Farewell to Friends

The problem with being in the military and presently living in Las Vegas is that someone is constantly moving.   Some are military moves, some are job openings and transfers, and some just move to new areas and states due to the housing crisis and current economy.  And it seems like we finally get in the groove of being friends and knowing each other really well and then someone has to go.  It is sometimes really a struggle and I have learned that I need to be grateful for the time that I do have to meet these wonderful people.

My kids have made and met some wonderful friends here too.  There are a lot of children in our ward and neighborhood that are the same ages as my kids.  It is awesome because they all go to church and school together, and they share the same standards and interests.  They are really good friends and my kids have been blessed to know them and their families.

With everyone moving or leaving on vacation right after school let out, it was major party time the last two weeks of school as we all were soaking up as much time as we could with each other before the friends had to split apart.  Late nights, sleepovers, swim parties, barbecues, playdates, and dinners were all scheduled so that we could get in our last hugs, video game battles, airsoft wars, street hockey and Skubic battles, makeovers, singing, dancing, and playtime.  Tears were shed and parting words of encouragement and promises to keep in touch were exchanged.  It was rough but thanks to blogs, facebook, and emails, we know we will see these friends again.

During our last days together, I tried to capture as many moments as I could when they were at my house.  For some reason, I always got the boys :)

 

Bans on sleepovers were lifted so that they could spend as much time together as possible.  Carter is moving to Germany and he, Clark, and Jacob E. (below) spent many hours playing video games, street hockey, air-soft gun wars, tetherball, basketball, and swimming.  Carter and Clark hit it right off three years ago and they've been going non-stop ever since.  Carter even texts and talks to me on the phone now.  It's taken him a while to have a conversation with me so I will miss teasing him.   Clark will miss all that they have in common.  They are two peas in a pod.  The boys had several sleepovers at each other's houses over the last few days before moving.

This is Isaac.  He was also a neighbor and great friend to Clark.  Their family is moving to Italy eventually with a temporary housing stop in Germany.  I had to steal his pic off his family's blog because he would come to the door, grab Clark to play, and I wouldn't see them for a few hours.  They would run around the neighborhood as spies or with their air-soft guns, play hockey and Skubic (their own game) out in the street, build things in his backyard, design tracks and race cars in his house, jump on the trampoline at Jacob's, and just be boys.  Clark has got a great group of friends his age that I really appreciate.  We are so sad to be losing both Carter and Isaac.  They are top-notch. 

These are the Jakes.  I like to call them Jake Squared.  Unfortunately they didn't get to play together as often as they would have liked due to their different activity schedules but when they did get together, they were silly and had a great time.  Their personalities are very similar so I would hear a lot of sound effects, yelling, running, and giggling.  We've got a blonde Jake and a brown one (as my Jake always says).

Jen and Missy threw together a patriotic send-off for the Chuggs at the White's house.  It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time.  Joe was out of town so he missed all the fun but it was a wild party with lots of adults and even more children running all over.  The food was delicious and the party decor was creative as always.

Mia, Hanna, Aspen, Katelyn

Clark and Carter

The Men

The Ladies

The Chugg Family

We also had the Chuggs over for dinner, s'mores, and swimming one night when they were camping out in their empty house.  We will miss them.  I love how well our kids get along.  There has been a lot of memories and some great times with this crew.

Carlee loves Cole and he was pushing her in the water and giggling

 

The kids even roasted apples from our apple tree.  Great pic, Geneva!

Ironically, Clark and Carter started their friendship playing basketball 3 years ago on a team at the YMCA and here they are on their last night together doing the same thing.  Luckily, they are much better now.

Some great-looking kids!

Oh!  Never mind!  Some weirdos!

We also threw together a farewell tea party for Hanna and Makenna (Isaac's little sister) at Jen's house.  Jen is the ultimate party planner and always has great and creative ideas so I just let her give me an assignment and put me to work.  The girls loved it!

Here are the girls opening their gift...

Sisters at Heart:  Mia, Makenna, Hanna, Katelyn, Aspen

Thanks for being such wonderful friends!  We will miss you and look forward to hearing about your adventures across the world!

End of the Year Awards and Last Day of School

As the school year comes to a close, it gets crazy busy with end of the year parties, awards ceremonies, last sports games and activities, rehearsals, recitals, gifts for teachers, farewell parties and I CAN NOT wait for it all to be over.  Don't get me wrong.  I love all the hullabaloo that comes along with ending the school year but I have had Summer Fever since Spring Break.   I am so excited to sleep in, have pajama days, swim all afternoon, stay up late watching movies, play outside until it gets dark, throw out the schedules and taxi service, and just enjoy being with my kids.

