Friday, September 26, 2008


When they are all in the water they look a lot alike. I have to go by goggle color or swimming suit to tell the difference.

The big news is that Cammie officially became a swimmer at the end of the swim season this year. She competed in two meets. The first one was kind of scary, I had a horrid mommy moment and was worried that my kid might drown in front of my eyes, as she took over one and a half minutes to make it across the pool, and about 30 seconds were spent in one spot bobbing up and down. The second meet went much better and she took over 30 seconds off her time. Now if she would only learn to keep her head tucked, she would have a smokin' hot dive, instead of a belly flop.


We had our end of the season awards ceremony. Mindy received a special trophy for her work ethic. This is for always being on time, helping out, and doing her best in practices. Kyle wouldn't pose with his awards for me.



Cammie and Mindy both received Student of the Month Awards, (along with several others). Cammie's was for the kindergarten life-skill of the month: Alertness. Apparently, she is very attentive in class, and always ready to what she is supposed to do. Mindy finally got an award she was happy to get (it only took 6 years). Hers was for her writing skill. (In past years she has been honored to get the "off to a good start" or her most favorite "smarty" award, why do teachers think that would be cute or something the kid would be proud to have?)

(Travis is #8)
Travis decided to go out for water polo this year. Peer pressure can be a good thing sometimes. His high school has a huge JV team, so unfortunately, he doesn't get a lot of play time. But he does get a lot of practice time. This is a very good thing. I have decided that watching water polo games isn't too bad. They are fairly short, and the action is pretty fast. And, as a bonus, he gets to take his aggression out on the other team, with elbow jabs, fists to the face, and the all popular, kicking your opponent repeatedly as you swim to the ball.
Once again, I have Kyle pictures on my camera.


An interesting scratch from the dog.
What his eyeball looks like close up.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Travis is 14!!!


On September 21, 1994, our first child, Travis Wesley was born.
We were living in Seattle, Andrew was still in grad school, and I was working to support our family.
He is our favorite oldest boy.




I had to return to work a few months after he was born. Andrew was able to stay home with him most of the time. One day I had some film developed, and these pictures appeared. It turned out, that Travis's routine, was to start out in the high chair, sit there for a while eating, then napping, then he went to the bathtub, for as long as he wanted to stay in. Then it all started again, back to the high chair, nap time, and bathtub. Sometimes, he added in the Johnny Jump. This was in the doorway of our apartment, right next to the computer, where Andrew would be doing his schoolwork.







Travis has always been a really cute kid, with a great smile, and adorable curly blond hair.











Over Christmas break, when Travis was 8 we noticed that something just did not seem right with him. On January 3rd, I finally took him to the doctor. The doctor told us to go home, pack a bag and get to Children's Hospital, where we would be staying for a few days to a week. It turned out that Travis had developed Type 1 Diabetes. Fortunately,we caught it before he became too sick, unfortunately it is something that he will have to live with for the rest of his life. This is probably the biggest trial that he has had.













On Sunday, Travis turned 14. He was very excited about the presents he received. And his two little cakes, although he did wonder why he had opted to have the candles spread out between the two, since it made it harder to blow them all out, though he did prevail, and got them all on his first try. In Church, he received his Duty To God Award, and advanced in the Priesthood, to become a Teacher. Now he has to start getting to church even earlier to help prepare the Sacrament, instead of just trying to be there early enough to get one of the spots to pass.