Winter Lodge

 The boys and Dad went on their annual Winter Lodge Boy Scouting weekend. They rent the Wohelo Lodge at Fields Spring State Park. The weather was cold but nice. The boys really enjoyed the sledding hill right outside the lodge. Dad said next year they are all bringing helmets for safety. Apparently, the sledding hill was compact snow and ice, which made for super-fast sledding down a very long hill. Other than sledding the boys hung out outside or did rank advancement work in the lodge. Another fun outing for Scouting!

Jack

 Jack's Adanced Wood Shop class was able to deliver the shed he helped build this last week. Jack has been going to a zero-hour class since the beginning of school to build a 9x12 shed. He has really enjoyed building it. He was describing to me how much fun it was hammering the shingles on the roof of the shed when they delivered it. He enjoyed the project so much that he is going to continue to go to zero-hour class to build another shed. I think it is great he is getting the opportunity to build the shed, its real-life skills he is cultivating. 

Mexico

 

Before Christmas this year the Fisks went to Cancun Mexico! OMG it was a great trip! The weather was wonderfully warm and amazing. 

We started our trip at our all-inclusive resort with champagne flutes full of sparking juice. We cheers our vacation in the lobby. The kids were SO impressed by this and the resort itself. Amelia and Jack kept saying the place was way too fancy and it felt like a dream. 

One of the best things about the resort was all the food! We ate and ate. Jack liked the 24 hour room service. We all took advantage of the food trucks, snack bars, buffets and restaurants.

Besides swimming in the pools and going to the beach we went zip lining, snorkeling and to Chizaniza. Each adventure was great in its own way. 

At the zip lining place we did ten different zip lines. Some were so long you couldn't see the end. We cruised thru the jungle at top speed. After we were done with that we got to swim at a centote. That was great because there were platforms to jump from, zip lines to drop into the water from, ropes to hang out and swings to sit on in the water. Jacob said swimming in that was one of his highlights for the trip. We were only there an hour but could have stayed longer. 

Snorkeling was an experience too. None of the kids had ever snorkeled before so they got to try that for the first time. Amelia did great the whole time, just swimming along. Jacob's snorkel was crocked at first so he kept getting water in it and he lost a fin but once he got those straighten out he was good to go. Jack's snorkel was also crocked and he kinda freaked out at first about keeping his face in the water and still breathing. He just had to get over the mental part of that. By the end though both boys were diving underneath the water. We saw a several sea turtles, one huge one, and swam around a shipwreck. All the kids had fun trying to touch the fish we swam around. 

Chizaniza was amazing but the kids said it felt like a school fieldtrip. They did say they would appreciate the experience when they were older. It was an all day trip with stops at a Mayan buffet for lunch, another centote for a swim and an old colonial town to look around in.

It was a trip to remember for sure. Jack said it almost topped Disneyland.  ha! 

One other memorable part of the trip was the leg home. Before we even got close to the airport, there was a big traffic accident. By the time we got close to the airport the highway was a complete parking lot. As we got closer to the airport and our departure time it was becoming clear that we were going to miss our flight. All around us travelers were bailing out of their airport shuttles and taxis, grabbing their luggage and walking towards the airport. Usually this wouldn't be a big deal for us to get out and walk but I had hurt my knee. But after like 20 minutes not moving and being only 2 km from the airport we got out too. Dad and the kids took all the luggage. I kept my passport and wallet and told them to get on the plane if they make it and I will catch up with them eventually.  Off they went, leaving me in the dust. I eventually did catch up with them at the check-in desk at the airport. Apparently, they went all the way around on the highway while I cut across the highway and back parking lots making the trip shorter and faster. 

Well at the airport I had arranged for wheelchair assistance because of my knee so with that we breezed through security to the gate. And at the gate we sat... for the next 4 hours. While all the travelers got out of cars to walk to the airport the flight crew did not, so they showed up 3 hours later, after sitting in the traffic jam. But we were finally on our way, yay! Well not so fast, about an hour into the flight the pilot announces that customs in Seattle will not be open when we get there so they were rerouting us to LAX. Oh man! Once we landed in LAX we had to get through customs and board the same plane. The same plane however was parked a mile away from where it dropped us off! Again I had wheelchair assistance that helped us get through the airport fast. At the boarding gate the attendants announced that the plane needed to take off by midnight or it would have to be grounded. That was at 11:00 pm. At 11:46 we were taking off! Never seen hundreds of people move so fast and orderly. Once we got to Sea-Tac Dad had to take a shuttle to a rent-a-car place because by that time, 3:00 am, all the people who could give us rides had bailed. We finally got to Umma and Uappa's at 5:00 am. It was a LONG leg home. I told them if they can travel through this then they can travel through anything. They kept calm and didn't get cranky, even though it would have been easy to do so. I was so proud of the kids. 

And even with that, the trip was totally worth it!!

Amelia

 

Amelia's class performed an amazing Martin Luther King Jr. performance for her school this year. Amelia was narrator 3. Dad and I got to go to the second performance of three. I was very impressed with the way all the kids memorized lines and added video clips into the performance. Amelia and her classmates even created all of the backdrops and props. This is one of the times I am so happy Amelia is in the Spectrum program. Not every class has the time to put together this level of performance, but the Spectrum class does. I believe it is more meaningful learning going on because of it. 

Jacob

 Jacob is officially in Drivers Education classes three times a week. He is very excited about being able to drive. He completed his first drive out of 5 at the driving school with no problems. I don't anticipate him having any problems passing the academic portion of the class. All he really needs is driving practice and experience. I am a little freaked out about him driving 70 miles an hour down the freeway but with practice he will do great. His dream now is to get a car as soon as possible. :) 

Amelia

  Well on MLK day 2023 Amelia broke her tibia and fibula bones skiing at White Pass. From what I have been told by Dad, Amelia's crash looked like any other crash on the mountain. Amelia was tobogganed down the hill by the ski patrol. The ankle looked fine then so she sat in the lodge the rest of the day. She had to sit in the lodge because this was a Scout outing and they had gotten a ride with someone else. By the time she got home that night, around 8:00 pm, she was exhausted and in pain. 

I took her to Urgent Care the next morning where a quick x-ray confirmed that she did break some bones. We then went over to Tri-City Orthopedics to get a cast put on. She started with a hard splint to help with the swelling but went back a couple days later for a real cast. Her bone is a little bent in but the doctor is confident that it will straighten itself out as she grows. 

She will be in a hard cast for 6 weeks and then a walking boot for 2 more weeks. She has spent most of last week in bed with her leg up. The pain level has been pretty high all week, but she said it is getting better. 

On Monday she heads back to school, so we will see how she does. She has been out of the house twice since she broke it, for a couple hours at the most, and has come home to immediately take a 3-hour nap both times. Healing takes a lot of a person. 

Overall, she has handled the break like a trooper, and I am sure she will recover fully before we know it.