Fun Easter Weekend! Swimming Success, Business Travel

We had a great Easter weekend! It started off Saturday with a library trip. Guy and Nico went together while I did some work. There was a robot there they could play with, and they were able to check one out from the library! There's an app you can download to interact with it. Nico played with it nonstop after they got home. Over the next few days it was one of the only things he did when he had free time. We told him it didn't count as iPad time, since he was "programming". There are some video snippets at the end of the blog!

Saturday afternoon we went to my brother Jonny's house for an Easter BBQ. There was yummy food, and an Easter egg hunt for the kids.

Ready...Set...

Go!

Nico made a new friend while we were there, and as we were leaving, his friend said, "I'm going to miss you. We really had a fun time." It was very sweet. Some video from the BBQ at the end of the blog!

Sunday we were at church early. Guy was running sound, Nico had practice with the kids group because they were going to be on stage for one of the songs, and I had practice for a piano/flute duet I was doing with another gal.

On the way to the church Nico said that he didn't want to do the thing on stage anymore, because he was nervous. I told him I was nervous about my thing, too, and that it's ok to be nervous and it shouldn't keep us from doing the thing. After I finished talking, a Parry Gripp song started playing, his songs are so silly, this one says "there's a young girl talking about herself. You can't stop her." And Nico said "Mommy, this song makes me feel better, because it's about a young girl talking about herself, and she's not nervous about talking about herself."

Engage Boise live streams all their services, so I snuck some screen shots off the video to capture these. Nico was in charge of waving the flag during the song.

And we played "Fairest Lord Jesus" during the offering.

Sunday afternoon, Guy was able to take a good long nap. Afterward, we decided to ride bikes. We biked on the greenbelt and we went far. Nico wanted to keep going but we told him we needed to turn around. It's a good thing we did, because the wind was actually helping us on our way out, and against us on the way back. We stopped every few minutes on our way back to check my map to see how much further. Nico's legs were aching and he was having a hard time riding against the wind. Guy rode in front of us on the way back to help block the wind for us. We were gone about an hour and a half.

Swimming on Monday.

Nico eating nachos, reading Peanuts. He is careful to delineate which of the two Peanuts books is his and which is Daddy's. It's important to keep track.

Nico excavating something from an Egyptian pyramid, from his Little Passports monthly subscription.

On Wednesday Nico passed Swimming Level 2!! It's the end of the swimming session and time to sign up for new classes, so Level 3 for him will start next week! I am very proud of him.

Wednesday morning after Nico left for school, I travelled up to Pullman, WA for a business trip. Since there's family in the area it's always a mix of business and family! My mom was already in Pullman when I arrived, along with my Aunt Mary Anne! My Aunt Liz came today, and I was also able to see my cousins and my Uncle Jerry.

It has been SO fun to be surrounded by family even while being here for business! I travelled to Farmington today for work and will drive there tomorrow as well, returning Saturday to Boise.

Now time for the video!

Persistent Tummy Ache!

Last Friday while I was in Moscow, Nico and Guy went to Red Robin for dinner. I knew what they ordered because I got an email receipt from Red Robin. That was neat. Saturday they went to the library and watched the Little Prince with pizza. They wanted to watch Matilda but I am making them wait until this coming Saturday so I can watch it with them!

Aunt Mary Anne and Me!

Facetiming Guy and Nico. They were working on making a small video game.

My mom and I returned from Moscow on Sunday.

Monday morning Nico complained of a tummy ache all of a sudden, but I sent him to school anyway. The nurse called me a little bit later saying Nico was in her office saying he felt sick. He had asked her if she had oils to help him feel better.. he he. I talked to him for a minute on the phone and he told me the nurse had given him a hot water bottle to put on his tummy and it had made it worse. I asked him if he wanted me to bring him some oils or if he wanted me to come pick him up. He said he wanted me to come pick him up, so I did!

After picking him up, I did a Zyto scan on him, slathered him in oils, and brought him with me to my parents' house! I had some work to do over there. 

