We headed out on an airplane at about 5 in the morning on June 16 to head to Maui for a couple of weeks ... with my husband's whole family. Pete and Polly, Grandma Ruth, his brother Greg and his family. It was quite the adventure. We landed at about noon and headed for Kaanapali. Over the two weeks we did a ton of snorkeling, we parasailed, went zip lining, went to the aquarium, hiked to a waterfall and hung out and shopped in Lahaina Town. Kennedy and Ryan went sailing and Chris, Ryan and Kennedy went snorkeling over at Molakini. We also ate a ton of fresh pineapple and ate at some pretty good restaurants. Photos below that I couldn't get to go in a certain order, so they are random.

Ryan and Piper on the lanai

The whole family except Grandma Ruth at Black Rock

Selfie of Ryan parasailing

Selfie of Ryan snorkeling with Pete's underwater camera

Kennedy getting ready to snorkel

Sydney and Piper

 Dinner at Hula Grill

Zip lining

Ryan coming in for a landing

The girl on the flight from Boise to San Francisco

 

Greg, Pete, Ryan and Chris coming back from snorkeling at Molakini

Doesn't he look excited to be taking a selfie with his mom on the plane

View from our lanai

Chris and Kennedy parasailing

Heading up

Ken and Pete

Carter in the mouth of the shark at the aquarium



Don't they look so excited. We'd been sitting in the San Francisco airport for about 10 hours at this point. No one was happy. No one!! Good thing vacation was over.

Chris and Carter on the flight from Boise to San Francisco

 

Twin Falls waterfall hike

Greg and Kathy

The crew before they went sailing

On the sailboat

Shaved ice after the sailboat ride

The girl and I started our summer off by taking a quick road trip to Park City, Utah with a couple of her lacrosse teammates to play in the Ski Town Shootout. We headed to SLC on a Thursday afternoon and spent the night with my Aunt Diane and Uncle Hiram in Riverton. We got up super early to get to Park City Friday morning for opening ceremonies and then we spent the next 30 hours or so playing five games. The girls had a pretty good time I think. They were super busy and tired and the second day was pretty darn cold. Ken and I spent an hour on Saturday laying the seats back in the car and sleeping because the car had been in the sun and was warm. They didn't do so hot in the tournament, somehow we ended up playing every great team in the SLC area, but I think that the girls all learned a lot. And we did get some fun shopping done at the outlet mall there.

 

 

 

The girls went to go buy chips at the store by my aunt's house and guess what else they came home with?? A grocery cart that they proceeded to abandon in front of their house.

 

 We were all like ... really you leave it in front of a cop's house, if you would have left it down the street nobody would have noticed. So they ended up taking it back. Silly girls ... we all got a good laugh. Even the cop. All this while the rest of us hung out on the couch and watched the first game of the Fifa World Cup.

 

 

Playing around at the outlet mall. I couldn't believe that the girl could fit in that thing.

 

They loved the fishing hats that they got from the tournament. They wore them most of the weekend.

 

 

 

And then we were finally heading home to get laundry done and head out the next day for our long awaited Hawaiian family vacation!!

We are finally almost done traveling for the summer ... that's good since the last two kids start school on Monday. So, maybe I can update on what's been happening with us over the summer. I packed my laptop with me on most of our travels so that I could update, but didn't hardly ever bring it out, which is a good thing since I enjoyed my time with my family.

So, we did end up having C's rescheduled middle school transition meeting after the disaster that was the first attempt. Surprise of all surprises, what they thought that we could get through in 20 minutes took us an hour and a half. We came out with a pretty good idea of what his middle school schedule would look like and I felt okay about it after I left. Not great, but not sick to my stomach like I had felt for the last week after the first attempt. I did pretty much let them know that they had about a month when school started to convince me that it would be a good fit for him or we would be making other arrangements. The meeting ended with them inviting us to come and have lunch and sit through a couple of classes in a few days.

We went on a Thursday and had lunch and explored a bit and then sat through an adaptive science class in the resource room. Just a couple of observations. They were trying to tell us that he would be sitting with the other resource kids at lunch. He doesn't have quite the social issues that some of the other resource kids have, so I had to let them know that he would be allowed to sit with his friends from outside the resource room at lunch and be able to hang out with them afterwards. From talking to them I'm not sure how their communication skills are. I think that they are used to parents that aren't quite as involved as we are and that don't expect accountability from them.

School got out for the girl the next week and then the kid finished on the 11th of June and then we spent the next week preparing to be gone for the rest of the summer.

We did a family minus Ryan hike today. It pretty much always goes like this ... K, do you want to go for a hike with me. Sure mom!! C, do you want to go for a hike. No and you can't make me. Yes, I can and if you don't whine, we'll go to Red Robin and you can get a drink. No. Well, guess what, you're still going and now you don't get to eat or get a soda. He ends up going and if he doesn't whine too bad we take him for some Cheesy Mac N' Cheesy at RR after and let him get a soda since we don't have it in the house anymore. Poor Chris, no more DC at home.

