This week seemed to be a week of doing things with kids.  Allison and Robyn for the last two weeks have been working on an acting class every morning.  This Thursday was their last day where they put on their 20 minute show.  They had a lot of fun putting it together. Allison was the oldest which bothered her a bit but she was a trooper about it.  When she learned that no other older kids had signed up for this session she decided she would just do it anyway.


Spencer and I had a two hour window where every kid was gone but him.  So despite a lot of grumbling I told him to grab his hiking shoes and we took off for a hike.  Our first hike was a bust as he couldn't stop grumping constantly about the hike, the terrain, the lack of shade, the incline etc.  So we packed up, I chewed him out a little and we drove to Provo Canyon for the section of the Bonneville trail there.  On the way there he apologized for being so mean and said how much he appreciated me spending time with me.  I need to record those moments as the previous hour of non-stop grump is so so painful to be around.  But if persevere and don't walk away yet let him know how big of a pill he is being we end up having a great time together.

That actually really sums up life with Spencer now.  Enduring through the prickliness and coming through on the other side where he makes some great choices.  We went to the newly renovated Bean Museum at BYU this week.  We spent 20 minutes in the garage till Robyn and Spencer could apologize to each other for not being willing to share leg room in the middle seat (it was an odd day so Allison had shot-gun - we have a system :) ).  Then on the way back Spencer and Robyn are cuddling as Spencer teaches her who Lincoln Park is and they share head phones.  Friday night Allison and I took Spencer shopping for t-shirts.  After thirty minutes of defending why he should only wear black, non-logo, crew neck t-shirts he found a bunch of t-shirts on sale and was super happy he had money left over.  Last night Spencer went to a big dance and was happy to take our neighbor's son McKay with him.  McKay is disabled but loves to dance.  Spencer was great with him.  Because of that Spencer was slow moving to get to church.  As he sped by me to make it on time I wanted to point out he needed to get all those stray hairs sticking up all over the back of his head.  Then I realized he had sprinted ahead so he could grab the doors for me as I was pushing Taylor.  A mix of contradictions is Spencer right now - frustrating and gratifying all at once.  He is volunteering at the library right now once a week.  He is happy shelving books along with some other volunteers - some voluntary, some court mandated.  That last part made me a little hesitant!  But he is loving it.

Spencer found a nearby park with a lake that he can fish in.  Taylor and I got to take him this week.  Once I realized that taking him involves Taylor and me sitting in the shade with a good book, I told him I would be happy to take him anytime.  Taylor heartily agreed.

Taylor has had a few days of school this week.  His warts seem to be healing up and his back seems to be responding to all the acne treatment.  When you are a teenage boy who sits in a wheelchair a lot you back gets pretty gross.  We went to the pool this week and he was so happy to just lay back in the cool water and float.  It is definitely his happy place.  This week was 7-11 day so of course we had to go get our slurpees.  I learned that Taylor really likes slurpees - and he is very messy while eating one.


Spencer was a little disappointed when he realized that only the small slurpees were free.  Luckily he had brought his own money.

Robyn had a swim meet Saturday morning.  Going to be early Friday night was tough for her but she did it.  She is not the fastest swimmer but she loves it and is towards the top usually.  She was very excited that she didn't DQ in butterfly and beat her PR by 8 seconds.  She swam 5 heats and then was over in the warm up lanes swimming laps whenever she wasn't racing.  I was timing and would just look over and realize that she had been working on swimming fly for an hour.  She loves the water and never seems to want to be done.

Saturday Robyn and I had a date.  We went up to a matinee performance of Mary Poppins at Hale Theater.  It was an amazing production and she loved it.

At the intermission she realized she hadn't eaten lunch but she promised me that when the show was going it was so good she forgot all about being hungry.  So afterwards of course we had to go get dinner at Costa Vida one of her favorite places.  It was a great afternoon and evening.  Full of spontaneous hugs and her beaming face.


Robyn has become lego obsessed lately and spends her free time building.  She does not understand why Spencer isn't willing to share his legos with her.


While Robyn plays legos, at the end of the table is Spencer, Allison and I playing Risk.  I told Allison that part of loving someone is doing things with them that might bore you to tears but that they are very excited about.  We do this in small increments.


Allison and I went shopping this week to get fabric for her to make pajama pants with.  Now she just needs to sew them.  She finished off cooking for our family this week and is just cruising through her personal progress.  She started tennis lessons this week for the month.  She is not so sure about them yet.  Right now she has two rats in her room as she pet sits.  I am not thrilled about them as I don't care for rats.  But she is keeping them out of my hair and having a great time with them.  Allison has been having worse and worse allergic reactions whenever she touches a cat or lays in the grass.  Eyes swell shut, hives break out every where.  She has been taking a lot of benadryl.  I am thinking it is time to see an allergist.  They come on super fast, within minutes of her touching something.  She and I looked at Ikea this week as she plots about how she wants to change her bedroom for her birthday.  She is trying to figure out how to do a little vanity area as getting ready at the same time as Spencer and sharing the mirror is not always peaceful.

Jeremy shot a wedding this weekend.  I know, he doesn't shoot weddings.  High stress, and lots of time on knees and feet.  But it was a last minute emergency gig so he said yes.  Super hot, very long and a lot of time on his knees.  His copter came back this week supposedly fixed but it turns out it still doesn't work very well so its getting sent back again.  He went from cautiously excited to very bummed.  Sometimes its tough being a photographer...

At the Bean museum this week I saw a quote on the wall that I loved and reminds me to go outside and open my eyes more, especially with our kids.