So far so good this month! Catie is excelling in Kindergarten at home, some days we struggle and butt heads but that sounds familiar ( Brittany) we find a way and continue on our quest for knowledge and playful learning. Catie just started her swimming lessons so far she's a very good listener and the class is only 35 minutes long. They have two teachers and about 9 kids in their class. The first day of swim class will be memorable. The teachers were performing the alligator swimming poem to encourage the kids to jump to them in the water one child at a time as the water is higher than them. As the saying goes boys will be boys and we had a scary incident with the whole two boys in the class. The teachers were helping two of their little swimmers to the ladder to climb out of the pool and one of the boys was too anxious and jumped in on his own and struggled to gasp for air. Of course like I said the teachers already had children they were helping swim to the side in their arms so his timing couldn't have been worse. He went under a lot but came out alright in the end. A beautiful example of what not to do in swim class, which of course was lost on the second boy as we he too shortly after was overanxious as well and jumped in when their backs were turned helping others a second time. I'm just glad that Catie has the right idea of wait for my teachers to catch me then jump in the water. Phew!
Catie is also steadily participating in her gymnastics class over the summer. She absolutely loves her new teacher over at Olympiad Gymnastics! She has a good sized class of 7 children and is always excited to listen and participate in the new things she's learning there. It's great to see her so happy. Lately St Louis has been plagued with storms and rain the past week with another week to go so all of our family waterpark outings have been put on hold until we see a nice big break in the weather. Need sunshine to warm up the water now don't we. But that's ok because all of the kids are involved in a lot this summer. Still have volleyball camp and Young Women's Camp coming up excited to see my teenagers explore and have fun!
This past week Brittany and Dyllan had the opportunity to attend Youth Conference with the St Louis North Stake. They started with registration, receiving matching t-shirts, 'family' and bus assignments and a dance. Although our son Dyllan isn't always fond of dancing in public he has discovered that since he's outnumbered 4 girls to 1 boy that he has quite the advantage when asking girls to dance lol.
Brittany had asked a friend to join them on this free event paid for by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that at first had resistant parents who she wore down ( the friend not Britt) and convinced them to let her go leaving my living room with three teenage girls over night. My son was just so thankful he got to keep his bed, we usually offer it to company when company comes to town. Luckily for me one of the teenager girls had parents that were 'parents' aka chaperones during this Conference that volunteered to pick up the four teens at 4:30am to meet the buses to Kansas City by 5. Still got up with them to ask them if they had everything and to eat breakfast but then I got to go back to bed ahhhhhhh.
They toured many sites in Kansas City had a dinner and dance outside that night in the parking lot of the LDS Independence Visitor's Center. They said they loved touring this site and enjoyed the dance and dinner I believe Jimmy John's served dinner very good for teens. They stayed overnight at the Hilton by the KC airport which according to one kid was posh and the other not as posh lol. The next morning they served in a worn down part of the city they now lovingly refer to as 'The Neighborhood'. It was very filthy and run down and just under 200 LDS youth put on their work gloves, grabbed a trash bag and started cleaning it. What impresses me the most is that regardless of how gross and stinky it was they carried on smiling, goofing off with friends, and in a generally upbeat mood thankful for the opportunity to help restore hope to this community. In fact there was one older gentleman who said just that to our son, "Thank-you for what you're doing for all of us today. You bring us hope." What a wonderful opportunity to serve and to be more thankful for what you have in your own lives.
They then traveled to Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahman. At Adam-Ondi-Ahman they along with their 'families' ( their groups of kids and chaperones) had family home evening. They learned about what Adam-Ondi-Ahman was and enjoyed visiting in their smaller groups. I am sure that this was a great spiritual moment for most, but what really impressed me was that this entire group was covered in butterflies that showed up flying around them but landed comfortably on all of them without hesitation. How peaceful. How special. How still. Of course after that was dinner aka pizza aka number one hit with teens. They climbed on the buses and got home late but happy with lots of good and fun experiences to remember and cherish.
I am thankful that my children include me as much as they do as teenagers and want me to be a part of their everyday lives. It's such a rewarding feeling to see them learn and discover that they are an important part of this world and that they will have no trouble finding their place in it. How important it is to be a productive part of society and your community and school. Our children are just the world to us, challenge us and uplift us every day. Looking forward to the rest of our summer and the experiences we have yet to have.
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