July 2015

July 2nd started early in the morning as Jason and I took Darik up to Children's Memorial Hermann where Darik had his lens removed and a new Artisan lens implanted in his left eye.
Before, in the waiting room.

Waiting for consents to be signed and dilation drugs to work.

After surgery on our way back to the car.

It turned out to be a more uncomfortable a recovery than he had anticipated and the first few days were kind of rough but he soon overcame that and by the 6th we had to go take out the glasses lens so that he could see "better".

He was banned from the pool for two weeks (not that it would bring fun when the ban was lifted because the procedure for the right eye was exactly two weeks later and he "earned" another two week sentence) and a trampoline ban that, as of today, has still not been lifted. But he took it like a champ and says he is happy to have done both surgeries.
Jason was unable to go with us on the morning of the 16th because I started work on the 17th and wouldn't be able to take DTL to his next-day follow-up so Jason had to cover that appointment.
Right eye dilated and waiting for second surgery. His left eye still looked really raw and unhappy but looking at him today you'd never know what he went through.


Nathan returned home July 4th from High Adventure and left early July 6th, via plane, for San Antonio to attend Especially for Youth. (Rachel attended one of these in Provo the summer of 2012.) He learned some new skills as he took the city bus from the airport to the campus all by himself. He missed his stop and got a little lost but figured it all out and arrived on time for check-in. I had a few moments of palpitations as we sorted it out via texting but he got there all in one piece, with his luggage! He had a great time and also made some friends.
The tower on the campus of Trinity University where EFY was hosted.

Two groups (one males and one females) make a company. These are the counselors for Nathan's company.

The entire company.

Nathan's roommate with just the girls.

Then it was Nathan's turn. Enjoy this series. (I KNOW he did!)

Yup, that about sums up his experience there that week. =) Just kidding! He had a lot of great classes on how to live the gospel more fully and navigate the trials of mortality with more joy and peace in your life. Who could ask for anything better for teenagers?

The week Nathan was at EFY, Anna went to Girl's Camp. She had (another) fabulous year and was a "fourth year" so she had more privileges and responsibilities than previous years.
Headed out with her best friend, Tori.

Day two.

And, like Nathan at High Adventure, she took too many pictures to post on my blog. I am including a link to her album though.

Anna Girls Camp 2015

Nathan had to be picked up July 11th at 7am. It is a three hour, 20 minute drive from our house to his camp. But hotels were outrageously priced that weekend in SA so we got up 3 am and made the drive. (I had already made that drive on Tuesday. I had flown him over so I wouldn't have to drive twice that week but he realized late Monday night that he had forgotten to pack his meds so I left at 6 on Tuesday morning, drove to SA and returned home by 1:30. So to say I was familiar with the drive would be a small understatement.) We picked him up and headed for San Marcos, TX to check out the Texas State University. It was a Saturday so there weren't many people on campus but we located the LDS Institute of Religion and then explored the campus and the engineering building. It is a very lovely campus with quite a bit of elevation change on it and a river running through it.

Then the serious driving began. We wound our way to Lubbock, TX. Take a look at these towns on a map and you'll see there is no real direct path from point A to point B. We got to see some lovely countryside and cows and windmills. We arrived in Lubbock about 6 that night. We took the weekend to explore the town and campus and then early Monday morning checked out of our hotel and headed for our campus tour. Nathan got to meet "Raider Red" and see the football stadium. We left town about 11:30 and arrived home at 8:30 that night. We only made a few stops and they were kept short. If he decides this is the place for him we are going to have to earn some serious air miles cuz I will NOT be doing that drive frequently!

Lubbock is a large town/small city. We drove the entire loop around the town in about 30 minutes. It is also pretty flat but he fell in love with the community and school so I think this is his number one choice for higher education at the moment. He's a teenager, they reserve the right to change their minds, often.

Jaron left the 18th for scout camp up at El Rancho Cima. They went there last year and he had another great year there this summer also. He earned some merit badges and had a great time with guns, archery, and hiking.
They left on Saturday and attended church on Sunday with camp officially starting Sunday evening.

Album with lots of fun shots of his week.

Jaron Scout Camp 2015

Anna started pit rehearsals for marching band on the 20th and full band rehearsals started a week later. She's loving band and is a little sad to be standing in the front and not marching but she hopes to be on drumline next year and march like Rachel and Nathan did.

My new job started July 17th. I attended a LOT of orientation classes that were mostly 8-4 Mon-Fri for the weeks of July 20th, July 27th and August 3rd. I was able to start working my normal 12 hour shifts with a preceptor on August 10th.

The "free time" leftover in July was spent getting Rachel ready to go. She was working too, of course, so we had to work around her schedule, my schedule, Darik's surgeries, eye check-ups, etc but we got her off on August 5th (more about that next post).