Beach Night

Some friends from San Antonio came over to Surfside Beach last weekend. We couldn't make it down to see them Saturday between soccer games/birthday parties/football games. So instead, we drove down Friday night for dinner and beach fun. It was a great time despite the grumpy kids on Saturday morning. The kids enjoyed boogie boarding and having friends to play with. Lydia is terrified of beaches now because of the salt water. She stayed glued to me and begged to go home most of the time. It was also high tide so she didn't like when the water would touch her or our things by the beach chairs. Hopefully she changes her mind about beaches soon.

Ashton's Birthday Interview

How old are you? 9

What is your favorite color? Red

What is your favorite animal? Anything and everything

What is your favorite book? James Herriot books

What is your favorite show? National Geographic shows

What do you like to eat? Fruit

What is your favorite game? Kingdomino

What is your favorite thing to do? Go see animals

Who is your best friend? Lyra (a friend from school)

What do you like to do with Daddy? Go on roller coasters

What do you like to with Mommy? Snuggle

Where do you want to go on a vacation? Anywhere to see a bunch of animals

What do you want to be when you grow up? Vet... again. This has stuck for a while.

What is your favorite song? Seek the Lord Early (she's learning it to sing a solo in church soon)

What is the best time of day? School time

What makes you happy? My family

Funerals and covenants

Last week, a family in our ward experienced the sudden loss of a grandfather/father/husband. The entire extended family is in either our ward or the other ward in our building. It was a huge loss. The person has been in our stake since it was formed decades ago. Some of the grandchildren are in our primary so the kids knew the family well. 

Unfortunately, the timing of the funeral also happened to be during our ward's shift at the peanut butter factory. Joseph had already committed to that. I decided to take the kids to the funeral anyways. The kids pushed back a little ("I HAVE to wear church clothes AGAIN!- Tanner said as soon I told them). But I reminded them of our baptismal covenant to mourn with those that mourn. I am glad to have teaching moments to help my children see the physical manifestations of our covenants.

I haven't always been able to attend funerals when I wished I could have. There was one in particular that I desperately wanted to attend but couldn't. And I still regret that. I rationalized that Ashton was too young and I wouldn't get to be as present as I would want to be. But I wish I would have gone anyways. Because of that experience, I have since tried to attend the funerals to show our love and support.

The kids surprised me by sitting fairly well for the nearly two hour service. Tanner enjoyed hearing the stories about the man. I hope the kids learned a little bit about their baptismal covenants. Sometimes it means showing up and doing something you don't want to do. Sometimes it means just being there, not saying anything and not helping in any specific way. I still remember a friend who helped me very quietly when my grandma passed away. It was such a small and simple thing she did but it meant the world to me.

The kids got all dressed up and Tanner even wore his white shirt. He was so proud to look like a young man. Hopefully that is the last funeral we have for a while.

The family also asked me to come over the night of the death to explain the loss to the grandchildren. It was a special experience to use some ideas of play therapy to help the young children process the event and what the week ahead would look like. I was glad the parents asked me and I could use my knowledge of child development to help them.

Sandcastle Competition

 The Galveston Sandcastle competition takes place every August. I took the three oldest down to check out the castles and swim at the beach for a little bit. The kids had a fun time looking and building their own castles. The kids could have stayed at the beach all night, jumping waves.

Schlitterbahn Visit

Most years, we try to find a water park to visit as a family. Last year, we went to SeaWorld and did the water park next door. This year, we decided to stay closer to home and go to Schlitterbahn in Galveston. The kids had a good time. Ashton and Tanner clearly had the most rides they could go on. Gemma was only tall enough for one ride, which Lydia could go on too. Although, Gemma and Lydia had a blast playing in the toddler/kid areas with some fun slides. We were bummed that some of the rides/areas were closed. We suspect it is due to lifeguard shortages as that has plagued most of Houston this summer. Lydia loved this frog slide and went down at least 100 times.

HEB Kids Day

 Our local HEB (grocery store) held a Kids Day earlier this summer. We took the kids and they had a blast! The store let the kids check things out, participate in a cake walk (Tanner was set on winning a cake- and he did), pet a lobster, and some other fun activities.

Bookworm Gardens

 Our final day on vacation last month was spent driving back to Chicago for our late evening flight. To break up the drive, I found this fun stop in Sheybogan called, Bookworm Gardens. When we left Door County, the traffic back to Chicago wasn't bad at all. But when we stopped at the gardens, I looked and the traffic had worsened. I wish we could have spent more time at the gardens but we had about an hour and half. It was an awesome stop and the kids (and parents) could have easily spent twice as much time there. The garden had a ton of kid stories come to life with little houses, play areas, etc. We got back to Chicago in time for our flight, despite the extra long traffic.