Cousins shooting Cousins

5 cousins +

5 airsoft guns +

winter clothing +

110+ degree weather

=

A sweet sweat fest!

You can't really tell from this picture, but he was absolutely drenched in his sweat.

 

Thoughts

David and Elijah are on a camping/paint-balling trip with uncles and cousins.

Claire and Iris are having a sleepover at my parents' house.

Eliza and Sybil had a sleepover here and are playing barbies in the other room. 

I'm editing a manuscript which is first-authored by a man who recently won a Nobel Peace Prize. It's been heavy work. The manuscript describes data collected from nearly 8000 women and girls (data from only one hospital over a four-year period) who sought medical treatment related to all kinds of heinous rape, mostly related to military conflict and mob-directed mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It makes me re-think what I might deem a "hardship." I was listening to a podcast on my morning run that claimed that nobody alive has experienced anything like this pandemic which has brought us together as a human species. 

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a white-priveledge-centric view! 

Boohoo that our faces sweat under masks and we can't go to waterparks and gyms. Most people in this large world have bigger fish to fry besides a virus, which although highly contagious, is relatively harmless for most people. 

Steps to Superhero-dom

The first step in becoming a superhero is the donning of a mask.

Not everyone can make it past that first step.

The second step is finding matching shoes.

The third step makes up for any failing in the previous steps:

enlisting a reliable side-kick

 

A quick visit

A&A stopped by on their way to Cali. 

The men went for a morning bike ride:

Atop South Mountain:

Tortas Paquime:

Our special musical number for church:

 

A few more bday pics

Iris had a bday playdate with her 2 BFFs: Malia and Eryn.

Notice Elijah in the background; he was excited to participate too.

Of course they wanted to go to the mall and made suer they all brought their mini-backpacks.

More Henna

Makeover at IHOP

 

First Day

   This might be the first year that I haven't gotten a first day of school picture. That's a failure on my part, especially because it's a big year for 3 of the 4 kids. 

Elijah is starting High School. I can't add more detail than that because he's in the one-word-answers phase of adolescence. He is also in online seminary for the semester. Details about that? "No."

Iris is at the upper campus now with Claire, but not really, because nobody is at any campus.

Sybil is starting Kindergarten. She was truant for a few days because technology sucks. But now that we have it figured out, sybil has learned that home school facilitates cheating; she asks me how to say things in Spanish.

So instead of pulling kids out of bed to get dressed for the first day, the kids rolled out of bed to eat and then rolled back into bed with a screen.

 Yesterday I read 9 chapters of The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe to Sybil while she did a puzzle. Then I went swimming with all 4. But today is my first day, so all fun goes out the window.

Sybil wearing her self-decorated "I survived my first day of Kindergarten" crown:

Iris = double digits

If there is one thing Iris is obsessed with, it's the dog. She talks about Porfirio incessantly and takes several minutes to explain all things "Porfirio" including the exact breakdown of his bread. Whereas I would just say "mut" when asked his breed, she says: "37.5% Labrador retriever, 12.5% chow chow, 12.5% Australian cattle dog, 12.5% Chinese sharpei, 12.5% vizla, 12.5% other breed groups." 

Rest assured, he shares the love. In fact, he and I are both bleeding this morning because while I was taking him for his daily bike/run, he saw Iris who was out for her run, started sprinting towards her, and cut right in front of my bike to get to her. I gracefully sprawled out across the middle of the street. 

Iris loves playing the game of life. Last week I heard her playing with friends in the other room, screaming “My husband will play the bass!” several times emphatically. "My boys will play instruments while they sing and we will have a family orchestra!" Then, the next minute, hissing passionately, “I don't love you any more, leave!” And of course she chose to listen to Queen and the Hamilton soundtrack while playing.

Iris' Favorite Things 

Before I even started asking favorite things questions, Iris replied, "Porfirio" 

Food: Mac and Cheetos 

Dessert: cotton candy ice cream 

Color: blue, green, black 

Book: Harry Potter 

Movie: Merlin (series from 2008 that we’ve been watching as a family) 

Possession: Porfirio 

Activity: sleep, read, play with Porfirio 

Memory as 9 year old: my history teacher in fourth grade. He was fun. He made up games for us so we could understand history. Like stock market and Great Depression. We made businesses. He chose 2 people who chose investors and that’s as far as we got because Covid happened 

Friends: Porfirio, Malia, Erynn 

Favorite thing looking forward to as a 10 year old: 5th grade and going to Hawaii this Christmas and hopefully having Covid stop 

About Covid: nothing, I hate it with my whole soul, although homeschool means I can see Porfirio and eat during school 

Future Occupation: astronaut or astronomer 

How many dogs will you have: depends, but all the dogs I get will be from the pound 

Least favorite Animal: cat, sort of. Because I like some types of cats: rag doll, hairless, Sphinx. I like them because they sound super cuddly 

Least favorite food: mint (including mint toothpastes) 

One wish: to have all the wisdom 

If you had 1 million dollars: donate to dog charities 

Why do you like fashion: why not try out something new. 

