Summertime

Another busy week as we transition from school schedule to summer schedule.  Here's an update on where everyone's at these days.

Chase is quickly becoming very independent and feels he needs his parents less and less.  We are glad that he's such a good and responsible young man and he continues to make good choices in his life.  He just completed the 11th grade and was able to attend Prom with a young lady from our ward.  He enjoys singing in the choir and was accepted into the Chorale Choir for next year (nice job Chase!).  We were able to attend the Rock 'N Roll concert that the music department held a few weeks back and all the choirs did a great job.  It was a fun evening with lots of fun music and dancing.  Chase is currently occupied with studying for the ACT test which he will take in a week.  He starts training this week for his lifeguard job at Big Surf water park (the job starts the following week so long as he passes the training).  He was also recently called to serve as the 1st assistant in the Priest's Quorum at church.

Jordan has started early morning football practice as he prepares for his first year playing for the high school team.  He has practice every day at 5:30 am and then he had an additional football camp that he attended at another high school for 3 evenings.  He has been pretty sore from lifting weights and doing lots of cardio work but he seems to be enjoying being a part of the team.  As a sophomore, Jordan was in choir for the first time this year and learned a lot about singing.  He was reluctant to take choir but I think he really enjoyed it (not sure he will admit it though).  So much so that he decided to take choir again next year!  He participated in the Rock 'N Roll concert as well and did a great job.  Jordan continues to be a voracious reader, devouring books whenever he can.  He is a very attentive older brother to Ryder and loves to spend time tending to his every need (explains why Ryder is spoiled beyond belief).

Since completing the 7th grade in Jr. High, Tanner has been very busy with friends and parties.  Seems like he is always off going somewhere with some group of kids.  Fortunately, he runs with a good group of kids and they all keep each other in line.  He continues to grow like a weed and we have trouble keeping him in clothes and shoes that fit him.  He is now taller than Camille and Chase with no sign of stopping.  Tanner just completed his first season of Juniors baseball in Little League.  This was his first time playing on a regulation size field and he adjusted well.  His team had a great season although they didn't fare well in the end of season tournament.  This week, Tanner is beginning a 2 week baseball hitting camp with one of his friends and he has been exploring the option of club baseball.  Tanner has continued his creative ways - some of his creations rival McGyver.  He received several different styles of duct tape as a present and has found many different things to make including wallets and shoes.  He also is starting a Junior Lifeguarding program next week with the city pools.

Trevor is a unique spirit who loves to play with his toys and his friends.  Fortunately, two of his good friends live just around the corner.  These 3 guys can usually be found together at one of their homes playing with toys, swimming, playing video games, legos, or doing something else that they dream up.  Having friends close by at this age has been a real blessing for Trevor since he is sometimes "too little" for his bigger brothers.  Trevor just finished the 3rd grade which included the infamous Rain Forest program.  This involves Trevor making a hand puppet to resemble one of the animals that reside in the rain forest.  Camille loves (not!) this part of the 3rd grade curriculum.  It involves a lot of time and effort mostly from the parent(s).  However, when all was said and done, the puppet turned out great and the program was a success.  Trevor was one of the narrators for the program and he did an excellent job (as did all the kids).  Trevor just finished his first season of Minors Little League baseball.  He showed steady improvement and his team had a successful year.    This summer Trevor has been taking swim lessons, attending basketball camp and will go to cub scout day camp at the end of this week.

Ryder is such a joy and a blessing to our family.  He is adored by his brothers and as mentioned before, completely spoiled.  He is finally starting to get some teeth which has slowed his appetite somewhat but he continues to be a happy, loving toddler.  He LOVES to be outside - just mention the word "outside" and he lights up.  He loves shooting hoops, feeding rocks to the dogs, playing in his car and on his slide, splashing in the dog's water dish, anything outside!  Sometimes he will press his face up to the back door like he wants to come in but if you open the door, he squeals and runs away inviting you to follow and play.  He will spend hours outside pausing only for a few moments to get a drink of water.

