LAST RECITAL!

Again, I am writing this a year later, but looking back it's hard to imagine this was the last recital Emma will probably ever dance in. We have been watching her dance in official studio recitals since she was 6 years old - not counting dance classes through the city rec program. 10 years of dance! That was  HUGE part of her life and our lives. She always lit up the stage and showed such emotion. She is a BEAUTIFUL dancer! With many, many strengths. Unfortunately, I think her no arch feet held her back a bit - it never looked like she was pointing her feet enough, but it was all she could ever get them to do. Emma, some of my fondest memories of you growing up will be watching you on stage! You make our hearts happy.

GIRLS CAMP!

This year was stake girls camp! It is Emma's first year as a YCL. I was camp director again.  The night before we were supposed to leave for camp we went to go get the tents out of the storage shed at the church and no one could find a key. I mean no one. We even called people in the ward, stake, some random guy in Mesa, people tried to go down there and pick the lock, no one could get in. Finally we had to call a lock smith. It cost $600 to get into that stupid shed. The locksmith couldn't believe the high tech lock put on that storage shed just protecting camping gear - ha ha. Camp was a lot of fun. There were a couple of issues that had to be dealt with and also it was hard for Emma to stand up and do what is right even though she knew it would make a couple of girls mad at her if they found out. It was a stressful situation for everyone involved. The weather was the worst! It was freezing at night and our tent almost blew over. Leaders did not sleep. But in the end, camp was worth it. It always is. Emma was in charge of our ward's lip sync - it was a collaboration of all the good songs from "Greatest Showman". Our ward's was the best! You can never go wrong going to girls camp and getting away from all the stresses at home, electronics and feeling the spirit!

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Last day of school for these kiddos! Goodbye 4th grade, 5th grade and sophomore year! Each of the boys earned the Honor Roll all year and even had a couple of Principal awards in there for straight A's. Emma earned her actual academic letter this year for her grades as well. She had dance the night of the award ceremony so we just took this pic after church. Tyler won the Tiger Buddy award. This award is probably my favorite - it means you are a friend to those around you who don't have friends and you are also kind to the special needs kids. Love all my little nerdy children! Goodbye School - Hello Summer!

BROKEN HAND!

It was quite an exciting way to end a baseball season. We are playing in our last tournament of the season for Ignite. Eli was playing left field and a ball was hit out to him so he was running and running to catch it and had to dive to try and get it and his glove got caught on some grass and so his body rolled over and snapped his bones in his hand. He was out there crying. He had to come in and the coaches were looking at it and told him it wasn't broken and that he was fine to keep going. They were icing it but it was time for him to bat again. He did not want to bat because his hand hurt so bad. Coaches asked him to just go up there and hold the bat - he didn't even have to swing, but this way maybe some runners could try and steal a base or maybe he would even get walked. (again, I am writing this post a year later so I don't remember what happened with his at bat - I know he couldn't swing it - but I feel like he struck out). The game finally ended and we all said our goodbyes until the end of the season party and I looked at Jared and said - something is wrong with his hand. He does not act like this. Jared wanted to wait and get him into the doctor during the week and I told him I was just going to drive him straight to the Banner Cardon's ER right now. Sunday afternoon at 3pm - it was awesome - no one was there and we got right in. They x-rayed him and sure enough it was broken. They said they see that kind of baseball injury a lot - it happens in the MLB a ton too. Jared like usual was home taking a nap while I was at the ER with Eli so when we finally got home we made Jared do dinner and Eli and I relaxed. We had to wait a few days to get into the Peds ortho to get a cast on. The type he had to get is called a clam cast and some how we all called it the lame clam hand - but pronounced really funny like. He was a real trooper missing out on swimming all summer poor kid. When Eli finally got his cast off his stunk so bad we are all dry heaving and he was disgusted by all the skin coming off and how tiny his hand was - ha ha!