May Days

Our first real week of summer:

How was it? Busy, like always.

I managed to survive my first Sunday as primary president. One counselor and my secretary were still teaching their classes because we didn't have substitutes yet, the other counselor subbed for the primary choristor. I conducted *and* did sharing time because there was no one else. And then Evelyn got sick(er) midway through the lesson and had to lie down in the back of the room because no one could take her home (Dan had to teach elder's quorum). But we made it, and this week was much better.

As soon as we got out of church (hence the no post last week), we drove up north to my parents to join my siblings on memorial day for a barbeque/swim party at my brother Jared's house. The relatively chilly day didn't deter Andrew from the pool, though I didn't swim and Dan took Oliver driving so Oliver would nap.

And Evelyn? Well, she'd been feverish on and off all weekend, complaining that her throat hurt (and then saying she was fine). Monday morning, she said her neck hurt--not just her throat--and she was holding her head funny. My paranoid mom brain jumped immediately to meningitis, and while I knew it wasn't likely, I wanted to rule it out. So we went to the local Instacare (where I've been nearly as often as to our own doctor's office--my kids like to get sick on weekends at grandma's house).

It wasn't meningitis. But it *was* strep, and I was told to keep her away from other kids for 24 hours after she started the antibiotics. So Evelyn (poor kid) stayed with grandpa while the rest of us went to Jared's, and then met up with Sarah at Chik-fil-a before Sarah had to go to work.

We got back Tuesday and Dan *finally* had a chance to mow our lawn. I know it was killing him: it hadn't been mowed for nearly three weeks because of our trip and then near-constant rain. It's no longer growing waist-high in the backyard, so it looks much better.

The rest of the week was spent with mostly normal stuff: chores, settling into a summer routine, going to the park, swimming at the pool.

And the crowning event was Aunt Nellie's birthday party, where they rented out the entire aquatic center. We had a wonderful time hanging out with Dan's extended family, and the kids loved having crowds of cousins (mostly second) to run around with. Oliver initially started with the slide in the toddler area, but as soon as he went down the big slide, that's all he did the rest of the night. As soon as he got out, he said, "I wanna go down da big slide!" and repeated that refrain intermittently as his short legs took him back to the stairs, up, and down again. Since he was little, he had to wear a life jacket and have a parent go with him, but nothing seemed to dim his enthusiasm (somewhat to his parents' dismay, since that meant we went down the slide more than we would have otherwise!). But we got to talk to Nellie and Uncle Jim and see Jennie's beautiful new(ish) baby and admire how much all the other kids have grown.

Here's to family--they're pretty wonderful things.