We took Iris out to breakfast at IHOP and all went around the table saying our favorite things about her:

Iris: I like dogs 

Olivia: I like her hair because she doesn’t have to brush it. 

Sybil: she plays barbies because they are really fun 

Elijah: she’s always really happy. 

David: individual. Does her own thing. When she laughs, you know she’s laughing from across the theater. That’s how My grandma ruth was 

Caroline: passion and opinions

Claire: I like how you like school. 

Elise: she is a reader.

This has got to get done

Today is the last day of freedom.

I'm apprehensive. Four kids on virtual school plus virtual seminary. Plus my virtual schools and David moving to Vegas soon. 

I don't feel like I'm in the right place for this to be my last day of freedom. Maybe a few more months of summer would help. But maybe the calm reassurance of routine will be beneficial, despite the mounted expectations.

Catching up with pictures would be a good first step. I don't think I'm going to put these pictures in order.

Covid turned Claire into an avid horticulturalist...until the harvest.

About 15 of these bad boys grew and then rotted in our fridge. Maybe next time she could try growing sugar cane or lollipops.

Here are a few pics of us driving back from New Orleans to AZ. We left Elijah in Nola to have an extra week with GG&Pops. Then we picked up a few second-cousins (Adee and Darbee) in Dallas. David took the relaxed approach to driving back and we stopped at some random places:

It was dark when we passed through a little town that had a little building with a light that was eerily flashing in the dark. I commented "That was creepy." David drove a few miles beyond it, started telling a ghost story, then made a sharp U-turn. As we pulled up, he told us that 30 people had been killed in that Old Lincoln County Courthouse with a possessed lightbulb. He dared all the girls to go up the the second story, snapped this picture of them and then sped away in the car. The girls squealed and sprinted after the car. 

David's next order of business was to find the perfect cemetery for the cemetery challenge: who can stay in a creepy, old cemetery the longest while listening to his creepy, old stories. We followed the signs down a narrow road, but found the cemetery locked, which relieved most of us. Instead we found a ginormous male elk in the middle of the road, staring at us. David off-roaded a little to follow the poor animal until I said, "Stop. Remember Tommy Boy?"--which was my favorite movie as a teenager. 

When we drove through Roswell, NM, we counted the number of alien references and got to 31:

Dropped the 4 girls off:

The next week I mainly learned about Elijah's Nola adventured through Facebook:

When Elijah got back, we drove back up to pick up the girls

And were accompanied by Ethan and Bain:

The girls showed us around the camp including a nice view of the forest.

Bain was nice enough to order our drive-through food.

For Sara's last night in town, we went to get good American BBQ.

Saying goodbye at the airport:

Skateland. We made up about 80% of the patrons that day, since Corona still has people staying at home.

This is how Sybil goes to the store these days. 

Her shoes have almost no tread, so she slides along as I push.

Mall scavenger hunt with 12 people. 

This is Iris, Darbee, and Eliza skipping in front of two stores. 

"The first team to complete all requirements and find Caroline wins a warm hug."

Airport again: 

Hiked camelback

Iris would not be persuaded to go any further into this cave, convinced that evil was lurking.

Evening cartwheels in front of my parents' house:

Outside Skateland: 

Walked around Gilbert temple:

This is Iris. Elijah claimed he slid down these on his derrière. 

Car selfie

Matching henna tattoos at the mall

We walked into the mall the other day for Iris' bday. 

Claire hung her head and said, "Last time I was here, Sara was with me." 

Teenager moment

I've been slightly daunted trying to play catch-up with blogging. 

So here's a little blip.

I'm trying to multitask this though while playing Sorry with Sybil (who is the biggest cheater I've ever met), so it'll be brief.

This morning Elijah went biking with his dad for the first time. 

I don't know if it was the spandex, but he looked so mature!

Then he opened his mouth:

"YOU'RE NOT TAKING A P...MOM STOP!!!"