Since we missed the boys' end of season sports parties due to Katelyn's dog bite incident, we had two things crossed off our list already.  The next item on the To Do List was the Awards Ceremony at the elementary school:

Here is Clark, giving his last welcome speech as Student Council President and leading the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance

Clark and Mitchell, great friends and classmates

Clark waiting to receive his awards from Dr. Zaki, principal, and Mrs. Cooper, asst. principal

Mrs. Berman, G.A.T.E teacher, and Clark

Clark received the Triggs Award, Student Council President Award, and Presidential Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence

Sara and Katelyn, great friends and classmates

Katelyn, waiting to receive her Triggs Award from Dr. Zaki and Mrs. Cooper

On the last day of school, the kids got out around noon, so Carlee and I arrived at 10:30 to take pictures of the kids with their teachers and friends.  We also brought in Thank You gifts for the teachers and helped with the class parties that were going on.  For Teacher Appreciation Week, we gave each teacher an apron with the school's name stenciled and glittered on the pocket.  They were so excited to use those for school crafts and parties.  For their "Thanks for being my Teacher" gift, we got them pizza stones, pizza cutters, and cheese graters.  They were ecstatic and all of them love to cook so it was perfect.  In fact, Jake's teacher said her stone had just broken a couple of weeks before and Clark's teacher makes pizza every week without using a stone so she was excited to use her very first pizza stone that night!

Mrs. Leppert and Jake

Jake and his friend, Brooks

Jake with his friend and our back-door neighbor, Kaleena.  I can't remember the other boy's name but he really wanted a picture with Jake so we took one!  I love that when I have my camera all the kids want me to take their picture!

Loading up at the Ice Cream Sundae table

Even Carlee got to participate

Kaleena and Chase are enjoying their ice cream too.  Chase is Kaleena's little brother and just younger than Carlee.  We see those kids almost every day yelling for our kids and climbing our wall to play.

Katelyn and Mrs. Brock, who taught her the first half of the day

Katelyn and Mr. Harenberg, who taught her the second half of the day

 Here is Katelyn with Reagan and Sara, both classmates and friends from our ward.

Here is Ryan, friend, back-door neighbor and Kaleena and Chase's big brother.  Very ironic that both kiddos had injuries on their left arms.

Some crazy Third Graders

Katelyn and Mrs. Crawford, the librarian

Katelyn and Ms. Friend, the music teacher

Katelyn and Mia

A bunch of cute Third Graders and friends--Aspen, Audrey, Katelyn, Reagan, Sara, Mia

Clark actually had a hard time on the last day of school.  He loved Mrs. Schrumpf so much (and I did too) and teared up when he gave her a hug.  After hugging her tightly, he hurriedly walked away so she wouldn't see his tears.  I asked him if he wanted to get any pictures with his individual friends but he kept shaking his head and refusing.   When we drove away at the end of the school day, Clark looked out the window to the front door of the school and I heard him whisper, "Goodbye, Triggs."   It was another new school for our kids (4 elementary schools in 5 years) and everyone was a little nervous at first but it turned out to be a wonderful year and the school and its faculty has been amazing.  We have been very pleased and look forward to next year.  Although Clark is definitely excited about starting middle school, he got really sentimental about all of the memories that he has made this past year as a fifth grader. It's going to be a big change for him from being the big man on campus sliding down to the bottom of the totem pole in middle school.  I got a little choked up myself at seeing my son's emotion.  He is definitely growing up and moving on to the next phase of his life and it's hard on all of us. 

Mrs. Schrumpf and Clark

Mitchell and Clark

A bunch of crazy Fifth Grade boys way too excited to be in middle school next year

Dog Bite

On Saturday, June 4, Clark and Katelyn were attending a combined birthday party for their friends, Roman and Lilu.  I was at Jake's soccer game with Carlee and Joe was out of town, of course.  He always misses the crazy days.  I had dropped them off early to the party so that I could get over to the soccer game on time.  Our afternoon was going to be packed with the birthday party, soccer game, end of the year soccer party, baseball closing ceremonies, and a farewell party for some friends.   

Right after halftime, I got a phone call from Nick (the dad) stating that Katelyn had been bitten by their dog, a bullmastiff, on her arm and that it was bleeding pretty badly and would possibly need stitches so they had called the ambulance.  I told him that I was on my way and would be there in 15-20 minutes.  I also told him to call off the ambulance because I would have to take her to the air force hospital to get the stitches.  I then explained to Jake's coach what happened and pulled him out of the game to rush over to pick up Katelyn.  While I was on my way, Nick called again and said that the ambulance had come anyway, they had cleaned her up, and she would definitely need stitches. 

