Tri- Athletes

Back in April the girls participated in their first (Kids) Triatholon.

Let me set the stage for you...

First register girls.  Jadyn (12 yrs old) Senior category (Swim is 200 yards, bike is 6 miles, run is 1 mile) .  Rylee (10 yrs old) Junior category (Swim is 100 yards, bike is 3 miles, run is 1/2 mile).

Second show up at 5:30 am for the junior category.  With 6 kids.  My 3 and additionally my 3 nieces and nephews who are now staying with us for awhile.

Third check in and get marked.

Fourth realize something isn't quite right with Rylee's markings...

Fifth realize we missed where it was noted that your category isn't based on how old you are the day of the triatholon.  No.  It's based on the age you are turning that year.  Bumping Rylee up to the next catergory.

Sixth deal with the aftermath of this error.

So a bit about Rylee.  My poor girl doesn't do change terribly well.  Realizing that this means doubling her distances, she freaks!  We have zero doubt she will be fine and rock this category, we push and push and she is refusing,  After being so excited about this race, she is giving up.  I pull out one of my magic tricks that works with all girls.  I promise her a new pair of shoes if she participates. Yes I am not above bribery.  And yes it worked.

Now that she is willing to race, we wait.  With 6 kids.  In the heat.  For HOURS while we wait for the senior category to begin.  With 6 kids.

The girls raced.  They rocked it.  Both did amazing.  Honestly, we thought for sure Rylee kicked Jadyn's butt in her time.  Rylee looked so good at the end.  Like it was easy peasy.  Turns out Jadyn beat Rylee by several minutes (most of this in her bike time).  Rylee was very pumped by how she felt at the end.  Both girls LOVED it and cannot wait for next year.  Colton will join them next year, too.

Which means we will still be there at 5:30 am. 

Let me also note that all 6 kids behaved amazingly well considering how long they were up and just sitting!

We Are Those People Now....

Ya'll we homeschool now.  And we kind of are in love with it.

There are sooo many details I want to write and remember about why we made this decision, what we have learned works for us, what doesn't work for us, my insecurities and the moments I am so confident in, my children's feelings about it all, what our days look like most of the time...etc, etc, etc... And obviously that would make for a very long, probably emotionally heavy post and I need to go get my kids started on their work for the day so while I find time to write all this, I will leave you with this class clown :)

We Camped and I Blogged About It

When I fall behind on scrapbooking/blogging/family albums, etc, I suck at jumping back in because I want to catch up on SO much.  Then I am overwhelmed so I just don't. Blah.  I am just starting from now.  If I decide to catch up on past events, well, bonus points I guess.

A few weeks ago, we learned something about our little family that I think we knew but had never really processed.  We love to camp.  Now, ok, to be fair we knew this.  We just didn't realize how much our family needs to do this.  Getting away, with no agenda, and spending most of our time outdoors, riding bikes, scooters, roasting hot dogs, being silly...we needed this.

For weeks, the attitude in our home (Rusty and I especially) was off.  We were snippier than normal, tired, cranky.  Being very honest, it was taking its toll.  We planned a camping trip knowing we needed to just get away.  Our last camping trip was in August, and our last trip as just a family had been a year and a half ago.

Ya'll it was a cure all for us.  Not even exaggerating here.  Completely reset the temperature in our home.

And as is probably apparent, I wanted to take more photos with the big camera than I have been lately and wanted as little as possible of them to be posed for.   Pictures that serve to remind me we need this.

High School Musical Live

I am going back and blogging some of the smaller summer moments that mean a lot to me.  A major problem with falling behind is that I tend to miss the small moments.

Back in June we took the kids and Nana to dinner and then High School Musical Live at the Miller Outdoor Theater. We did an evening show so that the weather would be pleasant.  We had a fantastic night!  I cannot say enough good things about.  I was shocked that Colton enjoyed the show as much as he did.  Cannot wait for the opportunity to do this again!

We Jumped

Disclaimer:  If you are a real cliff jumper, sky diver, hang glider, etc, ignore me in this post.  I am apparently a chicken so to me this was big.

I mentioned in the last post we jumped.  I felt that these pictures deserved their own post.

Inks Lake has this area called Devils Water Hole.  It is a set of rocks that crazy folks like to jump from. Since we have always visited Inks Lake during spring break, this is something we haven't experienced yet. It is entirely too cold for that in March.  My kids REQUIRED this during our August trip though.  The "normal" jumping rock is approximately 20ish feet high and the tallest being approx 40ish feet high.  EVERYONE from our party jumped on day 1.  Here is everyone in order.

Jadyn

Rylee

Dalton

Emma (Rusty is not throwing her, he is making sure she is far enough off the rocks to be safe!)

Aaron

Amanda

Rusty

Colton

Jackson

Two pictures are missing here.  One of Aaron jumping from the higher peak there on the left of the picture.  Approx 40 ish feet high.  From my understanding it was a fairly painful jump :)

The second missing picture would be me.  It took an additional 24 hours for me to muster up the courage to jump.  And, in all fairness, I am not even sure I ever really mustered up the courage.  I did not like the idea of being the only one, THE ONLY ONE, in our group to not jump so I forced myself.  Y'all words cannot describe how scared I was.  Petrified.  Terrified.  Anxious.  Panicked.  It was horrible.  I physically could not jump.  Petrified is probably a VERY accurate word.  I couldn't move.  My husband was waiting for me in the water, I was squeezing Aaron's hand way too tight.  I could not jump.  My legs would not work.  My brain simply could not understand why I was jumping from perfectly safe ground.  The best I could muster up was more of a tuck and fall off the rock :)  Very cool huh?  Um no.  Apparently I didn't look like I would make it to the water.  Looked a little to Rusty and Aaron like I could smash my terrified self on the rocks on my way down.  I did not however.  I survived.  With no one to take my picture.

