Summer Catch-Up

I'm trying desperately to catch up on this blog! It's become a family record as well as a place for me to explore my thoughts, so I want to keep it current. It's also for my family's benefit, since all of them live so far away. This post has a lot of pictures, so be warned!

Before the school year ended, and because I have a teeny-tiny bit more financial security, we took the plunge to get Aiden's braces on. He's really grateful to have them, as he knows straight teeth are a luxury most of the world doesn't get, and he's been terrific about taking good care of them. 

The very next week after graduation, Aiden tried out for the football team at his new high school. I've had a few reservations about this whole high school thing with him. The school he really, really wanted to go to is far away. And, because it is a charter (the largest charter school in the country, actually) there is no bussing. His junior high was far away also, but there was bussing, so that saved us. Now, all of his friends are out in that area and he wanted to follow them to high school. Can't say I blame him, but it just makes life very hectic and more expensive. If he went to the high school that Lyndsay and Dylan attended, he could just walk there, and life would be so much easier. This charter school is an outstanding school though, and he qualified to attend through a great deal of hard work and effort. It was very important to him. He also really wanted to play football for this school. We talked about what a commitment it would be and how tired he would be with Seminary, Honors classes, and practices and games, but he was insistent. So, we proceeded. He had a week of tryouts.

Adam drove him to and from tryouts when I was working. He and Conor watched from the bleachers and cheered him on.

The school is known for its first-class football field. It is named for the Denver Bronco's quarterback, John Elway, who attended high school here. And it is a beautiful field!

The coaches mean business. Listening to them drill these boys put some fear into my heart, but I'll admit I also really loved their seriousness and expectation of excellence. The tryouts were grueling!

But at the end of the week, the boys were called in one by one to meet with the coaches and told whether or not they'd made the team. Aiden was thrilled to find out he made it! I am so very proud of him! He really worked for this, faced his fears and doubts head on, and went for it. 

This is right after he told me the good news!

Our days were long those first two weeks of summer. I should mention that before going to tryouts (and then practice), Aiden went out to the Johnson Ranch again where he worked last summer in the persimmon orchard and worked for 4 hours. He's got goals to save up his money to be able to buy a truck when he is old enough to drive (and take some of the burden of his school commute off of me!) Then we would pick him up from work and take him out to school. Directly from his practice, which ended at 7pm, we would drive Conor to his swim lessons. I was fortunate enough to get him signed up for a session of private swim lessons. He did a great job and learned so much, though we had to tell him to stop talking so much to the instructor. Too many stories! Just say "Yes, sir," and swim!

He worked on elementary back stroke, free style, breast stroke, side breaths, and diving. I wish he could have kept taking lessons, but his session definitely helped him improve, and he's confident in the water.

We had our annual youth fundraiser. I agreed to bake something for the auction, but had worked so much I was running on little sleep and even less time. I decided to bake a loaf of bread and offer it with a jar of homemade jam. Luckily, it sold for $75! I also sold a jar of Buttermilk Caramel Sauce for $60!

Here's Aiden and his friend, Travis, helping with clean up duty. I love to see the kids working!

Speaking of working, Conor has a summer job too. Meet Bun Bun.

He's the cutest little guy! He belongs to our friends who are spending their summer in Thailand, so they hired Conor to take care of him while they're gone.

It's been a great learning experience for Conor. He's been wanting a hamster of his own, so I thought that having this pet experience will help him see how much work they are, and give him the chance to earn the money to buy a hamster if he still wanted one. Let's just say the pet-of-his-own phase has ended. But he loves Bun Bun and has had a good time taking care of him.

We've had a good time playing with friends as well. Our friends just finished their backyard landscaping and pool installation and have been so kind to invite us over several times to share the fun. Aiden loves every chance he can get to practice his flips.

Conor has lost two teeth so far this summer. I'd been praying for this one to come out for over a year! Now I can't wait for its neighbor to come out too.

