Brooke, hooked us up with a friend who has a sailboat so we got to go out on that on the 4th of July. We took it out for awhile and then came back, grabbed dinner to make on the boat, and then we headed back out on the lake when it was dark and watched fireworks from the middle of the lake! VERY COOL!!! The kids all had a blast and it was so fun for Jocelyn to have friends to play with. We had fun playing games, swimming, getting shakes, watching movies and hanging out. Unfortunately, the last day everyone was there my two friends got a stomach bug or something. So they left sick on Thursday... never a fun way to end a trip. We were planning on leaving bright and early Saturday morning and stopping in Logan to see my best friend compete in a triathlon, but I felt really strongly about leaving on Friday and driving all the way home. I kept changing my mind b/c I really wanted to see Ashlee again, but in the end we ended up leaving Friday morning. THANKFULLY we did b/c we got home about 1:30 in the morning on Saturday and about four hours later, I ended up with the same stomach bug/flu, whatever it was. SO I would have ended up missing Ashlee's triathlon anyway AND we would have had to rent a hotel room just so I could be sick b/c I would not have lasted in the car.
Before our friends came up, Mom and Dean, John and Myrica and their kids met us up there for a couple days. It was so good to hang out and Jocelyn had fun playing with her two cousins. Mom and Dean rented a couple of jet skis for everyone one day. Jocelyn went out on the jet ski with everyone, but one time she went with MiMi and Grandpa. They came back and I was waiting on the beach for them, I noticed they all were soaking wet and my Mom was giving me a look! haha. They were going along and hit a big wave as they were turning and all flew off the jet ski! It sounds like Jocelyn didn't freak out too bad and they all made it back on okay. It was funny though listening to her. "We almost drowned!!!" hahaha. That's what a life jacket is for, Jocelyn! She's funny. Anyway, after that, Graham and John were each out on their own jet ski. They were doing what boys do best....being crazy.....and about the same time, each hit a huge wave. Graham went flying off and John busted up his already injured shoulder. John told me he looked up after he hit the huge wave to see if Graham had seen it, but all he could see was a jet ski sitting there and then saw Graham's head bobbing in the water a good 15 feet or so away. So funny. The only bad thing was my husband decided to take his Oakley's out on the jet ski since he has worn them every year on one and never lost them.....well, they are now at the bottom of Bear Lake. Bummer!!! So from now on, it's $5 sunglasses ONLY on the jet skis! Good plan if you ask me. The next day, Graham, Jocelyn and Dean decided to go play golf. They rented a golf cart and had a good time.....until they took a turn too sharp and Graham flew off the golf cart and then it ran over his ankle!!!! What luck, huh! The day after that, the basement shower flooded with sewer water and so that had to be dealt with! UGH! Anyway, besides all that, we had a great time! We saw the new Juanito Bandito show at Pickleville Playhouse. Always hilarious!
Jocelyn has been taking horse back riding lessons all summer and is the cutest little rider. I love it. She looks like a little pro up there and has come so far!!! It's adorable when she trots and posts and she LOVES to lope! Her confidence is building and she just has a blast. She was enrolled in a week long horse camp, but unfortunately with these horrible fires New Mexico has had this summer, I didn't feel comfortable having her outside all day long. They had the air quality alert at red, so they suggested not even having animals outside for long periods of time. She was sad about it, but we explained it and she was fine. It was crazy b/c the Arizona fires were far away, but the ash and smoke here were SO BAD! Sometimes it would look like it was snowing and it was all the ash! Gross!!!
She was also enrolled in a reading summer camp at UNM with the reading specialists. They placed her with the second graders based on how well she was reading already. I was a little nervous about it, but she did great and REALLY improved! It was a wonderful program and I highly recommend it. She wasn't struggling at all with reading, but I thought it would really give her a head start for first grade. She learned so much and I stayed with her throughout the classes so I could learn how to help her at home. They had LOTS of homework during the course, so that was a challenge to keep up with during summer!
Jocelyn is riding her bike without training wheels now!!!! She was motivated when she heard Gavin was riding his w/out them, so we took her bike to Texas and Shane took them off for her. She got frustrated really quickly when she realized it wasn't an instant thing, so she didn't practice much in Texas. The other day, we decided to try it out and I took her to the park on the grass. I knew she had the balance to do it b/c of horse back riding, but it was more of her being nervous about falling on the pavement. So, I gave her a push and she took off! She didn't fall over or anything!! The trickiest part was learning how to get started without any help. The next day, I took her to a dead end street behind our neighborhood that doesn't have any houses on it. So we had a nice long street to practice on. In about five minutes, she had learned how to get started and was riding the whole length and would turn around and ride back! Later that day, she was racing the neighbor boys! She is having fun!!! I kind of feel bad we didn't take them off earlier b/c it was so easy for her, but oh well!
I feel like she has grown up so much over the past few months!!! She's reading so well, riding her bike without training wheels, is swimming really well and she is getting SO TALL!!!! AHHHH! I would love for her to slow down some and not grow up so fast!!!! OH....she'd kill me if she knew I was writing this but she also had her FIRST KISS!!! YIKES!!! It makes me laugh b/c I didn't know about it at all until Bryson's Mom and sister came to pick him up from our house. He whispered something to his sister and she said, "BRYSON! You better tell Mom!" So he whispered it to his Mom and she said, "Bryson Paul! You better tell her Dad!" hahahaha. He had been stalling and not wanting to leave to go home and then he said, "I think I need to go home and take a nap. Let's go right now!" hahahaha. So we told both of them that it's not appropriate so hopefully it won't happen again.
That's all I have time to update right now, but hopefully I can get some pictures up here and video of Jocelyn riding her bike!
Is she REALLY in first grade? Yikes! She was very nervous to meet her teacher, but excited to be on the big kids playground! Her teacher, Mrs. Martinez was a kindergarten teacher last year, so we had some interaction with her and we're excited for this year! I think Jocelyn will learn a lot and be challenged with this teacher. Joc was excited because a friend from church is in her class this year, along with two boys from last years class. I was excited because the two girls I didn't want to be in her class, weren't!!! GOOD!
We made this little gift for Jocelyn's teacher. We filled the empty squares with Dove chocolate. I think it turned out pretty cute for a last minute gift AND for about $20! Yes, we are those people who kiss up to the teacher. So what!!