In my attempt to look cool and keep up with the crowd I think actually made me look silly.  Oh well. Let this be a lesson.  Stand against peer pressure.  Or I should get new (more chicken like) friends?

Our Last Summer Hoorah

We finally got the opportunity to show the Collins' family Inks Lake.  Being we were planning to camp in August, knowing the Texas heat and all, we prayed HARD for water sites.  And water sites we got!  We lounged, we ate, we drank, we swam, we jumped, we even got to see a meteor shower 2 nights in a row. Gorgeous views, great friends.  I cannot think of a better end to a CRAZY summer!  And now I will flood the rest of this post with pictures!

Dalton and Colton feed the ducks early one morning.  It wasn't foggy out, my camera was just fogged up. Kind of a cool accident I thought!

Emma and her love of Little Peoples.

That were played with inside the big kids "Sunnyside Day Care."  Yes, the same day care from Toy Story 3.

Jackson just because he is cute.

And Rylee because she is cute.  And I never knew how happy freckles could make me until this kid.  

What most days looked like.

Unless your Kinley.  Then, your days involved booster seats and cheetos :)  Ok, not the ENTIRE time ;)  

And proof we were there too.

Up next...cliff jumping.  It deserved its own post.

An Independence Day for the Books

Oh boy.  Happy Birthday America.  I need some ibuprofen.  And a nap.  And a vacation.  from my vacation.

This isn't to say this wasn't a wonderful, fun filled July 4th getaway.  But, again, I had 6 kids with me, not including the Collins family of an additional 4 kids.  It was a wild one.  Due to the wild nature of it, I did not take near as many pictures as I normally do.

Kenzie, Addy, & Ayden enjoyed their first camping trip, boat ride, tubing and fishing!  My kids, as usual, had a blast swimming in the lake.

We grown up's enjoyed our deep, thought provoking late night conversations.   Ok deep they were not. Hysterical they were though.

We did not enjoy the 40+ splinters Ayden managed to get in his hands and feet while fishing.

Nor did we enjoy the 19 stitches Jadyn received in her side after a run in with a boat propeller (it wasn't on). I will paint this picture now.  All kids are swimming in between the Mosley pier and the neighbors pier (which has a waterslide the kids use).  This is normal, its where they spend all their water time.  One of the neighbors sons had brought in his small boat and tied it off right where all the kids were and did not pull the prop out of the water.

I do not point this out to point blame just to illustrate how this could have happened. Truthfully, as many adults as we had, I totally believe one of us should have been paying closer attention and realized the hazard here.

The kids were continuing to swim around the boat to get to the ladder, Jadyn swam right along the blade, slicing her side open.  I will spare you all a before picture, just imagine a huge open wound with all the fatty tissue exposed.  It was gruesome.  She comes out of the water, sees blood and screams for her dad.  Rylee and one of the neighbor boys see the wound at this time and go into shear panic and fear.  John (Amanda's dad) and Rusty are the first to realize something is terribly wrong.  Rusty said the look on Rylee's face was pure panic.  Poor girl was sobbing and incredibly fearful for her sister.  Aaron and I notice there is some commotion outside, we head out the door and I see/hear Rusty holding Jadyn's side screaming for me to get a towel.  We run in for a towel, run outside to Rusty and Jadyn.  Rusty says it's bad, we need to get to the hospital.  At this point I haven't seen the wound, but I know my husband.  If he says we are going to the hospital, I know its bad.  We load Jadyn in the backseat and Aaron offers to ride along.

Yes, we leave Amanda and her parents behind with 9 kids.  I think Aaron my have been a little grateful for a reason to getaway.

On the 8 minute ride to the hospital, Jadyn has the chills and wants to go to sleep.  Not knowing exactly how bad this is, I refuse to let her and admit this worries me.  We arrive at the hospital, go into the waiting room, check in, a triage nurse comes over, pulls a towel back and tells she is stable.  I relax so much at this point. Still haven't seen the wound myself yet.

It was pretty quick they move us into a room, although they apologized for the wait repeatedly.  We are from Houston.  This was NOT a wait.  This is when I finally see the wound.  Thank God we were at the hospital and had already been told she was stable or I would have panicked (more than I did).  She was a champ. Got her 19 stitches (13 above, 6 under) with just a whimper.  Biggest bummer about this was that she couldn't swim the rest of the weekend.  That really only took her out Saturday so it could have been worse. She handled that well too!

You know its been a wild weekend when 19 stitches isn't the worse thing to happen. 2:30 am I get a call that my dad fell off of his roof that night, broke bones in his neck, back and shattered his pelvis.  Good ever lovin' grief. 

We loaded up quickly and early that next morning and headed to the hospital.  Vacation officially over.
( This is Jadyn and I just wanted Y'all to know that I didn't notice that I got cut till I got out of the water and saw alot of blood then I started freaking out. The part that hurt the most about it was when they numbed me with shots they put INSIDE my cut and it felt like a million of fire ant decided to climb in my cut and started biting)
me. Also I didn't know that the already started till I asked when they were gonna start and they already did.)