First Day of Seventh and Fifth Grades

Ready or not, summer is already over with for Ashlee and Mikayla.  Today they started back to school.  Ashlee started 7th grade and Mikayla started 5th grade today.  I have no idea where the time has went, or where in the world summer went for that matter.  It seems like the school year is getting longer and summer is getting shorter!

Jordan, Karah, Alene, Allison, Mikayla

Ashlee's Teeth

Several months ago we found out that Ashlee needs to have lots of dental and orthodontic work done.  When John switched jobs we found out we would be getting dental insurance with a little more coverage than our last plan had, so we put things on the back burner until we had insurance again.  Before John switched jobs, we had paid a deposit to start Ashlee's orthodontic work and we had 90 days from that time to start treatment.  The plan was to start her dental work as soon as school got out so she would be in braces by the time school started.  But life changed, so we had to postpone things a bit.
So here we are, days before school starting, and we find out that Ashlee has to have 3 teeth extracted and an exposure done for a tooth coming through her pallet, and this all must be done 7 days prior to the 20th of August or we lose our deposit.  Luckily, things fell into place.  The dentist was able to see Ashlee to perform the procedures in time so we would not loose our money.
Monday (two days before school started) Ashlee went in to have some dental work done, dental work that should have been done at an oral surgeon, but due to our insurance situation, the orthodontist and dentist agreed that the procedures could be performed by the dentist to help us out financially.  Let's just say, I do not think the dentist will agree to performing such procedures again.  Ashlee was great.  She did fantastic the entire hour and 40 minutes.  Three teeth were extracted, her pallet had to be cut, bone from her pallet had to be removed to expose a tooth coming through her pallet, and a bracket had to be put on the tooth coming through the pallet, so the orthodontist can hook on to the tooth and pull it into place when the time is right.  As soon as the first tooth came out, the right side of Ashlee's face began to swell up, normal right?  Well two days later, Ashlee's face is still swelled up, she can hardly open her mouth to eat, and says that her bracket feels like it is going to fall off, so I took her back to the dentist, to check on what is going on.  Ashlee was right, the bracket was falling off, the dentist removed it, her face is still swollen, the dentist thinks she must have got anesthetic in one of her nerves, so we will have to wait for it wear off (which she said should be on the down side now, but for some reason it is not), and I am really starting to think maybe we should have seen an oral surgeon after all!
Ashlee has been a trooper.  She has handled the situation well.  She went to school with a swollen face and did not complain, she has woke herself up in the middle of night to take her medication and ice her face.  The dentist has been very helpful and concerned.  She has called several times to check on Ashlee and has been more than willing to see her to check on her progress, but I think a lesson has been learned, that lesson being, that sometimes cheaper is not always best!

World of Wonders Science Museum

Mikayla got a couple of free tickets to the World of Wonders Science Museum and she wanted to use them before they went back to school so today I decided to take them, since school will be starting in one week.  Mikayla and I had been to the museum when she was in third grade for a field trip, but it was one of those really quick field trips,  we felt like we did not get to see or do much.  Here are some photo's from our little day trip.

 

Water park/Pool

Today's quick, little, close to home, outdoor outing, was to the splash pad and pool here in town with some friends from school.

Mikayla

Ashlee

Allison with Mikayla

Ashlee

The group we went with, about 6 families!

Island Water Park

For the last several years my mom has took our family and my brothers family to the waterslides.  Today we went to the Island Water Park in Fresno, my aunt Cheryl and cousins Valencia and Joey came too.  We got there before the park opened, which was a good thing, because that allowed us to get on several waterslides before the crowds came.  By noon it was so crowded, the lines were long, and it was hot.  We have been going to this park for several years and this is the fullest we have seen the park.

Unfortunately, I chose to not a pack a camera around the water park.  I did not want to take the chance of getting it wet.  We did get this picture of John, which was taken for a joke.  A guy we know, told him he wanted to see a picture of him in his Speedo on a waterslide.  John's swim suit was made by Speedo, and so we decided to take a picture of him on this kiddie slide and send it to the guy.  Although, John does look pretty scared on this thing!  He was dry, and the water coming out of the whale was cold, so he wanted me to hurry up.

Stanislaus County Fair

Every year for the past few years the girls have entered items to show in the fair.  It gives them a little something to do in the summer time, and it also gives them a free ticket into the fair.  This year Mikayla entered 3 items, and Ashlee entered a couple drawings she did in Art class at school.  We decided to not do any cakes this year.  Which probably was a blessing in disguise, the items had to be to the fair the week after we moved, and there would not have been any time to decorate plus with the warm temps we have been having, the cakes probably would have been one big pile of mush.  The girls got 1st and 2nd place on everything they entered.  Ashlee received a Best of Show as well.

Mikayla's painting.  2nd place.

Mikayla's Canvas drawing 2nd place.

Mikayla's birdhouse 1st Place.

Ashlee's Watercolor Tree Painting.  2nd Place.

Ashlee's Marker Twister Drawing Best of Show, 1st Place.

 The funnest part of the fair this year was the science exhibit.  The girls enjoyed the large bubble pot.  They tried to put bubbles around each other.

Mikayla putting Ashlee in a bubble.

John putting Ashlee in a bubble.

Ashlee putting a bubble on Mikayla.

Mikayla has had a huge fascination with horses ever since she broke her foot in March.  She wanted to see the horses at the fair.

Sunset Beach

Our ward had planned a beach trip for the youth (ages 12-18) to attend.  Our ward has very few youth to begin with, and to top it off most of the youth were out of town for the beach trip.  Since there were very few youth attending, the Bishop told the leaders of the youth that they could bring their families too.  Ashlee tried to invite a friend to the beach trip, but everyone she asked had plans.  So we went as a family with her to the beach.

When we arrived at Sunset Beach it was 56 degrees.  The sun did not come out until we left and it was cloudy the entire time we were there.  The kids played in the ocean, hunted for sea shells and sand dollars, we played beach volley ball, and our bishop made teryiaki chicken in a dutch oven for lunch (very yummy).  I think this was the first time I have ever ate something cooked in a dutch oven.

 The beach was very crowded.  This was only our second time to this beach and we were lucky we got a parking spot (we ended up standing in parking spaces to reserve them for our Bishop and another family in our ward).

Ashlee playing in the sand with Paisley and Berry.

Miakyla getting her feet wet.

Our young women and their friends.  Ashlee and Mikayla are on the right.