Meet Mochi

I don't know that I planned on getting another kitty quite so soon, but Torry and DianaLynn had kittens that needed a home, so it was a fun birthday surprise for Cameron to come home from school and have a kitty waiting in his room to meet him.  Kenzie and Chris went and picked him out. Tatum had named him Mochi which everyone thought was a cute name so we kept it.

He's a sweet kitty and he's also quite spunky.  Completely fearless and wants to explore everything.  He has climbed Cameron's clothes in his closet at least twice.

He absolutely goes bonkers for shoes, socks, or toes!  He pounces and attacks any chance he gets!

With the exception of sometimes when Mochi "meows in [his] ear when [he's] trying to sleep" Cameron has been enjoying having a little kitty friend hanging out in his room.  Eventually he can hopefully be trusted throughout the house, but for now Jingo is terrified of him so we only let him explore supervised.

Yesterday Mochi had to make his first vet trip.  He had been curious and wandered into the cat carrier on his own, so I had hoped he wouldn't be scared until after getting a shot.  No, once we were in the car he regretted his choices and started biting the door and trying to shove his whole face through.  Both arms would extend out through the openings as far as he could get them, wildly clawing at anything he might reach.  He did this loud howl-meow at the top of his little lungs.  The dogs in the waiting room were going batty.  He tried to leap off the high counter during his exam, and he kept biting the vet's stethoscope!  He was absolutely nuts.  He didn't appreciate the shot but he did love the deworming medicine and came back to see if there was more in the vial.  Overall, he made Jingo seem calm and Jingo goes really nuts in the cat carrier.  I'm already excited to return for more shots in three weeks!

Then when we got home, he was all tuckered out from the experience and he acted all calm and happy and just snuggled on Cameron's bed and went to sleep.  So I guess he's forgiven!  Welcome home, Mochi!

Dropping Kenzie Off at College, Third Time Around

The picture doesn't capture it, but the sunlight was streaming down in giant beams and it looked pretty out there on our drive down to Cedar City Friday afternoon.

After unloading the car and loading up on groceries Saturday, we made a short detour to campus to try to get Kenzie's laptop to connect to the wireless.  She'd never been able to connect it.  Now she can use her own laptop instead of having to find an open computer.

Since she's on the ground floor again, and we were able to get a parking spot right in front of it, it was pretty quick to move her in.  We've slowly done better not overpacking.  It also helped that we bought a folding desk so that saved a good half hour of assembly time right there.  After lunch, and then one last quick trip to Walmart for a shower curtain and rod (really seemed strange there wasn't even a curtain rod of all things), she was all set to meet her new roommates and unpack.  

By the time we got home, Kenzie sent me this picture and had already gotten her room looking pretty good!  Plus, she then went with her roommates to a little activity on campus where they got to paint a pot for a new succulent, which is right up Kenzie's alley.  Glad she was already having fun and settling in, and hopefully she'll have a great third year of college!

Cameron's a Teenager!

A giant Pikachu was watching over the traditional birthday donuts yesterday morning.  Cameron laughed and wondered where I'd been hiding such a huge Squishmallow!

Friday Cameron had a couple of friends over, since his actual birthday was the first day of school.  Parker put on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for them while they ate pizza and donuts and were quite loud.  They had a fun time!

Cameron wanted to do hot pot so here's the birthday boys.  Poor Chris maybe didn't have the world's most awesome birthday since he spent a couple of hours at Burt Bros. waiting for new tires as the Highlander got a nail in a tire.  And the check engine light came back on.  But he took the day off work and spent some time shopping with Kenzie so there was that.

The birthday boy was mostly patient about having to wait to open presents.  Chris was gone waiting for tires longer than he'd hoped so dinner was later and everything got pushed back.  He was beyond excited to finally get opening, though!

An in action shot.  Chris always likes wool so I hoped he would like a wearable alpaca wool blanket since the basement gets cool.  After this we had brownies and ice cream, and just like that the birthday celebrations had come to a close!

First Day of 8th and 12th (!) grades

Yesterday this cute kid started his senior year of high school!  He thought it was funny to wear his "Meh" shirt again.  It's getting faded and Parker says even that is symbolism.  Even despite that, he has some classes with good friends and even gets to come home early a couple days a week this first semester, so not too bad of a schedule and he'll have fun.

Cameron may have pretended he wasn't excited to start 8th grade this morning (on his birthday, no less) but he was so eager to get out the door he didn't even wait for the hoard of neighbor kids to make it past our house.  He just headed off on his own!  Yesterday Parker walked with him to find all his classes and get his locker shelf installed and all that, so Cameron was feeling ready to go.  Sure hope these cute boys have a great school year!

Goodbye to Duchess

Friday poor old Duchess went to the vet. She was happy once Kenzie snuggled her away from the mean vet, but the news wasn't good.  A bladder stone and some other problems meant she would need a very expensive surgery.  There was no guarantee that was the end of her problems, either, and with how shaky she'd gotten at 15 years old, it was apparent it was her time to go.