So the strange thing about Nico's tummy ache that started on Monday is that it comes and goes, and even when he has it, he still eats normally. He has no fever or lethargy, but the tummy ache has been persistent in its return. It went away that afternoon, but returned in force during his baseball game that night and so we left early. He was still feeling sick the next morning, he told me he wanted to go to school because he didn't want to miss PE, but I decided to keep him home. I took him with me again to Grandma's house, and the tummy ache went away that afternoon. He woke up the next morning (Wednesday) telling me he felt GREAT! So off to school he went. 

Another call from the nurse around 12:30, saying that he had been in her office three times already telling her he felt like he was going to throw up. She had the "wait and see" mentality, so they brought some schoolwork in to the nurse's office for him and he worked on it a bit in there. The nurse called me, not to come pick Nico up, but to tell me what had transpired and to ask if anything might be going on with him. She recommended keeping a food journal, so I started one. He does not seem to be avoiding school just for the heck of it, when I try to probe with questions his response is just as always. The only part of school he doesn't like is the free-write time.

The tummy ache was gone when he came home from school Wednesday, but returned shortly after eating Blue Cow Frozen yogurt that night. 

This morning I realized that the tummy ache on Wednesday morning started shortly after Chess class, where they are always given a sweet treat. So, I was thinking I had narrowed it down to SUGAR.

Tonight, Evelyn came over for an early dinner right after school, so we could head to Nico's baseball game. It was cold! But it was his last game this season. 

At one point he was standing on first as the first baseman, totally oblivious to the game, instead he was watching a bird in the sky. The pitcher threw a ball to him to make an out and he didn't see it. Everyone was screaming "NICO!!!" and the coach asks Nico, "What kind of bird to you see?" and he said "It's a red tailed hawk!" then he heard everyone yelling at him for his attention and he kept yelling, "IT'S A RED TAILED HAWK!"

It was a good last game. He had a great coach and a great team. Excited to see what next Spring brings!

Tonight while reading in bed, his tummy ache came back all of a sudden. Poor boy. Still moving forward...

That's it for this week!

The Clubhouse, and Moscow!

Last Saturday was a big day - we rearranged the Clubhouse! We added our huge table from our storage unit and moved everything else around to accommodate. You can check out the video at the end of the blog to see the process.

The table is a corner table, the one that used to be in my parents' cabin! The corner piece of the bench is supposed to be supported by wall on each side, but we have no wall for it to touch, so it is unusable at the moment, else you fall through and land on the floor! Our plan is to add a third leg (well, fourth leg), so that it can stand on its own. We will get this done this weekend.

On Monday, Grandma Camp started! Grandma Salisbury picked Nico up at 9AM and they drove to Mountain Home to pick up more cousins. On Tuesday the whole crew drove up to Moscow, ID in a rented passenger van.

Mom sent me these pool pictures the evening they got into town. Playing in the same hotel pool he was playing in when we visited in June!

(After Nico got home tonight I had him tell me what was happening in each picture)

Running in the water

Playing with paddle boards

Eating at Mad Greek. He got the sparkling burger without the bun

With Grammy

At Grammy's house

Sitting around Grammy's table, she handed out popsicles. Each popsicle had a joke on it. "What did the rabbit give his girlfriend? A 14 carrot ring."

At Kamiak Butte, Nico was interviewing my Aunt Margy. Each grandkid was assigned someone to interview. Grandma provided interview questions in each kid's black binder (as seen on table).

On the stage where Grandma and Papa were married.

On their way home from Moscow today they stopped to see my Aunt Mary Anne, I'm so glad they were able to do that! She sent home some walnuts from their tree, and pears for us. Can't wait to add the walnuts to the banana bread I need to make with our bananas. I will grind them up first... Nico won't eat it if he can tell there's nuts in it! Heehee. But it makes the bread taste sooooo good. Thank you Aunt Mary Anne!!!

And here's the whole travel crew

They were also delayed in Riggins for a few hours because of a crash on the highway that closed the roads for a while. I kept checking their location on my phone. It was nice to be able to do that :) I picked him up from my parents' house at 6:30 tonight.