Conor is officially a cub scout now, and a few weeks ago his pack kicked off summer with the Raingutter Regatta. Here is Aiden, helping to construct his boat.

Then Conor painted it and decorated the sail.

He did not win. Not even close, but he had fun.

At the end of June we went to a Dodger's game for Mormon Night. Elder Bednar threw out the first pitch. It was great fun, and after the game, we were able to go down onto the field for a fireworks show.

(See that missing tooth?)

I had posted on Facebook that we were there at the game, and my best friend Amber in St. George texted me that her husband and son were there too! They had driven out to Los Angeles just to come to some games! So, I texted them, and they came over and said hello! I loved seeing them, even for that brief time. But it made me miss my Amber something fierce!

This is the picture I texted to her:

The next weekend, surprise, surprise, look who walked into my bedroom just before midnight:

Always a joy to have my Lyndsay home! She's finished another year at BYU and came home for some relaxation and family time. We had her here for two weeks, and now she and Aiden are up in Arizona visiting their dad and Dylan.

Summer is such a busy time! And someone just told me there are only three weeks left. What?! I can scarcely believe that! There is always so much I want to do! In between working and piano lessons, and all of the kids' activities we are doing our best to soak up all the fun we can.

Persimmons

So, remember Aiden's summer job, working on a friend's ranch and in his persimmon orchard? Well, the persimmons are ripe and it's time to get down to serious business processing all that fruit. So, in between school, football, and the beginning stages of an Eagle project, Aiden is working every extra available hour up in the orchard. I don't know much about persimmons, so I hung around to talk and watch and take pictures last weekend.

The orchard came about as an investment project. The owner did a lot of research about fruit orchards and persimmons in particular stood out as having the highest potential for profit. He has over sixty acres on his property and he used some of that, on the hillside to plant 475 persimmon trees. He said they would normally sell for about $75 each, but that particular year, Home Depot cancelled their entire order of them, and through some inside information he found out about it and bought them all for about $7-$10 per tree.

Aiden spent the summer hiking up the mountain with buckets of water and horse manure. He sprayed the trees with deer repellent. Now they are heavy with fruit so he is helping with the harvesting and processing. It takes eight years for persimmon trees to begin fruiting and this is the first year of production. This will be a "trial run" and most of the fruit will be given away. Beginning next year, however, the fruit will be sold, and for a pretty penny too. Persimmons (these will be dried and boxed up) sell for between $35-$40 PER POUND. Yah. Pretty crazy, huh? My friend has corporate clients and overseas clients who are interested in them. I turn up my nose at grapes when they're $2.99/lb. Can you even imagine paying $40/pound for persimmons? Thus, the investment opportunity!

Aiden had just cleaned up for his lunch break when I got there, but I asked him to quickly show me what he did. So in these pics, he doesn't have his gloves on, but you'll see later on he wears them when he's working.

First, they peel the fruit using a rigged up drill and a hand peeler. I was impressed with the clever contraption and the speed at which it got the job done.

Pretty, huh?

Aiden recruited his friend Nick to work with him. They get to sit in this lovely yard and peel persimmons for hours.

(I love it when my kids work. I'm thrilled beyond belief that he has this experience. He really wants to buy a BMX bike and he's willing to work hard.)

Then the fruit gets hung up in this screened-in garden enclosure to dry. Don't they look like little Chinese lanterns? I think they're lovely.

The boys attach these special hooks to the stems first and then they have to be hung up, spaced so that they don't touch each other at all.

Pretty cool, huh? It takes a good bit of time for the drying process to complete, and then they will be boxed up in these lovely wooden boxes that he had made.

Aiden gets to earn a decent amount of money doing this, and because he's starting so young, he'll gain the experience he needs to be a competent employee for this man for many years to come. It's the beginnings of his college fund (he has to save half of his earnings after paying tithing) the way that nannying the triplets was for Lyndsay when she was in high school.

Yay for work opportunities for kids!