11

AJ turned 11!

I can’t believe it. 4 more years then he can drive. 7 more years and then he’s an adult. 10 more years and he can have a beer!

Russell and I say that AJ has grown up 5 years in the last few weeks. He has now attended our local pool’s middle schoolers ONLY night (& was even chased by some older girls). He completed a contract and received a cell phone. He has gone off the high dive. He has completely fallen for UTVs and Moab driving. 

He consistently torments his siblings and on the other side can be so sweet and helpful.

He now has friends reaching out to him with his cell phone, and we can call him if we need to chat or need him to do something at home.

He feels everything, and we are working on making sure he uses his words to express how he is doing. 

I showed AJ the picture of him from kinder as a graduate and for a minute he tried to tell me that it wasn’t him.  I basically agreed with him! It was him, but man has he changed since he attended the Shy Kids’s Group in kindergarten.

I’m digging getting into these older years, even though it’s tricky:)

**Oh so fun story: I went over a million things I wanted him to know with the phone. One thing that we covered is if he wanted a code phrase for “I love you,” so he could still say it but in a different way when his friends were around. He said yes and came up with “the toast is together.” I’m one piece and he’s the other and they go together.

Sweet. Love. ;)

Sure love you AJ;)

Mom

Moab

We went to Moab a few weekends back with Russell’s family! It was amazing. Rocks galore! It was insanely hot so we found water every single day. Some highlights included:

• Playing in the Colorado River
• Renting UTVs and feeling lucky that Russ was not on a death mission. Fun fact: AJ, our afraid of heights guy, loved it! Ryk was definitely freaked out and was super sweet in the back with me!
• Meeting Jack, Will’s man!
• Family time:)
• The waterfall hike-we could hike to the waterfall using mostly just the creek! 

We were only there a couple of days, so we will definitely be back because it was too much fun not to!

Love,

Momma

Oh my..

Dempsey asked if she could read me a note that she wrote me. 

I was asking about the “tough times”…& she said i don’t know. Then said you leg and your mom dying.

My goodness.

Love,

Mom

Zooooo day

We welcomed summer with a trip to the zoo with a bunch of my coworkers and kids. It was a perfect day and it went well. A couple of highlights:

1. Seeing my fave animal the tapir

2. AJ helping younger kids on the playground. He came up to me and said… “I love helping younger kids. I love seeing their face when they accomplish something.” …..a future teacher????

3. We did the string ray experience. Super cool. Dempsey was the only brave one that fed them…the boys were too weird out to feed. They all touched them though!

4. We rode the train and all kids agreed that it’s too slow and small. Clearly we are too old for that now:)

My dogs are barking.

Love,

Mom