We started the summer by sending Austin off to Guatemala for a service trip with his school. They built homes for local families from the ground up. They had a chance to do some touring, but worked hard as well.
They had a soccer game with the local school kids.
Making tortillas
Proof that he is capable of washing dishes! ha!
Working on the house foundation.
Inside one of the 2 finished homes with the family they built it for.
In July, we headed to San Diego for Sarah's dance nationals at Spotlight Dance Cup Nationals and then to Phoenix for Fencing Summer Nationals for Trevor. We flew to San Diego together and enjoyed the week there before sending the boys to Phoenix on Friday while Sarah and I stayed in San Diego until Saturday night to finish up her dance competition. Trevor competed on Saturday, Sarah and I drove late night on Saturday to join them, we all got to watch Trevor compete on Sunday, then we flew home Monday. It was a crazy week and half, but we had a great time watching our kids compete in the sports they love!
The studio had a send off party for the dancers heading to San Diego!
Ha! My ballerina preparing to compete her solo! She had her hair and makeup done and her tiara in place, but had to brush her teeth before heading down to the ballroom to compete. Have to do some battements while brushing teeth, of course!
Stretching over splits so her leaps are glorious!
Tutu time!
Last time wearing this gorgeous costume!
Sarah and her teammate Maddie before their solos
Ballerina on an escalator. You can just use the moving rail as a ballet bar, right?
Sarah did an incredible job and got a costume award too!
We enjoyed a nice dinner out and it was across from a ship in the harbor that Trevor would later get to explore as part of the maritime museum!
Sarah competed her solo on Sunday, but then didn't compete again until Thursday, so on Monday and Tuesday, we drove up to Disneyland!
Trevor was VERY excited to see the Star Wars part of the park!
Hi BB-8!
We went on the "Rise of the Resistance" ride first before the wait times got crazy!
Then we headed over the "Smuggler's Run" and Austin and Sarah drove the space ship! It was thoroughly entertaining and Trevor was the gunner and screaming "We're all gonna die!" while his siblings were driving.
Sarah was excited to have Mickey beignets!
Dad was excited to go to the Haunted Mansion, especially given that it didn't go so well when we went to Disney World with the kids when they were younger and they freaked out before we even made it on the ride!
Next up was Jungle Cruise!
Then the ship!
The white rabbit from Wonderland (which is Sarah's dance studio production this year).
Then it was time for our appointment for the kids to make light sabers! Trevor had been looking forward to this for a long time and was VERY excited!
Choosing Kyber Crystals - Trevor chose red and Sarah chose purple
Another Smuggler's Run
Had to get the light sabers out again as it got darker outside.
Then some ice cream treats and shopping before heading back to our hotel in San Diego.
Day 2 of Disneyland we spent in the California Adventure park.
First thing in the morning, we went right to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.
More photo filter fun...
Sarah's imitation of Disgust is just too accurate!
Cars Land was my favorite!
It looked exactly like it did in the movie and brought back so many fun memories of my boys' childhood playtime with the Cars toys!
Another time on the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.
Rogers: the Musical
The Incredicoaster was one of our favorite rides.
Up high on the Mickey ferris wheel
We had some very tired feet after 2 days at Disneyland, so we decided not to go to the San Diego Zoo as planned on Wednesday. Sarah needed to be able to dance on Thursday! We laid low on Wednesday and watched some of the younger dancers compete.
On Thursday, it was back to dancing!
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While we awaited Sarah's next event, the boys walked down the coast to the San Diego Maritime Museum. Trevor had a blast checking out different kinds of ships!
Production!
"Wonderland"
Sarah is one of the doors/mirrors and then changes to a card soldier.
She is behind the purple door in the center.
Chorus - you can see her head peeking up on the right of this photo
Card soldiers - Sarah is in the group on the left on these photos
The production was incredible and was fun to watch every time!
As the kids entered to go backstage and prepare to perform, they were met with a tunnel of loudly cheering fans. The energy was amazing! They were celebrities!
The production number was called back to re-compete in the showcase at the end of the competition. They were incredible and earned 3rd place!
The final showcase ended around 9pm and we had to put Sarah's costume back in her bin that would be shipped back on the prop truck, then hop right in the car and drive to Phoenix. For some reason, I had difficult sleeping the night before and had only slept 3 hours. I caffeinated for the drive and had no trouble staying awake for the drive to Phoenix, which, it turns out, is mostly boring desert with a couple of mountains to go up and back down. We arrived in Phoenix around 3:30am. I was too caffeinated from my drive to sleep, so I only got about an hour of sleep before we got up to get Trevor to his 2nd day of his fencing nationals. Despite no sleep, we had a great day cheering on Trevor!