 

He sometimes get confused when feeding the dogs a bisquit  - "Do I eat this?"

 

Here's his basketball shooting form.  We're going to have to work on this!

Camille and I spend most of our time just trying to keep up with all the events mentioned above.  Camille is an angel to put up with all the testosterone in our home.  She is great at teaching our kids about the details that I often forget (like that tan and gray don't match).  She is the chorister in Primary and does a fabulous job.  Her love for music and for the children is very evident as she teaches songs each week.  She rarely misses a day at the gym, she loves her book clubs and her bunko group, but she always puts us first and we would certainly be lost without her.  She was able to attend Women's Conference at BYU this year with some friends and with Suzanne.  She had a great time and I'm sure it was a nice break from the boys.

Journal writing

I have need to repent.  No, this will not be an all-inclusive confession but I have felt an strong urge to make an improvement in my life specifically in the area of journal writing.  I have been setting a very poor example for my children and for others that may or may not know whether I keep a consistent journal.  But as my mother would say, "I was raised differently."  And she, of course, would be correct.  I was raised in a home where journal writing was stressed and where my mother was and still is the queen of journal writing.  As a youth, I wrote in my journal at least once a week albeit many times under duress.  Nonetheless, my journal "chore" was done.  I believed my parents and felt of the importance of keeping a journal.  I imagined myself a modern-day Moroni writing to my posterity who would in some future day look back and be grateful that they had a faithful ancestor who shared great wisdom and knowledge through their journal writings.  However, the amount of writing I actually did would put me in the same category as Chemish.

Many of my entries revolved around my daily activities and the results of various sporting events in which I had either participated or viewed.  I do have some entries that contain who I had a crush on that week and an admission or two of some of my youthful indiscretions.  I have read much of my previous entries and the only knowledge I can glean is...on second thought, maybe not.

As a full-time missionary, I believe I improved not only the consistency of my journal writing, but also the content of my entries.  Writing a journal became something different - it was more about how keeping a journal helped my development and less about how my writings would help someone else.  My journal writing provided a private way to express my feelings and frustrations, to discover and expand my character, and to give substance to my dreams.  I continued my journal writing after my mission while I attended undergraduate and graduate school.  Gradually, I wrote less and less, sometimes going several months between entries.  As the frequency became less and less, I found that the content of my writing became more of the travel log of my youth.  Sometimes I would convince myself that I didn't have time to write since it would involve trying to "catch-up" with all the daily happenings.  Several years ago, some of my journal writing was entered in this blog as an electronic history of my life and that of my family.  But the past couple years, my journal writing has been virtually nonexistent.  My time has been occupied by work, family, church, hobbies, media distractions, and a host of other demands.

As my children reached an appropriate age, my wife and I encouraged them to keep a journal.  In fact, similar to my own upbringing, we included "Write in your journal" on their list of Sunday duties.  Some weeks it is a pleasant experience as they write about the happenings of the week but often it is a struggle as we enforce the rule and try to help them see the value in journal writing.  For several months now, my older children have complained about their journal writing  and vocally questioned why they should be required to write when I neglected this supposed important duty.  I always had a excuse about how busy I was what with my Sunday church duties and the other demands on my time.  However, it was just that - an excuse.

In addition to my kids' gentle (or not so gentle) rebuke, I was provided another reminder of my journal neglect when our high councilor spoke last week.  His remarks were centered around a talk given by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf about refocusing our efforts on things that matter most.  I was reminded about how many television shows and sporting events I had made time for while I neglected things that matter most to me or that should matter most to me.  Journal writing is one of those neglected items.

I have recommitted myself to keeping a consistent journal.  I will make sure my journal writing takes priority over things that don't matter.  I know that developing this habit will benefit me and I'm hopeful that my example will help my children see the importance of this latter day commandment.

Birthday & Baptism

Hard to believe but our once little Trevor turned 8 years old last month.  For our family, that means two things: baptism and birthday party!!  Our family tradition is to go out for dinner and the birthday boy gets to pick the location.  Trevor picked one of his favorites - California Pizza Kitchen.  We all had a yummy dinner and Trevor was treated to a special birthday sundae!

