The teacher

Harry is great with Kate.**  He can be a bugger sometimes too--like yesterday when he told her we leave to go home tomorrow!

He teaches her a lot of things though and he is very patient while doing so.  Harry spends a lot of time on vacation skim boarding so Kate decided she wanted to learn how to skim board too.  It looks easy but trust me--it is NOT!  Dave, Will and I have tried it.  Since we value our limbs, we did not continue.

So, Dave, Harry and Kate went shopping for a beginning board for Kate.

Then, the other morning, Harry set out to teach Kate.



He was so incredibly patient.  He started at the most basic point --just getting her comfortable stepping on the board.  Then she practiced that for a looooong time.






Next, he just had her toss the board.  They just skimmed it back and forth to one another for another long bit of time.











Finally, she was ready to throw, run and jump on.  She had a few tumbles but she got the hang of it.  And now she and Harry spend hours at the little tide pool skim boarding.





And Kate is determined.  She is the only girl out there most of the time with a handful of boys.  She has made HUGE improvements.  And yesterday two 12 year old girls asked Kate to teach them how to skim board. And she did!!!


And here is a tiny bit of video from the afternoon of day one...






And now she is trying little tricks....








**I don't want to give the impression my kids are perfect or that they never fight.  I think they fight less than most kids but they do criticize and bicker sometimes too. They are very normal.

katie ru is off to summer camp

If you're a long time reader (I cannot believe I've been blogging for 7 and 1/2 years!) you know the boys have been going to what I refer to as Camp Utopia for a while.  This will be their 6th year.  So, for six years Kate has woken up at 5:30 to see her brothers off to the camp bus.  Their camp is far away in another state.  She has always been kinda sad and grumpy at drop-off because a) she is VERY close to them both and b) she could not wait for the day that she got to go to Camp Utopia!  In fact, here are pictures of the drop-off the first time the boys went to Camp....

Look how young and little they were!!!  Harry was just a little older than Kate is now.

This morning was really hard for me as we put Kate on that bus for camp. Last year, Kate was just barely old enough to go.  She really wanted to go.  I am not sure if she was ready or not last year but I know I was NOT.  I told her that she could go this year. Look at the photos here.

We try to be a really intentional and pro-active parents.  I  hope my kids will be strong, independent, well rounded Christian adults.  So, I am thrilled that they go away to a Christian camp to grow in their relationship with God and others.  BUT, it is always pretty hard for me to see them go. I worry a little.  I miss them terribly.  It was hard for the boys but they had each other.  Kate went today knowing no one really.  She had no buddies and no brothers going with her (that's the way it worked out).The boys go in a few weeks.  A Mom that I am friends with has a daughter a year older going and Kate has met her and had one play date with her so that sat on the bus together.  But Kate doesn't really know her.

Since Kate has always gone to see her brothers off (sometimes 2 weekends in a row when Will went for 2 weeks and Harry went for 1), the plan WAS that they would wake up and go see her off for the first time.  However, Harry had a horrible migraine last night and Will went to his first big concert yesterday and had a really bad headache too.  So, we told them just to sleep.  Will got up and said goodbye to Kate.  And I heard Harry yell..."wait, I'll go with you!"  He still had a migraine but he popped out of bed, took an Excedrin and came with us.  He LOVES his sister like nothing else.  It always amazes me.

{waiting in line to check-in and have her temperature taken}

Dave is embarrassed that I take photos at drop-off.  I will be honest though...these are some of my very favorite photos on this blog.  I love the drop off photos each year.  And I go back every year to look at them.

While we were waiting to board the busses, Kate pulled out a new journal that Harry gave her for her birthday and began writing in it.  It will be fun to see if she journals each day at camp.






Time to say goodbye...














After some hugs goodbye, we waved to her through the bus windows and blew kisses.  I was talking to some friends I knew and got quite emotional.  As the bus started to pull away, I thought I would lose it. I have never been away from Kate.  Even as I type this I feel like a little piece of me is missing (I know it sounds weird).  Anyway, Harry did the SWEETEST thing ever.  He ran along side of the bus waving to his sister! He was the only one (and their were 2 full buses!).  He ran alongside all the way to the highway.  It was so funny and so touching at the same time.  It made me laugh and I did not cry after all :)








That is his little head at the top of the edge of the bushes as the bus pulls out to the freeway!
What a brother!



I know she will have a blast!  I know it is all good.  I will be stalking the camp website all week looking for pictures of my little dumpling.  Thanks for all the prayers you have offered me via e-mail, real life and instagram.  I know it helped.  I had no anxiety at all this morning.