Summer Beach Day

This morning, Justin and James loaded up the Durango with their gear
and we sent them off to Zion's Camp with our love.


Matthew came over at noon time and we decided to drive to Monterey for his birthday. Somehow, he has lived in CA for two months without going to the beach. This needed to change.

(Matthew skimboarding for the first time.)

(Dave-o loved playing and crawling in the sand.
Kirsten enjoyed watching the boys and running from the waves.)

(I love David's expression in this first picture.)

(Steven's really getting the hang of skimboarding.)

(The board was put to rest when a wave caught Matthew off guard.
Steven got a kick out of seeing Matthew soaked.)

(The boys spent the rest of the afternoon playing catch while Kirsten made two friends.)
After the beach, we walked down Canary Row and had some Ghirardelli ice cream. I was disappointed to learn that this store doesn't make my favorite sundae, the "Foghorn", which is chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, chocolate chips, and raspberries. Steven and I ended up sharing "Midnight Bliss". Then David bought some clam chowder to be eaten at home.

Getting it Done

(Justin and James playing soccer at Grandma and Grandpa Weller's house in Idaho)

The kids had their 6 month dental exam this morning. All of them had a good check-up. Nobody has cavities except for Steven who has one. The good news is that it won't need to be filled since it is on a loose tooth. The orthodontist is going to have a look at James' x-ray because it looks like he doesn't have enough room for some of his molars. Yikes! Please...Not another child that needs braces!

The rest of the day was spent getting Justin and James ready for Zion's Camp. This involved:

• Doing laundry
• Buying last minute items (water shoes, flashlights, and a pump for their air mattresses).
• Organizing everything on their "To Bring" list.
• Packing it all up
• And making snacks for the ride up ("Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Cookies" for James and "Suzy's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies" for Justin)

James wanted my help with everything while Justin insisted on doing it all himself. On numerous occasions I'd ask Justin if he remembered to pack such and such and he'd respond with, "Mom! I told you. I packed everything." He's such a teenager. So, I butted out and will pray that he did pack everything he needs.

They leave at 9am tomorrow. James is nervous, but doesn't know why. Justin is hoping he'll wake up sick. I have mixed emotions. A part of me is excited for them to have this experience, but the other side of me is worried. Will they be alright? Are they going to have a fun time? And, if I'm being perfectly honest, there's even a little part of me that wants to throw a party when they leave because I can't wait to have their RAGING hormones out of my home for a week.

Body Forward

The 2010 FLL Challenge!

"Engineering Meets Medicine"

Through the 2010 Body Forward Challenge, 9 to 14 year olds will explore the cutting-edge world of Biomedical Engineering to discover innovative ways to repair injuries, overcome genetic predispositions, and maximize the body's potential, with the intended purpose of leading happier and healthier lives.

Coach Henry had a field set up party this morning to help build the models. James and Steven were so excited to see what the new Field would look like. The models have names like: Medicine Dispenser & container, Patent & mechanical Hand, Large bone & bone bridge, Heart, pacemaker & Cardiac
patch, Brain & Door (throw a switch to make a door open or close),
Artery & Stent (shove a stent through an artery simulation), Bionic
eyes, Pressure tester, ramp & syringe, small bone with cast, and
tissue areas.

Over the next 12 weeks or so, James' and Steven's team will strategize, design, build, program, and test a fully autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS^TM technology. They will also develop a presentation based on the FLL "Research Assignment". James says that the course looks easier than last year's. He was happy to see no rings this time around. It will be interesting to see what the team comes up with.

And here's a video of a "Sumo Wrestler" robot that the boys built for fun. James' is in the right corner and Steven's on the left. The object is to flip the other bot over.

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In other news:
Justin is going to Zion's Camp! Hooray! I took him to get a physical on Monday which resulted in two shots, which resulted in ice-cream afterwards.

Sense of Smell and Taste

Last night as I crawled into bed, my hand touched something with a weird texture. It felt like ridgy, stiff paper. I was baffled and was about to turn on the light to see what I was holding, when I smartly used one of my other senses. My nose immediately honed in on the smell; blueberry muffins. Of course! Early on in the day, morning to be exact, I made blueberry muffins for breakfast. I brought a plate of them in for David, who was still in bed resting from the stomach flu that's been spreading like wildfire through our house. I guess David's way of saying "Thanks" was to throw the muffin wrapper on MY side of the bed.

Because I was tired and lazy, I tossed the muffin wrapper on the bedroom floor to be dealt with the next morning.

