Yesterday we made our third trip to Refreshing Mountain. The only thing I don't like about the place is the fact it takes two hours to get there. Our first trip was in the spring of 2019. In the fall of 2019 we rode with Tab and her boys, which made the day even better in my opinion although the weather wasn't as good that particular day. They would have liked to join us this week, but we couldn't go on Thursday or Friday due to our upcoming trip, and they couldn't go during the first part of this week because they are on their way home from their vacation. Although we weren't able to carpool with anyone, Yvonne's husband met us there with six of their kids. Joe was able to visit his mother during the first half of the program. Julianna and Micah were in the 1st/2nd grade group, Oliver and Joel were in the 3rd/4th grade group, Ian and Nathan were in the 5th/6th grade group, and Nadia, Andrew, and Josh were in the oldest group. Yvonne stayed home with Wesley and picked Jenna up from work. The rock wall was the favorite activity for several of the kids yesterday. The first time we went Ian didn't do the zip lining or climb the rock wall. Oliver and Nadia have always enjoyed every activity. The second time Ian tolerated the rock wall and loved zip lining. This time he loved the zip lining AND the rock wall! Progress!!! Micah, who just turned six this month, asked to do the rock wall as soon as he got off the zip line, but this time the 1st-4th graders did a large pendulum swing instead of the rock wall. Nadia said she had done a swing like that in Bloomsburg two years ago. Ian has never done that type of swing. It was Oliver's first time yesterday. The second time we went they did a high ropes obstacle course instead of the rock wall or giant swing. Each time they also have participated in a nature class. Yesterday they saw an owl, hawk, turtle, and snake, but the primary focus of the nature class was raptors this time. Refreshing Mountain is usually Nadia's favorite field trip of the year. My kids also love spending time with cousins so it was really icing on the cake to do some of their favorite activities with their beloved cousins! The kids also played on the playground and had lunch together. Three of the four groups played field games during one of the rotations. The oldest group worked on learning how to build a fire instead. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather yesterday!
I took more than 170 pictures yesterday. I hadn't taken many pictures this month, but I made up for that yesterday! I'm still weeding through the pictures. Even though I had my shutter speed at 1/8000 of a second, I still had a lot of blurry zip line photos. I couldn't get pictures of all the kids doing every activity because they were in four groups spread out over the property, but I had fun trying to get as many good pictures as I could. I assume I'll get more use out of my camera during our upcoming vacation although I highly doubt I'll take even 100 pictures in a day much less 170+. Speaking of the vacation, I cleaned the guinea pig cage today, and tomorrow I'm going to clean our fish tank. I'm also going to be doing a load of laundry and then packing tomorrow. Today I stopped at one library on the way home from an orthodontist consult to return some things and pick up other books that were on hold for us. Tomorrow I'll be returning some items at the other library. Hopefully I won't accidentally return any items to the wrong library!
I'm hoping for a variety of reasons that we do NOT end up picking the orthodontist we saw today. This clinic is farther away from our house. He said phase 1 will cost $4,313 and would involve expanders on the top and bottom jaws plus some braces and wearing a headgear for 22 hours a day. I'm really hoping that Ian won't have to wear a headgear. We shall see what the other orthodontist says. I will say I like the "bedside manner" of the other orthodontist much better than the one we saw today. I was guessing that braces would cost about $5K total, but if just phase one costs $4,313 my $5K estimate is probably way too low. He also said Ian has a cavity in a permanent molar that needs filled before he begins phase one. The dentist has never told me that any of my kids had a cavity before. Ian was at the dentist this summer so I'm not sure what to make of this. I think the earliest the kids' dentist will treat a cavity is January because they are so backed up due to COVID. Here's to hoping the orthodontist we're seeing next month will give us a cheaper quote for phase 1. This orthodontist said phase two probably wouldn't happen until he was at least thirteen years old. He thinks it will also help Ian to breathe through his nose far more easily.
We were more thorough of our celebration of Rosh Hashanah than we were of Yom Kippur. I prayed a prayer of blessing over each child, we read a chapter about the holiday, and we had a "break the fast" meal tonight even though we didn't actually fast. I realize we were a little bit late, but Nadia had youth group on Sunday night and we had our field trip yesterday. We ate potato latkes and blintzes for dinner. Nadia wasn't crazy about any of it, but she ate it without any difficulty. The boys didn't like the cheese or cherry blintzes, but they both liked the blueberry blintzes and latkes. I would say the cheese blintzes were my least favorite. I liked the latkes and the other two types of blintzes. I usually try to make our ethnic food from scratch, but this time I went the faster, more expensive route and purchased them in the frozen food department at Giant. I don't regret that choice this time!
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