Ears Pierced

 As promised, Camille finally got her ears pierced! She was very brave and did great.

You really need to zoom in close, but I promise: Her ears are pierced.

Era of Covid

Now I feel like we have for real experienced living in the era of Covid. For the first time, the girls got a Covid test.

I wasn't specifically told I needed to get them tested before they went back to school, but I was pretty certain that was the responsible thing to do.

So far, we have never been quarantined or needed tests or anything. Since they aren't in school all day everyday, we just keep living our life. Most everyone I know has had their kids quarantined multiple times.

They weren't excited about getting a test, but it ended up being fine and they all tested negative. They didn't like the test, but it didn't hurt or anything.

Now I feel like we can say we have gotten the full Covid experience, without, of course, actually ever getting Covid.

Camille's Birthday

Much to Camille's consternation, we flew home on her Birthday. She was not happy about that, but I didn't feel bad because we had just spent a week at WDW. Another reason we have a therapy fund instead of college funds.

It really was a LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG day! It took us 14 hours to get home. We left the hotel for the Tragical Express at 8:55 AM and didn't get home until after 10 PM Florida time (8 PM Denver time).

Instead of a direct flight, we had a layover in Charlotte. Turns out, that is not a fun airport to hang out in for 4 hours.

When we FINALLY got almost home, Camille got to decide where we would eat for dinner. She put a lot of thought into this. Probably so much thought that we should consider letting her choose restaurants more often, because it really shouldn't be such a major decision in life.

Anyway, she chose Little Holly's. We were a little surprised, but shouldn't have been as she does love Chinese food.

There were also presents waiting for her. We came home so exhausted, and Camille asked if I just wanted to go to bed. Of course not! I wanted to celebrate her- this sweet NINE year old who we love so much!

We also started the day with Ariel and Nemo waffles at Art of Animation. I mean, come on, who doesn't want to start their Birthday at Disneyworld???? Even if it leads to the longest day of travel in your life....

Before we left, we went to Cold Stone and Camille picked out this cake:

My parents got her The Warrior series- she loves those books!

Claire and Audra were super sweet and got her this t-shirt that says, "Just A Girl Who Loves Wolves." Camille was in Heaven- it's the perfect shirt for her!

Ben and I got her a coupon to get her ears pierced- something else she has been begging for for over a year. But, Covid.

Here is Camille at age 9:

-She is still super, super shy

-She is perfectly happy playing by herself. Even at our weekly Park Days, she will often go off by herself to play.

-She rarely shows emotion. Even the smile on her face above is rare. She keeps everything inside.

-Because of that, it's very difficult to know what she is thinking/feeling.

-Thankfully, she is good at writing letters to us. We write a lot back and forth and that is how she prefers to communicate difficult things.

-She loves to read. She loves Warriors, Harry Potter, and graphic novels in particular

-She loves writing letters to her cousins

-She still enjoys basketball, but hasn't been able to play because of Covid. She also is planning to do soccer next season

-She doesn't have a lot of friends. This is hard for me, but I need to remember that because she is such an introvert, she prefers having loyal and good friends over lots of friends. Sadly, because of Covid, she hasn't been able to hang out with friends much at all. Thankfully she has her sisters, who she is very close with.

-She still hates to wear jeans. Just like Claire, she always wants to wear stretchy pants.

-Claire has a very strong personality, so Camille will often say and do whatever Claire says and does. That is frustrating to watch, and we are trying to convince her that she can have her own opinions and wants and she doesn't always have to side with Claire.

-Her favorite color is blue

-Her favorite food is: "I don't have one"

-Her favorite school subject is: "I don't like any of them"

-Her favorite thing to do is: "Read, I guess"

-She is really, really funny. 

-She is really, really smart. I need to push her a lot harder, especially in math, because she has a natural knack for learning.

-She wants to be an epidemiologist when she grows up, even if she can never remember the name ("Mom, what do I want to be when I grow up again?"). She wants to make vaccines you can drink instead of having shots.

-She is very inquisitive. She often asks why. She asks really deep questions. Things like, "But, mom, how do we KNOW God is real? He could just be made up." She keeps me on my toes, for sure.

-She can be very stubborn. She will stand up to Claire when she wants- as she should.

-She wants to start playing the flute in the fall, and she has said that she wants to go to college at UC Denver so she can live at home forever.

Disneyworld: PhotoPass Pics

 I wasn't sure how to include these in all of the other posts, so instead I'm just going to do a photo dump. These are all the pictures we got from our PhotoPass- we did a photo share which is likely dishonest, but it was $28 for all the pictures instead of $169. So here are all the ride photos and professional pictures we had taken for the week:

Using The Force:

Birthday Girl Pictures (she's wearing her Birthday pin):

Pandora:

Shout out to both Birthday girls:

Ben got really scared on Haunted Mansion, as you can see:

The ride that left me out for the count:

Audra and I loved having these two women behind us- they really rocked the car for us, and that made it so much more fun!