This week while Nico was gone, Guy and I went over to my parents' empty house to watch a movie on Tuesday. Other things we did this week - we hung new blinds in The Clubhouse and watched a lot of shows on Netflix! Guy was still working during the day so we did fun things in the evening. One evening we even went somewhere after dinner! Not verrrry exciting, but just something unique we don't usually do (leaving the house after dinner, that is).

On to the video!

Wedding, Fireworks, Magic

Friday morning I headed to Pullman with my dad, he picked me up and we arrived around 3pm. It was my cousin Dan's wedding. Pictures from my weekend:

I got to sit next to my Aunt Mary Anne during the wedding

And my mom

 My dad and my brother. David was a groomsman in the wedding.

My cousin Molly and one of her daughters, River.

I have no picture evidence of Guy and Nico's weekend but Nico had his last swim lesson on Friday. They went to the Market on Saturday and dropped off their reading book bingo card at Rediscovered Books. He had enough to be entered into a drawing, which he WON, a gift card! Not sure for how much, we just need to go pick it up!

I arrived home on Monday afternoon. We just hung around the house the next few days, Guy had the day off, and we started uncluttering some stuff in the Clubhouse and down by Guy's desk. We've been watching Mr Bean (the cartoon version) for entertainment at night. 

Yesterday Guy picked us up some fireworks. We didn't get many. Sparklers, pop-its, some snapping ones, and some snakes.

Nico lit a lot of them! Here he is lighting some snakes. They're the hardest to light.

He would pick up the leftover ash and rub them between his hands.

Nico has been caring for a few things around the house while Jeff and Allicia are gone. They have a lizard named Sweetness that they caught, so Nico went every day to one of the neighbor's yards to find box elder beetles, Sweetness eats 3-5 of them every day. The neighbor's yard is all rocks. I went with him to help a few times. He also had to get the eggs from the chickens and bring the mail inside. They paid him for all this.

So, the blog is late being posted! A lot happened Thursday! 

Nico woke up with a tummy ache. We were planning a trip to the Toy shop to get a magic tricks kit but we decided to postpone it. But then he started feeling way better, so we went to get the kit. On Saturday while Guy and him were at the market, they saw a magician. Nico was chosen to come up and help him with a trick. When the magician did his trick and fooled Nico and the crowd, Nico said "but I don't know how to do magic yet" almost tearfully, like if he had known how to do magic he could have not been tricked? Afterward, the magician told Guy and Nico they could get magic kits from Toy Town. So they went there and found one they wanted. Thursday Nico and I went back to get it. On the way there Nico said when he grows up he wants to be a magician and an ornithologist. Like perhaps doing magic tricks with birds.

It wasn't until later I realized that he didn't yet know that magic wasn't magic and that it's actually just illusion and tricks. He was expecting to actually be able to make things levitate. I think he's warmed up to the idea of illusion, though, and Guy helped him with the kit, he was getting frustrated not understanding what the directions were telling him to do. 

Thursday afternoon Allicia returned with the kids. Jeff returned late last night from a Katmandu work trip, and they are packing up the car and are leaving today (Friday) for Seattle! While home yesterday, Avery was taking a bath/shower and did a cannonball into the tub and smacked his face, biting through his lip. Allicia took him to Urgent Care along with Evelyn, who had a bug bite on her leg that was infected. I stayed home with Ivy, we played Zelda and watched Moana, while Guy put Nico to bed. I had most of the blog update already written but forgot to finish it off last night before bed! Evelyn stayed over for dinner last night. Nico was so excited to see her after her being gone so long. He quizzed her on the states and how to spell them and other facts. Evelyn was very receptive to all of it and, and even shared an interesting fact to Nico about wolves, saying that since Nico is sharing info with her, she is going to share some info with him. So we learned that wolves are scavengers.

Here's Evelyn holding her water cup behind her. If she spells "Washington" right she gets to dump water on Nico's head.

Allicia asked Nico if he'd like to be hired again to do chores while they're gone, and he said no. hehe. I'll be doing them. Instead of finding elder bugs we are going to get a bucket of crickets from Zamzows to feed Sweetness while they're gone.

Ok that's it! Until next time!