Castle Rock

On Saturday Nico and I climbed up to Castle Rock, it's a much shorter hike than Table Rock and not as much exertion is required. I can see Castle Rock outside our front window and often see people up at the top looking down. So I wanted to try it. Check out the video at the end!

 

After we got home from Castle Rock, Guy helped Nico create a board game for a Cub Scouts project.

FLASHBACK

Nico wanted to recreate the picture.

Guy received his MST3K coffee table book in the mail on Tuesday. I brought it with me when we went on our coffee date to Caffe Capri and we looked through it. Really cool!

Today I met Allicia and Ivy at a new Zero-waste store in Garden City called Roots. They have tea, and muffins (made with cricket flour).

Ivy wore her flower dress because she knew she was having a "date" with me.

Enjoy the video!

Friends, Wreaths, Gluten

I just read the title from my last post, "Assembling Furniture, Friends", sounds like we also assembled friends.

We received a big order of ribbon on Friday to process and ship to Amazon, which we did on Saturday (check out video at end of blog). On Saturday, Nico also dressed up in his Cub Scouts uniform and went door to door with Guy to sell wreaths. The Cub Scouts are doing a wreath fundraiser. He made 2 sales on his adventure. I think they plan to go again soon.

For pizza night on Saturday, it was Nico's movie choice, and he chose to watch a show called Oggy and the Cockroaches. It's a silly cartoon.

I got only ONE picture of Nico this week. Him and Grace are playing a game in this picture. Her and William came over on Sunday afternoon.

When Nico didn't want to play anymore he said, "Ok I'm done playing, you guys can go home now." Grace asked him why and he said, "I just want some alone time."

I have a sneaking suspicion that he was done playing because he was done taking turns on the Switch and wanted to play it all by himself. We all squeezed onto the couch after that (I say squeezed, because even though we have a big couch now, in this instance we all squished together just like old times in the Clubhouse), and we each did our own thing on our own devices.

Nico is enjoying Drama Club, he came home with this the other day:

Then I got an email from Nico's drama teacher telling us who got which roles in the play. They are doing an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. Nico had requested to be the Wizard, and he got the part! He also plays Uncle Henry and one of the Munchkins. Evelyn's role is the witch. Can't wait to see them in the same play together.

Also, some interesting tidbits about Nico:

And in this one he mentions Clams as the best food. He had them for the first time in Portland this past summer. He has also been asking me to let him try sushi.

OH, speaking of food. A few weeks ago Nico told us that he asked God if he could have gluten, and God said Yes. So we're going through an investigative time that will be educational either way. We believe that God can speak even to kids (there's no junior Holy Spirit amiright), but we also know that our own desires can sound like God sometimes. So, we're going to try gluten. We've never been through a definitive gluten-reaction test with Nico before. In fact, we are not entirely sure WHAT his reaction is exactly. We just know that the tests show that he is very sensitive. The plan is to allow him to eat gluten for a week, Thanksgiving week, when he will be home. One gluten meal a day. Then we'll stop the gluten, and wait until his next doctor appointment in December to officially test him.

The night we told him this, he got so excited he had trouble sleeping. We spent a while listing restaurants and foods that he could try and he went bonkers after each one, especially when I told him we could go to Blue Sky Bagels. A few other ones we came up with - Pizza Hut, waffle cones from Baskin Robbins, Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets, hot lunch at school (we may do this the following Monday when he goes back to school), pretzels from the mall, Olive Garden, biscuits and gravy, Belgian waffles, pancakes, and of course Thanksgiving things!

If anyone has other suggestions on what he should try, let us know! He woke up the next morning and asked, "What other restaurants can we go to that have gluten?" After school he asked the same thing. He is excited.

Okie dokie, I think that's it for this week! Next week we'll have a fun update about this upcoming weekend, tomorrow we venture to Ketchum, ID for the Trailing of the Sheep Festival to celebrate Guy's birthday!