We tried to make her last weekend as good as possible - she went through a whole bag of soft treats and we moved her chair so she could follow the sunlight around the living room.  She really went downhill over the weekend and Monday when we brought her back to the vet, she was very quiet (compared to just days before when she had been her usual, very loud self.  Car rides were not her favorite).  Kenzie and I gave the experience 1 star - do not recommend!  But we were glad to not make her suffer longer.

So, in honor of 9 years with this rather quirky, but very sweet cat, here are some of my favorite pictures:

Frequently at night she would sit right on top of me and stare me down until I pet her.  Those front paws would slowly slide forward, often resting on my nose if I wasn't taking the hint fast enough!

She loved to sit on the barstools and watch me over the counter, which always cracked me up.  

Never was too playful - in fact, she would stop playing with her favorite little sparkle ball if she caught anyone watching her!  But she couldn't resist these "for cats" clips of birds and would eventually jump at the TV and we'd have to turn them off.  Amusing until then, though!

Her absolute favorite place (besides Kenzie's lap) was under the Christmas tree.  Each year when we set it up we'd leave her some space on the tree skirt so she could sleep under there.  She didn't want to actually be outside (the one time she escaped out the basement window she was hunched down in the backyard as if she didn't know what grass was) but she loved to be under the fake tree in the comfort of the living room.

She was a nice kitty, always patient with the kids and especially a good buddy to Kenzie.  It was already strange this morning to not have her meowing at me as I passed by the pantry where the cat treats are.  Until we meet again, Duchess!

Lagoon

Yesterday my work finally had another Lagoon day - the last one Cameron was small enough to ride all the Kiddie Land rides.  He would chuckle every time we passed them because there was no way he'd fit even if he tried now!  We had a very slow start getting to Lagoon, as we sat in traffic for an extra hour due to a big crash on the freeway, but when we finally made it we were excited to make the most of the day.  It was hot, but between that and some school districts starting this week, the crowds were actually really low.  Most rides, even the bigger roller coasters, were very short waits all day.

The longest wait of the day, and even then it was still not bad at all, was for Rattlesnake Rapids.  Everyone wanted to cool off - and we got absolutely drenched.  I tried to take a picture of everyone but I guess it's a little hard to tell with the shade, but hardly any spots are dry on anyone.  It actually felt really nice, though.  We made sure to stop at the pavilion my work had reserved often, and grab bottles of water they had in some large coolers, plus we brought water and drinks.  We would do a few rides and then have to take a little break for more water and snacks.  Dinner was provided too, and having a hamburger or hot dog also helped perk the kids back up so we could finish out the evening!

Always have to have a picture of them on the teacups!  Parker was laughing afterwards.  "This one is better than the Disneyland one.  That one's hard to turn, but this one had no speed limit!"  Kenzie was quite dizzy and Parker was so proud!

Cameron at first wasn't sure he was going to do all the roller coasters, but he was pretty brave!  Here he and Parker are on one of the smaller coasters, but he tried almost everything!  Even Kenzie was brave and went on the most extreme roller coaster in the park, Cannibal.  Parker really liked that one and went twice.  That was the only one Cameron sat out, but that was understandable since that one was intimidating looking.  Poor Chris and I still enjoy roller coasters, but we start to feel a little motion sick afterwards.  Especially some of those hard bank turns, yuck.  Getting old is delightful!

I thought the sunset looked neat.  We finished up at Primordial, which was a combination of a video game and a roller coaster.  I was in last place on my score, which the kids thought was funny.  In my defense, I had my eyes closed because the cars spin a bit and the screens move, so that really didn't help the whole motion sickness thing.  Everyone was feeling very tired by this point, and the park was closing anyway, so it was a good time to head back home.  Thankfully the traffic was much better on the way home because we all needed to lay down!  Sign of a good day!

Camille & Bradyn's Wedding

Kenzie decided to come with us and wait with some of her cousins at the Bountiful Temple yesterday while Camille and Bradyn were sealed.

Little Oliver giving Camille a neat stick he'd picked up.  Davis also was saying, "Come on, Camille!" and wanted her to run around with him.  Why was Aunt Camille too busy?  haha

Chris and his Mommy.  Once we were excused from picture taking, a group of us headed to Culver's for a quick lunch and then we headed back home to get the boys for the ring ceremony and reception.

The reception was at the Alpine Art Center, and there were a few random statues around.  By far the best was this walrus but only Cameron would come with me to take a picture!  

Right before dinner I managed to snag the happy couple for a quick picture.

More statues!

When the reception started, we somehow wound up in charge of keeping the popsicle cart stocked.  Annie's customer service skills were hilarious to me.  She calmly and helpfully repeated the long list of flavors over and over again and tried to help find the requested flavors.  Eventually Annie and Kenzie went to dance, but Parker stayed the whole time and helped open boxes and fetch ice.  He also assembled the bubble machines and seemed to enjoy helping out in the background. 

Kind of hard to tell, but they are cutting their cake with a samurai sword.  And then they tossed pieces to each other from a few steps away.  They are both goofballs but it was a very special day!