Trevor then participated in another family tradition where we hide his birthday gifts around the house and he has to find them.  He got a little frustrated and disappointed after finding several presents (cub scout stuff and books) but not the one he was anticipating.  It was all good after he discovered a new Nintendo DSi (something he had been requesting for quite some time).

On February 27th, Trevor was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He has been preparing for this day for quite some time (a special shout-out to all his primary teachers) and he was excited for this event.  Prior to the baptism, I was talking with a member of our stake presidency and he made a reference to the fact that this was our 4th child to be baptized.  He didn't imply this but I got to thinking that some people might suppose that the experience becomes less special because we've participated in several baptisms.  To the contrary, each child's baptism has been a unique experience and something that never gets old or mundane.  It is a special thing to be able to perform a baptism and to help another individual partake of a saving ordinance of the gospel.  I especially look forward to talking to each son after the baptism to get their perspective on what just took place.  Trevor explained that he felt clean and happy.  However, he was concerned that the confirmation was going to take a "long time" since he was anxious to go home.  We were glad to have several family members in attendance including Grandma and Grandpa Campbell, Grandma Bonnie, Aunt Janel and Tynan, Uncle Shad, Aunt Jodi, Owen and Nya.

Later that evening, we all went to dinner at Fuddruckers.  It was nice to be able to spend time with family and we were grateful for everyone's support of Trevor and our family.

The following weekend, we held a birthday party for Trevor and 10 of his friends.  We went to Golfland where the boys played video games, ate pizza and cake, played laser tag and finished things off with a round of minature golf.  Everyone had a great time and Trevor enjoyed the attention showered on him and the fun presents everyone brought.  I'm just glad these events only happen once every few years - these kids have a ton of energy (does that make me sound old?).

Ragnar Relay 2010

One more check mark on the bucket list - I was able to participate in the Del Sol Ragnar Relay!  The whole event was very well done and I really enjoyed getting to know the members of my team and cheering them on to success.  For those that don't know, the Ragnar is 204 miles (Prescott, AZ to Mesa, AZ) and you run with a team of 12 individuals who are divided into into 2 vehicles.  Each individual runs 3 legs which vary in length from 3 - 9 miles.  Our team was called the Cotton-Headed Ninny Muggins (see the movie Elf) and consisted of friends of Glade and Laurie Smith who organized us into a team.  I was invited to join this team because Camille and Laurie are in the same Bunko group.

Our team started Friday morning at 7:30 am.  Thursday night, Van #1 headed to Prescott together where they stayed in a hotel.  I'm told that it was a brisk 28 degrees when they woke up and it didn't get a lot warmer at the start of the race.  Glade was the first runner so he got the freezing cold, early morning run. After Glade, Julie went, then Jake, Janice, Laurie, and Charlotte. Our vehicle, which had runners Jay, Dave, Janelle, Brett, myself and Kristine,  left Mesa around 8:30 am or so on Friday morning since we didn't start our legs until about 1 pm.

The first van did great although they somehow didn't arrive at the end of Jake's run for 10 minutes.  However, they handed off to Jay only 5-10 minutes behind schedule.  Van #1 went to Wickenburg to get a shower, some food and hopefully some rest.  Jay flew through his run averaging under a 7 minute mile over the 4.6 mile run.  That seemed to inspire everyone and we all had good runs making up several minutes by the time we handed back to Van #1.

My run was the longest at 8.5 miles.  At this point in the relay, we were on a dirt road which was great for safety and for impact on the joints but the dust from all the vehicles was a bit annoying.  In addition, there were 2 washes that had running water in them.  Fortunately, the race organizers allowed me to ride in the vehicle through the wash.  I completed the run in 1 hour 7 minutes or about a 7:51 average.  I felt good after the run knowing that I still had lots left in the tank for my next 2 runs.

