Double Digit Getaway

 Joel has been trying to come up with what he wanted all year.  A weekend with just Mom and Dad and no siblings.  At first he didn't want to be in the car at all so he wanted to stay in town.  But when we went to Blacksburg a few weeks ago and went kayaking and paddleboating he remembered tubing on the New River a few years ago. So he declared he wanted to go back to Blacksburg a few weeks later for his double digit getaway.  So we drove up and dropped off Colin and Norah with Mama-maa and Grandpa and headed to the river.

When we were waiting in line for our inner tubes Joel said it felt weird to be without Colin and Norah.  He almost wasn't sure of what to do without them. He is so used to having to compromise or fight for exactly what he wanted that when it was just him we had to really get him to make a decision.  For the double digit getaway they get to choose what we do and where we eat and make all the decisions. Joel was so patient, agreeable, and easy going the entire weekend.  Poor middle child needs time away with just him.

We were looking at hotels to stay in Blacksburg and Mountain Lake Lodge worked with our credit card points so I campaigned to stay there.  Joel wanted to go tubing and do some small hikes so Mountain Lake Lodge was perfect to stay at.

One day we hope the lake will fill up again and where Joel is standing will be all water. It was a massive lake when it was completely filled.  Joel loved doing the hike around the lake because the last time we did it a bunch of trees were down and covering the tail. This time it was clear and the rhododendron were blooming.

We had Joel take a bath to wash the river water off before bed.  He turned on the jets and was overjoyed at all the bubbles that the jets made.  He eventually drained the water and just played in the mountain of bubbles.

We spent the rest of the weekend walking the trails and swimming in the pool.  A lunch at Macados and then we were back to Mama-ma and Grandpas house to get Colin and Norah.

Its always fun and greatly needed to spend time with each kid one on one.  And 10 year olds are pretty special.  Such a great time with our Joel.

(Norah has 3 years until her double digit getaway.....she has her heart set on Hawaii! ha! that would be fun but our rules are within driving distance for a weekend)

Double Digits

Double digits

This boy is now officially 10!

On his birthday he wanted 10 candles in his breakfast and lunch so we could all sing to him and he could blow them out.

He has matured a lot this year.  The poop and fart jokes are still going strong and he loves to push EVERY SINGLE BUTTON of Norah's, but where before he could not be reasoned with, now we feel like we can reason with him and he gets it.

He has the sweetest heart - at the first swim meet our team was giving out these mini beach balls to our buddies (each swimmer has either an older or a younger buddy) so the buddies had to meet and find each other and come over for a prize.  One girl from the other team came over and wanted a beach ball.  Unfortunately we couldn't give her one because we didn't have enough for the other team.  She cried and walked away and the next thing I knew Joel was walking over and giving her his very own beach ball that he had just gotten.  He does stuff like that all the time.

He still dealt with bullies at school this year.  He even had a friend on the swim team call him fat - I overhead and had a talk with that boy and his mother. But Joel was more upset that his friend felt bad than what it did to him. It'll be interesting to see if one day his fight for injustice and his experience with bullies will end up forming him to be the best advocate for people.  Its hard to see him go through all that.

He is still way too smart for his own good.  He will always find any loophole to anything and work it so it always benefits him. His brain is always working.  He was falling asleep one night and leaned over and asked if I ever imagined a tiny little work crew inside my body screwing and nailing pieces of skin back together to heal cuts.  And when he tells stories he goes into great detail of everything. I would love to see the inner workings of his brain. This summer all his friends have said how great he would be at coming up with commercial jingles.  He comes up with some funny stuff and it gets inside your head.

On his birthday we had a swim meet.  That would never be something he would purposely choose to do on his birthday.  He was complaining when we got in the car to drive to the swim meet so I told Colin and Norah that we were going to tell Joel all the things we loved about him.  Joel was so funny - he wouldn't take something like Colin saying he made him laugh and then Norah saying he was funny since they were similar.  He wanted to hear all different things.  He would also ask us to elaborate if he didn't understand why we had said something and then he would tell us if he accepted that compliment or not.  By the end of the drive (and it was about a 40 minute drive) he was smiling and happy to get out of the car.

And I think he ended up glad we were at the swim meet that night with his friends.

And since he had to have his birthday at the swim met I bought mini cupcakes for the entire team.  We were going to sing and give them out at the halftime break (I had asked his coach when would be the best time) but the meet was running so slow so they cut the halftime break.  So I sent Joel around with his pack of friends to give them out to everyone.  The rest of the night I had people coming up saying how cute Joel was - as swimmers came out of the water he would be standing there saying "you swam great - have a cupcake"

Joel gives the best hugs, has the greatest laugh, is the champion of all unfairness in his life, and constantly brings us to our knees in prayer. The world needs more Joels and we couldn't be more grateful that God entrusted us with this sweet strong-willed boy 10 years ago. 

4th of July

4th Of July

by Joel

I want a pie for the 4th of July

to celebrate the ones who died

some of them got fried

others got shot

that left a red dot

some of them survivied

others didn't get revived

now lets celebrate today

in an all American way.

Weekend in Blacksburg

We have spent the summer busy with swim team but got away a week ago to head to Blacksburg for the weekend.

This one was super excited to see Grandpa's candy dish fully stocked.... I'm not sure how much (or how little) was left in the candy dish when we came home.

We got up there in time for a concert on Henderson Lawn. 

Norah and Mama-maa made a necklace. Norah had packed a few of her broken necklaces to take up to have Mama-maa fix them but had left them at home.  I found them the other day still all wrapped up and packed to go so hopefully we can remember to pack those for next time.  Luckily a newly designed necklace helped Norah forget her left behind ones.

On Saturday we went to Carvins Cove.  Its a beautiful lake. Clear water and mountains all around.

Brent and I were going to get double kayaks for Joel and Norah but the wait was over an hour. And once they saw the big paddle boats they went for those.  So I took them on the paddle boat while everyone else kayaked.

It started off nice and sunny but then a storm blew in and it started to thunder and lightning.

So we headed back.  Only I'm pretty sure Joel, Norah and I were moving an inch an hour on that heavy paddle boat! ha! They were both working hard and thankfully we made it back to the dock nice and dry.  And after all that it didnt even rain on the lake.

A beautiful way to spend an afternoon!