Week in review

Sam continues his amazing trip.  This week he saw the "Cliffs of Insanity", lots of castles, the Blarney stone, County Cork, the ring of Kerry, etc... He also got to play on the bells of Anne Tower.  So cool!  I'll update more pictures when he gets home. We definitely feel his absence, but we're so excited for his opportunity.

My mom and I are stretching ourselves with a watercolor class.  It's fun to do with her.  2D things have always been harder for me, but I do like watercolor.  I love being there with my Mom.  That's the best part.

Cute soccer player and Cute Dad.

My Mom and Ada are painting my parents' free library.  It's going to be so cute.

Evelyn had an Amelia Bedelia moment.  I asked her to toss the sticks that were on the front porch.... I meant that she needed to throw them away.  I walked out and had to laugh.  She'd tossed them onto the grass.  I love it.

The teacher is trying to teach us how to do gradients, hard edges, soft edges... so she's having us do an abstract piece.  It will be an adventure.

My cute Momma

Ada went to Homecoming with Brenton.  He's her friend from her Calculus BC class.  Her group of 4 started the "date" with a Saturday calc review with their teacher at the school for two hours.  Then they met up to paint mini-figures.  Ada told them that she was too busy to put lots of brain power into planning the day and that they would need to do it.  She got there with her mini figure dragon and promptly called me to bring the paints and paint brushes.  The guy hosting had forgotten that part.  It was a good laugh. Then they ate at Red Lobster and left for the dance.  They were still standing in line at 9:30 to even get into the dance, so they grabbed some treats at Maceys to have smores at one of the girls' houses instead.  Ada said it was both sad and a relief to have a chill evening instead of dancing and loud music.

Seth was the reverence kid for church today.  Evelyn was one of the ushers.  It was a new experience to only sit with Ada and no one else.

Ada's been growing carrots.  We thought these looked like Abbott and Costello or Astrix and Obelix...

This is the Book of Mormon that Grandma was given as a 12 year old.  It was the first book she'd ever read through all the way and she used it even when she started college at BYU.  She said that her testimony came while she was making her way through Ether.  Her friend, Margaret Wadsworth, taught her that there is Christ on every page.  If you don't see a reference to Christ on this page, turn to the next and it will be there.

 

New adventures

Sam, Nellie and Seth flew off to Ireland on Monday.  We'll miss them, but I'm so excited for them. I hope it's a great experience. So far, Sam has reported excellent food, an amazing library with the Book of Kells, a hop on and hop off tour bus of Dublin (where he was so jet lagged that he fell asleep and missed all the whiskey distillery stops), and a lost jacket.  Not a bad start for an amazing adventure.

I accompanied Seth on his school field trip last friday.  They walked three miles down Provo canyon to look at Bridal Veil Falls and to see evidence of erosion.  It was so fun and we ran into Grandma and Grandpa on our way down... they were on their way up.  I was able to keep up with the group and thought I was feeling pretty good... then I tried to jog for a second to get around another group of students and the last .3 of the walk I ended up hobbling.  Apparently jogging is still not my thing.... not since my ruptured tendon. Oh well.

We met up with Sharon and my parents to celebrate Nellie's birthday... but she got sick and wasn't able to be there.  It's not as fun without the bday girl, but we still loved chatting and playing with cousins.

Thea wrote me this cute note.  I love you so much zannie.

Evelyn played the prelude music for Sacrament meeting.  She did so well!  She was so nervous, but she plowed through.  She told me that she learned two things... one is to practice more and the other is that she wants to learn more hymns.

Ada's YW's group was in charge of the kids activities at the Ward BBQ.  You can see her helping just to the right in the middle... in the black hoodie.

 

It's not over yet

This week is just as busy as last week.  I got everything ready to practice for the Primary Program.  I think we're ready... just need to practice.  The kids probably know the words of the songs better than I do at this point.

Seth had his maturation program today.  Jer had a biopsy taken out of his foot and isn't supposed to walk on it... so I went.  Seth was super cute.  He raised his hand a lot and afterwards told me that he didn't like the presentation.  Welcome to puberty.... no one likes it bud.

Picking up the boys, we took them to Baskin Robbins for a fun treat and distraction. 

On Labor Day we all had the day off.  We mostly let everyone do whatever they wanted, but we did take all our family and two of Ada's friends to the driving range.  It was a lot of fun.  Each of us enjoyed it in our own way.  Sam loved hitting the ball, Ada loved the social aspect, Jer and I laughed at how we haven't done this in 10 years, Evelyn loved to line all the balls up for everyone else, and Seth loved learning about a new sport.  $13/bucket.  Not a bad family outing.