So I'll leave you with a short video for now.

Assembling Furniture, Friends

In the unpacking we rediscovered the game called Munchkin. Nico is all about this game now. We play it before school, after school, after dinner, whenever someone says YES to his question: "Do you want to play Munchkin?"

Saturday was a good day. Nico's only chore was to empty a box in his room, but then he realized that one of my chores was to assemble the new shoe bench we ordered, and he begged me to let him do it. I said yes, of course, and so he assembled the shoe bench for me. The only thing I had to do was tighten a few of the screws all the way, the rest was him. We keep the shoe bench by our front door. It has been working out great, we have a place to sit to put shoes on now!

It was my movie choice that night, and I chose Singing in the Rain. It's a good movie that I hadn't seen in a while!

This past Monday we received the delivery of our new storage cabinet. It looks exactly like our other one, but we put this new one in the dining room to hold all our board games. Nico volunteered to put this one together too. It was a long journey; he asked me to take over for him after he put in an hour of hard work.

This is how he got all the pieces out of the box.

On Tuesday Nico arrived home from school in a car, his friend Grace had offered him a ride home with her mom. Grace and her little brother William were at his birthday party in July.

Nico walked in the door and said in really fast succession: "I invited Grace over today and she's going to come over with William and you just have to text her mom and let her know and then she can text you back and then Grace can come over."

Grace lives just down the street from us!

I texted her mom and then Grace and William came over a few minutes later. They are both very sweet kids. After all of them played in his room for a while, Nico and Grace separated off and started playing the Switch while William put together Nico's domino set in the living room. I really love these friends of his.

Tuesday evening was Cub Scouts. Guy is applying to become the secretary for the Cub Scouts council. They stayed late on Tuesday to stay for the council meeting even though he's not "officially" the secretary yet. He took notes just like a secretary is supposed to, and then emailed everyone the meeting minutes the next day. He is amazing. On a side note, he told me that before moving, he didn't feel like he had control over anything, and now, he has the power to change things and to affect his surroundings. His stress level is a lot better. He spent this past weekend cleaning out the shed and putting up shelving in there, mowing the lawn and trimming the roses. He says this house reminds him of his childhood. The floors, and the dim light in the living room in the evenings.

On Wednesday mornings, Grace's mom has started picking Nico up on their way to chess club, since Grace is in chess as well.

And Wednesday afternoons and evenings, Grandma Salisbury picks Nico up, then him and cousins and Grandparents go to dinner and then Youth Group. Afterward, Papa drops him off. It has been a fun tradition!

Today in Drama Club he got the script for the play they're doing, Wizard of Oz! He put in his request to play Oz, we will find out next week which role he got. Evelyn is also in class with him. It'll be fun to see them in a play together.

Nico has been really into National Geographic "Weird But True" books. He has been checking them out from the library at school. He brings up facts all the time, "Did you know that soap actually comes from underground? So it's impossible to wash your hands!" He used this line on me when I told him to wash his hands before dinner tonight.

That's it for this week!

Cub Scouts Camping, Train Ride, Sore Throat

The boys left for Baker City, Oregon last Friday afternoon for a Cub Scouts camping trip. It's a good thing they brought a huge comforter with them, because the nights were cold and Nico was having trouble. I'll let Guy blog for this part:

Left boise on time around 6pm. Led the pack early, but fell behind.  Near the turn off toward sumpter we were caught by a few other families and followed them to the Union Creek Campgrounds.  I helped Isabell put up her new tent, Nico then helped me put up our tent.  It was dark, and the ground was wet.  Got ready for bed, Nico was freezing, it was hard for him to focus.  I tried to zip our sleeping bags together, but I couldn’t figure it out and gave up.  It was good to have the comforter.