Well...it got dealt with all right. But not by me. No. I got up this morning with no memory of the wrapper laying on the floor. My normal morning routine began with me giving Dave-o interesting objects to play with while I went on the computer to check my email and read a few blogs that I follow. Dave-o quickly got bored and went exploring on his own. I knew that I had closed all of the bathroom doors, so I felt okay when I saw him crawl away. About five minutes later I heard Dave-o crawling in the hallway towards me. I looked over at him as he turned the corner and noticed immediately that something was in Dave-o's mouth. He was enjoying whatever it was. After prying his mouth open I pulled out a soggy white mess. I smelled it and memories of the previous morning and night time came to mind. Yes, it was the blueberry muffin wrapper.

My first reaction was, "Ewww! Gross!"

My next reaction was laughter. Who was I to judge Dave-o's disgusting taste when I, as a little girl, used to do the same thing. Except I sucked on cupcake wrappers. I remember chewing and sucking on it until the cupcake flavor was gone and the wrapper itself was about to disintegrate. I guess Dave-o and I share the same taste.

Fourteen Months

Dave-o is fourteen months old now. I failed to write about last month, so the two will be combined. Dave-o's personality continues to increase. Usually, he is a people person. He knows when he has a crowd watching him and he rarely disappoints the onlookers. Dave-o's performances are full of spinning around on all fours till he gets dizzy, standing up while clapping, scooting on his one knee while carrying toys in both hands, hitting toys and then chasing after it full speed, etc.

The most exciting thing that happened to Dave-o this month was meeting new relatives. Our trip to Idaho and Montana was his first time out of California and his first time sleeping somewhere other than his crib in our home. I was worried about how he would sleep in a new environment, but was pleasantly surprised to see Dave-o adapt well to his port-a-crib.

Dave-o does not like slip-n-slides or any kind of water spraying at him. But he's okay with dangling his foot in the pool.

He loves throwing items laying around in/on things, such as in a pool or on a trampoline. He's also figured out how to use a fork.

Dave-o has a lot of different facial expressions. He's VERY animated.

He's still on all fours, but loves standing on his own. Today he even took a couple of steps toward me! It won't be long before we have another walker in the house.

Some of the excitement of holding Dave-o has worn off for the kids. They used to fight over who would hold him. Now they quickly hand him off to some other poor servant. But, during sacrament meeting, Justin happily offers to carry a fussy Dave-o out in the foyer (I wonder why). While spending time with Justin, he has learned the "knuckle touch". While passing Dave-o in the church hallway, the youth call Dave-o the "gangste baby" as they give him the knuckle touch.

Only four teeth occupy Dave-o's mouth. This makes it hard for him to eat certain foods, but seems to manage well with what he's got.

He can say "doggie", "hi", bye", "my ball", "mama", "dada", "du-tin" (Justin), "ba" (ball), " "ba-ba" (football), and "cacker" (cracker).

Our lives have definitely become more exciting and tiring with Dave-o a part of it. His presence had brought more love to our family.

Present and Past Zinn Family History

Keeping with tradition, we celebrated the 24th of July by having a BBQ, making butter, and homemade rolls (recipe from Mozell Owens', my grandmother) .

The kids and David tried getting Dave-o in the pool.
In the past, he has cried each time.
Today, Dave-o was fine for the first minute or so, but then...
Well, the pictures tell it all.

Taxi Driver

This morning, James spent 2 1/2 hours doing a service project that he had organized with his quorum. The project started out as washing and waxing Grant and Julie's car. Then it turned into 2 cars; then moving furniture and helping clean up the garden. I was impressed with the boys' attitudes. None of them complained about doing more than they were originally asked to do. Instead, they served with love.

After picking James up, I was off to the doctor's office AGAIN. This time it was Kirsten's turn. She had been complaining of an ear ache that began yesterday. The doctor said what we already had guessed: Kirsten had swimmer's ear. With her ear drops in a bag, we drove home only to get back into the car shortly after to drop James off at his friend Ethan's house who lives in downtown San Jose.

Once home, I laid Dave-o down for a nap, gave Steven pain medicine to help with his reaction to yesterday's shots, helped Kirsten make dessert pizzas in her Easy Bake Oven, and worked on Justin about going to Zion's Camp which is next weekend. He actually agreed to have me set up an appointment to get his physical form filled out, so there is still hope.

I felt like a taxi driver today, but each car ride was accomplishing something important. I love my family.

(Dave-o enjoying his "daddy time".)