When I arrived at the house, the paramedics were still there waiting for me.  They had iced and wrapped up her arm and I had to sign a waiver stating that I would get Katelyn the care she needed at the facility of my choice.  Nick and Samantha were extremely upset and sorry that their dog had bitten Kate.  They also said that they were going to put their dog down due to the severity of the bite and his aggressive behavior toward strangers.  Katelyn had been swinging on the swings and Nick put the dog on a leash to do his duty before the party started.  The dog leapt from the leash and bit right onto Katelyn's arm while she was swinging.  The bite was filleted open with two puncture marks--one on the front of her arm, and one on the back. 

The main bite and a smaller puncture bite

A puncture bite on the backside of her arm

After the paramedics left, we all loaded in the car and I started making phone calls.  Since Joe was out of town, I called Jake, one of his partners who was on call.  I couldn't get a hold of him so I called Darin, another partner.  Luckily he was home so we stopped by for him to take a look before heading to the hospital.  I dropped the other kids off at home and headed down to the clinic.  Darin met us there and got things ready to stitch up her arm.  Katelyn was pretty nervous so I spent my time holding her hand and talking to her about anything and everything to keep her mind off what was going on.  When Darin was done, Katelyn asked him how many stitches she had and he said 21 (he didn't really count so that was the lucky number that popped into his head).  We then took pictures to send to Dad, picked up antibiotics and Motrin, and headed home to get the other kids to run off to baseball closing ceremonies (Jake had to miss his soccer party) and finish out the activities of the day.

This is the smile before the stitching and tears began  :(

Dr. Darin Allred--Joe's partner and a friend 

On Sunday, Animal Control came over to take pictures of the dog bite on Katelyn's arm and get all the veterinary information regarding the dog's health.  They were putting it in quarantine for 10 days to make sure it was healthy and without rabies before putting it down.  I felt so terrible and sad for the family.  It was a difficult situation for all involved.  They were in tears at the party and extremely sorry for what happened to Katelyn and wanted to do everything legally and right for the accident.  I felt bad that the result had to be so extreme for their family pet.  They have four children as well and it was going to be really hard on them to lose their dog.  Their kids had been really thoughtful and sweet, calling each day to make sure Katelyn was doing all right and making sure that they all could play again when things got better.

All stitched up--Check out the teeth marks!

A few days later, Katelyn was still babying her arm.  She wouldn't straighten it out and always held it close to her body.  She wasn't complaining of any pain but it was odd that she wasn't acting normal.  Joe had been checking it often but late one night she was complaining of some pain and he saw that there was some fluid seeping out.  He could see that it was definitely infected and decided that he needed to re-open the wound and clean out the infection.  Since I had to play Assistant, I didn't get any pictures of this process but he removed all the stitches, pulled apart the bite, pried it open so that I could squirt in the saline (yes, I had to look at it and help!), and re-stitched it a bit looser so that it could drain over the next couple of days.  Katelyn was so brave and again we talked about everything under the sun so that she could focus on me and not on what Daddy was doing to her arm at our dining room table.   A couple of days later, she was a new girl and using her arm normally.  Things started looking much better and her arm was healing appropriately.  Even though this was a crazy experience, I am grateful that the dog went for her arm and not her neck or cute face.  It could have been really bad.  She has been a trooper and now we have another child that has been stitched up on our table.  Being a doctor's kid does have its perks...

Preschool Graduation

Carlee graduated from "Smart Little You" Preschool on May 31. Her teacher was Miss Julene and Carlee loved her so much. She was such a great teacher and Carlee will get to love her next year too since she has one year left before attending Kindergarten. It was a great year full of fun memories, making new friends, going on field trips, learning letters and sounds, writing, starting to read, and enjoying positive social interaction. We sure are grateful for Miss Julene and her love of teaching and children.

For the graduation, the kids recited the Pledge of Allegiance, sang songs about the days of the week and months of the year, acted out a story of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, and received their diplomas. Isaac's mom even made some cute graduation cupcakes for refreshments. It was a great program.

Here is Carlee with her friend, Chloe.

Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance perfectly

Singing their songs: Tanner, Isaac, Liam, Carlee, Chloe, Savannah

Miss Julene explaining the Butterfly and Caterpillar story with a little help from her son, Benjamin

Here is Carlee as an egg under the tree

Here are the caterpillars crawling out from under the trees to find their new home

My little graduate

Carlee and Miss Julene

Celebratory Cupcakes