I awoke to a coyote alarm just before 6am (coyotes singing yelling etc)  Kids woke up and started playing tag. Nico stayed asleep in bed, when he woke up he wanted to leave immediately, (he was very cold) I told him we could leave after the train ride if he still wanted to. Before breakfast the kids went down to the lake, and Nico got a shoe stuck in mud.  We had to borrow a pair of shoes from Max, a kid a year younger than Nico, that we went camping with this summer (City of Rocks)

Breakfast was oatmeal.

Nico got his buddy (Max) and we all went on a nature walk to the lake, some avoiding mud.  We saw a frog, and an osprey carrying a fish. Later we saw an osprey hit the lake for some food.  Saw some rusty engines that had been in the lake at some point, but when the waters went down for the fall they were revealed.

Upon return, Nico and Max did dot to dots in the tent.  Lunch was walking tacos (taco stuff in a bag of chips).

We went to McEwan station, a small station where we got on our train to head into Sumpter.  The kids were given fake gold and fake money and necklaces.  There were some young girls on the train (not with the pack) who were telling stories of the dreaded rockodile which didn’t move during the day, but that would swim around at night and each children.  

The Rockodile

Also, that there were bandits in the area.  Our train was “attacked” by bandits, who forced the train to stop and they stole all the “money” from the children and took the “gold” from the head of the train.  We got into Sumpter station, where the kids were allowed to ride the bandit’s horses.

We then took a tour of the gold dredge, a giant boat / machine which was used to dredge huge amounts of soil for gold.  Nico and the kids also got to practice panning for gold. Nico found a few flakes, (we had to give them back).

We got back and the kids practiced their skits they made up for the campfire program that night (Saturday).  Dinner was chili, salad and rolls.  Nico was in several skits, including “night at the museum”, “Forest of Death” and another one he made himself involving preying mantises and leaves.

Another cold morning, Nico wanted to leave immediately. We stayed for breakfast and after a bit in front of the fire and sipping some hot chocolate he was ok waiting until all the other kids left.  Breakfast was eggs / sausage / and stuff potentially burritos.  Nico played around, I had done most of the packing up when he was relaxing at the fire.  Nico made some sandwiches for our trip home, then we left.  We stopped for a few snacks then drove straight home.

Ok it's me again (Joanna)! The first thing Nico wanted to do when he got home on Sunday was to open up his bath-bomb kit and start making bath bombs. He ordered this kit with his own money from a catalog we received in the mail. He also bought himself a dot-to-dot book.

He then dug into his Little Passports World Edition, where there was a 3D puzzle of Big Ben.

Monday afternoon I got a call from Nico's school and Nico was on the other end. He told me that he started getting a sore throat soon after getting to school that day, and then he got a stomach ache and a headache. The nurse told me he had been to her office 3 times that day and there was nothing else she could do for him. I picked him up and took him home. I loaded him up with all the good anti-virus things I have, and he happily ate nachos and watched his iPad and played on his Switch for the rest of the day. He had a low grade fever (100.1).

He stayed home on Tuesday. He spent all day on his iPad and Switch. Halfway through the day he said his sore throat was gone, and he no longer had a fever.

Wednesday was a full day for him. He goes to school early for Chess, and then after school he gets picked up for Youth Group. Papa picked him up. They went to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner.

Guy and I usually make dinner for ourselves on Wednesday nights and then watch a show or two. This time we tried to get some unpacking done too, since that is an ever-present issue at the moment!

Thursday is a long day for Nico as well, he is at school early for his hall monitor shift, and at school late for Drama Club. Evelyn is in Drama Club with him this year. When he came home I asked him how the hall monitor thing went, and he said "Bad. Very very very bad." Then he smiled and said "just kidding!" Hah!

Here's a video of the Sumpter Train Ride!

Dog Man, First Day of School, Pirate Party

Last Friday after lunch, Nico and I went first to Barnes and Noble so he could buy the latest DogMan novel. It had just been released that Tuesday, so there was a big display case inside the store that had a bunch of copies. 

