The Family 'Busy-ness'

Wow!  I can't believe how long it's been since my last post!  We have seriously been busy this summer!  But... if my excuse for lagging in my writing about the family is that I've been too busy spending time with the family, then I think my priorities are in order.  I am proud to say that I have been too busy to blog much because my family has come first.

So... what have we been SO busy doing that I haven't had ten minutes together to sit down and type a blog post for nearly a fortnight? (Aren't I so witty with my British colloquialisms?)  Here is a rundown of what our family has been up to:

• Outings-  Took my mom and sister-in-law to see 'Les Miserables' when the Broadway production was here touring in Portland (special thanks goes to the Hubster's work for the free tix!). Visited the Zoo a couple times (more to come on that soon). Spent hours playing video games from the past through to the present at the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (otherwise affectionately known to the locals as OMSI) at their current exhibit entitled 'Game On 2.0'.  The sun finally made an appearance in the Great Northwest so we were able to spend a couple hours at Hagg Lake (about 5 miles from our house). TeenStar and Jabberjaw both brought friends along and did a little swimming while I caught up on some reading in a very picturesque locale.

• Dental/Orthodontic work-  Regular visits for TeenStar's braces. Jabberjaw, on the other hand, had extensive work done to correct over-crowding in his diminutive-sized mouth.  He had 4 baby teeth and the 4 adult teeth behind them, removed all at once. Poor guy!  When they finished with him, he looked like he'd been run over by a pack of wild skateboarders (and a couple of kids on scooters, to boot!).

• Summer Camps-  I mentioned in a previous post that I helped out at Jabberjaw's Cub Scout Day Camp last month.  TeenStar had Girl's Camp, this month, for our Church's Young Women and although I did not attend, I still had a lot of work to do to get her ready to go.  Also... got Genius off on a Scouting High Adventure river rafting trip.  Lots of fun!

• Swimming Lessons-  Jabberjaw just finished two weeks of daily swimming lessons.  It's amazing how much time it takes out of the daily routine for a half-hour lesson!  Anyway... he had a great time and did really well in his first attempt at Level 4, learning new and challenging strokes such as the Butterfly and Breaststroke, as well as learning how to dive.

• Reading-  Our Summer Reading Program has been going very well!  At this writing, we are less than a hundred pages away from hitting our goal of 9000 pages read for the summer, which we will easily complete before the weekend is over!  Everyone participated (even Hubs, who doesn't read books.  In fact, he actually did read a book, but it was still downloaded onto his laptop.  Still counts! Good job, honey!)  I'm very proud of all of my kids on this accomplishment!  They all finished several books each and it was lovely not having the TV running all day long, all summer long! Woo hoo!

• Bowling-  I signed Jabberjaw up for a Kids Bowl Free Summer Program and he and I have been hitting the lanes quite a bit this summer.  I've always enjoyed bowling and have bowled on various leagues in the past.  I'm trying to brush up on my bowling skills, in the hopes of returning to bowling on a team when the kids go back to school.  This has given me lots of practice time, besides being a fun outing with my boy.  Jabberjaw's skills have improved significantly, as well, with all of the practice time. So much so, that he recently bowled without bumpers for the first time, getting both a Spare and a Strike and scoring a 74!  Way to go, buddy!

• Movies, Movies, Movies!-  We've spent a lot of time at the movie theaters this summer.  There have been so many  big blockbuster movies that have come out this year... some of which we've loved so much, we've seen them more than once!  I'm  mostly the one who ends up seeing the movies multiple times, with different members of the family.  It helps that I've taken advantage of Regal's $5 Tuesdays and the second-run cheap theater here in town.  Here's a list of what we've seen, including the number of times I  have personally seen it (in parenthesis):  

Thor (2), Pirates of the Carribbean 4: On Stranger Tides (3),  X-Men: First Class (2), Super 8 (1), Green Lantern (2), Cars 2 (1), Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (3), Captain America (2), The Help (1).  I haven't yet had a chance to see Cowboys and Aliens and I'm debating on Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  I've never been a big fan of the Apes movies, but I'm hearing really good things about this one.  

Wow!  I just counted, and I saw those nine movies that I listed, a total of 17 times!  That's not even counting all of the DVD's we've watched this summer!  As you can see... I LOVE MY MOVIES!!  (Especially the Super Hero ones!)