 

So we decided to head up 8th Street and do the Upper Hulls Gulch trail. I packed my bear spray just in case. Not in case of a bear, but in case of wolves. I guess a wolf killed a sheep dog somewhere near Upper Hulls Gulch so I figured I'd be prepared. We didn't see any sign of sheep, so I'm assuming that they are up there in a different area. Anyhow, the hike is a bit over 8 miles. It's actually not too bad, most of it is pretty flat. There is only about a mile and a half loop that you actually have to climb up and then go back down. I was the only one that almost hit the ground. Caught my foot on a rock and hit one knee before I caught myself. I think I did something to my hip though, I was pretty sore this afternoon. But, that might be because K and I decided to trail run the last 2.3 miles back to the trailhead and leave Chris and C to make their way back walking. There are some pretty neat rock formations on this hike, so it's one that we enjoy.

 

 

Oh, an C's reschedule IEP meeting is tomorrow afternoon .... so excited.

 

I hiked up Table Rock this morning ... all by myself. It kind of freaked me out, but I ended up really enjoying it because I could just put my ear buds in, turn on the music and just go. I didn't have to worry about keeping people entertained and I could go at my own pace. I was also able to jog down, which was good because I've been wanting to try trail running but have been nervous about it thinking I'd end up falling on my face. I was surprised by how stable I felt with my footing and made it down the hill in about 20 minutes or so. Not bad.

 

About half way up Table Rock looking up at the cross.

 

Looking down from the same spot at above.

 

From the top!! This is why Boise is the City of Trees!!

So, I became "that" parent today at school ... and I don't even feel bad about it. I walked out on C's IEP meeting this afternoon. Yep, you heard me right. I just told them that it wasn't going to happen today and up and walked out. I figure I have that right when our meeting is set for 2:15 pm and they aren't ready and the middle school resource teacher doesn't even show up til after 2:35, which leaves us less than 25 minutes to discuss all his test results, discuss what he qualifies for next year, figure out what classes he's going to be taking and his schedule and if he's going to be going to general ed classrooms or with a small group or an aide. All this after this same lady cancelled the meeting we were supposed to have at the middle school last week to figure out most of this stuff out. Yep, 25 minutes isn't going to cut it for me when I'm sending my kid off to middle school with no idea of what to expect. So yep, I am that parent ... and I don't even feel bad about it.

So, what did I do. I walked out of the school and got in my car and proceeded to bawl my eyes out for the next 20 minutes. Drove around to where I pick up C and bawled some more and then came home and locked my door and crawled on my bed and pulled a blanked up over my head for another hour and a half. Sometimes it sucks to be a parent, especially a parent of a kid with learning issues and a parent whose spouse travels all the time and can't attend these crappy meetings with you. And then you look at your phone and realize that there is absolutely no one in your contact list you can call because no one on your contact list has ever had to deal with anything like this and won't get why it's so freaking hard. OK, done with my feel bad for me rant.

And now I'm back to trying to decide whether to send him to middle school, homeschool him through the state's virtual academy or do a combo of the two and just send him to the middle school or PE and other electives and do the heavy stuff at home. Guess I'll be doing a bunch of research in the next little bit. I guess this is why I went to college and graduated with the certification to teach grades 6-12. Little did I know I'd never use the knowledge in a school setting, but rather in my own home. And I guess the part of my patriarchal blessing about teaching may just be coming to fruition. Hopefully my sanity will survive whatever may come.

On to some fun stuff ... I promise my life doesn't completely suck all the time.

The Girl's JV lacrosse team took second place for the season ... I am so proud of her. She picked up the sport pretty quickly and had a great time. We've got her signed up to play club this summer, when we are around and fall.

 

She's the cutie to the right of the coach. He was pretty great. Most of these girls had never played before. The sport isn't sanctioned so we have a board that manages everything ... guess who they've talked to about being on the board next year ... that's right. Supposedly it's not supposed to take up tons of time. It should be fun though. She also got to dress with the varsity last week for one of their tournament games. Too bad I missed it, but it was for a good cause.

 

The Kid and I went for a road trip last week ... I picked him up from school after lunch on Thursday and we took off for McCall. So glad that the in-laws have a place we can crash at for the night on these road trips. We stopped at a place on the lake for dinner. He's such a crack-up when I go to take pictures of him

 

 

And then in the morning we headed for this place ...

 

 

Yep, we picked up the Boy from his first year at the U of I and moved him home for the summer. My house is now a disaster area, but it's nice to have him home ... for now. I think that he had a good year, finished this last semester with four A's and two B's. Pretty good. And this is how I'm sure I'll be seeing him for the next two months (okay, he did mow the lawn today).

 

 

  

I can't end this til I do a fitness update. I had my two year appointment at my dr.'s office today. I'm officially down 165 pounds. They are impressed and I am down more than they thought I would be at this point. I figure if I could get rid of the weight from the excess skin I'd be down lower than I was in high school. So, it was basically a good job and keep up the good work and we'll see you next year.

 

I picked up some new running shoes a few weeks ago. I'm probably about 30 miles or so into them and so far so good. No blisters so far. Yay!!

 

 

 

And I just have to document the mileage on my Nike Run app.