Then we went to the mall to finish up his school shopping, and while we were standing in line at Kohl's, Guy texted me saying he was leaving work early. I called him and asked him if he wanted to meet us at the mall, and he said YES! So Nico and I waited for him arrive, then we all ventured to See's Candies first to get some treats, and then up to the food court to get lunch for Guy.

We also stopped by the game store and Nico found a used Switch game that he had been wanting, and so he bought it with his leftover birthday money.

When we got home I commissioned Nico to make a crock pot meal that he received all the ingredients for from a recent Grandma Camp. Seafood chowder! He happily dumped everything in there and turned it on. Dinner 3 hours later!

Saturday morning I did henna at the market. Allicia sent me this text while I was there. Avery needed some help with a toy and Nico was helping him.

Sunday was a fun day. Long morning at church and then I drove Nico straight to Big Al's where his cousins and Grandparents Salisbury were gathered to do some bowling. He came home that afternoon and went straight downstairs where there were kids waiting for him to play the Switch. Sunday, Jeff and Allicia had friends over for "Even Sunday", which is like "Odd Saturday" except they couldn't do it on Saturday and so they did it on Sunday. Guy ran a role-playing game for everyone. And Nico played the Switch until bedtime. This year we did not do a last-day-of-vacation treasure hunt like usual. Hmm.. oh well!

The first day of school arrived. 4th grade!

It was a half day, and after school he was invited downstairs to play some Switch, so he played until dinner time. We are still taking advantage of summer rules, not quite ready to crack down on video game playing. Nico and Allicia have been playing buddy-system on the Yoshi game, it was fun to watch them play together!

Nico has been playing Switch downstairs after school every day.

Nico's report after his first day of school was that he liked it and he liked his teacher. His teacher uses an app to communicate with parents, and she can also hand out points to students via the app and the parents can see which points she gave to their kids. Points for teamwork, participation, and good-job type stuff.

Tuesday night was the first Cub Scout Pack meeting of the season. It was a Pirate Party. Guy sent me these pictures telling me that they both got "Lucky Beard" as their pirate name.

Every morning before school Nico and I have been playing Monopoly. It's not the original version, I don't know what the version is called but instead of cash money it uses credit cards. The game goes a little faster that way. Usually we don't finish before school starts so we sometimes save the rest of the game for after school.

We have officially started looking for places to move. Today we went to see a house on Bacon street in this same neighborhood. We really liked it. We're trying to figure out if we can make it work, but we're hoping it's a GO for this one. But if not this one, we will keep on looking, it could be a while yet, it's really hard to say!

Wedding and Webelos Woods

Last Friday morning we woke up in Portland, OR, the day of Tom and Emily's wedding. Guy figured out the coffee maker, and we spent the morning resting and playing the board games that our Airbnb had available. 

We went to a nearby Fred Meyer to buy some things we forgot to bring with us. Makeup for me, a plate for the cookies we brought, and a spoon for the salad we brought. Then we picked up lunch from a Thai restaurant, and while we waited for the food, Nico and Guy went to the Baskin Robbins next door for a before-lunch dessert.

The wedding was that afternoon around 4:30. Nico quickly found some kids to play with, two brothers. He played hard with them all night long, running and playing tag, dancing, playing cards, and hitting a pinata.

Tom and Emily both had beautiful vows. After the ceremony there was so much food downstairs to choose from!

After the food downstairs, there was dancing back upstairs where the ceremony was. Nico and his friends dropped in for a brief moment to show off their moves, then they were back to chasing each other around.

They did help clean up the globes from the reception area at the end of the night.

Congratulations Tom and Emily! We love you both and are so happy for you. It was a beautiful wedding.

The next morning we started our trip home. We drove to Pendleton where we stopped for gas and treats and coffee, and then I went one direction to head to Spokane, and the boys went the other.

Monday the boys drove to McCall for Webelos Woods, a Cub Scout camping trip.

Here's Nico looking at the schedule once they arrived. There were several activities each day for the scouts to participate in.

