Trip to Washington

It's wonderful when your kids trust you enough to ask you to help with their kids when they are going to be away.  Natalie needed to go to camp with the girls she is over in the church (the Beehive group) for almost a week, so they asked if I could come and help with the three children.  Now that I am retired, I gladly accepted.  Thank goodness, Kent would be there at night, especially to help me with little Cannon.   

It is hard to believe that he is 3 1/2 years old.  I think this is one of the healthiest times I have seen him.  He is still only about 15 1/2 pounds, has to be fed hourly, and has to be held and moved around often because of his inability to do so.  But once you are around him, you realize that although he has an impaired body, he has a perfect spirit that makes you love him instantly.

I loved the "cuddle" time with him.

 It is a giant responsibility to watch him.  I so admire Kent and Natalie as his parents and Ethan and Ella as his brother and sister.  His care is never a burden.  They all love him so much.

In addition, to helping with Cannon, I was there during the AAU Basketball Tournaments, so I was able to see Ethan play a lot of basketball games--which I love to do!  After having five sons, I have spent hours in the gym, and I have missed it.

Kent is Ethan's coach.  Again, that brought back so many memories of all the years George coached the boys' basketball teams before they got on the junior high and high school teams.

Ethan gives it everything he has.  He never quits trying and has turned into a really fine basketball player at such a young age.

This summer, Ethan went to the Utah State Basketball Camp for 5th through 8th graders.  Although Ethan is just going into 5th grade, he received the Most Valuable Player Award from the Head Coach for all four grade levels!

Sports teaches so many vital lessons to young people.

Ethan absolutely loves it!  When he's not playing a game, practicing in the gym, or watching basketball on tv, he's out in front of his house practicing on his hoop there.  He's thinking basketball 24-7!

And the other activity I was able to do was go to Ella's horse riding lessons.  I think many of us thought this was just a phase she was going through, but after seeing all of this, I am now a believer!  This little gal absolutely "loves" horses and everything about them! 

She was so proud to show me how she is learning to jump hurdles on the horse.

Do you see that smile?

Ella with her riding teacher on the right, along with the teacher's sister in the middle who is a little older than Ella, but they are great friends who have such a common interest.

Then when I brought her home, she got out plastic cups, and numbered all of them.  She then placed them according to a layout her teacher had given her to practice.

All on her own, she practiced the turns and directions, and then had me quiz her on it.  She wants to compete in "dressage" soon, so she must have done this for a couple of hours.  After that, she went to the computer.  I wondered what she was working on. 

I saw that she was watching various stunts that she could learn on the horse.  And finally later on, we saw that she had pulled up "Horses for Sale" on the computer.  Wow!  Like I said, I don't think this hobby is going away any time soon.

One afternoon, when Kent got home, he tended Cannon while I took the kids to see "Monsters University."  Although they had seen it before, they wanted me to see it.  It was adorable.  We, also, saw "Flash" while I was there.  I really liked that one, too.

Kent is Cub Master in their ward, so after Natalie returned from Girls' Camp, he had to do a pack meeting on "Courage."  I don't know if there is a more creative person than Natalie, so I just did as I was directed, and we got everything ready for the pack meeting.  I couldn't believe how cute it turned out.  It was a tremendous hit with the young and old alike!


Natalie did it around Nemo and the courage he had to have, along with a little help from his friends.  Kent showed a portion of the film to emphasize that.

 
Salt Water Taffy

Cupcakes with Sweedish fish.  The big container in the middle had gold fish, along with a smaller container on each table.

 Bottles of sand from various beaches that Natalie has collected it from.



Ella and her friend Jane at the Pack Meeting.

The food table was so clever, too.

Ocean Potion (Gatoraide), and Sea Water (Water), with a life preserver attached to each.

Chips Ahoy

Shark infested fruit--Natalie cut this out of a watermelon herself, and then filled it with fruit.

The kids especially loved the "Peanut Butter and Jellyfish" Sandwiches

Most of the adults went to the "Sub"marine Sandwiches.

All served on a shark plate.

Kent did such a great job taking charge of the meeting.

The young scouts began with a flag ceremony.

They, also, did a special song for everyone.   Kent then handed out a paper with 14 items that you could have in a dessert if a plane went down.  First, you were to figure out the order of importance you would place them in, then you worked as a group to categorize them.  The parents could help.  It really got everyone involved and emphasized the theme of courage, as well as team work, and being prepared.  The whole evening was a great success.

From there, we headed out for another basketball game.  Like I said, I loved going to them, and luckily this was a very busy two weeks of games.

When I heard that Ella still couldn't ride a two-wheel bicycle, I said that had to change.  So, Natalie and I took her to get a new bike with no-training wheels.  She was pushing it through the store--not very happy!  I know people were wondering why she didn't have the biggest smile on her face ever!  But she was really apprehensive about it.  She said she was pretty scared to try!  Here is a girl who does horse jumps but was tentative about riding without training wheels!

Well, that lasted barely under an hour.  When we got home, Natalie went out with her, and soon she was riding like a pro.  Now, look at that happy face!

She and her mom made a plan to ask her dad to help her to learn when he came home from work, but she would just take off instead.  That's exactly what she did!  He was so proud of her, too!

Another one of Ella's proud possessions, is this beautiful pony.  She takes great care of it.

The last weekend I was in Washington, we took off for a little town just across the Washington border into Oregon for a 3-on-3 tournament.

It was an extremely hot day--look at those red faces.  I don't know why I didn't remember that 3-on-3 tournaments are held outside, but we couldn't keep Cannon outside.  He gets so red just being in the sun for a minute or two, so fortunately, we were able to park right beside the blacktop and still watch from there.

I was so proud of these young men.  Although they had just put this team together for this tournament, and they hadn't had much time to practice with each other, they ended up taking second for their age group which was actually a grade above Ethan's.

Oh, yes.  And one more thing I did while in Washington--I helped Natalie make Ella a headboard.  Once again, I was reminded that I don't ever doubt Natalie's unique ideas for what she wants to create.  She wanted a headboard that looked like a fencepost to put all of Ella's horse riding ribbons on.  So, here is the finished project!

 Not bad, huh?!  Amazing what $50 and a daughter-in-law with a mother-in-law assistant can do!  Natalie calls us "unstoppable!"  Hah!  I think over the years as we've created a king-side bed, a Pottery Barn-like book shelf, picture frames, faux painting, crib bumper pads, blankets, chair covers, etc., etc., we've had some real successes as we've worked together.  One guy at a Home Depot kids us that he is going to get a restraining order on us because we've come in with some pretty strange requests for items that we need in order to finish our projects, but he still smiles when I go into that store.  He still remembers Natalie and me together!

 So, at the end of the two weeks, I left with some wonderful memories and loving thoughts of Kent and Natalie and their family.  Thanks for your trust in allowing me to help out in your lives a little, and thanks for adding to my life a whole lot!