After we handed off to Van #1 in Congress, AZ, we headed into Wickenburg to use the hotel rooms that Laurie reserved for our team.  We ate dinner at Denny's, took a shower and crashed for a couple hours.  Before long, it was time to head back out for our the leg of our run.  We barely made it in time for Jay to take the exchange from Charlotte.

Towards the end of Dave's run, a runner on another team was hit by a vehicle while crossing the highway.  Both our vehicle and Dave were past the accident so it didn't effect our ability to keep going but most teams were behind us when the road was closed.  We continued our exchanges up to exchange point 22 which is where I was to begin my second run.  The race organizers stopped all the runners at this exchange point and said we all had to drive to exchange 24 where the race director would let us know how to proceed.  So my 2nd leg and Kristine's 2nd leg were cancelled.  Because of the timing of these events, Van #1 was not at exchange point 24 yet.  The race director determined to let the race continue beginning at exchange 24 so we decided that I would run leg 25 in place of my 2nd leg.  I was not mentally prepared for this leg and I hadn't even studied the map.  I had a vague idea of the length of the leg (turned out to be 8.5 miles) but no idea about the elevation.

I was finally able to get started on my run around 5:30 am on Saturday morning.  This was a difficult leg with a fair amount of uphill climbing but I felt pretty good throughout the run.  Camille was coming to pick me up after this leg (so I could be to Trevor's baptism - see next post) so I had Kristine call her to let her know of the changes in the race.  Around mile 3-4, I see Camille on the side of the road cheering me on!   What a supportive wife to get up in the early hours to pick me up and then she stands out in the dark and cold in her pj's cheering me on!  I finished the leg averaging about a 8:30 mile - not great but not too bad all things considered.

I went home, showered and ate before heading off with Trevor for his baptism.  Right after the baptism ended, I called my team to see how things were going and if they needed me to come back and run my 3rd leg.  They had shifted things around such that I was not needed to run but Camille and I headed to the finish line so the whole team could finish together.  We met up with other team members and waited at the finish line for Kristine.  When she arrived, we all ran, limped, shuffled (you get the idea) together across the finish line.  We received our finisher medals and took some pictures before heading back home.

Unfortunately, the runner that was hit early Saturday morning died a few days later.  He was a senior at a high school in Phoenix and his accident kind of left a dark cloud over the event.  In spite of this trajedy, our team had a great time and we are already making plans to participate next year.

New addition

We are excited to announce the addition of son #5 - Ryder Monson Campbell was born on December 4 at 2:40 am.  He was 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 3/4 inches long.  He made it a little difficult as he was posterior but the doctor was able to get him turned around and all went better after that.  We are so happy to welcome this sweet spirit to our home - his brothers are fascinated with him!  Trevor is anxious for him to play.  Almost immediately upon his coming home, Trevor had some toys and wanted Ryder to play.  He was a little disappointed when we explained that it will be several months before he is able to play.

Eagle Scout

After dragging his feet for over two years, Chase finally got motivated to finish when he realized we were serious about him not receiving his driver's license until he earned his Eagle.

Earlier this summer he organized his Eagle project which was to paint all the fire hydrants in a 1 mile square block assigned by the fire department. He learned a lot about leadership and organization skills in completing this assignment. He had a great deal of support from family, friends and members of our ward - I think 65 people turned out on the Saturday of the project. In addition, he had help from his quorum prior to the project.

Before painting:

After painting:

Many helping hands

In October, an Eagle Court of Honor was held where Chase was awarded his Eagle Scout rank along with 2 other young men in our ward. Chase requested that his Grandpa Doug (Jerel's dad) present him his award so both Grandma and Grandpa traveled from California to be in attendance. We also had other family in attendance as well as many friends. It was a great evening but Chase's commented that his feeling was one of relief.

Grandpa Doug presenting Chase with his award.

Proud grandparents and parents with Chase!

(The Eagle backdrop was painted by Camille's step-dad who passed away last year--Chase's Grandpa Randy. He is a very talented artist.)