Idaho Trip

 During our Idaho trip to visit Jon and his family a few funny things happened.

1) Athena

We were gifted magic wands that Jon personally made. Emily personally made the certificates to make them authentic. When a person tried out a wand there would either be a crashing or other bad sound if the wand was not meant for that person. If Potter music began it was a match and they had found their wand.

Emily controlled the sound but it was so cool that Athena became too convinced. After the ceremony was over and all five of our family had wands Athena exclaimed "My wand isn't working!"  Jon, I believe, was the first to say "Wizards are not allowed wands until they are eleven years old. So, it won't work until you turn 11."
That convinced Athena. Now she goes around saying "My wand wont work until I'm eleven." But she doesn't think to ask us to show her our magic? lol

In her defense...we did take her to Universal Studios last year and the wands we bought there were magic (within the Potter town atleast). And she has a great imagination.

2) Luke claimed the hall outside of Ben and Spencer's room as his own. He called it his "Hall of Depression." He was sad about moving away from Japan and all of his friends.
One day I walked past Luke who was laying on the soft, tall carpet in his hall of depression. His Luigi hat still on his head. His long curly hair sprawled out perfectly. And dark sunglasses on his eyes. It was picture perfect and nobody ever looked as cool wallowing as Luke did at that moment!

I wanted to get my phone and take a picture. But that would be bad parenting..."My son is so cute when he is depressed."  lol...no.
This is one of those stories that are sensitive when raw. But in a couple years I will read it to Luke and he will find it to be funny. They always do.

3) Tiberias was able to see different talents of Jon while we were there. Cooking, pen making, wand making. And when we returned to Provo from the trip Ty said "My uncle is so cool!!" He was very impressed.

Athena and Insects

Athena has always thought bugs, insects, creepy crawlies were cute. Babies (human), no. But insects, yes. Which is really cool, actually. To be different from most girls. It’s awesome!

She’s nine years old now. She still thinks they are cute. She likes to find and catch them and ask “Isn’t it so cute, mom?” I have to answer “no.” lol

Well, recently she had two experiences that just might make her like them a little less (though, I hope not). First, a couple weeks ago, she was attacked by a flying cockroach. Usually the roaches in our house are already dying because of the poison I set out. But this one in the kitchen was very active. And it creeped her out. She did not like that thing flying at her and on her. She screamed and ran from the kitchen and didn’t want to be in the kitchen the rest of the day.

Then a couple of days ago Athena and I were on the back porch. She stuck her hand inside her roller skate and found and unwelcomed surprise. A giant spider was inside! She was terrified. I thought she must have been bitten by it. But she wasn’t. She was simply terrified at grabbing and removing such a large spider from her skate. When I saw it first it looked completely dead. Balled up without movement. “It’s dead!” I told her. Then I poked it slightly and it did move just a tiny bit. “Almost dead” I added. Athena then informed me that spiders “do that”…they play dead where terrified. So, it had terrified her and she had terrified it?!
She was shaking and crying. I had to hug her and comfort her. The spider lay lifeless. Strong in his rouse. Athena wanted to prove her theory so she bravely approached the spider with a stick and poked it three or four times then it finally spread out it’s super long legs and began to run into the grass and away from us. It was just playing dead!! It was huge! Athena freaked out again. She was so shook up! She was scared even in the house and when she tried to sleep that night.

She is such a smart person! She knows so much about creatures of the earth. She loves learning about them via youtube and videos. I think she will grow up to do something with animals and something with bugs even if just as hobbies.

 

Night Time Antics

 Another funny story about Athena

Two nights ago I went to sleep. At 10:30pm Sterling came into our bedroom and it woke me up. So he said "Athena is downstairs." Surprised because she went to bed at 8:20pm. So Sterling went to put Athena back to bed and I fell back to sleep. 

Athena was at the time grounded from electronics and had wasted her snack before bed time so...she went to bed hungry. So, it made sense that she would be downstairs to consume one taken away privilege or the other. Or both.

Sterling woke me again and said that she has on the couch and might have been trying to watch tv or eating food and hiding the wrappers inside the couch. He said that we could investigate in the morning.

I went back to sleep.

When Sterling got up at 5am he messaged my phone because I was asleep. The message showed images of a backpack filled with stuff. His words "This was where I found Athena last night. Toys, food and a water bottle. Was she trying to fun away?" LOL

When I went downstairs and looked at the backpack I knew what was going on. She keeps this backpack filled like this all the time now. It's her "Last to leave challenge" supplies. She loves to play the last to leave challenge with her friends. It might be on the trampoline or the playhouse or a bedroom. And those are her supplies. So, when she got up she was probably using her backpack to get something to eat.

When Athena got up that morning she said that she had no memory of getting out of bed!
This is very believable as Athena becomes a zombie when she sleeps. She can get up and walk around talking and even crying and never remember it the next day!