1) My brother, Eric, got his mission call to Jacksonville, Florida. He is really excited and loves his mission prep class, but I think he’s still trying to get used to the idea of ‘humidity’—something slightly unfamiliar to us in Eastern Oregon and Utah. Meanwhile, the rest of the family has been placing requests for pet alligators.
2) Eric, as well as Pete’s younger sisters, Heidi and Hannah, all came to Utah during the 4th of July week. We celebrated the birthdays of the two Eric’s (Eric Jensen and Eric Hoyt—whose birthdays happen to be a week apart) and had a healthy share of barbecues, fireworks, swimming, and hiking.
3) I drove home to Nyssa with Eric after his stay in Utah and my parents went on a little get-away together (though they hadn’t quite decided where to go yet as they were walking out the door to leave) and I babysat/hung out with my little siblings. A spark of inspiration from Pete’s sister, Hilary, gave me the idea to set-up a little rewards system where the kids would earn dry pinto beans for cleaning in the mornings, getting ready for the day, making their beds, watering the garden, etc. (This only worked for the non-teenage kids of course). Then they would cash in their beans for various activities. I had tons of fun swimming, bowling, watching movies, eating pizza, riding bikes, playing tennis, eating ice cream, running, and staying up late with Mallory.
Our nights usually started with both of us sitting in bed reading books. Then Mallory would say
“Steph, we should go to bed.” Then I would say,
“Oh…just a little bit longer, okay?” And then 15 minutes later I would conclude
“Okay, we really have to go to bed now” at which Mall would reply
“Umm…just a little bit longer, k?”
Needless to say, we had some late nights.
All in all it was so fun to be with my siblings—they are all fun and unique kids. The above picture is of me and my siblings two years ago at my wedding. Everyone (except me) is much taller now…now even Quentin (farthest to the right) is taller than me.
Some of my favorite memories of them this past month when I spent several days in Nyssa include the way 4-year-old Nate would don his “knight” costume most mornings and tear his room apart looking for the pants that had a “sword belt” (cargo pants). 9-year-old Wyatt seems to have a family business in which he rides on his bike to the store to get the items requested by the older kids—in return for their payment of the candy of his choice. Thus his heart’s desire of unlimited sugar access becomes more and more of a reality each day.
Besides the late night reading with 11-year-old Mallory, she was such a good helper and cleaner. Once I thanked her for helping out so much and she simply looked at me and said matter-of-factly, “Steph, it’s all about the beans.” 14-year-old Quentin is into running and playing the guitar. I think he thought he was too cool to go on adventures with me and the younger kids, but luckily he has a soft spot for little Nate, and Nate could usually convince him to come swimming, bowling, or whatever the day’s activities included.
One of my favorite times was one night me, Quentin, Mallory, Wyatt, and Nate went to the high school track and did team relay races around it (using a tennis ball as the baton). It turned out that whichever team Quentin was on always won the race (in other words, my team never won), but it was pretty awesome cheering each other on (and especially watching Nate running 100 meters as fast as he could) and providing entertainment for the other walkers/runners on the track that night. Eric worked a lot, but when we saw him, he was eating, sleeping, or telling crazy stories about his work. He happens to have a summer job at the cemetery up on the hill in Nyssa. Let’s just say that lots of graves + Eric + an elderly, deaf co-worker can turn into some pretty interesting tales.
1 comment:
Thats way cool that you are so close to your siblings!
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