Now Guy is going to take over writing this part of the blog:

Day 1

Met at albersons parking lot to meet other members, 4 other boys were on the trip.

Trip was uneventful (but the road is twisty)!

Got to camp and got registered, then setup camp.  After that we met at the firebowl, which was like an open air theatre, where the leadership team introduced themselves. Later (at the main building) we had flag ceremony (taking down the flags) then dinner.  Dinner was mac and cheese with hotdogs, with green beans and salad and ice cream. Nico skipped the mac and cheese, and ate mostly green beans, with a little bit of hotdog. And chocolate milk.  After dinner was a firearms safety meeting so that it wouldn’t take up all the time during shooting the following day, it was more detailed than in needed to be in all the wrong places.

Day 2

Up at 6am (nico still sleeping). Once we all were up we sat around camp trying to guess what would be for breakfast. No one guessed Cinnimon rolls, which is what we had. They had gluten free donut for nico, as well as gluten free cereal.  Everyone was jealous of nico’s donut.  

First activity of the day was bb shooting, nico grouped his shots quite well. (see video and pictures). 

After that we did sling shots, shooting garbanzo beans at plates.  After that ,we did archery (nico’s favorite).  All during this time, Nico’s pack members were planning a skit to perform at the nights fire bowl gathering.  

Then, it was lunch time, which was chicken nuggets and tater tots.  Nico had a grilled chicken breast, but didn’t like the tater tots. More cholate milk. We had KP duty, so we spend about half an hour cleaning up, because the kids didn’t know how to mop or sweep or anything. After lunch was a first AID class, where Ironically nico got a sudden and gushing bloody nose.  We went to the first aid area and had it attended to, but it was several minutes before it stopped bleeding.  We returned to the first aid class, apparently missing nothing. After first aid was a “cast away” class where the kids got to learn some survival tips. They attempted to cook biscuts on a stick over the fire (mostly they just fell in the fire) and then cooking poached eggs in the fire (nico got mostly shell in his and didn’t like it) they also learned about some native plants some dangerous and some edible. Nico tried some “bear moss” which he thought tasted like salad. Ayden, one of his packmates thought it tasted like wet shirt.

Dinner was early this evening, to allow for some free time to swim. Dinner was hamburgers. (gluten free bun for nico, and chocolate milk) Nico also got a squishy toy thing at the trading post, and tipped a little so that the tradepost workers would sing the tip song. Nico elected not to swim, so instead we played apples to apples at the main building, then he did some bead work (which he didn’t finish)  Then it was off to fire bowl, where various people did skits. Nico’s pack did a skit related to a person getting ready for hiking, and defeating various obstacles including sun, bugs and fire, only to be defeated by a bear (played by Nico)  I didn’t film that.  They also retired two flags (via burning) which was pretty incredible to see, including a gun salute (4 shots total)  Then it was bed time.

Day 3

Nico was very sleepy (see nico’s hair and sleepy face picture).  

He said he would have kept sleeping if I hadn’t woken him up. We mostly packed up camp in the morning before Nico’s troup did the flag ceremony in the morning, with some help from some of the leaders (we didn’t have enough kids for a full ceremony) they did pretty well. (video). 

Breakfast was cheese omelets and sausage, with watermelon (picture). During the class I snuck away and packed up the rest of camp. By then, nveryone was ready to go home, and the ride was uneventful. 

There was one final class for nico, which was a cast iron cooking class. They made pankaes (one for me) and cobbler (picture). 

We unpacked the car, then got to relaxing (on the switch).

Ok now it's Joanna again.

Today was a Grandma Camp day and tonight Nico is staying the night at Grandma and Papa's house. I am picking him up tomorrow when I get back into town from Spokane. Here are Nico and Papa reading together.

A major video of snippets will be coming next week! I have a lot of video snippets to catch up on. Stay tuned next week for birthday video snippets, and snippets from camping.