Now that school is back in session we are trying to have some fun on the weekends and enjoy the last of the warm weather. August 23rd we went to Idaho to visit my parents and Jake and his family. It was a lovely weekend. The boys enjoyed watching some football with Grandpa Stan, Jake, and Anson. Then we went boating in the afternoon. It was a little overcast which was kind of nice because it was blazing hot still. Then the boys went swimming while I chatted with my parents and Jake and Marcee. We gave my brother a pair of floating goodr sunglasses that he tested out by jumping in the river with them on. We also gave Anson a pair of their smaller goodr sunglasses as an early birthday present.
Even Kodiak enjoyed the water. I love hearing Marcus laugh when the dog does something silly. The laugh is so uncontrollable and contagious. Below is a pic of such a silly moment.
We had a lovely day in Idaho, we lingered longer than I anticipated. I was hoping to get on the road to miss the closure on I-15 but we didn't. I did manage to find a detour that I think saved us time. I was grateful for the little inspiration at 10pm at night to help us get home a little earlier.
The next weekend was Labor day weekend. We decided on Saturday, August 30th to get a project done. Steve and I wanted to add a sprinkler to the front lawn and thought it would only take a couple of hours but it turned into a bigger project with lots of holes all over but we eventually got it done. Then we took the kids out to dinner at Red Robin to celebrate them reading the Book of Mormon over the summer. It was a lovely evening.
Ellie has been commuting from home the first couple of weeks to help get into a routine. The YSA Conference was over Labor Day weekend so she was hanging out with friends at the meetings Saturday and had plans to attend the devotional Sunday evening. Steve and I suggested since we would be driving her down that maybe she spend the night and settle in for a day but she was really struggling Sunday so we drove her down to the devotional then she rode the bus home. Steve and I got up Monday, September 1st, to play a little pickleball then we picked up a breakfast at Kneaders (they had discount breakfast sandwiches) then we all went to Lagoon. We had a blast!! Steve took Ellie, Lila, and Andrew to Cannibal while Marcus and I rode a few rides together. Then we went over to Primordial and decided to wait in the line, it wasn't too bad and we haven't done it as a family since the scheduled time for season pass holders. When the boys and I tried it last it kept breaking down on us and took us 40 minutes. Anyway, we really enjoyed the ride. It was a lot of fun! I even got the high score which I was really proud of until I saw the people next to us got 10 times my points. 😂 Then we went over to Spider and even convinced Marcus to do Colossus which he said went by so fast it didn't even bother him. Then Steve, Ellie, and Andrew went to do Rattlesnake Rapids while Marcus, Lila, and I did Bombora and then went and explored the new area called The District. It was a lovely morning!
After lunch and a slushy, Steve took Ellie back down to her apartment. When he got home we watched Thunderbolts with Lila she has been wanting to watch that movie all weekend. The boys watched a movie upstairs. It was a lovely weekend.
Then Tuesday, September 2nd, we started a 4 day school/work week that seemed a lot longer than 4 days. I started teaching with my new job, I thought I would start slow but my supervisor needed another teacher so I ended up observing one class in the morning then teaching three classes so I spent 14 hours at a Jr High while trying to keep on life. Honestly things went pretty well and I had some interesting discussions with the teens. When I noticed my paycheck cute Marcus said, "Mom, I wouldn't mind if you were teaching without getting paid because you are helping kids learn that vaping is bad."
Lila had homecoming on Friday, September 5th. She was really frustrated because she had to miss CE Physic Thursday afternoon to practice for the assembly and they were having a test that day, but she stayed after school to make it up and got 100% on it. So proud of her. Now she has to work on a mouse trap car or something and when she mentioned it in the car the boys were more than happy to give her ideas. She was complaining about not getting a partner because they were made up the day she missed for the practice but I told her the boys would help her which I don' think she really appreciated. Anyway, back to homecoming. We went to the game that evening to watch her dance. Ellie rode the bus home to visit for a bit so she was able to attend with us.
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| before the assembly |
Lila and her cute friends. Rorie is a student body officer and Brielle is on the Lancelles, her and Lila have danced together on and off since the 4th grade so it was fun to take that picture together.
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| Lila's study period teacher and AP Language teacher was recognized at halftime for her excellent work as a teacher. |
You can watch her half time performance here https://photos.app.goo.gl/jUx8QRqn2WLyNkPH7
We had a great time and ran into old friends and neighbors. We left during the 3rd quarter although we kept getting score updates and it sounds like the last few minutes of the game was the most exciting. LHS was down most of the game but with 2 minutes left they were up 22 to 21. So we thought there was a chance of them winning but unfortunately the other team scored a touchdown with 12 seconds left in the game. Wild ride to the end.
Saturday, September 6th, Steve and I were feeling under the weather. So we didn't have any plans to go anywhere. However, we still managed to have a super productive day. Steve picked bags and bags of plums that I dehydrated while he mowed the lawn. I made peach/plum jam, pepper jelly, and smoked salsa on top of cleaning around the house. Steve drained the pool, put a fan in the guest room upstairs, and was working on replacing the smoke detectors. We had one go out and then he realized he could purchase at a discount through his parent company so he's been working on replacing them all. Then one evening I could hear beeping while we were outside, he didn't disable the alarm before throwing it away. Then the next morning I heard beeping again, seriously, our neighbors are going to hate us, you know how annoying those things are. Trying to laugh about it.
Monday, September 8th, Andrew started his pickleball league again (they took a few weeks off as school started up). He was excited to get back into things and ended up on the top court and winning all his games. . .I may have to move him up a level next registration. I also attended a VEX meeting for him on Friday, he is excited to be on the VEX team this year at school (he couldn't do it last year because it was at the same time as orchestra but orchestra adjusted their time a bit to accommodate junior high age kids so we can now do both; this is one of the reasons we talked with him about what he really wants to be doing with his time because he is going to have a full plate, he even mentioned wanting to do flag football but it just didn't fit in this time around). Anyway, he is so excited he has already been watching YouTube footage and coming up with a plan. As a matter of fact at the meeting they were like parents/siblings really shouldn't help we want it to be the 5th & 6th graders and I thought, no problem here, this kid is already leaps and bounds ahead of me. 😂
Marcus started flag football. He is on a team with several friends and they are doing really well. He and his friend Drake were captains at the first game. During his second game, last night, Marcus ran for a touchdown and had a pick 6 which we were all able to see, even Lila came that night so Marcus was stoked about that. He has also had some really good defensive plays. The first game he was rushing and pressuring the QB who threw a couple of interceptions and Marcus had 2 sacks in that game. During the second game he had some layout to grab the flag pulls, it was fun to watch. He also has this hip swivel he does to move his flag to make it hard to grab. They were winning by a lot like 47 to 0 and the coach had convinced them to stop rushing and try to let the other team put some plays together. At one point he said, "how about we let them score this time." The boys did not want to do that so the coach offered to buy them candy bars to which they said, "Ok" and they let them score. It was sweet we all cheered for the other team and I'm grateful to a coach who is teaching them good sportsmanship and care for others. I enjoy watching football highlights with the boys (since most of the college games are so late now). This week we let the boys stay up and watch the first half of the BYU game and then we watched the 49ers highlights which was a fun.
Since Andrew had just come from pickleball and Marcus plays right next to the pickleball courts and is there early to warm up, we took the pickleball stuff and Steve, Lila, and Andrew played around while Marcus warmed up with his team. Then we went back after the game and Steve played another round with the kids. It was a lovely evening. The weather was nice and we weren't in a hurry to get back to anything so it was nice to enjoy the time together. We might be taking the paddles to every game. 😂
