Little Sister

My Date with Scotty

Scotty, Shari and I ended up together tonight, and we decided we weren't going to stay home cleaning!  We headed straight for fun at the mall.  We parked in the front row (lucky us), walked through the doors, and immediately spotted the train.  Scotty and his backpack took off running and laughing until they reached the "engineer." Scotty was so excited to sit in the coal car.

Can you see how much fun we had?!

We also found the quarter candy machines, the ones where we never stop, and Scotty picked out a big ball of blueberry gum.  We ended with a trip to Scotty's favorite restaurant: Panda Express.  He wanted strawberries for dessert, but the restaurant was fresh out.  Maybe we'll go to Jamba Juice on our next date.

Loving My Arizona Fall!

My hiking partners in Usery Mountain:

Grant, Sam, Shari, Nicole, Scotty & Tommy

You should have seen people stare at me with SIX kids!  People stare like that when I only have my own four, so I'm getting used to it.  I'm starting to see the humor in it, and just smile when people say, "Are all of those kids yours?!" or "You sure have your hands full!"  But Sam and Nicole act almost like adults, so it was practically three adults and four kids.  That's a better ratio.

The kids kept finding plants to photograph.  Here's a large ocotillo (I want these in my yard one day):

There was this giant saguaro:

A barrel cactus that was growing lopsided:

And a cactus that tipped and died (or died and tipped).  Grant found this one and wanted to study it.

Our state parks install playgrounds near the kid trails, so we got to play in the mountains.

We were so happy to have Sam and Tommy join us.  We have committed to hiking this trail again over the Christmas break.

Tommy Tinker

 At lunch we found a huge ant on our table.  We gave it a cracker crumb, and you should have seen that thing haul its stash away.  The kids watched it carry the crumb under the table upside down (it's right in front of Grant's face).  We were all very impressed and wished we could be as strong as ants (and walk upside down, too!).

Show me the way home.

Learning to Play

Scotty asked if Shari could play in the tree house. 

I don't know which game he hoped she would play, but I suppose he was satisfied just having some company.

Because It's Been A While

Our report: fat and happy

Kitchen Help

One unsupervised morning, Scotty decided to bake a cake.  I was upstairs "otherwise engaged," when Scotty bounded into my room with a giant smile, babbling about a cake and the oven.  I did not delay in investigating!  He raced me downstairs and hopped on his chair, so proud of his "batter."  He fit 11 eggs into this bowl, and mixed them up.  He was ready for me to turn the oven on so we could bake his cake.  He was so happy and excited that I couldn't yell at him.  But I did tell him to please ask permission before baking another cake.  The remainder of our eggs were relocated in the fridge, and I pulled Nicole's leftover birthday cake out of the freezer for Scotty to enjoy.  I made German pancakes with half of the eggs the next morning.  Win-win-win.

Before I could use the last five scrambled eggs, however, Scotty decided that he would help me out with the dishes.  He dumped the eggs down the drain and put the tupperware in the dishwasher, along with a few extra dishes.  Lose-win.

If I could just teach Scotty to properly load the dishwasher, I would have a maid it made!

A Mayo Family

Our residency program plans family functions, like, never!  I still cannot figure out what the occasion was, but we met at the train park yesterday for food and games.  The program was kind enough to give us a budget for lunch and a guaranteed day off for the residents.  I won't complain. Someone made the Mayo shirts to wear as uniforms for kickball teams.  Shari and I lent our support from the sidelines.

The next graduating class:

Clint (How did Shari sneak into that photo?), Justin and Drew

We're moving to Pittsburgh for fellowship, Justin's looking for a job in Dallas, and Drew is dreaming of returning to Hawaii.  Wish us all luck!

Our Support System

Today was the make-up meet for the rained out meet last week.  Nicole, like last time, expressed a little anxiety.  We had a talk about how to use anxiety positively, and how a little bit of anxiety is actually a good thing.  Later in the day, we got notice that not only were Grandma and Papa going to attend her meet, but that they would be accompanied by almost all of her cousins!  Nicole was so excited to see all of them, but then quickly said, "Maybe now I'll be even more nervous!" 

I told her that family is not for making people nervous -- it's for support, and that all of us would be there to cheer for her and love her no matter what.  She hadn't looked at it from that perspective, and she happily agreed after thinking it through.

Nicole easily had the largest cheer section: one parent, two grandparents, four cousins, three siblings and many friends.  Here are her fans:

Grant and Susie

Shari and Sam

Shari and Grandma

Shari (guess she's the #1 fan!)

Kalia and Scotty

 As a side story, Scotty thought he was lost.  He stood next to lane 1 and looked around, but couldn't see anyone.  Instead of screaming, panicking, or asking for help, he stood there and quietly wimpered, "Kawia?  Kawia, where are you?"  Oh, he loves her!

Nicole was awesome! (And that's not an everyday word in my vocabulary.)

 

She took first place in freestyle and back stroke, freestyle being her definite stronghold. You should have seen how proud Grandma was!

We loved having our Arizona family with us today!  Their presence gave Nicole a boost in energy, confidence and HAPPINESS!

Susie and Nicole

Kalia and Nicole

Papa, Nicole, and Grandma

 What fun family entertainment!