Ice Cream for Lunch

It's that time again for the kid's bi-yearly physicals. Today was Steven's turn. He was dreading this visit because he knew that shots would be given. I was originally told that Steven would need a couple of shots, but he ended up getting 4. Poor thing. Our new pediatrician (I have been through 3 in the 2 years we've had Kaiser...I'm very picky), Dr. C. Rimai, was wonderful with Steven.
After telling him the bad shot news, she asked Steven, "Is your mom taking you out for ice cream afterwards?"
Steven said, "I don't know?"
Dr. Rimai, "Oh, I know she will. Having ice cream for lunch is okay to do every now and then. Especially after getting 4 shots."

A doctor that suggests eating ice cream for lunch? I LOVE her! She's my kind of lady.
On the ride home, Steven and I decided to include everyone in our lunch date. After all, I didn't take them out for ice cream when they had shots recently. So, we chose to be inclusive to keep peace. Well, I'm sure you can imagine the response I had when I announced where we were going for lunch.

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This evening I made a non-meat pot pie for the first time. I was skeptical at first, but was pleasantly surprised at the results. I doubled the recipe and brought over one pan of it to a couple in our church who recently lost their son. Grant, the father, is on a very strict diet (dr's orders) so this dish was perfect for him. I visited with Grant and Julie for a little while and was saddened with something that was said to me. Julie told me that she was hurt at the few number of visitors that they've had. She wished that more would come over to sit down and chat for a while. But apparently many are busy with camps and what not. Are we really living in a society that is too busy to visit and mourn with those that mourn? Was Jesus too busy? Aren't we supposed to be on His errand? Aren't we His disciples? To live as He lived? I am far from perfect. I have been guilty on numerous occasions of looking the other way, so to speak, when a need was staring at me in the face. I did not sit at the Savior's feet and learn His teaching's in His presence. But I am blessed to have these same teachings written down in the Bible and Book of Mormon by prophets of old. I am blessed to have a modern-day prophet who still speaks for the Lord as in ancient times.

I am truly BLESSED and because of this, I must truly GIVE.

The Prankster

For a year now, Steven has been the proud owner of a "shock pen". It looks like a regular pen, but when you try to click it open you get zapped by a powerful, yet harmless electric shock. There have been a good number of people who have fallen victim to Steven's pen prank. The most recent, and funniest one I might add, was David. Because David is usually acting as a prankster himself, it was quite the experience to see him on the other end of a prank.

It all started with a typical Family Home Evening. We began with a song and a prayer. Next, the calender. This was when the climax of the prank began to build. Like always, we didn't know where the calender was. So, like always, David went in search for it while the rest of us lazy bums sat on the couch yelling out possible areas for him to look. As David was walking around, he opened one of our many junk drawers and pulled out a pen to be used once the calender was found. Steven's sharp eyes noticed that the chosen pen was none other than his shock pen. Steven excitedly came over to me and whispered his discovery. Justin who was sitting by me, learned what was happening along with James soon after. We didn't tell Kirsten because she would have probably revealed our secret.

The calender was eventually found, and David returned to the couch with an anxious audience looking on. As he began to ask, "Is anything happening on Tuesday?" Steven broke out in uncontrollable giggles. But since it was Steven (who always laughs for no reason), David was not suspicious.

Then it happened. It was what we all had been hoping for. You could almost see the sparks fly off of David's body as he clicked that pen. A loud noise came out of his mouth as he jumped back into the leather sofa. Then we all burst into laughter and rejoiced at David becoming the victim of a prank that wasn't even planned.

Discoveries

Recently, Dave-o is discovering the joys of:

Playing with the sprinkler heads;

Popping bubbles;

And drawing with chalk on wet pavement.

A Recipe For Fun

Those in attendance:
Dana, Elizabeth, Jessica, Kirsten, Jack, Ryan, Bryden, and my niece Becca who helped me with everything including remembering to take pictures.

When the party guests arrived, they put on aprons that Kirsten and I made and created a personal pizza.

We played a couple of games while the pizzas cooked.
"Hot potato" and "Guess that Baby food" game.

Some of the kids had a really hard time eating the baby food, especially the green one (peas). Notice Jack plugging his nose. He perked up once he tried the banana baby food, which was unanimously the favorite.

After watching a short demonstration on the different uses of icing tips, presented by Becca, the kids decorated their own cupcake. Seven different colors with seven different tips provided them with a lot of creativity (along with gummi candy and sprinkles). They seemed to really get into this activity.

Next, they made ice-cream in a bag.

And the remainder of the time was spent swimming. They immediately separated into two teams; the girls vs. the boys. Each side created a little fort in the water where they stored pool toys (the second picture gives you peak at the girl's fort). The object of this spontaneous game was to acquire more floaties than the opposing side. It was a lot of fun to watch.