Birthdays and the pool

 I have said before that our family is funny where birthdays are concerned. There are 11 of us, and we have no birthdays at all in January, February, March, or April! The rest of the year, the birthdays are heavy on the ground and we have reached the summer birthday season.

Daniel is now 12.

Rose is now 10.

The boys all like the same orange shirts!

The cat is still fat.

Lydia is now 23.

We have a few more birthdays in August, then one in October, two in November, and three in December!

It was a good week. I got a lot done on my latest book. It is almost done -- the first draft is, anyway.

It was also super super super hot. Wow. So so hot. I mean, for Ohio in June. It was mid 90's five days in a row!

The pool is really nice, not surprisingly.

I am trying to swim at least a little every day. It is healthful.

Fun and Busy Weekend

Naomi kindly arranged for the entire family to go to the Dayton Dragons (a local A baseball team) on Saturday. Her employer offered tickets and a catered meal to all of her immediate family. Lydia wasn't well but everyone else got to go.  We had a ton of fun!  The Dragons do lots of silly things in between innings, so even the people not that excited about baseball thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

And extra bonus was that the Dragons were behind 4 to 2 in the 9th, and came back to win it!  Everyone went kind of crazy. It was great.

This is Moonbeam, one of our older cats. He is fat and happy.

I am almost done with this 1000 piece puzzle. I have been working on it for more than a month.

We celebrated Rose's birthday this weekend. She is indeed 10 years old. I adore her and am proud of her.

Rose with one of her presents.

 

Busy Week

 We have been back from St. Croix about a week now. It was a busy and good week.

I took Daniel to the doctor for his annual check up.  He is a chunky young man, and currently the heaviest of all our children; yes, heavier than his seven older siblings!

Here's the thing, though. In the last couple of years, he has been rising in the growth curve for boys. He used to be below 50th percentile height for his age. Now he is 80th percentile in height for his age!

Also...

His brother are ridiculously tall and thin. Both big boys are slowly gaining weight but they are very thin for their heights.

I am truly very happy that Daniel has some extra energy packed on him so that when he starts shooting up even more than he has been, he will have some extra calories to help!

He is growing fast. He just turned 12 and we measure the kids every few months and yeah, he is growing fast.

It does bug me that people obsess about weight without taking into account puberty and stuff like that. No one is giving Daniel a hard time which is good; I just think that it is wise to realize that children, especially, may pack on extra weight for puberty.

Sarah is still growing too. She is taller than I am! She is only 13 years old!

Rose will be 10 soon. She is rather petite but you never know what a Kendig will do during puberty! She might end up tall as well!

We opened the pool.

We also released a book. It is doing fairly well. There is a lot of competition this time of year. A great many other authors have released Regency romance novels in general, and Jane Austen Fan Fiction (JAFF) books in particular.

Back from St. Croix

 Kevin and I got back from St. Croix last night, very late. Actually, we got back early this morning.

Kevin flew out to St. Croix two Saturdays ago with three of our daughters. The girls spent a week there with Kevin, and then flew back last Saturday, while I flew to St. Croix.

So Kevin was there two weeks, and I was there one.

We had a fabulous time.

We were in a condo the whole time, but were pleased to note three cruise ships docking in St. Croix over the two week period that Kevin was there. St. Croix is not nearly as popular as St. Thomas, which is just a few miles away, and cruise ships don't visit it often. It would be advantageous to the local economy if more tourists came.

Hermit crabs fighting for dominance on a pipe which is leaking water.

Kevin in the ocean, and red balloons. The balloons were a mystery -- where did they come from? We discovered laster that day that someone was having a birthday party nearby and these had escaped.

Me next to ... um ... Kevin! What are these called?  I forget! 

This was the sunset the first full day I was there. WOW! One of the greatest sunsets I have ever seen.

Reminds me of the hymn, How Great Thou Art

1 O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:

We have vacationed in St. Croix eight times now. In our early years, we went all over the island, but the last couple of years, I mostly have just wanted to stay in the condo and go snorkeling.

Kevin went all over the island with the girls, so he was cheery about snorkeling and yes, staying in the condo.

I wrote a lot of a new Pride and Prejudice story.

I took naps.

I watched TV shows.

I swam and enjoyed the view and snorkeled.

It was wonderful to just have time with Kevin and enjoy nice dinners, and the ocean, and the fish and all that.

The condo was weird; we rented it because it had more beds than the condo we usually rent; this one is in the same building as our "regular" one with one big difference; only the bedroom was air conditioned.

And let me tell you, St. Croix is HOT!

It was Ok, but hmmmmmmmm

Yes, I am spoiled. I love AC.

But in any case it was wonderful.

And I am thankful to be back. I missed the kids a lot.