WA Czirrs Speak up

Hi Everyone!

I know it's been a very long time since I last wrote for the newsletter. But I am now feeling enough guilt for missing it so many times that I figured I had better get with it. We are all keeping very busy up here in WA state and we love it here. There is a very large LDS population here and so the kids have lots of good friends to go to school with.
Brandon is now in 6th grade. He loves it and is doing well even with lots of honors classes. He is also in scouts too and is a Deacon now. He turned 12 on July 23rd and then went on a 50 mile hike into the Eagle Cap wilderness area with the scouts. He was the very youngest one there and was almost the smallest one too. But his pack was about like anyone else's for weight and he did far better than most of them there. I couldn't go in with him and so I was worried that he would be left for dead on the side of the trail when I did come up 2 days later. His leaders said he was right in the middle of the group going up and never had a problem. He said he didn't think he was going to make it at some points but he really loved it. It was good weather until I got up there mid-week and then it started to rain and such. Brandon's entire group even jumped into a glacier lake for a picture--I was glad I wasn't with them then because I would never have jumped in! Brandon and the troop left Monday evening and drove to the base camp and spent the night there. Then they hiked up Tuesday. I hiked up with the ward's 2nd counselor and we went up Wednesday night after work. We hiked until midnight and didn't find the group so we pitched our tent. When we woke up, the other group had their walkie-talkies on and we got in contact with them as we were only about 100 yards away but on a moonless night due to clouds we didn't try very hard to find them. We went on a 20 mile hike the next day from our base camp which was tough but fun. When we arrived at base camp that night we were so tired we collapsed in our tents. But it started to rain and then hail and lightning was striking everywhere around us on the mountain peaks. Our tent filled up with water and we woke up the next morning soaking wet in our sleeping bags but still pretty warm. But getting out of our sleeping bags made us suddenly cold and we all agreed at the same time that we wouldn't be spending another night there. We all packed up our stuff and hiked out that day. So I was only there for 2 1/2 days but hiked about 34 miles in about 40 hours. I won't lie to you, it hurt. But we have all survived and are doing well now. Brandon is the newest Deacon's Secretary in our ward as of today. His head is already very huge and this new found power will only serve to make doorways impassible.

Kendra is in 4th grade and anxious to get into middle school with Brandon. She was never one to be left behind by him and so this is killing her. She has always pushed herself to keep up with him and has reached all the same abilities very shortly after he has (from reading and talking to bike riding, etc). She has a paper route with Brandon which Julie and I take turns going on with them each day. I can't wait until they want to quit but they are making good money and don't show any signs of quitting soon. :( Kendra just opened a savings account with Washington Mutual a week ago--then they went belly up and were bought by another bank. It's crazy times to try to teach your kids about saving!!! They panicked because they thought they lost all their money. But we assured them it was ok. Luckily they were bought by another bank so we didn't lose everything from that.

Ethan is in soccer (along with the older two kids) and he seems to be loving it now. I am his coach (and an assistant for Brandon's team) and Ethan didn't like me telling him what to do at soccer practice. But the team seems to be doing better now and he likes being on my team and playing soccer when he's winning. But when he loses he says he hates me and hates soccer--until we buy a Slurpee, as is our tradition. Then I'm forgiven any shortcomings and we start fresh the next week. He is in 1st grade and loves it and is really starting to read well now--we were worried because reading and education are not his favorite things in life. He's always had a gift for athleticism, we are just looking for a way to instill competitiveness into him. But then again, he is only 6. He'll likely be far better at sports than his siblings due to his natural abilities as long as he tries hard at it.

Kaylee is in preschool which Julie organized this year. There are six kids with six moms who all trade off teaching one week at their home. They have two days a week in class so there isn't too much stress there. But Julie also only needs to teach once every 6 weeks so that's nice too and it is much cheaper than any other preschool and there is very little commuting distance to go each time so that saves on gas now too. Kaylee loves it and is doing well. She is so tall most people expect her to behave much better than she does because she is only 4. But she's a great little kid and eager to be able to do everything everyone else can do too. So she is picking up reading now too which is going to probably happen about the same time as Ethan picks it up well too. (We never push our kids to learn anything except when it comes to finishing their homework. We have just waited until they ask us to try something like bike riding and then we help them. It has been very nice and low stress and they seem to come to us ready to do it at the same age as all their friends. So it makes teaching them very easy. Even with the paper route we told Brandon and Kendra that we didn't want the paper route and would rather they not get it. But if they wanted it, they would have to do it themselves, with us tagging along. They both wanted to so badly that we let them and they have been true to their word and have adapted their lifestyles to adjust for that unearthly time of day we have to get up every morning! Thank goodness for that!) Kaylee missed out on soccer this year as we didn't know she could play it. But I am glad we didn't put her in as we are already going to practice or games every night except Sunday and Monday. Kaylee will start next Fall and that will push us over the edge of sanity I am sure.

Julie and I keep busy enough as it is, thank you, and are not looking for anymore errands to run. Business is ok and seems to always be growing. Julie is the Relief Society Secretary and I am the Financial Clerk. They are both great callings so we probably won't stay in them for very long now that I've said that. Anyway, we love you all and miss seeing you more frequently. We hope all is going well for you and look forward to the time that we are rich and can afford to fly our family down at all (as I hate the long drive and really can't afford the time due to loss of work). So when we are all rich, we'll come on down often! Don't hold your breath because we still owe mucho dinero on student and business loans so I don't think we'll be free of debt for a very long time. I hope to talk with you all later. Some of you I don't have your phone numbers and so you haven't heard from me. Feel free to call anytime.

Love the WA Czirrs