While Sarah finished up in San Diego, the boys flew to Phoenix on Friday and went right to the venue to have Trevor's equipment undergo inspection for the competition. Major pieces of his equipment didn't pass inspection and Steve had to go to the vendors there to buy about $300 in equipment! Ugh! His mask failed so badly that they confiscated it and painted "FAIL" across the front. His lame failed too.
His friend Callen from TCFC was there too!
The first day of competition was Y12, which is the age group above him (he is 10 years old) and it is Nationals, so it was quite tough. On top of that, he got Pool #1, which means he was competing in pools against the top rated fencer in the country! Eek!
The next day was Y10, which is his age group. Also, I was there, so there were a lot more photos taken!
Liam, a teammate from his club, was competing in Y10 as well.
And Callen from TCFC too.
Time for pools!
For his pool round, he won 1 bout 5-0, lost bouts 1-5 and 3-5, and had 3 bouts that were SO close, but he lost each one 4-5! So he was only 1-6, but had only a -4 indicator!
He was pretty upset after losing the close bouts 4-5. Callen came over to cheer him up and give him a little pep talk. What a sweet kid!
He then entered the direct elimination bracket.
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He won his first DE bout 10-1!!!
He then came up against the #2 ranked fencer in the country and lost that bout, as expected. For his first Nationals in his first year of fencing, we think he had a pretty great performance overall! He was very excited that he won a DE bout at Nationals!
He ended up ranked 116 out of 170 in Y10 mens foil. Way to go Trev!
The boys bonded over Pokemon Go.
Then we spent the afternoon at the house Liam's family had rented and the kids enjoyed swimming. Then we all went out to dinner. Homeward bound the next day after a busy 10 days away!
Sarah and Owen playing Genius Squares
Uncle Brian approves of the s'mores made with Fudge Stripe cookies instead of graham crackers!
Not a weekend at GrandView without a broken prop!
Water gun games Nanny brought and set up.
Worn out Sarah!
Owen always wants to go faster (thumbs up!)
Thanks to Nanny and Grandpa for another fun time all together!
So that got us to July 19th..and we had only been home 4 days in July!
When we got home, Sarah had to make up her dance studio auditions she had missed while we were away for the weekend at GrandView, Steve got back to work, I got back to work for the busy summer sports physicals season, Austin got back to laying around his room on his computer, and Trevor got back to fencing practice and creating stop motion masterpieces with his LEGOs.
The light sabers from Disney were put to good use at home, as you can see...
Then on to August, when we celebrated Dean's birthday and found that Austin is almost as tall as Grandpa (who is 6'2").
Sarah has also been raising sea monkeys (brine shrimp) and is very excited about them!
Sarah's dance auditions resulted in staying with her team and being promoted to Teen Elite. She was also chosen for an Elite Tap Small Group for which they were chosen to have a guest choreographer. Her team also has that same guest choreographer, so she had to learn both dances over the course of 2 days when the choreographer came to town. Here is what her heels look like after 13 hours of tap dancing over 2 days! (And this photo is AFTER scrubbing her feet in the shower!)
She is very excited for this year of dance. We anticipate hearing more about her ballet solo next week and then it will be time to shop for a tutu again!
We celebrated Steve's birthday and Sarah made him a cake all by herself! She made him a Golden Oreo Cake with buttercream frosting and decorated to be a cube from Super Mario Brothers. Yummy and cute!
Steve and I went to Chanhassen Dinner Theater to see Jersey Boys on his birthday and returned to enjoy some of this yummy cake!
Then today we got a new oven/range! Our old one had been original to the house (built 2007) and was struggling more and more lately. Sarah, our resident chef, helped choose a great one and we were very excited to get it on super sale! It arrived today and she cooked us dinner with it already today! Sarah has been cooking for us pretty much all summer! She makes amazing meals that are on my fitness plan's meal plan. We all have discovered more foods that we enjoy and I have lost 30 pounds since May. Win win!
That gets us caught up. What a busy summer! School is just around the corner. Austin starts in about 10 days, Sarah 8 days later, and Trevor the day after her. In between, we'll be heading to Notre Dame for our "family game" this year. Go Irish!
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