DB Family Blog: April, May and end of school

We might get some land, so Luke and Jim explored the boundaries.

Lots of old cars on the property, the guy has to remove them before we buy. At least we want him to. You can see the cars have been there for a while haha

Beautiful land, they called a turkey and we saw him strutting around.

Out to dinner with friends

Sunday dinner question: “What is one thing you can’t live without?”

Diana: Mom’s cooking

John: Computer time

Katy: My soul

Jacob: My testimony

Nicole: My family

Michael: Oatmeal

Finn bit John. We were sitting around as a family reading, while Diana was petting Finn's head and Finn was eating a chew toy. John leaned over a reached for the toy to play fetch and Finn leaned back and bit him. No warning or anything. We were totally shocked and could not believe it. After a lot of tears, some prayers to decide, and making a tough choice, we gave Finn back to the breeder. We can still barely believe it happened with a dog that never showed any aggression, whining or barking with fear or anger, and never bit. You can see where his top teeth went into John's hairline and the bottom teeth got his cheek. There was even a scratch under John's eye that shows how close he came to worse injury.

I kept John home from school the next day to heal up and over the week he slowly healed. We were SO sad to give Finn back, but there was just no guarantee it wouldn't happen again and was way too much stress to be trying to prevent something that hadn't he shown signs of doing in the first place!

Meanwhile, Mango is still with us. Nicole took him to school for a speech about Costa Rica (it was a bit of a stretch, but definitely made it fun for her and the class).

Nicole has worked on her basketball skills more than ever before. Varsity this year is a whole new kettle of fish so we will see how it goes. The mix of girls is nowhere near as unified or friendly so it will be challenging for sure.

Jacob was devastated to give up the dog. After the decision, he told me he just wanted to go to the temple. It was SO sweet. I made an appointment right then and they had space for he and Nicole to go a few days from then. It was really sweet to see him turn to the Lord for peace in his sorrow.

Nicole and friends doing a puzzle at school.

Michael leading his team at field day.

Katy front the third from left with her class.

John second from the left with his class.

Nicole coming down the stairs in her fancy dress for church Prom

I love how beautiful and modest the girls were. Jewels.

They redid a picture from many years ago. They are hilarious cousins.

John came home from school and planted some seeds from class. Didn't even know what they were but wanted them to grow. He was thrilled when they sprouted!

Diana got a cell phone. When our kids get old enough that we start leaving them places (like sports practice) alone, we get them a phone. Load the church apps and then block all internet and everything. She loves texting friends sometimes and being able to read her scriptures on her phone. It's hard to believe she is in middle school now.

I was glad when this day was over. June was crazy. Soccer tournaments for 5 kids, swim practice for 6 and meets, tutoring, track, parties, graduation, finals, end of school celebrations and projects. Busiest I've ever been, day after day, for weeks.

Jim took Jake and John fishing off the pier at Wrightsville. One of their favorite getaways. They leave super early and then get back in time for Jim to put the afternoon of work in.

John had a field trip. You can see how full of joy he is to be at Marbles. When the kids were younger we went here a lot more, but we've kind of aged out of it. He's fine though, he's done so many things that even I never did until now (like Barbados) that I think he's not missed much in life haha.

I invited friends to an escape room I made and it was a dinner party too, so fun!

Kiersten and Nicole were the maids that served dinner. They also acted out that Nicole was poisoned and Kiersten dragged her away. They were hilariously enjoyable.

I was a Southern belle and Jim was a shifty art dealer.

We had dinner and then played the escape room. The adults were all dressed up and it was just a fun and relaxing time.

The escape room ends with a game that gets everyone involved with some good laughs.

The whole party

Mike kicked a ball saving it from a goal, and the ball exploded. The ref let him keep it. Pretty cool!

Nicole had a page in the yearbook! She was so proud of it. Of course I wasn't about to spend money on one, so here is the page in all its glory lol.

Some of Nicole's close friends from basketball are on the softball team, so they went to cheer them on- they won state which was awesome!

Our family went camping at Pilot Mountain with some friends.

We went rock climbing for the first time as a family. Lots of learning but the weather was fine and since it had forecast rain there was nobody else there! Friends with us said they'd never seen it anything but packed. Michael was really good and loved the challenge. He is pretty fearless and strong.

Nicole did a great job climbing!

John was hilarious. The only way we could get him to rappel down was to tell him to sit on Jim's head. You should have seen him stretch his bottom down while still trying to cling to the rock! But he finally held the rope, not the rocks and came down right.

Katy is a mountain goat. She climbed so easily compared to the rest of us! And without any fear.

Meanwhile, I was SO proud of myself for being able to climb and I really enjoyed it.

Our friends brought homemade salsa and chips and that basically sustained everyone.

Katy

Nicole and Diana on different ropes going up at the same time.

Jim tried to fit into some climbing shoes. They were several sizes too small.

He ended up like Cinderella's step sister and could barely climb before begging to come back down they hurt so much.

Gorgeous views!

The campout was a fun adventure that had us all tired out!

We took the family biking (we knew we'd be trying mountain biking in Utah the next month) despite the drizzling rain.

And got the gravel spit to prove it.

Katy had to switch bikes with Diana but we forgot that her new bike didn't have brakes like she was used to. She discovered this while going downhill and ahead of me. Somehow she managed to fall without hurting herself before she got into the street. It was a a big blessing. She was not happy with the bike, however, and you can see her ready to kick the bike. She was fine after a snowcone, however.

John finally had to play goalie. He avoided it however he could, but finally had to. Bored out of his mind, tangling up in the net, but he did make a few saves.

We got a travel trailer so we can go camping more often. We'll see how it goes!

Jim got a marlin in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

I went to the temple during the last week of school. Jim was gone, things were as crazy as ever, and I sure needed that peace!

Mike graduated 8th grade!

Boys are proud of the conference championship they earned on soccer, it was the first for the school.

Michael took digital art as an elective. I'm picturing the hours he spent on this and chuckling to myself.

Youth temple trip!

The boys went camping and hiking with their quorum but it turned out only one other boy could go and their family is one of our good friends, so it was like a friend campout :)

Diana starting off the half! Her team was incredible and won the tournament for her age. She has constant energy and effort I love watching her face off with anyone and everyone without fear.

John hadn't scored in a few games, so I told them he'd get a wendy's frosty if he scored. Just trying to encourage. Well, he scored four times!

And someone brought doughnuts for after game snacks! So it was a sugar-filled day and he was not complaining!

The boys hiking during all the soccer games I was taxiing the kids to.

Diana's team after winning the championship. What was amazing is that these coaches didn't really talk much about winning everything. They just treated it like any other game and played everyone. They didn't hand out trophies or ribbons, just congratulated everyone nicely. Really good coaching.

Diana had been feeling under the weather and after that crazy week she came home from her game and took a nap. First one I've seen her take in years. Like probably first one since she was 3.

John was thrilled to win a heat! :)

Nicole sprained her foot from bad shoes so Jim made her some fancy orthotics. He makes these for Duke college players so now she has the real thing.

Diana's birthday!

She's now 11 years old and as awesome as ever!

We did fireworks for her birthday and swam in the pool!

Meanwhile, Nicole was at team camp at NC State.

She had a good time and bonded with some of the girls. Still a tough group overall, and unfortunately Nicole's foot was hurting so badly she couldn't play more than a few minutes. But at least she was there and I think overall a good experience.