The kids and Jer let me drag them to Lia's birthday party.  I can't believe that she's 20! I met her at 11 and have loved her ever since.  She's so sweet and is growing well despite life challenges.  She loves her cat and takes really good care of her siblings while her parents are working.  She wants to be a nurse.

Vinn didn't want Ada to do homework.

Cutie pies.

 

Aubrey's wedding #1

Because we had to pack up the computer with the storm, I haven't been able to edit Aubrey's wedding pictures but here are a few that we have access to. 

Marg took this cute one.

Ada was willing to skip school and be my second photographer.  She was so cute and did an amazing job.  

Sam took this one on my phone.  Evelyn caught her bouquet.

Ada and Jer at the temple

Jim and Walter looking handsome.  This is the same hat that Jim wore for Amy's wedding.  Isn't that fun.

Jer took pictures of the photographers.

First day of school

This year I have a 10th and 11th grader.  Ada has early morning seminary, and Sam has early morning jazz band, so they drive the van to and from school.  They leave about 6:15am and get home about 4pm.  It works out to not have the van especially because both Jer and I work from home.

Ada is taking ASL, Guitar, Welding, Calculus BC, AP Lang, her internship and Seminary.  She's the Co-President of the FBLA club this year.

Sam is taking Jazz, Wind Symphony, Japanese, AP Euro History, Seminary and the like. He qualified for the 6th place in the Esports club.  The top 9 ranking players compete with other clubs from other schools.  He's pretty excited and I'm pretty sure that 6th place puts him on the JV team.  Sam grew 4 inches in the last month.

Ada is one of 3 students from her high school that got accepted to do an internship with the fire department.  So far, they've gone over CPR (which she's now down 3 times), strapping people to gurnie's, EMS bags, and yesterday she learned how to connect a firehose to a fire hydrant with the whole gear on.  She said it was hard to do with her gloves on, but she didn't notice when the second person holding the hose let go. (She's a pretty strong girl and I love it.)  Eventually she will be going on ride-alongs in the fire truck.  Yesterday, my good friend was in a car accident and her station was the one that sent the crew out to the accident scene.  Luckily my friend was okay, just her car that is not and she didn't have her kids in the car.... thank goodness.  I went and picked her up with the stuff out of her car and she got busy with the insurance while I picked up our boys and then our girls from their activities.

Seth is starting his 5th grade year.  He has a brand-new teacher that he says is doing a great job.  He likes her because she likes Gravity Falls just like him. He has some of his friends in his class.  Him and Zeke saw that there was a new boy in their school, and they moved all their stuff next to his seat so that he wouldn't have to sit alone. Zeke's grandpa lived in Ethiopia with my dad, so that's a fun connection.

Evelyn just started 8th grade.  She's also grown several inches.  It's fun to see her and Sam play height tag.  She's taking Spanish, CTE (home ec), Orchestra, etc... She took two PE classes last year, so she didn't have one on her schedule this year.  She is taking ballroom dance with her friend, Rose, after school and loves it.  

It's looking like a fun school year and so far, everyone is happy.  Sam is going on a trip with my brother and sister soon, so he'll have some catch up to do when he gets home, but he'll do marvelously.

 

Cute finds

Emily was moving into a new place and found this adorableness.  Jeremy, Amy and Emily all showing off how they can stand on one foot with their skates.

This is one of Jim's mission pictures.  It's so fun.  When Aubrey and Corbin were married, we were sitting in the sealing room waiting for Margaret (her plane had been cancelled and then delayed... the wedding after Aubrey's had been delayed too so they said we could wait as Marg drove down from the airport).  A man came over from Corbin's side and sat really close to Jim and took his hand.  It turns out that he was one of Jim's mission friends from years ago that went on a second mission to Japan and served with Corbin.  That was such a fun surprise.

Emma had her baby too.  We took advantage of the Brasher's being down to come say hi.

Jim's mission friend.

 

New Neice

These beautiful people surprised us all with the news that they'd been chosen to adopt this beautiful new baby girl.  We're so happy for them.  They are good parents and it will be amazing adding to their family.  We thought Jeremy had walking pnuemonia, so we stayed away even though they were just down the street for about a week. Turns out that he was coughing as a side effect to the medication they gave him to get rid of his warts.  We'll meet her when we won't get her sick.